Material World

Weighing up the risks and benefits of flu research, a fresh water bulge in the Arctic, how faces affect voices and cutting carbon by widening the Panama Canal.

Quentin hears about mapping the world in 3D, Darwin’s lost fossils, what stripes do for your body image, and drought and the fall of an empire.

Quentin reports on teaching computer science, mapping dark matter, emerging garden pests and amateur science to investigate nasty noises.

Quentin asks if the world will end in 2012 and if not, why do people make apocalyptic predictions?

Adam Rutherford joins our panel of judges, chaired by Sir Paul Nurse, to find out which four of the ten shortlisted entrants will have their ideas turned into experiments.

A new planet the size of the Earth, simulating the brain with analogue chips, the last four in the long list of potential amateur scientists, how robins choose a sexy mate and how a warming climate is bad for your Christmas tree

Quentin Cooper presents the latest on the search for the Higgs particle, hears about a scheme to pair scientists with members of Parliament, announces the next group of shortlisted candidates for So You Want to Be a Scientist and sniffs the smell of the Moon from a lunar exhibition in Liverpool.

Quentin Cooper asks if it's worth extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and how industry is planning for a world shortage of rare elements. A 500 million year old monster eye with 16 000 lenses and the first finalists shortlisted from listeners who want to be a scientist.

This week, Quentin Cooper hears about the impact of thawing permafrost on climate change; how generations of space worms may lead the way for humans to reach Mars; and how DNA barcoding is identifying species and spotting fraud.

The UK’s top science advisers discuss communicating risk and uncertainty to politicians and the public. And Quentin explores the secrets of locust flight.

Quentin investigates risk and regulation of geo-engineering; the risks of getting to Mars; and a new volcanic island that may be rising from the Atlantic.

This week: fracking for oil and gas and listening to the ground, Hidden Heroes at the Science Museum and a last chance for amateur scientists.

Has nuclear fission restarted at the Fukushima NPP in Japan. Is the future of air travel airships? Is there truth in the legend of the Viking SunStone

Material World this week comes from the London Science Festival. Quentin Cooper presents an outside broadcast recorded in front of an audience at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The programme celebrates citizen science and do-it-yourself discovery, as part of 'So You Want to Be a Scientist?', Radio 4's search for the next BBC Amateur Scientist of the Year.

Following the EU ruling that human stem cells can’t be patented, Quentin discusses the issue with Christophe Then, the Greenpeace campaigner who championed the issue, and Alexander Dennon, a laywer who specialises in stem cell regulations. Also on the programme, the methodology behind population change and the man who’s developed an early warning system for pandemics.