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The Naked Scientists Podcast

Addiction and Dieting

The Naked Scientists Podcast

Dr Chris Smith

Science Radio, Engineering, Naked Scientists, Natural Sciences, Technology, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Science

4.6957 Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2008

⏱️ 60 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hooked on the Naked Scientists? This week we're looking into the science of addiction, finding out how smoking alters the teenage brain, why a mixture of brain chemistry and psychological habits make drugs hard to kick, and how addiction re-wires the brain in a similar way to school. Also, how a good night's sleep could stave off diabetes, why traffic pollutes your IQ and why your next prescription could be a placebo! Plus we bring you the first in our series of Rising Stars, young researchers reporting from the coalface of science, and in Kitchen Science we show you how to levitate a squid! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Transcript

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0:00.0

It's science, but not as you know it, the naked scientists.

0:10.0

Hello and happy new year, this is the naked scientist with Chris Smith and

0:14.2

Katani coming up on today's show we'll be finding out how smoking alters the

0:18.8

structure of teenagers brains apparently it can make you much easier to distract and we'll be finding out why.

0:24.0

Also why a bad night's sleep might be linked to diabetes and also how researchers have

0:28.5

used gene therapy to treat alcoholic rats. That's all the way.

0:31.2

And also this week we are looking at the

0:33.4

science of addiction why do we get hooked on things what's going on in our

0:36.8

brain when we develop an addiction what is the best way to stop it. Also

0:41.2

unrelated in this week's question of the week we're trying to untangle possibly

0:45.2

the biggest mystery on earth.

0:46.9

I would put my MP3 player into a pocket and every single time I pull it out the wires are completely tangled up.

0:54.4

In fact they're so tangled I couldn't even do it myself. My question is why do

0:59.6

wires get tangled? It is irritating I cannot wait to find out why, and interestingly the key to keeping

1:06.0

your cables tidy also applies to your DNA, as we'll hear later.

1:10.1

And also if you've gained a few unwanted inches around your middle over Christmas as we all do,

1:15.0

we're going to be talking with Diet Specialist Dr Tony Steer to find out how to avoid some of those common

1:20.0

dietary pitfalls.

1:21.0

Thank you, Kat.

1:22.0

So if you've got a science question for us

1:23.4

for 2008 about the science of addiction or perhaps even kicking the habit then do

1:27.1

get in touch email Chris at the naked scientist dot com.

...

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