Shows / BBC Inside Science
BBC Inside Science
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
Episodes
- BBC Inside Science
The race to protect a third of the world
It's the time of year when nations come together to try and agree on a plan to futureproof the planet. But in the lead up to the Conference of the Parties 31…
- BBC Inside Science
Is there time on Mars?
The first ever spacecraft to bring Martian samples back to Earth has launched from Japan. However, before the spacecraft returns from Phobos in 2031 there are…
- BBC Inside Science
The climate changing power of 400 billion toasters
Back in May, we checked in on the developments in the eastern Pacific’s ocean currents, that we call El Niño. We said that stirrings in the surface suggested…
- BBC Inside Science
Will AI complete mathematics?
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
What AI agents talk about behind your back
Is AI really plotting against us? In a week where an Anthropic researcher believes there is more than a 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans' we're delving…
- BBC Inside Science
The quest for dark matter
The quest for Dark Matter just got interesting. Researchers on an international project called the Lux-Zeplin (LZ) Dark Matter Experiment reported they may…
- BBC Inside Science
The day of the datacentres
Reports about the impacts of datacentres, including carbon emissions, water usage and power consumption, vary drastically and the truth can be hard to…
- BBC Inside Science
Is the era of the cancer vaccine upon us?
This week Merck (known as MSD in Europe) and Moderna announced that a personalised cancer vaccine had significantly improved the outcomes of melanoma patients…
- BBC Inside Science
Should we be scared of AI viruses?
The extreme possibilities of synthetic biology hit the headlines last week, when researchers at Stanford University in the US announced they had created new…
- BBC Inside Science
The state of our substrate: What is drought doing to our soil?
Large parts of Europe are in the grip of drought. According to the UK Meteorological Office, last week was the UK's driest July on record. Katie Field…
- BBC Inside Science
Are we alone in the universe?
Scientists have long referred to the Goldilocks zone – the region around a star where conditions are not too hot and not too cold but “just right” for life…
- BBC Inside Science
Testing testosterone testing
Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has announced that the US military will be screening military personnel aged 30 and older for testosterone deficiency. Those…
- BBC Inside Science
How might we spot nukes in space?
A few years ago a satellite speeding through the Van Allen belt in earth orbit raised concerns that it may include a nuclear weapon. An explosion in that orbit…
- BBC Inside Science
Are we one step closer to creating life in a lab?
Synthetic biologist Kate Adamal and her team at the University of Minnesota published their research into the lab-created ‘SpudCell’ in a significant step…
- BBC Inside Science
How do you immortalise natural history?
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
How do you build an unbuildable tower?
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
The science behind hantavirus
Following three deaths linked to the deadly hantavirus disease on a cruise ship this month, the scientific community is racing to answer the many unknown…
- BBC Inside Science
Should Pluto become a planet again?
"Make Pluto a planet again" was the call this week from Donald Trump’s NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman. The icy body was first seen in 1930 and was the only…
- BBC Inside Science
Why is Europe the fastest-warming continent?
The latest European State of the Climate report has found that Europe is once again getting warmer, and at a rate that is twice as fast as the global average…
- BBC Inside Science
Can we prevent the next pandemic?
A phase 3 clinical trial is underway to determine the effectiveness of an mRNA vaccine for H5N1, a strain of influenza that is currently of concern. The virus…
- BBC Inside Science
Forty years on from nuclear disaster
For 40 years scientists have been fascinated by the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. Professor Jim Smith from the…
- BBC Inside Science
Return to the moon
This week, humans once again looked down on the magnificent desolation of the lunar surface, from the orbit of the moon itself. They saw earth rise and earth…
- BBC Inside Science
Responding to your science questions
This week, we’re letting you run the airwaves. Victoria Gill puts your science questions to Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of…
- BBC Inside Science
The future of space travel
Are we, at last, getting the spacefaring future we were promised back in the 1960s? This week, NASA has been outlining ambitions for a base on the Moon and…
- BBC Inside Science
Is quantum computing having its moment?
In a bid to invest in the future of computing and keep emerging quantum companies on their shores, the UK government has announced a £2 billion ‘Quantum Leap’…
- BBC Inside Science
Is the Earth warming faster than we expected?
This week new research suggests that in recent years the Earth has been warming faster than we predicted. But scientists are undecided on whether this change…
- BBC Inside Science
How is war being fought in space?
This week Inside Science comes from Space Comm Expo in London, one of the biggest space conferences in the world. Tom Whipple explores the conference with…
- BBC Inside Science
Does new science get us closer to finding out how life on earth began?
Perhaps it’s the biggest question science has left to answer, how did life begin? Now, molecular biologists in Cambridge university have discovered tiny…
- BBC Inside Science
How to bury radioactive waste
A small but mighty problem: what to do with the radioactive waste we have already made? Professor Clare Corkhill from the University of Bristol gives us the…
- BBC Inside Science
Will there be a city on the moon in ten years?
Elon Musk says his company Space X will focus on establishing a ‘self-growing city’ on the moon before going to Mars. Why the pivot? And what would it take to…
- BBC Inside Science
Where do forever chemicals come from?
This week the UK Government decided it was worried enough about so called ‘forever chemicals’ to bring in it’s first ever plan to tackle them. Environment…
- BBC Inside Science
Should we rethink navigating by GPS?
This week 14 European countries warned that “maritime safety and security” was being put in jeopardy by Russian interference. The Royal Institute of Navigation…
- BBC Inside Science
How is air travel returning to supersonic speeds?
It’s exactly half a century since two Concorde jets took off from Paris and London respectively. The supersonic jet would come to define top end luxury travel…
- BBC Inside Science
Why is Nasa sending people around the moon?
The space science world is buzzing. In the next few days, NASA is expected to begin the rollout of its Artemis II rocket to the launch pad with the launch…
- BBC Inside Science
How rare are Greenland’s rare earth elements?
President Trump has his sights set on Greenland. If he succeeds, what mineral wealth will he find there? Adrian Finch, Professor of Geology at St Andrews…
- BBC Inside Science
How did President Trump transform science in 2025?
This week President Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget announced that a major climate research centre would be broken up. 2025 has brought…
- BBC Inside Science
Would our ancestors have benefited from early neanderthals making fire?
400 thousand years ago our early human cousins dropped a lighter in a field in the East of England; evidence that was uncovered this week and suggests that…
- BBC Inside Science
A 'functional' cure for HIV?
Almost 40 years ago, the first treatment was approved for HIV, but it came with a warning: “This is not a cure.” On the week of World AIDS Day, Kate Bishop…
- BBC Inside Science
Why aren’t gene therapies more common?
This week, a world first gene therapy treats rare Hunter syndrome. Could these personalised medicines be used more widely? We speak to Claire Booth, professor…
- BBC Inside Science
What’s in the wording of the COP 30 negotiations?
COP 30 delegates from around the globe are about to depart the Amazon city of Belem in Brazil. But not before some very important documents are drawn up…
- BBC Inside Science
Could technology replace animal testing in science?
This week the UK government set out its vision for a world where the use of animals in science is eliminated in all but exceptional circumstances. Animal…
- BBC Inside Science
Is Dark Energy Getting Weaker?
Astronomers have new evidence, which could change what we understand about the expansion of the universe. Carlos Frenk, Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
The science behind autism
What do we know about the causes of autism? Laura Andreae, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at King’s College London explains the science. It’s after…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…
- BBC Inside Science
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…