The Hello and also with Jenny Smith, hi Ginny.

Hello and welcome to the naked scientist with me Kate Lambert and also with

Ginny Smith.

Hi Ginny, hi there and this week we've got a special show all about fracking.

All summer a debate has been raging about the UK's Dash for Gas with the likes of Vivian

Westwood even joining protesters in Balcombe.

So how can it be safe and could fracking lower the price of your gas bill?

We'll be talking to a panel of experts to find out what evidence lies behind fracking safety fears.

Along the way we'd love to hear your voice so do get in touch by emailing us Chris

at the naked scientist.com you can tweet at naked scientist

or you can find us on Facebook.

But before we get into the fracking debate, there's time for us to take a look at what's been making the science headlines this week.

So Kate, what have you got for us?

Well, I've been looking at Alzheimer's this week.

Now, Alzheimer's is a really important disease for the UK.

They estimate that by 2025, a million people will be suffering from the disease

but what a team of Cambridge researchers wanted to work out this week is why did developed

countries like Britain and the US have a lot higher rate of Alzheimer's than developing countries.

Now you might think it's just because of our age we live longer people get Alzheimer's when

they're older so we have a higher rate.

But even if you take into account age Europe still has a much higher rate of Alzheimer's than South America, China and India.

Now, there's this hygiene hypothesis, which if you look at the brain of someone with Alzheimer's, you can see plaques that you might have heard about,

...