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Science.

And that is the same physics, medicine, nature, or space, time, the brain, life, the universe.

Hello, this week we're taking you to the cutting edge of material science, including

out how blacksmiths for years have made incredibly tough swords

through to how defense scientists make bulletproof armour today.

Plus news of a better way to manage prostate cancer,

how fingerprints might replace chip and pin, and how scientists are using cold lightning to keep

fruit fresh for longer. I'm Isie Clark. I'm Chris Smith and this is the Naked Sciences.

The Naked Scientists Podcast is powered by UKfast.co.uk.

UK. Every year tens of thousands of men are diagnosed with cancer of the prostate, the

gland that sits at the base of the bladder. But what should they do about their condition? Should they elect to have

radiotherapy or possibly surgery and risk the side effects of the treatment? Or should

they instead choose just to monitor the disease and treat any symptoms as they occur?

Because in their case, they're actually more likely to die of some other disease before the prostate

cancer actually causes a problem for them.

This is the quandary faced by patients every day, but now researchers in Cambridge have developed

a predictive tool that uses various measurements from a patient to calculate the benefit to them in terms of how their life

expectancy may change if they do or do not decide to treat the disease. It's called

...