And the Hello, welcome to the naked scientists with me, Chris Smith and also with

Ginny Smith. This week we're looking to nature to solve some of today's

biggest problems from climate change to water shortages,

and how spiders might hold the key to making the strongest material known to man.

Plus why Bruce Willis might be making you fat,

why the Arctic ice sheets are melting

despite what's been in headlines this week,

and why thousands of languages could be on the brink of extinction.

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

Now up first we're going to talk about emails. These are a product of the

computing revolution of the 1990s which brought us the internet and

they've been used by growing numbers of the general public

and businesses for the last 15 years now. E-mailing your travel agents or even your bank for advice

is one thing, but how would you feel about conducting a consultation with your doctor this way?

With a rising population and increasing pressure on health care services,

medical practitioners are now looking for ways to improve the efficiency of the services they provide.

And in an article in the British Medical Journal this week, GP Emma Richards, based at Imperial

College London, is concerned about safety, confidentiality and workload.

We'll hear from her in a minute, but first I spoke to Eleanor Gunning who's also a GP

and she's based at University College London.

She says email can work.

We're using email to communicate in our day to stay lives and in many other industries and

...