meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
BBC Inside Science

Early Alzheimer's Alert

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Marnie Chesterton hears of a simple test for the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease. She finds out about UK scientists using robots to map radiation at Chernobyl, and talks to Merlin Sheldrake about fungi. Roland Pease travels to Bath University to meet scientists who may have developed a way to diagnose Alzheimer's in the earliest stages of the disease. Dr George Stothart, has led the team in the development of this simple 2 minute test. Prof Thomas Scott of Bristol University and team develop robotic techniques to scan areas of high radiation that would otherwise be unsafe for humans to enter. Their rolling, quadruped or even flying robots have recently been deployed in and around the reactor building at the Chernobyl disaster site. Authorities there have recently been licensed to begin disassembling remains inside the vast concrete shield, but as they do so, areas of intense radiation are likely to shift from day to day. Being able to map these changes in 3D at the end of each working shift should enable workers to avoid the areas of biggest danger. Dr Merlin Sheldrake is one of the nominees for this years Royal Society Insight Investment Book Prize. "Entangled Life - How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures" is a rich tale of interconnectedness and subtle intrusion and extrusion between different living things, and particularly fungi's huge influence on human existence, from beer, bread and psychedelia to the whole history of life on earth. Presented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Alex Mansfield Made in Association with The Open University

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to tell you why I love podcasting.

0:04.5

I'm Sasha Johansson, I'm an Assistant Commissioner for the BBC and I work on making podcasts.

0:11.1

My real passion is discovering unbelievable unheard stories and working with the biggest

0:16.9

stars who can really bring those stories to life.

0:20.1

I love the whole process of making podcasts from the spark of an idea to hearing the final

0:26.0

edit.

0:27.0

There's nothing like it.

0:28.0

What makes BBC podcast special is that we're working for you, so whatever we commission

0:32.6

has to reflect the things that you care about and love, wherever you are in the UK.

0:37.0

So if you like this BBC podcast, there's so much more to discover.

0:40.6

Have a listen on BBC Sounds.

0:42.6

Hello and well done for downloading this episode of Inside Science.

0:46.6

It first aired on the BBC, on Radio 4, on the 14th of October 2021.

0:52.2

This week, Tales of Mystery and Imagination.

0:56.0

We'll be hearing from the scientist inside Chernobyl's unsettling radioactive red forest.

1:01.0

We're writing one of us now, you know, at the same radiation damage trees, but they're

1:05.5

absolutely charred as a result of the fire.

1:08.5

So it's quite a quite an odd experience to be back here remapping it following such a catastrophic

1:14.9

event.

1:15.9

Not an animal, not a plant, not well understood.

1:19.6

The secret world of fungi will be illuminated by Merlin Shell Drake, author of entangled

1:24.4

life and one of the Royal Society book prize nominees we're profiling here on Inside

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.