Science Weekly Folgen

Industrial civilisation is close to breaching a seventh planetary boundary, and may already have crossed it, according to scientists who have compiled the latest report on the state of the world’s life-support systems. They say ocean acidification is close to critical threshold, posing a threat to marine ecosystems and global liveability. Ian Sample speaks to Prof Helen Findlay, a biological oceanographer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, to find out why the oceans have reached this state, and whether there is anything we can do to reverse the damage.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Saul Newman, an interdisciplinary researcher at University College London and the University of Oxford, who has just won an Ig Nobel prize – given to scientific research that ‘first makes people laugh, and then makes them think’ – for his work showing that many claims of people living extraordinarily long lives come from places with short lifespans, no birth certificates, and where clerical errors and pension fraud abound. He tells Madeleine what happened when he went looking for the world’s centenarians, and how his work has been received by the longevity research community. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

In a special episode recorded live at the British Science Festival, Madeleine Finlay and guests explore the question: will AI make a good companion? AI could give us new ways to tackle difficult problems, from young people’s mental health issues to isolation in care homes. It also raises challenging questions about the increasing role of tech in our personal lives. To explore these questions, Madeleine is joined by the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample; Tony Prescott, a professor of computational robotics at Sheffield University; and Dr Mhairi Aitken, an ethics fellow at the Alan Turing Institute and visiting senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod