The Naked Scientists Podcast

In partnership with Frontiers Science House, we bring you the next installment of our Why? series. Today, we tackle one of science's most hotly debated fields and ask: Why geoengineering? What do we mean by it? Can reflecting the sun really help improve the climate? And what are the arguments for and against it? We hear from Martin Stew, science correspondent for ITV News; Dakota Gruener, CEO of Reflective, which aims to accelerate sunlight-reflection research; and Mark Maslin at University College London and David Keith at the University of Chicago, who put geoengineering on trial. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Europe's supermarket fridges and freezers have come under sustained cyber attacks - BBC tech and AI editor, Zoe Kleinman, has the latest. Plus, what to expect from the COP31 climate summit in Turkey, why two indigenous groups in Tanzania and Bolivia share the same gut microbes, and our favourite space scientists pay tribute to Sir Patrick Stewart. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Mitochondria - the longest and most successful partnership in biology - a symbiosis between bacteria and complex cells spanning billions of years - go under our microscope this week. We've teamed up with ARIA - the Advanced Research + Invention Agency - to find out more about the mitochondrion, including where they came from, what they do for us, what happens when they go wrong, and whether we can fix them. We hear from Danielle Grotjohn at Scripps Research, Siobhan Mitchell at MitoQ, Henry Lee at Cultivarium, Mike Murphy from the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, and ARIA's Max Sichrovsky. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Coming up: Africa's leading public health agency has warned that the Ebola outbreak could spread beyond the continent. What are the risks? Plus, we hear from the team behind an electronic implant with a catalytic converter to remove glucose from the blood; why Mars dust may pose a problem for astronauts; and the seabirds that experience jet lag when crossing the Atlantic. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, Rachael Ralph investigates sugar. Perry Bateman from British Sugar tells her how white sugar and demerara differ; the British Dental Association's Mick Armstrong explains how a high-sugar diet leads to cavities; and Lucy Chambers at Diabetes UK looks at the long-term consequences of high blood sugar. Are artificial sweeteners truly better? Gunter Kuhnle and Jason Halford weigh in. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists