I have you loud and clear.

Hello.

Hello.

Welcome.

Science.

And that is to say physics medicine, nature or time, the brain, life, the universe.

Hello this week from farm to fork.

We're making a meal out of microbes, the little helpers that are getting food onto our tables.

Plus we hear about a new smart material that helps wounds to heal.

Scientists get to the bottom of how the noravirus makes us ill and we explore a mysterious signal sent from deep space.

I'm Georgia Mills. I'm Chris Smith and this is the Naked Scientists.

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

When we injure ourselves or undergo surgery, tissues have to stitch themselves back together.

And as this happens, the chemical environment of the wound and the types of cells that are present

go through a sequence of changes and what helps healing

at one stage won't necessarily be the best promoter of repair later on.

Instead what's needed is a chemically intelligent repair material that can supply just what the repair process

requires just when it wants it.

And Ben Alquist at Imperial College London has developed just such a material that uses

parcels wrapped in DNA to dispense healing signals on demand.

He explained to Hannah Leverance Shogelher for how it works.

So what we want to do is we want to design materials that can interact with our wounds as they heal.

...