Stem cell news; Science practicals; Phantom head; Sewage power

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Science

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2013

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

As Spanish researchers unveil new stem cell research, Dr Adam Rutherford talks to Professor of Regenerative Medicine Fiona Watt. They look back at the history of stem cell research and what the future holds for regenerative medicine.

Last week's discussion on science practicals generated huge amounts of feedback. Some listeners consider school practicals the secret to their success, others remember nothing more than breaking test tubes and blowing things up. Professor Robin Millar researches the best ways to teach science practicals; we ask him to respond to some of the points you raised.

We unveil the mystery of the phantom head. Not an 18-rated horror film, but a dentists' training tool. This week's Show Us Your Instrument comes from Newcastle University's School of Dental Sciences.

And, where there's muck, there's brass. In Newcastle, they're looking to sewage as a renewable alternative energy supply. It's flushed down the drains, but Northumbrian Water have taken a 'waste not want not' approach to our biological effluent. They are going to great efforts to recover energy from sewage and pump it back into the National Grid.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Hello Inside Science Podcast listeners. Have you checks the terms and conditions for listening?
0:41.0	Have you? Have you really? Well if you fancy it there at
0:44.3	BBC.co.uk.
0:46.8	Otherwise we're getting knee-deep in an inexhaustible source of renewable energy,
0:51.2	raw sewage. Yes, my glamorous life took me to Newcastle's
0:54.6	Central Waste Treatment Plant. Mmm, I love the smell of sewage in the morning.
0:59.0	Also, we've had tons of feedback on Bunsen's and Burets. Last week's feature on science practical lessons got you all excited.
1:06.1	And so we'll be addressing some of your points. And the tale of the Phantom Head? No, it's not a ghost story. much worse, it's a dentist teaching tool, but still not as terrible as the phantom menace.
1:17.0	But first, we all have them, and they've been touted as the next great hope in medicine.
1:22.0	Stem cells have been in the headlines a lot in the last
1:24.5	couple of years and this week saw the announcement of a great leap forward in inventing therapies
1:29.7	that will use them in the future. We'll come to that in just a minute.
1:33.0	Stem cells were first named in 1908, identified because of their special ability to grow into new bodily tissue.
1:39.0	But it was an act of destruction later that century that revealed their amazing power. and American have made the atomic bomb at last. The first one was dropped on a Japanese
1:56.3	city this morning. Many people would say that the atomic bombs at the end of the Second
2:02.0	World War were what really led to the discovery of stem cells.
	...

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