Material World

With the on-going climate talks in Doha not hitting the headlines Quentin Cooper asks whether such large scale and largely incomprehensible meetings are effective at delivering anything worthwhile on climate change. Can science take the initiative from the policymakers and present the subject in a way which interests and inspires the public? We also interview James Watson the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA on the reissue of his classic work on the subject 'The Double Helix'

Dr Dave Reay analyses the latest statement on Energy delivered by the Energy Secretary.The world’s largest ever rodent eradication project is taking place in South Georgia. Olive oil could be used to preserve ancient stone buildings and there's a Romantic Chemistry exhibition at the Royal Society.

How to write award winning Science books, building intelligent roads to conserve energy and make our journeys safer and restoring a sixty year old computer.

Can burning biomass in the form of wood appear to be a better idea than it really is? Can emotions be transmitted between humans via Chemosignals in people's sweat? Are reports of supersymmetry's demise highly exaggerated? Plus Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal of consortium ASTRAEA talks to Quentin about the testing of civilian applications for Unmanned Aircraft, AKA drones. .

Why are birds migrating to the UK falling out of the sky and dying? Loss of the wild Arabica coffee crop could have significant implications for the sustainability of high quality coffee and a haul of stone blades from a cave in South Africa suggests that early humans were already masters of complex technology more than 70,000 years ago. . .

John Loughhead and Malcolm Wilkinson discuss the various challenges and possible solutions to storing electrical energy. Scientists have sequenced the genomes of 1,000 people to help researchers understand indicators of disease or medicinal effectiveness. And Ash dieback may be in the headlines but many other trees species are also being affected by disease. .

Reaction to the six-year prison sentences handed to seven Italian scientific advisors for inadequate L’Aquila earthquake risk communication.Dr Jacob Dahl is trying to decrypt one of the oldest known written languages, proto-Elamite.And Dr Leonel Dupuy describes his breakthrough in the development of a see-through soil.

Lord Krebs, architect of the previous badger culling trial, on the scientific evidence surrounding the controversial policy. Plus Chris Lintott on the discovery of a new planet, Adam Hart talks about flying ants and Stuart Clark with space stamps.

Quentin speaks with three of this year's winners of the Nobel Prize; Prof. Sir John Gurdon for Physiology or Medicine, Prof. Serge Haroche for Physics, and Prof. Brian Kobilka for Chemistry.

Retractions: what happens when published research is wrong? And ecologists ask the public to help them identify 2 million bat calls and test tube spiders

Quentin Cooper visits the "Gravity Fields" festival in Grantham, Lincs., which aims to celebrate the legacy of the town's most famous son, Sir Isaac Newton.

This week on Material World; how climate computer modelling is being used to determine future UK energy policy. Also how flies could help feed the world and bees find their food.

Material World this week is full of record breakers: an experiment involving 61 million people, an update on what is happening with the furthest-flung man-made object from Earth; the Voyager space craft, the largest botanical project ever completed - the Flora of Tropical East Africa and the biggest award for engineering - The Queen Elizabeth Prize.

Quentin Cooper features some of the highlights of the British Science Festival in Aberdeen, including research into foods that could make us feel full for longer.

Piano Tuners’ brains change over the course of their career, a solar system with two suns is discovered, geological unconformity on Mars, and chimps don’t do justice.