The science behind autism

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1. 

   5 Nov 2025 · 28 min

   Is climate change to blame for Hurricane Melissa?

   What’s been called the storm of the century - Hurricane Melissa – has barrelled through Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas over the past two days. Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, explains whether Melissa was caused – or made worse - by human-made climate change. As the H5N1 bird flu season picks up across British farms, virologist Ian Brown from the Pirbright Institute assesses its threat and turns our attention to a largely ignored strain of bird flu – H9N2 – which a recent study suggests is becoming adapted to human cells. The interstellar comet 3I/Atlas has…

2. 

   4 Nov 2025 · 28 min

   Have scientists created a bionic eye?

   The 'bionic eye' may make you think of Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge. Now, scientists have restored the ability to read in a group of blind patients with advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). And they’ve done it by implanting a computer chip in the back of their eyes. Professor Francesca Cordeiro, Chair of Ophthalmology at Imperial College London explains how bionic technology might provide future solutions for more people with sight loss. Researchers at the University of Sheffield have come up with a way of extracting hormones from human remains dating as far back as the 1st…

3. 

   3 Nov 2025 · 28 min

   Why do we love to play games?

   Inside Science explores the science and maths of games: why we play them, how to win them and the rise of gamification in our lives - with a particular focus on The Traitors - in a special programme with a live audience at Green Man Festival in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. Presenter Victoria Gill looks into whether humans are innately programmed to play games with Gilly Forrester, professor of evolutionary and developmental psychology at the University of Sussex, and investigates how maths can help us strategise and win games with mathematician and maths…

4. 

   31 Oct 2025 · 28 min

   What can the UK learn from China on renewable energy?

   This week, renewables overtake coal as the world’s biggest source of electricity. China is leading the renewable charge despite its global reputation as a coal burning polluter. Zulfiqar Khan, Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University and Tsinghua University in Beijing and Furong Li, Professor in the department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath explain what China is getting right and what UK science can learn. The 2025 Nobel Prize winners have just been announced. The prize for physics has been awarded “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and…

5. 

   30 Oct 2025 · 28 min

   Are embryos made from skin cells the future of fertility treatment?

   Scientists in the US have, for the first time, made early-stage human embryos by manipulating DNA taken from people's skin cells and then fertilising them with sperm. It’s hoped the technique could overcome infertility due to old age or disease. Marnie Chesterton is joined by Dr Geraldine Jowett from the University of Cambridge and Emily Jackson from the London School of Economics to discuss the science behind the research, and the ethical and legal issues it could raise. We also look back at the life of the pioneering primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall, who died this week at the…

6. 

   16 Oct 2025 · 28 min

   What’s the highest a human could possibly pole vault?

   Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis broke the sport’s world record again this week at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. It’s the 14th consecutive time he’s broken the record. Professor of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, Steve Haake, joins Victoria Gill to discuss this monumental feat of athleticism, and to explain the role physics and engineering play in Duplantis’s unprecedented success. The actor, comedian and scientist Nick Mohammed explains why he and his fellow judges selected ‘Ends of the Earth’ by Professor Neil Shubin as one of this year’s finalists in…

7. 

   9 Oct 2025 · 30 min

   Could we have evidence of life on Mars?

   News broke this week that rocks picked up by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars may have found chemical signatures left by living organisms. With the search for life on the red planet capturing our imaginations for decades, Victoria Gill is joined by science journalist Jonathan Amos to look at what we know about the history of life on Mars, and what could be different about this discovery. As commemorations take place this week for the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we hear about the project helping to protect birds in New York from the effects of a giant annual light display in memory of…

8. 

   2 Oct 2025 · 28 min

   What does caffeine do to our bodies?

   Sweet, caffeinated energy drinks are in the headlines again as the UK Government says it wants to ban under 16s from buying them. Some can contain the equivalent caffeine as 2 to 4 espressos. James Betts, Professor of Metabolic Physiology at the University of Bath, explains the science behind how caffeine affects the bodies of adults and children. Earthquake scientist Dr Judith Hubbard from Cornell University in the US explains what we are learning from the magnitude 6 earthquake which hit Afghanistan this week. Professor Dan Levitin is a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, musician, and…

9. 

   25 Sep 2025 · 32 min

   Does warm weather mean more rats in UK towns and cities?

   Summer heatwaves and missed bin collections have created panic in the press that rat numbers in the UK are increasing. We ask Steve Belmain, Professor of Ecology at the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich for the science. This summer Wales became the first country in the UK to ban plastic in wet wipes, with the other nations pledging they will do the same. Over the past few weeks there’s been work to remove a giant mound of them, known as ‘Wet Wipe Island’ on the Thames in west London. Marnie Chesterton has been to find out how they got there and what damage they could…

10. 

    18 Sep 2025 · 28 min

    Could solar panels in space be the energy source of the future?

    As new research looks at the financial and environmental case for solar panels in space, we explore how likely the technology could be to power our future energy needs back on Earth. Marnie Chesterton hears from the author of a new study into the topic, Dr Wei He from King’s College London, and is joined by Professor Henry Snaith from Oxford University to look at the future of solar panel technology. We also hear from conservation scientist Adam Hart about his views on whether allowing trophy hunting could actually help to protect threatened species in the long term. Marnie also speaks to…