Ri Science Podcast

This month, writer and former laser-physicist Kate Greene sat down for a chat with our Public Programme Producer, Lisa Derry. They talk about Kate’s experience living as second-in-command on NASA’s first simulated Mars mission, ‘HI-SEAS’. Living in an isolated geodesic dome for 4 months with her crew-mates, Kate gained incredible insight into human behaviour in tight quarters. Lisa and Kate cover food taste experiments, how human bodies cope in space, how NASA and SpaceX work together, and how the isolation that astronauts experience relates to the isolation we’ve all felt during Covid lockdowns. This conversation was recorded over Zoom on 18 February 2021, as part of our programme of livestreams. To see more like this, head to rigb.org to check out our upcoming talks. Website: www.rigb.org Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

What is the difference between sleep and rest? What activities to people actually find restful? Why is rest important? Award-winning broadcaster, author and psychology lecturer, Claudia Hammond, joins us to talk about her book 'The Art of Rest'. Drawing on results from 'The Rest Test' – the largest global study ever undertaken on the subject – Claudia explores how we can all learn to lead a more restful and balanced life. Check out our website: www.rigb.org Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

How high can we build? What are the new technologies that might see our skyscrapers go beyond anything we ever imagined? What creativity and drive is needed to push engineering forward? Structural engineer Roma Agrawal delves into the history of the materials that enable immense construction and the developments that have made our structures what they are today. All while noting the accomplishments of key visionary engineers of the past. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

Endometriosis is as common as diabetes, yet the disease is poorly understood and not many people have heard about it before. It affects around 10% of women in their reproductive years, and can cause great pain. In this special extra podcast, Ri Digital Intern and PhD student, Madga Mareckova, sits down with her PhD supervisors, Krina Zondervan & Christian Becker. They dispel myths and discuss the symptoms, potential causes and treatments of endometriosis, whilst sharing insights into their unique collaboration as researchers and clinicians at the University of Oxford's Endometriosis Care and Research (CaRe) Centre. The thumbnail image is a fluorescently labelled cross-section of the human endometrium, photographed by Magda Mareckova.

How far are we from creating Artificial General Intelligence? Can we build a machine to perform all of the intellectual tasks that a human being can? Reports of the ever-increasing power of AI systems have never been far from the headlines, from AlphaGo to self-driving cars. However, these are examples of ‘weak’ or ‘narrow’ AI; that is, systems that excel at one particular task, be it playing a game or understanding speech. But how far are we from creating Artificial General Intelligence? Join a panel of experts for a glimpse into the future of intelligence, in association with The Conversation. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

Why do people lie? Why has 'fake news' become such a global phenomenon in modern public discourse? Bringing together the fields of human evolution and current affairs, Richard Byrne and Evan Davis, together with comedian Rachel Wheeley, discuss whether the ability to communicate evolved to pass on facts or to deceive, why deception is so widespread in the era of 'post-truth' politics, and what we can do about it. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

Why has engineering always been the backbone of civilisation? And why do we enjoy making things? This month, Lord Browne in conversation with Vivienne Parry, explains what engineering is, what it has done for us and how it can deliver a brighter future. Robots, our health, security, climate change as well as autonomous vehicles are discussed. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

The ribosome is the mother of all molecules without which nothing lives. This month, the Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan in conversation with Vivienne Parry, tells the story of the race to uncover the structure of the ribosome - a fundamental discovery that resolves an ancient mystery of life itself and could lead to the development of better antibiotics to fight the most deadly diseases. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

Stress is our natural reaction to physical or emotional pressure, encompassing everything from too much work to being tortured. But what goes on in our bodies and minds to cause stress? And how does stress affect our memory, mood and thinking? This month, Vincent Walsh hosts an expert panel of Joe Herbert, Julie Turner Cobb, and Shane O’Mara, to explore the science of stress. Image credit: Lewis Ronald/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0 Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

