How is AI going to change science?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Science

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are we moving away from science as a strictly human endeavour? This is the view of Pushmeet Kohli, head of AI for Science at Google DeepMind. He joins Tom Whipple to discuss the use of the AI tool Co-Scientist as a collaborator in the lab, and the challenges in making Artificial Intelligence that works in science. Clare Bryant from the University of Cambridge also joins the conversation.

And Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, joins the program to talk about his new book, The Story of Birds, tracing a 150‑million‑year journey from small, feathered dinosaurs to the birds of today.

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel joins us to discuss the latest scientific discoveries that you might have missed.

Presenter: Tom Whipple Producers: Dan Welsh and Kate White Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth Editor: Martin Smith

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:07.2	Things just swirling around my head.
0:09.6	Am I really the product of this?
0:12.1	Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests.
0:17.0	Little did I know what more was to come.
0:19.5	I'm Jenny Clemen, and in the new series of The Gift, we'll hear more stories emerging
0:25.2	out of the ever-expanding global DNA database.
0:28.8	They did know that I was different.
0:31.7	You had kids together.
0:33.0	Yeah.
0:33.5	Then you met.
0:34.3	Then we met.
0:35.2	The Gift.
0:36.1	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:39.3	Hello, welcome to Inside Science from the BBC World Service with me, Tom Whipple.
0:45.0	You may have thought that dinosaurs were wiped out 66 million years ago, but this fossil expert argues they still live among us in a way.
0:53.5	Birds are dinosaurs. They're just one
0:55.2	group of strange dinosaurs that got small, evolved feathers and wings started to fly. And so that
1:00.8	means part of the dinosaur family tree lives on today. That fascinates me. Also, proposals to change
1:07.0	details in an obscure White House document are raising red flags in science circles
1:12.7	about their future.
1:14.5	Every discretionary grant will now be required to go through approval by a political appointee
	...

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