Naked Scientists Special Editions

Bereavement suppresses the Immune System - 14.09.09

Have you ever heard of someone dying of a broken ...

Have you ever heard of someone dying of a broken heart? In fact, it is remarkably common for elderly people who were previously healthy to die soon after their spouse. But why? New research from the University of Birmingham has discovered that it is ...

Colour changing cuttlefish - 14.09.08

Octopuses and cuttlefish are well known for their astonishing ability ...

Octopuses and cuttlefish are well known for their astonishing ability to change colour almost instantaneously. Can we copy this system to create a camouflaging material? John Rogers from the University of Illinois reveals all... ...

Your Immune system vs Cancer - 14.09.08

Cancer is one of the world's biggest killers, and current ...

Cancer is one of the world's biggest killers, and current treatments often have terrible side effects. So scientists have begun looking into ways to help the body's own defenses fight back. When have a bacterial or viral infection, our immune systems...

The problem with passports - 14.08.27

Have you ever seen somebody in the street and thought ...

Have you ever seen somebody in the street and thought you know them, until you get closer and realise it's a different person entirely. Matching faces to memories or pictures is easier for some people than it is for others. But what happens if you're...

Star dust - 14.08.20

Stardust returns ...

A Wired Society - 14.08.20

Memory boosting drugs, the military, the legal system and enhancing ...

Memory boosting drugs, the military, the legal system and enhancing athletes mental focus and muscle tone. Where should neuroscience stop? How a revolution in technology is bringing an unprecedented flood of information about the brain and with this,...

Our leaky ancestor - 14.08.19

Going back through the generations, eventually you come to the ...

Going back through the generations, eventually you come to the ancestor of all life on earth, something scientists call LUCA (last universal common ancestor). LUCA lived on a hydrothermal vent deep under the ocean, and probably used energy from th...

How to make energy from oil-eating microbes - 14.08.09

One of the remarkable things about the Deepwater Horizon oil ...

One of the remarkable things about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico four years ago was the fact that a lot of the contamination was cleaned up by bacteria which simply ate the oil. Now there's more understanding of how microbe...

Remembering to live to a ripe old age - 14.08.06

Hello I'm Naked Scientist Hannah Critchlow and I'm concerned about ...

Hello I'm Naked Scientist Hannah Critchlow and I'm concerned about aging. Alzheimer's disease affects around half a million of us in the UK alone, and this number is predicted to increase as the population gets older. However, this week a study sug...

In Conversation with Martyn Poliakoff - 14.08.05

Type "mad scientist hair" into Google and the number one ...

Type "mad scientist hair" into Google and the number one result is this man, who is one of the country's leading lights in green chemistry but has also attracted a fan base of thousands online with a youtube presence devoted to bringing chemistry ali...