'Will my bacon sandwich kill me?', 'Is vaping better than smoking?', 'How do you become an astronaut?' - just some of the Big Questions we ask some of the brightest minds behind Oxford science. Join us in each podcast as we explore a different area of science.
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Medicalscience Podcasts
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What happened to the birds in 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'?
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We all know it. We've all sung it. Perhaps we've even answered a quiz question about it*. The Twelve Days of Christmas has become as quintessentially festive as a figgy pudding, or the bad joke in your Christmas cracker. But why exactly is your 'true love' gifting all these birds? And importantly, how are they faring nowadays? Prof Andy Gosler (fro…
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Want to make something feel immediately complicated, inaccessible or downright mysterious? Stick the word 'quantum' in front of it. Or, at least, that's how many of us feel. But don't worry! Experimental physicist William Cutler from Oxford's Department of Physics is here to break things down, explaining exactly what a quantum computer is, and shar…
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Could vaccinations stop people from getting cancer?
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Finding a cure for cancer is unarguably one of the biggest medical challenges that we face. But what if we could find a way to prevent cancer before it even starts? In this special extended edition of the Big Questions Podcast, we chat to Professor Sarah Blagden, an experimental oncologist at the University of Oxford, and Anna Fry, who has the canc…
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Many of us will be familiar with Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours (BFRBs), perhaps without even realising it. Such behaviours - which include hair-pulling, nail biting and skin picking - can not only cause physical harm, but also often bring feelings of shame. Because of this, open discussion around BFRBs has been limited. In this episode of The …
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How do you detect a particle that emits no light - in other words, something invisible? This is the intriguing challenge faced by scientists hunting for 'dark matter'. In our series finale, we talk to Elizabeth Bloomfield from Oxford's Department of Physics about dark matter, how we know it exists, and why her research is taking her deep beneath a …
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What's the best gift you can give? To the millions of people whose lives have been saved by complete strangers, the answer would be simple: blood. But what exactly happens when blood has been donated, and how do we know it is safe? We chat to Dr Richard Mayne from Oxford's Experimental Medicine Division about genomics, Next-Generation Sequencing, b…
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Whether you've been served an advert for it, or just heard about it in the media, it's likely that 'Ozempic' isn't a totally unfamiliar word. Now often associated with weight-loss, Ozempic is actually the brand name for a drug used to treat diabetes. So what exactly is it, how does it work, and is it safe? We chat to diabetes and endocrinology (hor…
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Why does a stranger's phone noise annoy me?
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We've all been there...you're on the train, maybe tired after a long day, and all you can hear is one side of a fellow passenger's not-too-interesting phone conversation. Or worse, their choice of music, made tinny and monotonous by the awkward angle of their phone speaker. It's irritating, sure, but for some people it goes beyond mild annoyance, i…
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With more than 70% of its surface covered in water, Earth is rightly known as the "blue planet". But where did this water - so essential to life - originate? While some theories suggest that hydrogen was delivered to Earth from space via asteroids, new research indicates that the building blocks for water may have been present on our planet all alo…
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How can robots investigate underwater volcanoes?
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What do you do when the subject of your research lies deep beneath the waves? Send down an underwater robot, of course! We chat to volcanologist Sofia Della Sala about her recent fieldwork expedition to Santorini, where she used a Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, to search for hydrothermal vents in the Aegean Sea. These vents - which are like hot…
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"I still don't believe it happened..." What's it like to face the most famous clock on television? We chat to Oxford mathematician Dr Tom Crawford - best known as the creator of the award-winning 'Tom Rocks Maths' outreach programme - about what it was like to step into Rachel Riley's shoes on Countdown. What's the best tactic for tackling the numb…
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One in two people will be affected by dementia in their lifetime - whether that is as a patient, or somebody caring for a loved one. But what happens after a dementia diagnosis? Is there a clear pathway ahead? We chat to Jasmine Blane, a DPhil researcher at the Oxford Brain Health Clinic, about the work she is doing to help support patients in the …
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In popular culture, Tourette's syndrome is wrongly associated solely with outbursts of swearing in the context of lazy jokes. But in reality, the condition is far more complex than this stereotype suggests. When people without Tourette's jokingly blame their lack of self-control on the condition, it spreads misinformation and invalidates those who …
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