Naked Scientists Special Editions

COVID-19 six months in: are we managing it?

Loading player...
Where are we now, six months into the COVID-19 pandemic? The official global death toll is over 380,000 with well over 6 million confirmed cases according to the World Health Organisation. Are we deceiving ourselves that we really understand it? Jonathan Ball is a virologist at the University of Nottingham who's met some exotic viruses in his time - so for an update, Chris Smith asked his thoughts on the coronavirus and its weird symptoms... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
12 Jun 2020 English United Kingdom Science

Other recent episodes

Sickle cell defeated malaria and opened up pastures new

Malaria has been killing humans for at least fifteen thousand years, and our DNA still carries the scars. Ninety percent of the world's malaria cases are in Africa. But this isn't just a modern health crisis. It's written into our evolutionary history. New research from the University of Cambridge reveals…
13 Jul 8 min

Malaria in Africa

Africa remains at the centre of the global malaria crisis. The continent accounts for around 95 percent of all malaria cases, placing immense strain on health systems and costing hundreds of thousands of lives each year. In 2023, there were an estimated 249 million cases globally, with the vast majority…
20 May 10 min

Driven to End Malaria: World Malaria Day 2026

A child dies from malaria roughly every minute. A stark reminder of why urgent action is still needed. "Driven to end malaria, now we can, now we must" is the theme of this year's World Malaria Day marked on the 25th of April. But how realistic is that, and how…
26 Apr 7 min

Moths hear plants, and what fingerprints do for touch

In this episode, how kangaroos alter their postures to store more energy in their Achilles tendons and boost movement efficiency, the moths that make a beeline when they hear plants "talking" to them, tracking how people pick up diseases from their surroundings, the contribution fingerprints make to touch sensation, and…
28 Feb 37 min

Nocebos, and why the eyes of some species stay shut at birth

This month, compelling evidence for why some species keep their eyes closed for sometimes several weeks after birth, scientists prove that the "nocebo" effect is more potent than a placebo, researchers report what happens when fish eggs and mouse sperm mix, the signals that cells use to measure the lengths…
30 Nov 2025 40 min
All episodes