Encoding memories; 350 years of the science journal; Women in science; Ceres

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2015

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does the brain lay down memory? For decades the limits of microscopes have meant that a detailed look at the way brain cells encode particular learned skills and events has proved elusive. But in a report published this week a team of researchers has identified how changes in specific connections encode a particular behavioural response. Adam Rutherford talks to Tony Zador of Cold Spring Harbour laboratories who's become the first to crack a piece of the neural code for learning and memory which could have profound medical insights.

350 years ago this week, the world's first scientific journal was published. Philosophical Transactions began by drawing together various letters and reviews that cemented the origin of modern science by publishing Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren and other founding members of the esteemed Royal Society. Historian Dr Aileen Fyfe discusses the key moments in the journal's evolution and its legacy today.

There's a look at the ongoing representation of women in science following on from a recent report examining the Royal Society's 2014 university research fellows of which only 2 out of 43 were women. The Society's President Sir Paul Nurse discusses how the imbalance in this and in science more generally should be addressed.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is about to arrive in the orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres and will be the first mission ever to successfully visit a dwarf planet. As the spacecraft spirals closer, images have shown numerous craters and mysterious bright spots that scientists believe could reveal how Ceres formed and offer new clues to the origins of our solar system. Adam talks to the mission's deputy scientist Carol Raymond on the latest interpretations of what's currently being observed.

Producer: Adrian Washbourne.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:36.0	Hello you, you're listening to the podcast of Inside Science from the BBC,
0:40.0	first broadcast on the 5th of March 2015.
0:43.0	More information on the Interwebs at BBC.co.
0:46.0	UK slash Radio 4.
0:48.0	In a few minutes we're toddling off into the middle of the solar system
0:52.0	to gaze into the unexplained lights on a dwarf planet
0:55.2	poodle around in between Mars and Jupiter.
0:57.9	It's a leisurely NASA mission that proves that we don't always have to rush to the stars. It's a very happy birthday 350th to the world's first scientific
1:07.1	journal which cemented the origin of modern science by publishing Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, and the other founding members of the esteemed Royal Society.
1:17.0	And we talked to its current president, Sir Paul Nurse, about the ongoing problem of how few women there are in this national science body and in science in general.
1:26.0	But first, listen carefully. The sound waves emanating from your speakers are hitting your ear drums where the air vibrations get translated into
1:33.7	electrical signals and sent down your auditory nerve and into the brain for
1:37.8	processing and with a bit of luck understanding. If you're really paying attention
1:42.0	you may even remember some of this stuff.
1:44.4	That's the broad picture and we've got a good idea about the areas of the brain where this learning and memory formation occurs.
1:50.8	This idea of brain plasticity has been around for a while now that the brain
	...

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