Science Weekly

Transporting the most expensive and volatile substance on Earth

A box the size of a filing cabinet was lifted by crane, slowly moved and placed very carefully in the back of an unassuming lorry earlier this week. What looked like a casual drive around the Cern campus was actually a world-first experiment in transporting antimatter, the most expensive and volatile substance on Earth. To find out why scientists wanted to achieve this milestone, and what happened on the journey, Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample, and the Cern physicist Dr Christian Smorra.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod [https://www.theguardian.com/sciencepod]

What sets human consciousness apart from AI?

Why is it like something to be ourselves and how do physical processes create our subjective experience? These questions get to the heart of the knotty problem of consciousness, and they provided the spark for the latest book from award-winning author and journalist Michael Pollan. In A World Appears, Pollan goes in search of answers about what we do and don’t know about consciousness, and why it has proven such an elusive phenomenon. He tells Ian Sample how thoughts and feelings shape our conscious experience, whether we can learn anything about human consciousness from AI, and why he thinks our minds need to be defended in today’s technology saturated world. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod [https://www.theguardian.com/sciencepod]

Off Duty: The Crime

On the evening of 29 December 2011, police officer Clifton Lewis was moonlighting as a security guard at a Chicago minimart when two men walked in. They shot Lewis several times, then took off with his gun and police star. A week later, police had their suspects: four men affiliated with a gang called the Spanish Cobras. For hours, under intense police questioning, they all said they did not do it. But that did not seem to matter. This is episode one of Off Duty, an investigation by the Guardian’s Melissa Segura. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod [https://www.theguardian.com/sciencepod]

Meningitis explained: who is most at risk?

Over the weekend, news emerged of an outbreak of meningitis among university and school students in Kent in south-east England. The outbreak has killed two young people and left several others seriously ill. Health officials confirmed that the meningitis B strain has been identified in some of the cases. To find out what we know about the outbreak, who is most at risk and why questions are being asked about who has access to the meningitis B vaccine, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Eliza Gil, a clinical lecturer specialising in infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod [https://www.theguardian.com/sciencepod]

What’s behind the injectable peptide craze?

Grey-market injectable peptides – a category of substances with obscure, alphanumeric names such as BPC-157, GHK-Cu, or TB-500 – have developed a devoted following among biohackers and health optimisers. To understand how these unregulated substances have become mainstream and what they could be doing in our bodies, Madeleine Finlay hears from journalist Adrienne Matei and from Dr Anna Barnard, an associate professor at Imperial College London who researches peptides. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod [https://www.theguardian.com/sciencepod]