We take the advance of science as given - but how does science really work? This month, Jeremy Baumberg sheds light on a cutthroat and tightly tensioned enterprise that even scientists themselves often don’t fully understand. Jeremy Baumberg is a leader in nanoscience and nanotechnology, working for much of his career at the interface between academia and industry. He has led interdisciplinary nano-centres at the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton, and developed novel devices within Hitachi, IBM, his spin-offs Mesophotonics and Base4. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

What does the future have in store? Medicine, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy production and genetic engineering are all fields that will change our world - but how? This month, Jim Al-Khalili and a panel of experts debate the topic and predict the answers. Jim Al-Khalili OBE (https://twitter.com/jimalkhalili) is a theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is the host of the Life Scientific on BBC Four and was awarded the inaugural Stephen Hawking medal for science communication. Find out from science writer Phil Ball (https://twitter.com/philipcball)about the demographics of the future. Learn about how the climate will continue to change from former Chief Scientist of the Met Office, Julia Slingo. Hear more about where genomics and genome engineering is going from biologist and broadcaster Aarathi Prasad (https://twitter.com/aarathiprasad) and discover smart materials with materials scientist Anna Ploszajski (https://twitter.com/AnnaPloszajski). Image credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss Check out our website: http://www.rigb.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

How was the code of DNA cracked? How did it confirm the theory of evolution? And why did life evolve the way it did? This month, Matthew Cobb and Nick Lane unravel the tangled story of DNA, and why life began in the first place. Nick Lane is an evolutionary biochemist in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London. His work focuses on the origin of life, and the origin and evolution of eukaryotes. He is also author of prize-winning popular science books, including 'Life ascending'. Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology and a senior lecturer in animal behaviour at the University of Manchester. After spending some time researching humans at the institute of psychiatry, a lot of his work now investigates insect behaviour and its evolutionary and genetic basis, particularly smell. We are on Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science and YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution

Where should humans inhabit next? The Moon? Mars? Or further beyond? This month, Apollo Astronaut Al Worden and space experts Chris Welch and Stuart Eves will will argue their case for each. Who will win your vote? Al Worden is an American astronaut and engineer who was the Command Module Pilot for the fourth lunar landing mission in 1971, Apollo 15. After his time in space, he was Senior Aerospace Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, and then the chief of the Systems Study Division at Ames. Chris Welch is Professor of Space Engineering at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. Chris is a Vice-President of the International Astronautical Federation, a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS), the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society. Chris has written what he believes to be the first ever paper on the design of extraterrestrial gardens and a poem that he hopes to send to space soon. Stuart Eves is currently a technical consultant for Vaeros Ltd. He began his career working for the MOD on a variety of satellites, and from 2004 he was Lead Mission Concepts Engineer at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. Stuart is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a Council Member of the British Interplanetary Society, and he currently chairs the government/industry Space Information Exchange forum. Image credit: NASA Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

How can you turn failure into success? This month, journalist and table-tennis champion Matthew Syed will explain the science of success using real life stories and practical takeaways. Matthew Syed is a British journalist, broadcaster and author. He has won numerous prizes for his writing including Feature Writer of the Year at the SJA Awards and Sports Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards. He is also a three-time Commonwealth table tennis champion and a two-time Olympian. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution

Frankenstein’s creature is a classic example of a monster in popular culture. But what can fictional beings tell us about the hopes and fears of the society in which they were created? This month, Phil Ball chairs a panel of experts discussing how monsters survive in our culture, how they reflect gender and power dynamics, and what happens in our brains when we see monsters on screen. Liz Gloyn is a lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway. Her research focuses on the intersections between Latin literature, ancient philosophy and gender studies. Evan Hayles Gledhill is currently doing a PhD at the University of Reading. Their PhD thesis examines the liminal figures of the monster and the child in the Gothic imagination, and the 'deviant subjectivities' these representations make space for in otherwise seemingly conventional genre texts. Jeremy Skipper is Director of the Language, Action, and Brain Lab (LAB Lab) at University College London. He studies the neurobiology of natural language use and oversees the Neurocinematics database. Check out our website: www.rigb.org/ Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution And Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution