Podcast appearances and mentions of emma stoye

Emma Stoye presents this month’s podcast about immunology professor Daniel Davis’s latest book – The Beautiful Cure. The book explores the history of immunology, along with insights from the author’s career and findings from his recent research. As a leader in the field of immunology, Davis breaks down the various factors that can affect the human immune system, explains how complex a thing it is, and goes on to explore how sensitive it is to things like sleep, stress, age and even our state-of-mind. 

In this month’s podcast presented by Emma Stoye, Helen Thomson reveals fascinating insights about some of the rarest neurological conditions known to science. From a man whose synesthesia allows him to see auras, to a woman who lacks a mental map – making even simple navigation all but impossible – Thomson recalls a number of case studies which she unearthed on a ten-year journey through academic journals. Guaranteed to make you think about things that most of us take for granted, the author reveals both the data and the human stories that give it depth.

Are things getting better, or are we on the decline? In Enlightenment now, Steven Pinker argues that science and reason have made us better than ever before. Emma Stoye, Kit Chapman and Aurora Walshe find out if he hits the mark.

We would all love the gift of eternal youth. That remains a dream, but there are things we can actively do to resist the effects of ageing. One proven approach is to protect our telomeres, the short chains of DNA that cap our chromosones. The telomere effect by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel tells the story of why telomeres matter and what activities cause their degredation. Hear a reading from the book, an interview with Elissa Epel and the views of Royal Society of Chemistry deputy editor, Aurora Walshe, Chemistry World’s  content editor, Jennifer Newton, and host Emma Stoye.

If there’s one thing we can learn from histroy it’s everything that there is to know. Or at least that’s the promise of machine learning. The master algorithm by Pedro Domingos tells us how machines that learn are starting to transform the world, bringing us driverless cars and perhaps even bloodless wars. Hear an interview with Domingos, a reading from the book, and the thoughts of Royal Society of Chemistry data scientist Colin Batchelor and Chemistry World’s digital content producer, Sam Tracey, who join host Emma Stoye.

Evolution has created ingenious solutions to life’s problems. Some animals use physics in a way that stumps even the physicists. Turtles, for instance, venture thousands of miles across the ocean, yet return with precision to the exact beach from where they hatched. How they do this is still unclear. This is just one of the links between physics and animals recounted in  Furry Logic by Martin Durrani and Liz Kalaugher. In this month’s podcast Jamie Durrani (no relation to the book’s author) and Kat Krämer join Emma Stoye to share their favourite bits of the book; we hear an extract from the book, and an interview with Liz Kalaugher, one of the authors. There will be cats!

Emma Stoye on citronellol - her constant companion when faced with biting bugs

It's the compound that creates a lucrative market from leftover lobster. Emma Stoye introduces chitin

It repairs objects, heals wounds and fights crime. It puts the ‘super’ in superglue. Emma Stoye introduces cyanoacrylate

Emma Stoye on digoxin, a toxic product of foxgloves, and the birth of modern pharmacology