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The Guardian's Science Weekly: How blogs are changing science

From [redacted] [redacted] | 38:50

Recorded at Science Online 2011 in North Carolina, we take an extended look at the world of blogging and its role in modern science; plus, who is Bora?

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In a special podcast from North Carolina, Alok Jha goes right to the heart of global science blogging at Science Online 2011.

As well as a search for answers, we also hunt down a mysterious man called Bora.

Hundreds of scientists, students, journalists, librarians, bloggers, programmers met to discuss how the web is changing the way science is communicated, taught and carried out.

We look at how the relatively new medium of blogging has evolved over the last few years and ask: what role does it now play and where does it fit into modern science? Is it anything new? Is it permanently changing how science is reported?

How difficult is it for women to blog about science? Why do some choose to stay anonymous?

There's even a Star Wars joke thrown in for good geeky measure.

Ed Yong tells us about Britain's blogging scene - and lets us in on the secret about whether there is any money to be made from it.

Will we get to meet the enigma who is Bora Zivkovic? Is he even real?

Plus, after meeting Jad a few weeks ago, we get to speak to the other half of NPR's Radiolab programme, Robert Krulwich.

Here are the links to all the bloggers we spoke to and the blogs we spoke about:


Mind Hacks
, by Vaughan Bell. 
Observations of a Nerd, by Christie Wilcox.
Neurotic Physiology, by Scicurious.
Science Seeker, an aggregator. 
Not Exactly Rocket Science, by Ed Yong.
Bad Astronomy, by Phil Plait.
The Loom, by Carl Zimmer.
Laelaps, by Brian Switek.
Frontal Cortex, by Jonah Lehrer.
Neuron Culture, by David Dobbs.
Superbug, by Maryn McKenna.
NeuroTribes, by Steve Silberman.
The Gleaming Retort, by John Rennie.
Science 3.0, by Mark Hahnel. 
John Hawks' Weblog.
Thoughtomics, by Lucas Brouwers.
Krulwich Wonders, by Robert Krulwich.
A Blog Around the Clock, by Bora Zivkovic.
Scientific American blogs.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: Christmas at the Large Hadron Collider

From [redacted] [redacted] | 24:18

As the Large Hadron Collider goes into hibernation for the winter, producer Andy Duckworth visits the Atlas experiment at Cern, Geneva, to ask, will 2011 be the year of the Higgs?

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Assistant research scientist Prof Steven Goldfarb takes us on a trip around Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Geneva, home of the largest and most complex scientific instrument ever built, the Large Hadron Collider.

The LHC is currently asleep, switched off for planned maintenance over the winter. We sneak into the control room of the Atlas experiment, linger in the corridor where the world wide web was invented and eavesdrop on particle physicists eating in the canteen ... to find out what particle physicists talk about over lunch. Some believe 2011 will be the year of the Higgs.

We meet some of the physicists who perform on the album just released by CernResonance. They include Lukas PribylNick Barlow and PhD student Genevieve Steele who plays the celtic harp. Watch an iPhone video recording of Genevieve performing.

Find out the answers to questions like "do the lights dim when the beam is switched on?", and "what's the wi-fi access like in the room where the world wide web was invented?"

If you want to know more about how the podcast was put together, weblogged about the trip at the time. Here are some pictures from around the complex on the Swiss-Franco border.

With thanks also to Claudia Marcelloni.

WARNING: contains strong language.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet our crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: The next generation supercomputer

From [redacted] [redacted] | 29:39

How new technologies will put your laptop into hyper-drive; why Ikea is so good at getting you to buy stuff you don't need; plus, archaeological evidence that questions the Out Of Africa theory

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Presented by Ian Sample and produced by Andy Duckworth
guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 January 2011 00.01 GMT

We look at what the next generation of supercomputers could be built with. From new materials to changing the fundamentals of how they process information.

We have a packed studio of experts: Robert Thompson works with organic electronics at University College London, Lata Sahonta is developing the latest technologies used in LEDs and solar cells at the University of Cambridge, and Matty Hoban, also from UCL, is working in the field of Quantum Information.

WARNING: programme contains a melodica. Yet another first for the podcast.

More details about their work at noisemakers.org.uk.

Alan Penn, Professor of Architectural and Urban Computing at The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London, looks at the psychology of how Ikea gets us to buy things we didn't realise we wanted. Plus, how that applies to improving the design of science labs.

Simon Armitage, a researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London, explains his involvement in a study which is causing archaeologists to rethink human history. Newly discovered stone tools date from 125,000 years ago, around 55,000 years before our ancestors were thought to have left the continent.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: The birds and the bees (x-rated version)

From [redacted] [redacted] | 39:24

WARNING: contains frank details about animal sex... please listen and approve before broadcasting.

