- The Naked Scientists ENHANCED PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

Will fracking bring down energy prices and keep our lights on, or could it be an environmental disaster? Kate Lamble and Ginny Smith speak to a panel of experts about whether fracking could really contaminate water supplies or cause earthquakes. Plus, can methane from Shale Gas extraction contribute to global warming? In the news, whether a country's hygiene is linked to their Alzheimer's rates, why we feel so good when we cheat and how to spot a pregnant panda...

Another special question and answer edition of the show where the team get to grips with your queries, including, cna you dehydrate in a bath? What is tinnitus? What chemicals leak from batteries? Why does water freeze from the top down? Are solar photons making the Earth more massive? And what causes deja vu?

This week, we have a final show from Perth in Western Australia. Chris Smith and Victoria Gill find out how camouflage wetsuits might help protect surfers from sharks, hear about a new development in muscular dystrophy treatment, how sea sponges can be used to mend fractures and whether the chemicals that a cell produces just before death can help us reverse the damage caused by stroke. In the news, why money makes the world go round, the comet that will be lighting up the skies in November, the eniromentally green military flares that could result in clearer firework displays and the scientists that have produced the world's most accurate clock.

This week, we have another special show from Perth in Western Australia. Chris Smith and Victoria Gill go in search of dolphins, find out how DNA sequencing technology has allowed us to find out what was on Australia's first barbecue, and give a science lesson to children in the outback. In the news, how glucose affects our willpower, why the Antarctic oceans are so different from the rest of the world, and the batteries that store power from renewable energy farms.

This week we have a special show from Perth in Western Australia. Chris Smith finds out whether importing nitrogen fixing legumes could hold the answer to Perth's poor soil fertility and Victoria Gill heads out on a scientific fishing trip to see how Black Bream stocks could give us an insight into the health of estuaries. Plus could gardens hold the answer to preserving the native plants of the Kimberley? In the news, the first measurement of the magnetic field of a black hole, how squid skin could help us hide from infra red cameras and what can David Beckham tell us about playing the piano?

We hear from the astronomers who are mapping out the Milky Way to work out where its stars came from.

A special question and answer edition of the show where the team get to grips with your queries, including, do hairs know they've cut? Is someone who sweats sooner fitter? How do noise-cancelling headphones work? How do we know what's inside Earth? Why are there no whale-sized insects? Does protein suppress appetite? And could there be a planet with a green atmosphere?

How has new technology changed the face of sport? This week we delve into the science behind the tennis rackets that professional players use, the diets that top athletes follow, and how systems like Hawkeye are revolutionising the way that rules are enforced. Plus, we hear about new evidence that dolphins refer to each other by name, and sucking or chewing a sweet: which does least damage to teeth?

What do sufferers of schizophrenia experience, and why? Might the immune system be to blame? And could an avatar be the answer to treatment? This week we delve deep into the brain circuitry behind this psychiatric condition to uncover the causes, hear what drugs like ketamine can reveal about hallucinations and how a cartoon representation of the voices plaguing patients can block the symptoms. Plus, chemically induced pluripotent stem cells, a gene that leads carriers into snacking temptation and why babies can tolerate extended periods upside down inside their mothers...?

This week, the latest innovations in solar power technology including a Cambridge team racing from Darwin to Adelaide in a solar car, community co-operatives empowered by solar panels, and how algae harvest the Sun's energy. In the news, how wobbles in the Earth's core are affecting time, how nerves control prostate cancer growth and the turmeric-thalidomide combo being used to combat cancer. Plus, can you produce power from poo?

This week, the latest from the UK's National Astronomy Meeting in St Andrews Scotland including what will be the last organism living on Earth when the end-of-life Sun swells, why space science projects are getting larger, and the amateur astronomer who uncovers supernovae. In the news, a replacement liver grown from stem cells, the bacterial fingerprint in your intestines, nuclear bombs help with forensics and the threat posed by H7N9. Plus, would you explode in space? We do the experiment to find out...

Miniature lungs, breasts and other organs are being grown in dishes so scientists can study how they form, why they succumb to disease and how toxins, drugs and poisons affect them. Organ models like these are rapidly replacing animals for many lab experiments. But are the days of the petri dish also numbered, as computer models, like the virtual physiological human, become more powerful. We talk to scientists using and developing all three. Plus, a new coating stops joint replacements loosening, magnetic therapy for strokes, and plants do long division...

Fungi go under the microscope this week as we explore how they barter minerals and carry chemical messages in return for sugars from plants; we also hear from someone who nearly died after consuming a deadly fungus, find out why fungi make the toxins they do, and hear how these organisms might hold the key to the next generation of packaging and building materials - and even surfboards! Plus, news of a light-powered retinal implant to restore sight, whether alcohol is dangerous in pregnancy, and why aspirin prevents cancers...

How can an ascent to the top of Everest help to save lives in intensive care? This week we're exploring physiology at the extremes: altitude, depth and cold. How does the human body adapt and cope under these conditions? Also, news of improved gene therapy techniques for sight-loss disorders, when do babies become sympathetic, how to cloak your cat (or goldfish), and have scientists discovered the remains of the Tunguska meteorite that smashed into Siberia in 1908?

The science of satellite navigation and how it can be fooled or "spoofed", a new system to pinpoint a person within a building to within a metre, and how GPS signals can probe and track volcanic dust clouds. Plus, news of what nuclear bomb tests have revealed about the brain, why volcanoes might cause Parkinsonism, HPV and oral cancer and why we comfort-eat high fat foods when we get depressed...