The Hello, welcome to the naked scientists with me Chris Smith and also with Kat Arnie.

This week how a snooze boosts your learning power, encouraging news about stem cell treatment for Parkinson's disease,

and how koalas keep their cool by being tree huggers.

Plus, freeze-dried blood. We'll be discussing how scientists are working on this

transfusion breakthrough and other ways to protect and store microbes and even

enzymes in washing powders to make them last longer.

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

First, could this?

Could this help boost your learning power?

We've all heard the phrase sleep on it and there are many

anecdotes from people such as students and musicians who find that getting a good

night sleep after studying or practicing helps with learning. But what's going on in the brain? Its secrets are now

revealed in research from scientists in America and China showing that during

sleep, nerve cells or neurons in the brain grow new connections called dendritic spines that help with

learning. Peter Oliver from Oxford University explains what's going on in our brains as we

visit the land of nod. The brain is very active when we're asleep and that's really the first point.

So when we're asleep it's not not like the brain switched off, it's firing all the time making new

contacts and these new contacts the brain makes during the night,

how the sales connect to one

another, that's often called memory consolidation. The idea is that when we're

asleep, the brain is active, if you like, it's replaying events that have happened

during the day

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