And the Hello and welcome to the naked scientists with Me

Smith and with Greer Jackson.

This week are we on the verge of solving one of the longest standing puzzles in physics?

Scientists think we're close to cracking what dark matter is, but what is this mysterious

substance that makes up nearly a quarter of the mass of the universe and why

does finding it matter? Plus we delve into the science behind the headlines

including hearing how smartphones can save lives where the babies can feel pain and a sound way to make much

tastier cheese.

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A group of extremely rare individuals who can't feel pain have helped scientists to uncover an important

gene which is catchily called PRDM 12 and which controls the formation of pain nerves in the

developing body.

It also controls their function in the adult nervous system.

The discovery has been made by Alva Chen and her colleague Jeff Woods. For a long time

we've been studying people who don't feel any pain, either they're born not feeling pain or over

the course of the first couple of years of life they lose the ability to feel pain.

And we've been very surprised that no one researches this area and we've been trying to find people with the condition and then find the genetic basis of their condition.

When you say they don't feel pain, are we saying they could literally put their hand in boiling water and they wouldn't know?

Yes, that's quite right because they have senses such as touch and temperature sensation,

but they wouldn't know when hot water was

becoming painfully and dangerously hot they just think it was hot water.

...