R.Science podcast

May 2013 – Brian Cox: Britain, a Great place to do science?

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Fri, 31 May 2013 06:58:38 PDT

May 2013 – Brian Cox: Britain, a Great place to do science?
In this episode of R.Science, we hear highlights of Professor Brian Cox’s lecture that packed the Royal Society to the rafters earlier this year. We also find out how you could monitor Parkinson’s disease over the phone and celebrate 50 years of science funding with the Wolfson Foundation. Rosalind Franklin’s sister will discuss some personal memories of the celebrated scientist and we delve into the science and politics of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

00:34 Extracts from the Faraday Prize Lecture, by Professor Brian Cox
07:17 Dr Max Little and Dr Mark Ungless ask “Should we monitor Parkinson’s over the phone?”
11:13 The Royal Society and the Wolfson Foundation celebrate 50 years of funding science
13:37 Dr Greg Lynall explores the satire of science in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
17:22 Dr Jenifer Glyn discusses her book, “My sister Rosalind Frankin”
19:13 Dr Max Little answers, Why Science?

April 2013 - Party for a Past Fellow and the Future of Medicine

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:00:42 PDT

April 2013 - Party for a Past Fellow and the Future of Medicine
In this episode, we ask if growing old is an illness, hear about the potential of stem cells to treat visual impairment and discuss the prospect of personal avatars in computational biomedicine. We also explore the perils of predicting the weather and celebrate the work of Darwin's friend, Sir John Lubbock.

00:40 Dr John Clark on Sir John Lubbock,
07:40 Dr Rachel Pearson from the Edinburgh Science Festival on her work using stem cells to treat visual impairment,
13:07 Prof Peter Coveney FRS and Prof Peter Hunter FRS on computational biomedicine for Interface Focus,
19:05 Dr Matthew Piper URF on his Cafe Scientifique: Is growing old an illness?
25:05 David Shukman, Science Editor for BBC News, Tim Palmer FRS, Professor of Climate Physics, and Liz Howell, Head of BBC Weather on predicting and reporting adverse weather,
32:57 Dr Rachel Pearson answers, Why Science?

March 2013 - Spring Smörgåsbord

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:21:24 PDT

March 2013 - Spring Smörgåsbord
In this episode, we will find out why our fingers wrinkle in the bath, the science of British Sign Language, and what a former President of the Royal society thinks about the role scientists can play in science education.

00:28 Sir Martin Rees, former PRS, on SCORE and science education,
05:55 Professor Gordon Plotkin, winner of the 2012 Royal Society Milner Award, on the symantics of programming language,
08:58 Professor Bencie Woll, on British Sign Language,
16:47 Dr Tom Smulders, Biology Letters paper author, on wrinkly fingers,
21:02 Sir Martin Rees, answers why science?

February 2013 - The Secret Life of Life

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:18:42 PDT

February 2013 - The Secret Life of Life
In this episode, we will span both the big and small, finding out more about our solar system and our genes. We hear about a mission to find life on one of Saturn’s moons and a quest to find the secrets of life and disease inside the human genome.

00:20 Professor Michele Dougherty, Discovery of a dynamic atmosphere at one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus. (Public Lecture)
04:16 Dr Ewan Birney, What can we learn from our genes? (Café Scientifique)
08:24 Professor Adrian Bird, Genetic, Epigenetics and disease. (The Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Prize lecture)
11:30 Prof. Dougherty: Why science?

January 2013 - Happy new year from the Royal Society

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:18:47 PDT

January 2013 - Happy new year from the Royal Society
In the first episode of 2013 we present a scientific smörgåsbord of recent Royal Society happenings. We look inside volcanoes at a Café Scientifique and into ponds with a school benefitting from one of our Partnership Grants. We also hear from some of our University Research Fellows and an author from one of our recent journals.
(00:35) Thames Ditton Junior School.
(02:28) What's going on inside volcanoes? Dr Alison Rust.
(06:24) University Research Fellows: Chris Aldridge (UCL) and Eddie Cussen (University of Stratchlyde).
(12:20) Why Science? Professor Michael Elphick (Queen Mary, University of London)

December 2012 - Science in Industry and Romance in Chemistry

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:03:38 PST

December 2012 - Science in Industry and Romance in Chemistry
In this month’s episode: hear from the winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, find out about our forthcoming Year of Science and Industry and explore the new Royal Society exhibition: Romantic Chemistry.

(00:16) James Gleick, winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.
(02:21) Simon Campbell, Year of Science and Industry coordinator.
(04:48) Professor Tim Leighton, winner of The Brian Mercer Award for Innovation in 2011.
(06:19) Professor Vincent Walsh, Royal Society Industry Fellow, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL.
(09:25) Romantic Chemistry with Martyn Poliakoff, chemist and foreign secretary of the Royal Society.

November 2012 - The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:12:16 PST

November 2012 - The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize
This month’s episode celebrates the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize. We hear from the children and adults who took part in the judging process, the shortlisted authors and the winner, Robert Winston.

(00:39) Mark Champkins, Inventor in Residence at the Science Museum and one of the judges, with Alex Frith, author of shortlisted ‘See inside Inventions’
(02:13) Young judges at Northlands School
(05:23) Robert Winston, winning author of ‘Science Experiments’
(06:08) Clive Gifford, author of shortlisted ‘Out of this world: all the cool bits about space’
(07:20) Richard Platt, author of shortlisted ‘Plagues, pox and pestilence’
(09:03) Christiane Dorion, author of shortlisted ‘How the weather works’
(10:23) Richard Dawkins, author of shortlisted ‘The magic of reality’

October 2012 - Scientific Heroines and Heroes

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:12:59 PST

This month: discover how the Royal Society are trying to tackle the lack of information about scientific Heroines on Wikipedia and hear what this year’s Royal Society Wilkins-Bernal-Medwar Lecturer had to say about scientific Heroes. We also learn about handling uncertainty in weather and climate prediction.

(00:26) Dr Roger Highfield: Director of External Affairs at the Science Museum Group and this year’s Royal Society Wilkins-Bernal-Medwar Lecturer.
(10:11) Professor Uta Frith FRS: scientific heroine and new Wikipedia editor.
(13:13) Professor Tim Palmer FRS: Chair of the Royal Society Theo Murphy International Scientific Meeting on handling uncertainty in weather and climate prediction and Liz Stephens who spoke at the meeting.

September 2012 - Science Policy and Poetry

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:12:09 PST

In this month’s podcast we hear from the chairs of two of the Royal Society’s recent science policy reports; on Shale Gas Extraction and Science as an Open Enterprise. We also discover the fine scientific illustrations of the poet Edward Lear, featured in our current exhibition.
Robert Mair: Chair of the Shale Gas Extraction Report (00:40)
Geoffrey Boulton: Chair of the Science as an Open Enterprise Report (04:27)
Jonathan Ashmore: Chair of the Library Committee (08:57)

August 2012 - The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:11:23 PST

If you missed any or all of our Summer Science Exhibition, this month’s podcast revisits a few of the highlights. Find out how insects smell, discover the drowned landscape of Doggerland, and ask some lichen, how clean is my air?

July 2012 - A Summer of Science

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:10:05 PST

The best of the science festival season. Here at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, explore both the evidence and entertainment value of forensic science; and meet mathematical adventurer Alex Bellos and climate evolution expert Mark Maslin at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

June 2012 - Science Writing

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 04:15:20 PDT

Find out what it takes to write science books from one of the judges of the Royal Society's annual prize, Jasper Fforde and author of Chasing Venus, Andrea Wulf. Also, Tim Bliss uncovers the mysteries of memory.

May 2012 - Science in schools

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:01:44 PDT

Join us at the SCORE conference as Dr Becky Parker explains the importance of scientific research within schools, and hear from the pupils of Britannia Village Primary School as they tell us about their own Partnership Grants research project on chickens. One of our Industry Fellows also describes the impact of his fellowship.

April 2012 - People and Planet

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:09:15 PDT

Join Nobel Prize winner Sir John Sulston FRS as he explains the findings of the Royal Society's latest major policy study, People and Planet, and find out all about the book that Samuel Pepys called "the most ingenious book that I ever read".

March 2012 - A galaxy of science stars

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:38:25 PDT

An intergalactic line up of guests this month, starting with Dr Zita Martins - who uses meteorites to look back in time - followed by Dr Chris Lintott of BBC One’s Sky at Night programme (recent winner of the Royal Society Kohn Award) and finishing off with Royal Society Foreign Secretary and YouTube superstar Professor Martyn Poliakoff.

February 2012: Computing past and present

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:01:51 PST

This month, we’re looking at computing past and present, as we speak to two eminent figures from the world of computing, as well as hearing about the treasures of the Royal Society library.

January 2012: Partnership grants and more

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:16:37 PST

This episode is all about education as we hear from some of the students and teachers who have been taking part in the Royal Society's Partnership Grants scheme. Also, Professor Athene Donald, Fellow of the Royal Society and Chair of the Royal Society’s Education Committee fills us in on why she’s not your average physicist.

December 2011: Between the lines

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:00:39 PST

In this episode, science and literature collide as we celebrate the 2011 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books by speaking to the winner and some of the shortlisted authors.

November 2011: One Culture

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:01:10 PST

Following a short break, this episode brings highlights from One Culture: festival of literature and arts which took place in October. We also hear from Professor Ed Larson who gives an interesting new view on Captain Scott’s famously tragic polar expedition.

August 2011: More Summer Science in the city

noreply@blogger.com (The Royal Society) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:01:20 PST

This episode brings further highlights of the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition, some of this year's exhibitors tell us how to look for what's hidden in your holiday luggage, whilst other explore the magnetosphere to explain the stunning phenomenon known as the Northern Lights.