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BBC Inside Science

EU membership and UK science, Quantum games, Fixing genes

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Science

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The UK science community draws vital benefits from EU membership and could lose influence in the event of an exit, says a House of Lords report out this week. UK researchers placed a high value on collaboration opportunities afforded by EU membership. A number also believe the UK would lose its ability to influence EU science policy in the event of leaving - something that's disputed by pro-Brexit campaigners. To debate the ins and outs of being in or out of the EU, Adam is joined by Viscount Matt Ridley, a member of the committee, and Professor Paul Boyle, the Vice Chancellor of Leicester University and former president of Science Europe.

Scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark are developing a quantum computer. To help them solve a particular problem, they have turned to human brain power, harnessing our ability to play computer games. The team have designed video games, such as Quantum Moves - that are helping them to understand the problem of 'slosh'- that atoms move about, when moved, like water sloshing in a cup.

Many diseases are caused by a particular type of DNA error called a 'point mutation'. In our genomes, the substitution of a single letter of genetic code can be the root cause of diseases such as Alzheimer's, sickle cell anaemia, and a whole range of cancers. Recently, a new technique for editing DNA, called CRISPR, a precise genetic engineering tool, was developed, which might help combat these diseases. The problem is that the cell often reacts to this editing; trying to mend what it perceives as damage to its DNA. This week, David Liu, from Harvard University, published new research showing how his team have managed to switch out a single letter, a base pair, whilst tricking the cell into not correcting this edit.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello you this is Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcasts on the 21st of April 2016.

0:06.0

I'm Adam Rutherford and there's a whole bunch of useful stuff at BBC.co.

0:10.0

UK slash radio 4. I expect I've never actually looked. We've got some hardcore science coming up after a little bit of politics

0:16.9

CRISPR the gene editing technique everybody is talking about just got a

0:21.4

touch more accurate which means it's promised for

0:23.8

correcting diseases such as Alzheimer's just got a little bit closer. And you get the

0:29.2

chance to develop quantum computers. Yes, I know you've been desperate to help all along.

0:33.6

All you have to do is play some video games.

0:36.1

But first, it's Europe.

0:37.8

A few weeks ago we reported on the House of Lord Science and Technology

0:40.8

Committee who have been collecting oral evidence from scientists and engineers since 2000. Science and

0:43.0

the Technology Committee who have been collecting oral evidence from scientists and engineers

0:45.0

since 2015, with the question du jour being

0:48.0

what would exit from the EU mean for British science?

0:51.0

This week they published their results and they suggest that scientists

0:54.6

are overwhelmingly in the remain camp. The report itemizes several aspects of research that

0:59.8

scientists believe are better as a result of being in the EU, including funding,

1:04.4

18.3% of the funds that the EU returns to the UK in total go towards research.

1:10.3

So the UK's European research spend is a net positive.

1:14.0

Another result was on the matter of sitting at the table with the other EU countries.

1:18.0

If we became an associated country in the event of an exit, the committee reported, and I quote, Brexit could significantly diminish

1:24.7

UK influence on EU science policy. In fact, the support from scientists who gave testimony

...

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