Naked Scientists Special Editions

Hello I'm Naked Scientist Hannah Critchlow and I'm concerned about aging. Alzheimer's disease affects around half a million of us in the UK alone, and this number is predicted to increase as the population gets older. However, this week a study suggested that up to a third of cases could be preventable just by changing the way that we live. I spoke to Carol Brayne, Professor of Public Health at Cambridge University. In a collaboration spanning countries, researchers analysed data published from decades of research on 10000s of people across the world and identified several risk factors that could increase the likelihood of developing the disease, some of which simply came down to lifestyle choices. I went to find out what those risky behaviours might be

Type "mad scientist hair" into Google and the number one result is this man, who is one of the country's leading lights in green chemistry but has also attracted a fan base of thousands online with a youtube presence devoted to bringing chemistry alive for the masses. We catch up with the inspirational Martyn Poliakoff.

In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about using photographs to diagnose rare genetic disorders, an unexpected benefit of exercise, hybridizing fish species, the mysteries of the MECP2 gene, and the risks and benefits of using gene drives to alter wild populations.

Dogs may become jealous if owners pay more attention to another dog.

Were you a bookworm as a child? If you were, it might be making you smarter as an adult, according to a new study of identical twins, revealing that better reading ability at a younger age is linked to higher intelligence later in life.Kat spoke to psychologist Stuart Richie from the University of Edinburgh, who led the research, to read between the lines.

A large international study has uncovered the strongest evidence yet for a genetic link to schizophrenia. The study, published in Nature this week, is the work of a large collaborative group of scientists known collectively as the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and based at institutions around the world. The new findings highlight important new avenues for exploring and furthering our understanding of schizophrenia, as science reporter Smitha Mundasad explains

Seals are using windfarms and under sea pipelines as bases for their hunting and fishing exploits. St Andrews University scientist Deborah Russell and her Dutch colleagues glued GPS trackers to the fur of seals living along the coastlines of Germany and the UK near two active windfarms. The tags beamed back high-resolution data on the movements of the animals which the team were able to plot on maps. It then helped them understand how the seals and their prey are interacting with the windfarms and other new structures in their environment. She spoke to Chris Smith to explain...

When you're deciding what to have for dinner tonight, you might like to think about the environmental impact the food you're choosing. It's long been known that vegetarian crops take up less room, and need less energy to grow than meat from farm animals. But which are the worse offenders and what are the numbers involved? Now new research is showing that beef from cows is doing a lot more damage than anything else. Georgia Mills spoke to Ron Milo of the Weizmann Institute of Science to find out more...

Marshall Montrose, of the University of Cincinnati, explained to Chris Smith how these gut bacteria, present in half the population's stomachs, can cause problems. Small wounds in the stomach lining, caused by things like aspirin, are quickly and effectively converged upon by these tiny microbes.

Ifat Levy from Yale University explains to Kat Arney her recent study which looked at participants ability to learn in a task which exposed them to images of money and food. Obese women who were exposed to images of food during the task, showed impaired learning.

Fruit flies to understand getting our sleep bank account in credit, how we perceive passing of time to help make up our minds in tricky situations. Plus in the news, people prefer shocks to thought. How long could you be left alone with your thoughts? 10 seconds? A minute? Reporting from the Federation of Neurosciences Society Forum in Milan on the hot breaking neuroscience research.

Would you kill a person to save five others? Does religion evade morality by omission? And can you tweak people's motivations? Reporting on Morality and Motivation in Milan, with breaking hot neuroscience research presented at the FENS 2014 conference.

Every year the Royal Society hosts the Summer Science exhibition, where members of the public get a chance to see some of the amazing work being done by scientists around the UK. The Naked Scientists take a look around to meet the world's clumsiest dinosaur and find out more about 3D selfies...

How long could you be left alone with your thoughts? 10 seconds? A minute? Well, according to a new study published in the journal Science, people really don't like to be left alone with nothing to do other than think. In fact, when participants of this study were given the choice of thinking for up to 15 minutes or giving themselves a painful electric shock, 67% of men and a quarter of women would rather electrocute themselves. So why do people find thinking so un-enjoyable? Professor Timothy Wilson, psychologist at the University of Virginia, led the study and he spoke to Graihagh Jackson about the research...

Neonicotinoids are a group of chemical used as a pesticide on crops. In fact, they're so effective at killing pests, they're currently the most widely used insecticide in the world. These chemicals target the nervous system by mimicking the actions of nicotine, a natural plant toxin. They block signals between nerve cells, causing paralysis and death. However, a study commissioned by the International Union for Conservation of Nature has concluded that these neonicotinoids also are deadly to many beneficial creatures - from earthworms to sparrows - and have even been linked to the decline of honeybees. Graihagh Jackson visited the RSPB's headquarters in Bedfordshire to speak to Dr David Gibbons, one of the authors of the report.