BBC Inside Science

After 144 years the tallest tower on the Sagrada Familia is finally complete, but when Gaudi first designed it, the technology to build the tower didn’t exist. We’re joined by Tristram Carfrae, structural engineer and designer at Arup who was tasked with this impossible feat over a decade ago.

With the reappearance of screwworm in North America, we ask – is it ever acceptable to intentionally drive a species to e...

Are we moving away from science as a strictly human endeavour? This is the view of Pushmeet Kohli, head of AI for Science at Google DeepMind. He joins Tom Whipple to discuss the use of the AI tool Co-Scientist as a collaborator in the lab, and the challenges in making Artificial Intelligence that works in science. Clare Bryant from the University of Cambridge also joins the conversation.

And Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontolo...

From Hay Festival 2026, a dive into a big year for our oceans, with plankton specialist Vincent Doumeizel and physicist turned oceanographer Helen Czerski.

Vincent is author of the Power of Plankton, which describes the crucial history and future of plankton and planktonic life on our planet. Helen's book The Blue Machine looks at the physical oceanic processes that shape the world.

Presented by Tom Whipple Produced by Alex Mansfiel...

With 2023’s El Niño – a recurring pattern of extreme weather across the pacific basin - still leaving a bad taste in people's mouth, 2026 sees an El Niño stirring in the Pacific Ocean and there are warnings that this will be one of the strongest yet.

Roland Pease speaks with Amanda Maycock, a climatologist from Leeds University, to discuss what this climate phenomenon is and how it will impact the world from October to ...

Following three deaths linked to the deadly hantavirus disease on a cruise ship this month, the scientific community is racing to answer the many unknown questions surrounding the outbreak.

Tom Whipple speaks to Dr Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Basel and co-founder of Pathoplexus, an online database of pathogen genomes, to explore what the new hantavirus genomic sequences can tell us.

He also hears from Dr Nic...

"Make Pluto a planet again" was the call this week from Donald Trump’s NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman.

The icy body was first seen in 1930 and was the only planet whose discovery was claimed by the United States. In 2006, though, it was officially stripped of its planet status.

Tom Whipple is joined by astronomer Chris Lintott to discuss the debate that has raged ever since over whether Pluto should or shouldn’t be ...

The latest European State of the Climate report has found that Europe is once again getting warmer, and at a rate that is twice as fast as the global average. Tom Whipple is joined by Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, to understand the driving forces behind this stark difference and anticipate what Europeans can expect in the coming years as a result.

We also remember Dr J Craig Venter, o...

A phase 3 clinical trial is underway to determine the effectiveness of an mRNA vaccine for H5N1, a strain of influenza that is currently of concern. The virus, which is commonly found in birds across the world and is rarely transmitted to humans. However, when it is transmitted, the disease is often fatal, and scientists fear that if the virus were to mutate, it could lead to rapid, widespread infection. Following the COVID-19 pand...

For 40 years scientists have been fascinated by the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. Professor Jim Smith from the University of Portsmouth is one of those scientists, a frequent visitor over the past 20 years. He joins Inside Science to explain whether the region still suffers after the nuclear fallout and how how it has shaped European energy production.

It is a month for anniversaries, and w...

This week, humans once again looked down on the magnificent desolation of the lunar surface, from the orbit of the moon itself. They saw earth rise and earth set. They named the craters on the far side. They travelled further from Earth than any human has travelled before. Now, the Artemis mission returns home. Libby Jackson, Head of Space at the Science Museum, joins Inside Science to illuminate whether this lunar flyby is nothin...

This week, we’re letting you run the airwaves. Victoria Gill puts your science questions to Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London, and Penny Sarchet, Managing editor of New Scientist.

If you’ve ever wondered why men have nipples, how gravity slingshots work, or whether phot...

Are we, at last, getting the spacefaring future we were promised back in the 1960s? This week, NASA has been outlining ambitions for a base on the Moon and, perhaps more surprisingly, the development of a new class of spacecraft powered by nuclear electric propulsion. Dr Hannah Sargeant at the University of Leicester explains the potential of nuclear-powered space travel, how it could take us further into the solar system than ever...

In a bid to invest in the future of computing and keep emerging quantum companies on their shores, the UK government has announced a £2 billion ‘Quantum Leap’ fund. Tom Whipple heads to ORCA Computing in London to find out exactly how close we are to realising that quantum future and the industries that may be revolutionized in the process. After Iranian missiles have hit a key helium production plant in Qatar, stabil...

This week new research suggests that in recent years the Earth has been warming faster than we predicted. But scientists are undecided on whether this change is going to be permanent. Laura Wilcox, Professor of Aerosol-Climate Interactions at the University of Reading explains.

Tom Whipple is joined by Kit Yates, Author and Professor of Mathematical Biology and Public Engagement at the University of Bath. They mark the ten year ann...

This week Inside Science comes from Space Comm Expo in London, one of the biggest space conferences in the world. Tom Whipple explores the conference with Suzie Imber, Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Leicester.

Tom also speaks to Dr Everett Dolman, Professor of Space Strategy at John Hopkins University in the USA, about the role of space in modern warfare.

Jodie Howlett, who oversees in-orbit manufacturing at th...

Perhaps it’s the biggest question science has left to answer, how did life begin? Now, molecular biologists in Cambridge university have discovered tiny molecules of RNA which they say might provide some clues. Science journalist and author Philip Ball explains what we know and whether we’ll ever find the origins of life on earth.

Professor Michael Wooldridge has given this year’s Royal Society’s Michael Fara...

A small but mighty problem: what to do with the radioactive waste we have already made? Professor Clare Corkhill from the University of Bristol gives us the run down on how radioactive waste is created.

In Onkalo Finland, Victoria Gill visits the first national facility able to provide a long term solution to nuclear waste by burying it deep underground, which is due to begin operations this year.

But how can you stop future civil...

Elon Musk says his company Space X will focus on establishing a ‘self-growing city’ on the moon before going to Mars. Why the pivot? And what would it take to build a lunar metropolis? Victoria Gill speaks to head of space at the Science Museum Libby Jackson.

Can we stimulate the human brain to make humans more altruistic? Professor of neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich, Christian Ruff brings us the results of h...

This week the UK Government decided it was worried enough about so called ‘forever chemicals’ to bring in it’s first ever plan to tackle them. Environment Minister Emma Hardy called PFAS "one of the most pressing chemical challenges of our time". Stephanie Metzger, policy adviser at the Royal Society of Chemistry talks us through where all these chemicals have come from, and Lucy Hart, researcher at Lancaster univ...