Bioscience to bioweapons; Synthetic diamonds; Stem cell transplants
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2013
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Scientists investigate viruses in order to save lives. But could that same knowledge also help other people create dangerous viruses to use as weapons of terror?
This Thursday evening, a public debate is being held by the Society of Biology around these issues of "Dual Use" research. In an age of synthetic biology, mail order genes, and open access publication, what are the pros and cons of sharing virology research?
Also this week, a new centre for research into synthetic diamonds was opened by UK Science Minister David Willetts. Inside Science reporter Marnie Chesterton took a tour of the new facility to find out how diamonds might be a quantum computer's best friend.
Plus, the first formal trial of a stem cell based organ transplant is happening in the UK. Martin Birchall from University College London is working on replacing the larynx. But if a patient receives a new voicebox from a donor, whose voice will they have?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more watching. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.2 | Hello, Adam Rutherford here, reporting from Inside Science. |
| 0:33.0 | We do like to be Inside Important Things at Radio 4, Inside Health, inside the Ethics Committee, |
| 0:37.9 | in touch, in our time, infinite monkey cage. |
| 0:41.0 | There are some terms and conditions which you should be informed of at BBC.co. |
| 0:44.5 | UK slash radio4. |
| 0:46.9 | Anyway this week we'll be making diamonds from scratch and making organs from stem |
| 0:51.0 | cells. First, last week saw the death in London of the 41st victim |
| 0:56.0 | of a newly identified SARS-like virus called MERS. We've had global threats from bird and swine flu |
| 1:02.2 | in recent years and today we've reached a stage |
| 1:04.6 | where virologists can manipulate flu genes to understand how the disease might spread |
| 1:09.7 | between people. This type of genetic engineering is called dual use technology. |
| 1:15.0 | While it's extremely useful for understanding pandemic diseases, some argue that it's also dangerous. |
| 1:21.0 | Engineered viruses could escape the lab or be used as weapons, so-called |
| 1:25.3 | bioterrorism. These are the topics being debated tonight at the Society of Biology in |
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