A 'functional' cure for HIV?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Almost 40 years ago, the first treatment was approved for HIV, but it came with a warning: “This is not a cure.” On the week of World AIDS Day, Kate Bishop, principal group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, tells us how science may now have finally found a “functional” cure for the virus that causes AIDS.

How are tree rings, volcanoes, trade routes and Europe’s deadly Black Death pandemic connected? Professor Ulf Büntgen from the University of Cambridge explains how matching tree ring data with historical records shows that Italian city-states importing grain accidentally introduced the Black Death to Europe.

Plus science broadcaster Caroline Steel is in the studio to discuss her favourite new scientific discoveries.

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple Producers: Jonathan Blackwell, Ella Hubber, Tim Dodd, Alex Mansfield, and Hannah Fisher Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.4	This is the story of a book.
0:09.8	It's a wonderful book.
0:10.9	She's an immensely valuable writer.
0:13.1	Award winning, commercially and critically successful.
0:16.6	Then, cancelled.
0:18.3	It just infuriates me.
0:19.9	You're reinforcing stereotypes.
0:22.0	I remember feeling sick by page 8.
0:24.5	A culture war about race, class, and who has the right to say what?
0:28.9	I do not think that I wrote in any way a racist book.
0:32.7	Shadow World, anatomy of a cancellation.
0:35.5	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:37.3	Welcome to Inside Science on the BBC World Service. I'm Tom Whipple and today we are talking about a possible functional cure for HIV.
0:46.7	What does it do? How promising is it? And the really crucial question, what does functional mean?
0:54.3	From one terrible pandemic to the most terrible pandemic of all, did the black death start
1:00.0	because of a volcano, thousands of miles away, and some enterprising Venetian merchants?
1:06.4	And our global science watcher, Roland Peas, has been peering into deep Homo sapiens history,
1:13.0	courtesy of some caves in southern Africa.
1:15.5	And joining me to review the big journal stories of the week is Caroline Steele.
1:19.8	Caroline, give us a teaser.
1:21.3	So I'm going to talk about why photo bombing is an issue in space.
	...

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