Frontiers

Programme exploring new ideas in science and meeting the scientists and researchers responsible for them, as well as hearing from their critics

Radio 4,120 episodes

Episodes

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Virtual Therapy
Quentin Cooper looks at the therapeutic possibilites of virtual reality.
24 Dec 2014,28 mins
Can Maths Combat Terrorism?
Can maths reveal hidden patterns in global terrorism? Dr Hannah Fry investigates.
17 Dec 2014,28 mins
Animal Personality
Prof Adam Hart explores a new field in zoology - animal personality.
10 Dec 2014,28 mins
New Space to Fly
Jack Stewart meets the pioneers redesigning our international airspace.
03 Dec 2014,28 mins
Vagus Nerve
Can stimulating the vagus nerve improve health? Gaia Vince explores this new research area
26 Nov 2014,28 mins
The Rosetta Mission
Billed as 'the sexiest space mission ever', did Rosetta's probe land safely on its comet?
12 Nov 2014,28 mins
Cosmology
Have astronomers really found gravitational waves from the Big Bang as announced in March?
09 Jul 2014,28 mins
Swarming robots
Adam Hart on how insect and cell structure research is helping develop swarming robots.
02 Jul 2014,28 mins
Anaesthesia
Linda Geddes explores the latest research into how general anaesthetics work in the body.
25 Jun 2014,28 mins
Power Transmission
Gaia Vince looks at the future of power transmission.
18 Jun 2014,28 mins
Ageing and the brain
Do our mental powers really decline in old age?
11 Jun 2014,28 mins
Driverless cars
Jack Stewart meets the engineers inventing vehicles that drive themselves.
04 Jun 2014,28 mins
Chronotypes
Linda Geddes explores research into the differences between morning and evening people.
18 Dec 2013,28 mins
Geo-engineering
Gaia Vince asks if geoengineering by blocking the sun could stop the earth warming up.
11 Dec 2013,28 mins
Nitrogen Fixing
Prof Andrea Sella looks at efforts to reduce our dependence on the Haber-Bosch process.
04 Dec 2013,28 mins
Self-Healing Materials
Quentin Cooper takes a look at the new materials that can mend themselves.
27 Nov 2013,28 mins
The Power of the Unconscious
The crucial role of our unconscious, and how scientists are now harnessing its powers.
20 Nov 2013,28 mins
Gut Microbiota
New insights into the important relationship we have with microbes that live in our gut.
13 Nov 2013,28 mins
Oxytocin
Linda Geddes asks if taking the hormone oxytocin can make people more sociable.
17 Jul 2013,28 mins
Crossrail - Tunnelling under London
How 26 miles of precision-engineered tunnels are created through London's erratic geology.
10 Jul 2013,28 mins
Plate Tectonics and Life
Roland Pease on the idea that life on early Earth led to the evolution of plate tectonics.
03 Jul 2013,28 mins
Whatever happened to biofuels?
Gaia Vince asks if we can ever run our vehicles on biofuels from algae or bacteria.
26 Jun 2013,28 mins
19/06/2013
Can we beat bacteria by stopping the bugs from talking to each other?
19 Jun 2013,28 mins
Build Me a Brain
Roland Pease reports on scientists building brains from scratch in the lab.
12 Jun 2013,28 mins
Forensic Phonetics
Rebecca Morelle explores how the forensic science of speech is helping to solve crime.
12 Dec 2012,28 mins
05/12/2012
Adam Rutherford reports on the recent discovery that much of our DNA is not useless junk.
05 Dec 2012,28 mins
Brain Machine Interfaces
Geoff Watts looks into how scientists can use the mind to control artificial limbs.
28 Nov 2012,28 mins
Anthropocene
Has humanity launched a new geological time period? Gaia Vince on the Anthropocene Epoch.
21 Nov 2012,28 mins
Why do women live longer than men?
Dr Yan Wong explores new theories on gender and ageing.
14 Nov 2012,28 mins
Future of Particle Physics
Tracey Logan asks what particle physicists are doing after finding the Higgs boson.
07 Nov 2012,28 mins