We reveal nature's most bizarre and intimate sexual secrets; Peter Atkins discusses the limits of science; mapping allergies; a universal flu vaccine; plus, we ask why chemistry often gets overlooked

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WARNING: this podcast contains frank information and graphic details about animal sex.

Peter Atkins, professor of chemistry at Oxford University, goes right to the limits of science. We then take it a bit further as we look at some of the themes in his new book On Being which is out soon.

Peter is giving a lecture at the Royal Institution on March 22nd 2011.

We go behind the scenes at a new exhibition which is the x-rated version of the birds and the bees. Quite frankly, they're at it like rabbits. Sexual Nature is now open at London's Natural History Museum.

We've also put together a beautiful audio slideshow giving you a taste of what there is to see there.

In our show and tell section, we discuss a study that has mapped allergies, a universal flu vaccine, plus the international year of chemistry - and why the discipline often gets overlooked.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: Ham the astrochimp and the LHC keeps going

From [redacted] [redacted] | 34:10

It's 50 years since the first American went into space; why the Large Hadron Collider isn't going to shut down for a year as planned; and we trick Alok into talking about his first book

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We celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of America's space milestones. His name was Ham and he came from French Cameroon. Henry Nicholls is back in the studio with us. He's unearthed some never before broadcast audio footage he recorded in 2007 when he went to visit the remains of this amazing chimpanzee.

The Higgs Boson might be closer than ever. The decision has been made to keep the Large Hadron Collider up and running for another year before its scheduled maintenance. We cross live-ish to Paul Collier in the room at Cern where the beam is switched on and off. Paul's job title is possibly the greatest on the planet. He is Head of Beams at Cern.

Our very own Alok Jha has his first book out. Despite his best efforts to avoid talking about it, we trick him into discussing How To Live Forever: And 34 Other Really Interesting Uses Of Science. Other books are available!

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: A world without oil; plus 30 years of the space shuttle

From [redacted] [redacted] | 37:05

Shai Agassi's vision of a green future; plus, former Nasa astronaut Jeff Hoffman reflects on 30 years of the shuttle

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Shai Agassi, CEO of sustainable transport firm Better Place, looks ahead to a world no longer dependent on oil - and why he thinks the UK isn't going to be overrun by electric cars any time soon.

We never get bored of speaking to people who have been into space. As the shuttles prepare for their final lift-offs, we ask former Nasa astronaut Jeff Hoffman whether they would have been scrapped if Challenger and Columbia were still flying.

Jeff has just presented a documentary on the BBC World Service, The Last Chance to Fly the Space Shuttle.

If like us you love hearing tales from people who have been into space, listen to our interview with Jeff in full in the latest Science Weekly Extra podcast. It should automatically download to this podcast feed.

And to finish this show, a song ... about yeast ... the sex life of yeast actually. Artist Gethan Dick teamed up with six biomedical students from University College London to make songs about their research. The album's called Trying and Trying and Trying.

WARNING: this music contains strong language.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: Requiem for the space shuttle

From [redacted] [redacted] | 29:53

In an extended interview, former Nasa astronaut Jeff Hoffman reflects on 30 years of the space shuttle

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On the 12 April 1981, Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral. It was the first shuttle to go into space.

Thirty years on, the shuttle fleet is finally being taken out of service. The three remaining shuttles - Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - each have one mission left.

At the time of recording, Nasa has scheduled STS-133 for 24 February: Discovery is destined for the international space station.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Dr Jeffrey Hoffman flew five times on the shuttle - he was the first astronaut to log more than a thousand hours of flight time on board and travelled more than 20 million miles in space.

But as this era of spaceflight comes to a close, what is the shuttle's legacy and what's next for human spaceflight?

We spoke to Jeff from his new workplace, the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.

He has presented a new documentary on the BBC World Service, The Last Chance to Fly the Space Shuttle.

Don't forget to listen to our regular Science Weekly podcast.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: AAAS 2011, drugs and the sound of the stars

From [redacted] [redacted] | 36:11

The highlights of this year's AAAS science festival in Washington DC, professor David Nutt explains his latest research on reclassifying drugs; plus, the sound of the stars

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Alok is back from this year's AAAS science festival in Washington DC. He rounds up the highlights of the festival including stuttering mice, dwindling fish stocks and links between being bilingual and Alzheimer's.

While at the meeting Alok spoke to astroseismologist Bill Chaplin from the University of Birmingham (UK). Bill describes the 10-second recording he's made of the stars.

Former government drugs adviser professor David Nutt pops into the studio to tell us about the latest research his group, the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, is doing on the classification of drugs. He also anlayses the approach the British and US governments are taking towards drugs.

In our new "further reading" section, see a huge diamond now on display at London's Natural History Museum and stunning photographs from the 2011 Wellcome Image awards.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: What's Beagle 2 doing now?

From [redacted] [redacted] | 39:03

Colin Pillinger, the man who lost a spacecraft, tells us whether he still holds out hope of finding Beagle 2; Lester Brown discusses food bubbles; plus new research into Alzheimer's, a mission to Mercury, and how the British government responds to scientific crises

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Colin Pillinger, the man who lead Britain's mission to Mars in the form of 2003's Beagle 2 project tells us, seven years on, what he thinks happened to his failed spacecraft. Colin also criticises the European Space Agency for its role in the mission.

Colin is speaking at an event at the Royal Geographical Society on the 16th March 2011. His book My Life on Mars is out now.

In our show and tell section we Ian Sample tells us about growing brain cells which could help with Alzheimer's, Alok Jha discusses how scientists are often ignored during national emergencies, and Robin McKie looks at a new mission to Mercury.

Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute and a man the Washington Post called 'one of the world's most influential thinkers' tells us about his new concept of 'food bubbles'. It's in his new book World On The Edge is out now.

There are also a few mentions for some of you who got in touch following last week's podcast.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: Why scientists love Germany

From [redacted] [redacted] | 57:33

In a specially extended show, we visit the European Space Agency's operations centre, and get a taste of some of the most exciting research being carried out in Germany. What can the rest of the world learn from the way Germans do science?

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We've been let out of the studio, and the UK, as part of the Guardian's New Europe month.

The team has been tracking down some of the most exciting science in Germany. We visited Darmstadt, Bremen, Berlin and Cologne to investigate everything from microgravity, a famous Archaeopteryx and ageing fruit flies. We even spoke to a satellite.

We also looked at the nuts and bolts of how science works in Germany: the funding and how the various institutes fit together.

First on our itinerary was the Natural History Museum in Berlin, home of the Mona Lisa of fossils: an exquisitely preserved specimen of the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx.

In Bremen at the Zarm drop tower we used a pneumatic catapult to create microgravity. We also dropped in on a researcher controlling part of the International Space Station.

Meanwhile, Alok managed to get into the control room of ESOC, part of the European Space Agency, where he communicated with CryoSat-2 and touched some space debris.

Watch the first in our series of videos from the trip, filmed inside 'Europe's Houston'.

Ian visited Cologne to explore the newest Max Planck Institute, which investigates the biology of ageing by teasing apart the genetics of fruit flies, worms and mice.

Brian Cox somehow gets a mention.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: Just how many universes are there?

From [redacted] [redacted] | 42:53

Brian Greene says mathematics shows how every decision we make creates a parallel universe; plus, we join Tim Jackson as he takes a Q&A session on whether rampant consumerism is ruining our lives

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Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, joins us in the studio to help us get our heads around multiverse theory. His new book The Hidden Reality is out now.

Brian also poses a question that will be answered in next week's maths special podcast. Please post any other equations you need solving or mathematical questions you would like to ask on our blog (below).

Tim Jackson, professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey and author of Prosperity Without Growth, responds to Guardian listeners' questions in a live web chat. We sat with him throughout the Q&A session.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us. Listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: Mathematics special + Brian Cox = science squared

From [redacted] [redacted] | 51:29

Bowing to popular demand, here's our mathematical special; plus Brian Cox, the most famous man in science, pops into the Guardian. No calculators allowed

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What do you get if you have a studio, then add one mathematician, then add another mathematician... yes, that equals a special maths podcast.

Richard Elwes is a writer, teacher and researcher of mathematics and visiting fellow at the University of Leeds. He knows a thing or two about model theory. In case you were wondering, his Erd?s number is 3!

Richard's new book is How to Build a Brain.

Our other 'numbers expert' is Ian Stewart. He's Emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick as well as a fellow of the Royal Society.

He's written too many books to mention, but his latest is called the Mathematics of Life.

Amongst the fawning and picture-taking, we managed to grab Brian Cox for a few minutes when he dropped in on the Guardian's science desk. He was doing a live Q&A webchat.

Brian discusses an encounter with a supermodel as well as his next TV series. His current series, Wonders of the Universe is on BBC2 right now.

