Episode notes
After 144 years the tallest tower on the Sagrada Familia is finally complete, but when Gaudi first designed it, the technology to build the tower didn’t exist. We’re joined by Tristram Carfrae, structural engineer and designer at Arup who was tasked with this impossible feat over a decade ago. With the reappearance of screwworm in North America, we ask – is it ever acceptable to intentionally drive a species to extinction? Tom is joined by Dr Gregory Kaebnick from the Hastings Center for Bioethics to dive into the science that could make it happen and the ethics stopping us. Four in five of…
BBC Inside Science
by BBC Radio 4 · English · Tech & Science
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
More from BBC Inside Science
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2 Jul 2026 · 26 min
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During this year’s visit to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London, Tom Whipple discovers how sea urchins are being used to develop techniques to digitally preserve natural history, why we haven’t got robot butlers just yet, and what it takes to bottle lightning. Plus, in his ongoing quest to assemble a World Cup squad of science Tom recruits health reporter James Gallagher to scout out the best football science from around the world. This week, we want to know if there is robust evidence for a home advantage. We speak with Associate Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology…
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25 Jun 2026 · 26 min
Can we engineer ourselves out of a heatwave?
As the UK and Europe battles with extreme weather warnings, is it time for us to consider some more extreme tactics to tackle the heat? Tom Whipple is joined by Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London, to explore if solar geoengineering can help. Also on the show, science journalist Lizzie Gibney discusses the "Salah effect", when exposure to celebrities from stigmatised groups can help increase tolerance. She also examines new research into how the atom nucleus contain energy which can be used for telling the time. Plus, how laughter in great apes may…
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18 Jun 2026 · 26 min
Finding the evidence for the social media ban
After this week’s announcement that under-16s will be banned from major social media platforms, we delve into the evidence behind the ban with Professor Amy Orben, Programme Leader of the Digital Mental Health Group at the University of Cambridge, and Dr Catherine Sebastian, Head of Evidence at Wellcome. Also on the show, what can penalty shoot-outs teach us about international diplomacy? And how does the valuation of a football player impact the number of crashes seen after their team plays? Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Bath and football fan, Kit Yates, joins Tom to assemble their…
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4 Jun 2026 · 26 min
How is AI going to change science?
Are we moving away from science as a strictly human endeavour? This is the view of Pushmeet Kohli, head of AI for Science at Google DeepMind. He joins Tom Whipple to discuss the use of the AI tool Co-Scientist as a collaborator in the lab, and the challenges in making Artificial Intelligence that works in science. Clare Bryant from the University of Cambridge also joins the conversation. And Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, joins the program to talk about his new book, The Story of Birds, tracing a 150‑million‑year journey from small, feathered…
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28 May 2026 · 26 min
Plankton's untapped potential
From Hay Festival 2026, a dive into a big year for our oceans, with plankton specialist Vincent Doumeizel and physicist turned oceanographer Helen Czerski. Vincent is author of the Power of Plankton, which describes the crucial history and future of plankton and planktonic life on our planet. Helen's book The Blue Machine looks at the physical oceanic processes that shape the world. Presented by Tom Whipple Produced by Alex Mansfield
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21 May 2026 · 26 min
El Niño is nigh, but so what?
With 2023’s El Niño – a recurring pattern of extreme weather across the pacific basin - still leaving a bad taste in people's mouth, 2026 sees an El Niño stirring in the Pacific Ocean and there are warnings that this will be one of the strongest yet. Roland Pease speaks with Amanda Maycock, a climatologist from Leeds University, to discuss what this climate phenomenon is and how it will impact the world from October to early next year. He also hears from Scott Evans from the American Museum of Natural History, who has been exploring the Mackenzie mountains of Canada’s Northwest Territory to…
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8 Oct 2026 · 26 minNew
The future of mathematics in the age of AI
Tom Whipple investigates one of the biggest days in the 10,000 year history of maths. This week, overnight, OpenAI dropped hundreds of mathematical papers onto the internet. From the Margulis-Platonov conjecture to the Gaussian Propeller conjecture to Banach’s simple Lebesgue-spectrum problem. Decades of maths progress overnight. PhDs of work done in hours. This week saw the Nobel Prizes awarded for Chemistry, Physics and Physiology or Medicine. From mice with blue lights in their brain to massive ice cubes with blue lights underground, science journalists Kit Chapman and Caroline Steel tell…
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1 Oct 2026 · 28 min
The future of particle physics
Tom Whipple travels 100m below Switzerland to the tunnels of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) where the beams have been powered down to begin the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade. Paulo Fessia, deputy head of the upgrade project, shows us what they're doing and why. In one of the cavernous halls on the site, Antti Onnela explains what the machinery is used for when it's not smashing particles together; understanding the formation of clouds. With Eva Sommer, Run Coordinator of the project, we learn how clouds are born from aerosol particles in a specialised chamber and how this informs climate…
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24 Sep 2026 · 26 min
Do you have the correct time?
In October members of the General Conference on Weights and Measurements are voting to change how we keep time on Earth accurate. Currently an additional second, known as a Leap Second, can be added to make sure modern atomic clocks stay in sync with solar time. However, all of this might be about to change as the rotation of the Earth speeds up and interferes with our measurements. Tom takes a trip to meet Principal Scientist Setnam Shemar at the National Physics Laboratory to learn how our time lords keep us all on schedule. Plus, Associate Professor Claire Nichols from Oxford University…
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17 Sep 2026 · 26 min
AI to solve the energy crisis?
Nuclear fusion energy, the idea of copying the sun’s heat source on earth to make limitless commercial energy is famously always 30 years away. This month, the UK and US have agreed to combine the brains of their nuclear fusion supercomputers in an attempt to improve models of plasma behaviour using AI. Tom Whipple is joined by interim CEO of UKAEA Tim Bestwick to understand what challenges must be overcome to make commercialised nuclear fusion a reality. With under a fortnight to go before the winner of the coveted Royal Society's Trivedi Book Prize is announced, we are marking its imminent…
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