Latest Podcasts

2020 has been a memorable year in science for many reasons, most of them bad. As we finally begin to see some chinks of light at the end of this incredibly long year, the Opinionated Science team look back at some of the biggest stories of the year that were nothing to do with COVID-19, including brain implants, inherited trauma and millions of tons of microplastics.

This episode is a COVID-19 podcast with a first-hand focus. Podcast host Ruairi Mackenzie discusses his experience with symptomatic COVID-19. And we also look at the data around COVID-19 risk and age and discuss the emerging problems posed by long COVID.

In this episode, the team explore cancer immunotherapy, a revolutionary set of treatments that has fundamentally changed cancer care.

In this episode, the team discusses the growing movement for sustainable science. Research has a yeti-sized ecological footprint, and here we follow the tracks from ozone-destroying CFCs and energy-guzzling freezers through to a new future for science that promises to make labs eco-friendly at last.

In this episode, the team take a deep dive into the world of biohacking. Practitioners of this DIY biology have big goals: making genetic technologies available to all, bypassing government regulation of drugs and (on the fringes of the movement) achieving immortality.

In this episode, the TN team discusses three promising vaccine candidates being developed for COVID-19. We take a deep dive into the data from these vaccine trials to try and work out what successes can be celebrated and what unanswered questions still remain.

In this episode, we discuss the potential of personalized, precision approaches to change healthcare. We hear how cancer care has been one of the first areas to take advantage of patient-specific data, the risks and rewards of increased access to genomic data and how neuroscience is beginning to explore diseases of the brain at a personal level.

In this episode, we review the evidence surrounding vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a therapy approved for epilepsy and depression that backers now want to use to treat a host of other conditions, include autoimmune disease and heart failure. How can scientists fill in the gaps in the VNS knowledge base?

In this episode, the Technology Networks team investigates the placebo effect. Why have placebo treatments become more effective at treating patients in the last few decades (but only in the USA) and what do powerful placebos mean for clinical trials?

In this episode, the Technology Networks team takes a bite into the world of food fraud. We take a look at famous cases of fraud, including scandals involving horse meat, baby formula and expensive wine. We also discover the analytical methods that inspectors can try and use to find fraudulent food before it makes it to your plate.