The Guardian's Nell Boase is also with us as we take a quick look at some recent news stories; why cuckoos appear to be in an arms race, a machine that could replace scientists, and spider encrusted trees.

This is a no-calculators-allowed edition of Science Weekly!

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us. Listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: What is 'the self'?

From [redacted] [redacted] | 34:05

We attempt to explain 'the self' with Julian Baggini; Tim Flannery tells us how love can save the environment; Brian Cox answers the 'Hannaford question'; plus, fighting fire with electricity and cell transplants for nuclear workers

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It's something that's baffled the great minds for hundreds of years.... so it's a pretty ambitious question to tackle as one segment within one podcast... but we give it a bash anyway... the concept of 'the self'. Julian Baggini runs us through the latest thinking in neuropsychology after interviewing the likes of Paul Broks and Daniel Dennett for his new book The Ego Trick.

We introduce a new feature to the show - 'the Hannaford question'. One of our listeners Rob Hannaford wanted us to ask Brian Cox, and all our guests, the following question... 'if you had one question in the world/universe that you could have answered - what would it be?'. It's such a good one, we decided to do it. You'll hear one question every week. This week, Brian Cox asks his.

Professor Tim Flannery, Australia's first chief climate commissioner popped into our studios to explain some of the concepts in his new book Here on Earth: A New Beginning.

Nell Boase and Ian Sample join the pod to look at some of their favourite recent science stories. Nell was interested in how researchers are fighting fire with electricity, and Ian tells us about plans to help Japan's nuclear workers using cell transplants.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us. Listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: David Eagleman and 50 years in space

From [redacted] [redacted] | 28:53

David Eagleman suggests prejudices may be hard-wired into our brains; a new real-time film celebrating 50 years since Yuri Gagarin went into space; plus, Brian Greene asks this week's 'Hannaford question'

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Why doesn't our brain allow us to know what's going on inside it? Neuroscientist David Eagleman attempts to answer that and proposes a new approach to criminal justice. He also the example of Mel Gibson to ask whether prejudices are hard-wired into our brains? David's latest book is Incognito: The Secret Lives Of The Brain.

Brian Greene poses the latest in our unanswerable quandaries in this week's 'Hannaford question'.

We climb on board Vostok 1 and hitch a ride alongside Yuri Gagarin exactly 50 years to the second since he made history. Dr Christopher Riley tells us about the new film First Orbit which will be launched at exactly the same moment five decades after Vostok 1 blasted off. You can watch it at 7.07am on Tuesday the 12th April 2011 at guardian.co.uk/science or on YouTube. Use the hashtag obit1 to join the conversation on twitter.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us. Listen back through our archive.

The Guardian's Science Weekly: Long living brains and information overload

From [redacted] [redacted] | 29:48

The New York Times science editor Barbara Strauch describes the surprising abilities of a middle-aged mind; James Gleick tells us whether information overload is anything new; plus, the latest in our series of unanswerable questions

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Barbara Strauch, science editor at The New York Times, reveals new research which shows when our brains really are at their smartest. It turns out that old grey matter might not be decaying over time after all. In her new book The Grown Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-aged Mind, she also gives some handy tips and tricks to keep our minds healthier for longer.

Rebecca Hill heads to the Royal Society in London to meet James Gleick. He was speaking at an event to promote his new work The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood.

Plus, another of our unanswerable mind benders in this week's Hannaford question. David Eagleman gets a little cryptic.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us. Listen back through our archive.

Guardian Science Weekly Podcast: Alok Jha discovers supercooperators

From [redacted] [redacted] | 01:13:10

Alok Jha talks to science writer Carl Zimmer about the awesome power of viruses and his new book Planet of Viruses, also Nell Boase meets evolutionary biologist Martin Nowak to discuss his book Supercooperators

Science_300_small This week Alok Jha talks to the celebrated American science writer Carl Zimmer about his latest book The Planet of Viruses.  Carl takes us on a roller-coaster ride into the world of viral bacteria and explores their importance both as a threat in the form of diseases but also their role in enabling the human species to evolve and survive.

Also on the podcast The Guardian's Nell Boase meets Martin Nowak to discuss his book 'Supercooperators: The Mathematics of Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour...Or Why We Need Each Other To Succeed'. Martin discusses why he and New Scientist Editor Roger Highfield wrote the book and why they feel that Darwinian evolution needs to encompass the importance of cooperation and it's place at the heart our evolving biological systems.

Guardian Science Correspondent Ian Sample joins Alok to discuss some of this weeks science news including the danger of coffee, excercise and blowing your nose in people who are susceptible to brain aneurysms.  And the discovery of what is being called the happiness gene.