- The Naked Scientists ENHANCED PODCAST - Stripping Down Science

Should we blow up objects on a collision course with Earth? Or will they do less damage left intact? More importantly, is there a gene for hating marmite? And what makes copper such a good conductor? How would a caveman cope in modern society? What's the secret to how balls spin in sport, and why does wrapping vaccines and antibiotics in silk make them last longer. Plus, why physics says Batman's cape won't work...

Super bainite, a surprisingly-strong steel, is the subject of this week's Naked Scientists. We discover how it's made in the metallurgical equivalent of a pizza oven, why it makes the best bearings and how, even when it's full of holes, it also makes great armour. In the news, a nanotechnological tool to unblock blood vessels, a dust cloud that's disappeared around a nearby star and have we found the Higgs? Plus, can your cutlery affect the flavour of food?

Later this month, the 2012 Olympics kicks off in London. With hundreds of thousands of people expected from overseas, is this the perfect trigger for a pandemic? This week we're looking at the public health implications of events like London 2012. We discover why an understanding of crowd psychology can avert disasters, and how mathematical models can predict and prevent jams in human traffic. Plus, a new technique to communicate with "locked in" patients, the evidence for warm blooded dinosaurs, and does ice really help to treat an injury?

Science and technology can catch criminals and tackle terrorism. This week, we're exploring two ways to sniff out concealed explosives and a new technique to lift fingerprints from surfaces that have been cleaned or burned. In the news, a new way to halt Huntington's disease and how to identify the influential online. Plus, could gene therapy cheat a DNA test?

Why does a head injury, or standing up too quickly, make us see stars? Are slug pellets painful? How do flies fly in an elevator? We take on your science questions this week, and find out why we should let food ferment, what makes batteries get hot and if the strings in string theory are real. Plus, a new drive to improve science education, new vistas for Voyager 1 and new veins from stem cells.

How do we look for life beyond Earth? And how did it first get started down here? To help us take on these big questions, we explore the science of SETI and the chemistry of creating life. Plus, science gets cinematic as we meet the scientific adviser for Prometheus, and find out how his work could help us understand alien atmospheres. In the news, how to sequence a baby using just the mother's blood, and the simple intervention that could prevent millions of malaria cases. In Question of the Week, can we create life in the lab from just elements and heat?

This week, we're introducing the new Naked Genetics podcast - This time, Kat Arney takes a look at the world of top models - not the kind that won't get out of bed for less than ten grand, but the model organisms used by researchers all over the world to answer some of the most challenging questions in biology. We'll also be hearing about the origins of polar bears, the extinction of Tasmanian tigers, fitter frogs with faster-changing genomes and promiscuous bees. And move over Beyonce, because our gene of the month is the curvaceous Callipyge - Greek for beautiful buttocks.

This week we explore the role of microbes in drug development, food production and soil fertility. We investigate how bacteria such as Streptomyces are used and improved to make antibiotics, discover how gut microbes in cattle can be manipulated to increase growth and reduce environmental impact, and we visit the Chelsea flower show to learn how Rhizobia found in the roots of legumes could be used to improve crop growth and food availability. Also, in the news, how shift-work could affect your fertility, a new method of data storage using DNA, the key to growing the tastiest tomatoes and the world's biggest model Diamond. Plus we explore the micro-climates created by motorways in our Question of the Week!

How do you make a new metal? This week, we follow a novel alloy from PC to plane, finding out how computer modelling and design can help us create new metals with exciting new properties. We also discover how these newly-designed metals are forged, treated and tested before they form the basis of a new generation of jet engines. In the news, deep-sea dwelling bacteria that are still digesting a meal dating from the time of the dinosaurs, a shot-in the arm for ageing satellites and a brain-interface device to permit paralysed patients to control robotic arms...

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) sufferers describe symptoms of severe exhaustion, weakness, muscle pain and fatigue. But why, and what is science revealing about the underlying causes of the condition? We talk to a researcher who is probing the genetic links to the syndrome, a clinician with evidence that the muscles of patients accumulate acid when they exercise and a pathologist with post-mortem evidence of inflammation in the nervous systems of CFS sufferers. Also, in the news this week, the ants that help a pitcher plant to catch its lunch, the missile-hurling zoo chimp who plans his attacks in advance, and does non-coding DNA hold the key to how chromosomes recognise their opposite number? Plus, the cause of cheesy feet goes under the microscope in our Question of the Week...

This week we get Naked in Norway as we visit the University of Oslo to reveal the remains of ancient plesiosaurs and investigate their migration into water, discuss a new concept for more efficient solar cells and discover the fatal effects of climate change on lemming population cycles. We then scour more Scandinavian science to unearth the causes of mass extinction, find out a new way to overcome resistance to radiotherapy, tool around with chimps in the Savannah and round up with a scientific climax in bird masturbation!

Does exercise lead to a more muscular heart? Why can an unfit cyclist cycle faster than an olympic runner runs? How do kinetic watches work? We answer your questions in this week's Naked Scientists Podcast, and find out why so many dead bugs end up on their backs, how salmonella gets into an egg, and if it's more efficient to fill your freezer than run it half empty? In the news we hear how farming migrated across Europe, why distant stars might have influenced life on Earth, and why rogue DNA can cause heart failure. Plus, we home in on the parts of the pigeon brain that respond to magnetic fields...

The body clock goes under the Naked Scientists' spotlight this week. We unpick the mechanisms that enable human cells, plants and even bacteria to track the time of day and alter their activities accordingly, and we hear the evidence that night work makes you put on weight and boosts your diabetes risk. In the news, how cells grafted into the eye restore sight to blind mice, the three genes that can convert scar tissue back into beating cardiac muscle following a heart attack, and electrical stimulation that returns movement to limbs paralysed by spinal injury. And on the subject of the body clock, can an e-book at bedtime keep you awake at night?

How can we save the occupants of stricken submarines? What species survive in the deepest depths of ocean trenches? Recognising the centenary of the Titanic tragedy, we're diving deep to meet the Rolls-Royce NATO Submarine Rescue System, we find out about a new initiative to discover what really lives at the bottom of the ocean and hear how volcanoes are acidifying the seas. Plus, what robots can tell us about cocktail party conversations, the mystery of the pigeon's magnetic navigation, and can oil-based face-cream make you fat...?

This week we bring you a special look at marine pollution from the Naked Oceans team, going from plastics to poo to explore some of the many ways we pollute the seas. We find out the truth behind the Pacific Garbage Patch, discover how human sewage is wiping out corals in the Caribbean, and in Critter of the Month, a marine expert describes which ocean creature they'd like to be and why...