Am I crazy or is it physics? | Katy Clough

Am I crazy or is it physics? | Katy Clough

How do physicists know what will happen in situations that haven't been tested? How sure can we be that physical laws are constant? Katy Clough explains how we are pushing the limits of what we know about the universe. | Narrated by Agnes Donnelly and Vidish Athavale | Music by Lee Rosevere | Katy is a postdoctoral researcher in the Astrophysics Department at Göttingen University in Germany, having recently completed her Ph.D. at King's College London. Her research involves solving the Einstein equations of gravity on supercomputers, investigating the early universe and even making black holes.

Can we cure neurological disorders by modifying the genome? | Gabriele Lignani

Imagine if we could correct genetic mutations as easily as correcting a typo in Microsoft Word, and thereby cure Alzheimer's, depression and other neurological disorders. Sounds like the plot of a sci-fi film, right? According to neuroscientist Gabriele Lignani, this is now a reality. | Narrated by Angus Waite | Music by Dexter Britain, Léo Delibes, Lloyd Rodgers and Jon Luc Hefferman | Gabriele is a neuroscientist at UCL whose research focuses on new approaches in the treatment of neurological disorders, which include gene editing and regulation in different neurons and brain regions. He has a passion for all sorts of animals and when he is not busy with his neurons at work, he enjoys spending time hiking with his two dogs.

What can facial movement tell us about emotional expression? | Eva Krumhuber

One of the most complex and finely-tuned ways of communicating emotion in humans are facial expressions. Social psychologist Eva Krumhuber fills us in on the latest research and takes us from the Oscars to the quest to create ever more realistic robots. | Narrated by Louise Essex | Music by Akoko Nante Ensemble, Podington Bear, Lee Rosevere and Jon Luc Hefferman | Eva is a Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at UCL, where she investigates the expression and perception of emotions in the human face. Besides her scientific contributions to psychology, her research has proved relevant for the successful modelling of emotions in virtual characters, being commercially used by the film and video games industries.

Why is the Earth habitable? | Philip Pogge von Strandmann

The Earth is over 4 billion years old, but land animals have only existed on our planet for the past 500 million years. Why didn't animal life on land emerge sooner? And why did it emerge at all? The Earth scientist Philip Pogge von Strandmann has the answers. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/2kzO0V6 | Narrated by Vidish Athavale | Music by Alasdair Cooper and Lee Rosevere | Philip is a Senior Lecturer in the Earth Science Department at UCL. His main research area is the Earth’s present and past biogeochemical cycles, including the carbon and oxygen cycles and what controls them. He is the 2016 winner of the Max Hey Medal.

Russia’s new rich and their attitudes to the West | Elisabeth Schimpfossl

In 2014, the head of Russia's biggest international news agency reminded the world that Russia is the only country capable of ‘turning the USA into radioactive dust’. Do Russian elites share similarly hostile attitudes towards Western countries? Sociologist Elisabeth Schimpfossl investigates. | Read along while listening at our Medium: bit.ly/2hAWdtf | Narrated by Charlotte Holtum and Vidish Athavale | Music by Kai Engel, Huma-Huma and Alasdair Cooper | Elisabeth is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at UCL, teaching Russian politics at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies. Her current research compares the philanthropic practices of Britain's and Russia's super-rich.