Special Editions
Probing the weird, wacky and spectacular, the Naked Scientists Special Editions are special one-off scientific reports, investigations and interviews on cutting-edge topics by the Naked Scientists team.
CRISPR cuts life expectancy in twins
CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. Long name, but easy to picture: the sequence is synonymous to a word processor for a book, the book being DNA, which allows scientists to not only read the book, but to also edit a specific 'passage' of the book. Using…
How to mend a broken heart
Around 1.4 million people alive in the UK today have survived a heart attack, but survivors can suffer from debilitating heart failure, because the heart is damaged during the attack. Ten years ago The Naked Scientists spoke to Sian Harding from Imperial College London about some promising new "heart patches"…
An antibiotic made from metal
Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve to sidestep the drugs we use to kill them. With resistance rising, we could be facing an "antibiotic apocalypse", where even trivial infections become untreatable. What's worse, almost no new antibiotics are being developed by the major pharmaceutical companies. Now, though, Kirsty Smitten has…
Sensing air pollution
To better understand how personal exposure to air pollution can impact an individual's health, Katie Haylor met up with Cambridge University chemist Lia Chatzidiakou for a walk around central Cambridge. And to find out how air pollution can be monitored across a whole city, Katie climbed up to the roof…
Bacteria not slowed by obstacles
Researchers have gained new insights into how bacteria move in complex environments. Bacteria move using a system called "swim-and-tumble": they swim in a straight line for a bit, then tumble in a circle, which gives them a chance to correct their course. They can't see where they're going - they…
Hiroshima buildings found in beach sand
Geologists from the University of California, Berkeley, found something unexpected in sand samples from Japan. Rather than natural particles, from rocks or plants, these tiny blobs of glass seem to have been formed in an atomic blast, and they might mean that the destroyed buildings of Hiroshima have been hiding…
Reducing harassment online
Harassment in online communities is not a new phenomenon, but it is a growing one, with 40-46% of people reportedly having experienced it. Communities like reddit, one of the internet's, and the world's largest discussion forums, often have moderation teams responsible for applying self-imposed rules which govern acceptable behaviour. These…
Mystery of the miniature T-Rex
Everyone's heard of T-Rexes, the twenty-foot-tall monsters that roamed the Earth back in the Late Cretaceous Period. But you may not have heard of their miniature cousin. It's a six foot tall dinosaur called Suskityrannus hazelae, and it gives us a clue about when and how T-Rexes got as big…
Biodegradable bags might not biodegrade
Our society uses - and then throws away - a vast amount of plastic, which then accumulates in the environment. To combat this, in recent years, new types of plastic bags have become available, labelled as "compostable" or "biodegradable."Both of these terms indicate the bag can break down and so…
Caster Semenya and testosterone limits
Caster Semenya, a South African athlete with unusually high testosterone for a woman, has lost her appeal against new regulations from the International Association of Athletics Federations. The regulations set an upper limit on how much testosterone a female athlete is allowed to have compete in middle distance running, and…
DNA unveils origins of farming in Britain
Before Britain was a nation of shopkeepers we were a nation of farmers; before that, the population were a bunch of hunter gatherers. But farming didn't catch on here until 1000 years after it had in Europe. Why was always a mystery, but now DNA technology is shedding new light…
Premature labour: understanding the mechanics
Human babies grow inside their mothers for 40 weeks enclosed in a watery bag that expands as they do. And as the clock ticks during pregnancy, various processes kick in to thin the membrane material that surrounds the baby so that the bag ruptures at the right time to promote…
AI predicting battery performance
Batteries are in almost everything we use. Our phones, computers, energy storage, even in transport. Typically, to see how well a battery performs, scientists have to charge and discharge them over and over until, ultimately, the battery stops working. This can take years of development and testing, plus it's an…
Renewable energy beats carbon capture
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC) has recently issued a series of so-called "energy transition pathways". These are essentially routes that we as a society need to follow, in order to prevent global warming from exceeding the limit at which society cannot continue to function. All of these…
EHT sheds light on M87 black hole
The multinational team behind the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which spans the Earth by linking dishes in 8 different countries, have revealed the first images of the supermassive black hole - that has a mass 6 billion times that of our Sun - sitting at the centre of galaxy Messier…
A new look at an old star
Astronomers have used a new camera called the HiPERCAM to analyse a type of small, dim star that has proved elusive to standard cameras. The camera has allowed them to make detailed measurements of this cool subdwarf star 1500 light years away, and it's the first time they've been able…
Exotic particle discovery from LHC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is widely regarded as one of humanity's greatest scientific achievements. The 17 km long accelerator smashes particles together at high speeds, and looks at the products to search for new physics. So far we've learned a tonne about the smallest things in nature, such as…
Low temperature catalysts reduce emissions
Catalytic converters are in car exhausts and convert toxic carbon monoxide into much less harmful carbon dioxide, as well as removing other pollutants. On a petrol car, they are the metal box you see just before the exhaust. Unfortunately, current catalytic converters don't work effectively at lower temperatures, usually only…
Metamaterials solve complex equations
Ever wondered how to get the best wifi reception in your house, given all those floors and walls which can interrupt the signal? Where to position the router and signal boosters, then where people should use their devices to get the best reception? There are so many combinations, making it…
Precision-injecting smart needle
Having an injection is an experience common to us all, and whether you are unfussed by the them or they make you feel faint, the actual needle used is the same for everyone and highly standardised. But given different parts of the body are more difficult to inject than others,…