The 100,000 Genome Project, Stem cell doping, Nuclear waste, Dinosaur sex

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 100,000 Genome Project aims to sequence the DNA of 100,000 patients. One of those patients is four-year-old Georgia Walburn-Green. Her symptoms did not fit into any known disease category. Prof Maria Bitner-Glindzicz at University College London used early results from the 100,000 Genome project to diagnose Georgia's condition.

Roland Pease reports on helping stem cells survive using a kind of 'blood paint'. By dipping the cells in myoglobin, researchers at Bristol University have found a way to improve both the vigour and survival of stem cells.

The expanding nuclear programme in the UK will continue to produce nuclear waste - in lower volumes than previously produced, but we already have a large stockpile that has already been produced over the last 50 years. Countries around the world are facing a similar challenge: What do we do with the waste? Dame Sue Ion, engineer and expert advisor to the nuclear industry, discusses common practices and alternative approaches to nuclear waste disposal.

Many dinosaurs had big, iconic features like frills, plates, horns and spines that may have been tools or weapons, but Dr David Hone's (Queen Mary University of London) research on the small, herbivorous dinosaur Protoceratops andrewsi reveals that they may also serve another purpose in the dinosaur society: sexual selection. Could these features be what attracts one dinosaur to another?

Producer: Deborah Cohen and Jen Whyntie Assistant Producer: Julia Lorke.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello You this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the 14th of January 2016.
0:06.4	I'm Adam Rutherford. Loads more science from Radio 4 in this new year. The Infinite Monkey Cage is back on air with extra bits on the podcast,
0:14.0	Science Stories on the Tales of the First Submarines
0:17.0	and how Electric Eels inspired biology,
0:19.0	and tons more, because at Radio 4,
0:21.0	we take science seriously.
0:22.0	BBC.co. UK. UK slash Radio 4 we take science seriously.
0:22.6	BBC.co. UK slash Radio 4.
0:25.4	Blood, sex, dinosaurs and radioactive waste.
0:28.0	All before tea time on today's program,
0:29.9	how scientists are using molecules from blood to boost stem cell growth.
0:34.4	We're looking at the perennial problem of what to do with our large stockpiles of nuclear waste
0:38.7	and the global plans to bury them deep underground.
0:41.7	And as well as putting things in the ground we do like taking them out too
0:44.8	dinosaurs which are always pretty exciting today we're talking about dinosaur sex because you know
0:50.0	science is awesome but first regular listeners will know how excited I get about genes, genomes and DNA.
0:57.0	We've entered a new era in understanding DNA in the last couple of years,
1:01.0	as the cost of reading our genetic code has plummeted and the speed has rocketed. of One of the grandest schemes comes from Genomics, England, the Department of Health and the NHS's
1:14.6	project to sequence the DNA of 100,000 patients.
1:18.5	It's called the 100,000 Genome Project.
1:20.9	And its goal is to find clues to various infectious diseases and cancers and
1:25.6	some of the very rarest conditions. And it's in this last category that the very
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