BBC Discovery

Discovery

An in-depth look at the most significant ideas, discoveries and trends in science, from the smallest microbe to the furthest corner of space. Podcast weekly on Mondays.
Weekly English United Kingdom Science
52 Episodes
1 – 20

The Life Scientific - Anna Korre

As the famous frog once said, it's not easy being green. And when it comes to decarbonising industry, indeed, reducing emissions of all sorts, the task is a complex one. Fossil fuels are used to manufacture some of mankind’s most ubiquitous products, from plastics to cement to steel; and even…
25 Mar 28 min

The Life Scientific - Rosalie David

Rosalie David is a pioneer in the study of ancient Egypt. In the early 1970s, she launched a unique project to study Egyptian mummified bodies using the techniques of modern medicine. Back then, the vast majority of Egyptologists regarded mummies as unimportant sources of information about life in ancient Egypt…
17 Mar 27 min

The Life Scientific - Ijeoma Uchegbu

Imagine a nanoparticle, less that a thousandth of the width of a human hair, that is so precise that it can carry a medicine to just where it’s needed in the body, improving the drug’s impact and reducing side effects.Ijeoma Uchegbu, Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London, has…
3 Mar 27 min

The Life Scientific - Darren Croft

Darren Croft studies one of the ocean’s most charismatic and spectacular animals – the killer whale. Orca are probably best known for their predatory behaviour: ganging up to catch hapless seals or attack other whales. But for the last fifteen years, Darren Croft’s focus has been on a gentler aspect…
25 Feb 28 min

The Life Scientific: Bill Gates

Bill Gates is one of the world's best-known billionaires - but after years at the corporate coalface building a software empire and a vast fortune, his priority now is giving that wealth away. And his ethos for doing it has been shaped by science.Famed for co-founding Microsoft, in recent decades…
17 Feb 27 min

Uncharted: A Different Kind of Justice

A small, informal survey leads to shocking revelations about the US justice system, with its truths only uncovered decades later. Meanwhile, an ambitious portfolio manager discovers a perfect graph outlining eye-watering profits. But something doesn't seem right. Could the graph be accurate, or is it hiding a far more sinister…
10 Feb 27 min

Uncharted: The golden spike

At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst sparks a global quest to find a ‘golden spike’ - the boundary marking the shift into a new geological period dominated by humans, not volcanoes or asteroids. From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover reveals a planet profoundly…
3 Feb 30 min

Uncharted: Songs of the Sea

A PhD student with a passion for whales' stumbles upon a strange, eerie sound deep beneath the ocean waves—something that will soon rock her world. Meanwhile, a fisherman is stranded in the ocean late at night, completely alone. With time running out, can he be rescued before it's too late?…
27 Jan 30 min

Uncharted: The Grain of Truth

Amid the desperation of war-starved Netherlands, a doctor defies conventional wisdom to save gravely ill children, uncovering a treatment that sparks both hope and controversy. Years later, in 1967, a young female researcher detects a strange, pulsing signal—could it be mundane interference or evidence of alien life? From lifesaving breakthroughs…
20 Jan 30 min

Uncharted: Love Bytes

A mathematician searching for love discovers that relationships aren’t always as simple as equations—are his calculations the issue, or is there something deeper at play? Meanwhile, at an engineering conference, a young researcher’s seemingly minor mistake uncovers a scandal of epic proportions. Can numbers find love or unveil problems? From…
13 Jan 30 min

Inside Health: Life after my mountain accident

In 2016, Niall McCann was left with a bruised spinal cord when he crashed his speed glider into the side of a mountain at 50mph.He shares his journey to recovery and some unexpected life lessons he has had to navigate, from soiling himself in inconvenient places and not being able…
6 Jan 27 min

Inside Health: Can Insomnia be fixed?

Perhaps you couldn't drift off, or maybe you woke in the middle of the night and then couldn't nod off again. In this edition of Inside Health we're talking all about insomnia. It’s an issue that may affect many of us at some point in our lives – but for…
31 Dec 2024 28 min

Hay Festival Special

Dr Chris van Tulleken shares stories from the making of his chart-topping podcast, Fed. In conversation with Leyla Kazim, at Hay Festival 2024.In Fed, Dr Chris van Tulleken, investigated the entangled web of forces that shape what ends up on our plates. And he focused his investigation around one foodstuff…
23 Dec 2024 28 min

Inside Health: How can we age well?

From the Hay Festival, James and a panel of experts explain what we can all do to help ourselves age well.We discover what’s going on in our bodies when we age, the difference between biological and chronological age, as well as getting the audience moving for a physical test.James is…
16 Dec 2024 26 min

The Life Scientific - Peter Goadsby

Throbbing head, nausea, dizziness, disturbed vision – just some of the disabling symptoms that can strike during a migraine attack. This neurological condition is far more common than you might think, affecting more people than diabetes, epilepsy and asthma combined.While medications, to help relieve the symptoms of migraine, have been…
9 Dec 2024 26 min

The Life Scientific - Kip Thorne

Kip Thorne is an Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, the California Institute of Technology, and someone who’s had a huge impact on our understanding of Einsteinian gravity. Over the course of his career Kip has broken new ground in the study of black holes, and been an integral…
2 Dec 2024 26 min

The Life Scientific - Vicky Tolfrey

It's summer - no really - and although the weather might have been mixed, the sporting line-up has been undeniably scorching - from the back-and-forth of Wimbledon, to the nail-biting Euros, to the current pageantry of the Summer Olympics.Next month the 2024 Paralympic Games get underway in Paris, involving the…
25 Nov 2024 26 min

The Life Scientific - Dawn Bonfield

The engineering industry, like many other STEM sectors, has a problem with diversity: one that Dawn Bonfield believes we can and must fix, if we're to get a handle on much more pressing planetary problems...Dawn is a materials engineer by background, who held roles at Citroën in France and British…
18 Nov 2024 26 min

The Life Scientific: Raymond Schinazi

In recent decades, we have taken huge steps forward in treating formerly fatal viruses - with pharmacological breakthroughs revolutionising treatment for conditions such as HIV, hepatitis and herpes. Raymond Schinazi has played a big role in that revolution.Ray was born in Egypt, where his mother’s brush with a potentially deadly…
11 Nov 2024 26 min

The Life Scientific - Janet Treasure

From anorexia nervosa to binge-eating, eating disorders are potentially fatal conditions that are traditionally very difficult to diagnose and treat - not least because those affected often don’t recognise that there’s anything wrong. But also because of the diverse factors that can influence and encourage them.Janet Treasure is a Professor…
4 Nov 2024 26 min
1 – 20