The Naked Scientists

The Naked Scientists
The Naked Scientists Radio Show & Podcast
Format	Science Talk radio / Podcast
Running time	60 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Broadcast Time	Sundays, 6-7 p.m. UK time
Broadcast Area	BBC Radio in the East of England Worldwide Online and as a Podcast
Frequency	BBC Radio Cambridgeshire - 96.0 & 95.7 FM BBC Essex - 103.5 & 95.3 FM BBC Radio Norfolk - 95.1 & 104.4 FM 855 & 873 AM BBC Radio Northampton - 104.2 and 103.6 FM BBC Radio Suffolk - 103.9, 104.6, 95.5 & 95.9 FM Online - BBC Radio Player As a Podcast
Website	TheNakedScientists.com
iTunes	Find us on the iTunes store
Archive	All our podcasts are available here
Podcast Feed	Naked Scientists Podcast.xml
Contact	Christhenakedscientists.com

The Naked Scientists is a one-hour audience-interactive science radio talk show broadcast live by the BBC in the East of England, nationally by BBC Radio 5 Live and internationally as a podcast. The programme was created and is edited by Cambridge University Pathology Department clinical lecturer Dr Chris Smith. He hosts the show with other scientists.

The present Naked Scientists line up includes producers Ben Valsler and Meera Senthilingam, scientist David Ansell, marine biologist Helen Scales and blogger and harpist Kat Arney. The group appointed the first official Naked Scientists PhD student, Diana O'Carroll, who is examining the educational impacts of science broadcasting and new media. O'Carroll also presents a Naked Scientists spin-off podcast, Naked Archaeology, which launched in 2008. A second spin-off, Naked Astronomy, a Valsler production featuring Cambridge University-based space scientists and astronomers, has been podcast since December 2009, and a combined video and audio programme, Naked Engineering, which is produced by Ansell and Senthilingam and supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering, launched in September 2010. For Christmas 2010 the group also showcased a new video podcast strand, the Naked Science Scrapbook.

Naked Scientists Show Content

Each episode of the main Naked Scientists programme is one hour long and includes a digest of topical science news stories, audience questions answered live on the air and interviews with guest scientists. These individuals join the hosts in the studio to talk about their work and to take questions live from listeners. Previous featured guests include the discoverer of the DNA fingerprint, Alec Jeffreys, the Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees, and the co-discoverer of DNA structure, James D. Watson.

The show also features on-location reports and interviews, and an interactive segment called Kitchen Science where listeners are encouraged to attempt a science experiment at home during the show. Kitchen Science experiments have included building a desktop trebuchet,^[1] a chocolate teapot^[2] and a Liver powered Bottle Rocket.^[3] The Kitchen Science segment also hosts experiments that listeners may not be able to do at home, such as generating X-rays from Sticky Tape ^[4] with Dr Carlos Camara of UCLA and testing how much fat would stop a bullet^[5] with researchers at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory.

Awards and Prizes

The Naked Scientists have won 7 national and international awards for science communication since 2006.

The show won the Biosciences Federation Prize for Science Communication, 2006,^[6] the JOSH Award 2007,^[7] the Society for General Microbiology's Peter Wildy Prize 2008, the Royal Society Kohn Award 2008,^[8] the Best Radio Show Award at the Population Institute's 29th Global Media Awards, 2008,^[9] the European Podcast Award for UK Non-Profit podcast,^[10] and the inaugural Royal College of Pathologists Furness Prize for science communication 2010.

The Naked Scientists was also in the 5 finalists in the 2006 World Podcast Awards and received two nominations, for "best produced" and "best science and technology podcast" in the 2007 awards. It was also a top 5 finalist in the 2008 and 2009 awards.

Bandwidth consumed by the programme's podcast exceeds 15TB (terabytes) of downloads per month.

Other media

The Naked Scientists also appear on TV Channel Five's panel game The What in the World? Quiz and have contributed to the 2007 Channel 4 programme "The Farm Revealed". In September 2008, with the Open University, the Naked Scientists launched a new UK national radio edition of their programme, The Naked Scientists - Up All Night (subsequently re-named "Breaking Science") which was broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live.

In November 2008, with the Royal Society of Chemistry, a series entitled "The Naked Scientists In Africa" began on Channel Africa, the international broadcasting service of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The Naked Scientists in Africa, which is produced by Naked Scientist team-member Meera Senthilingam, incorporates international science news and a focus on science stories originating in, or pertinent to, African countries.

Since January 2010, the Naked Scientists have returned to BBC 5 Live with a newly-formatted version of the show, which airs nationally every Monday.

Funders and Supporters

The Naked Scientists have received funding and awards from the Wellcome Trust, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Cambridge University including the Isaac Newton Trust, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

References

1. ^ Kitchen Science - The Trebuchet - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/the-trebuchet/
2. ^ Kitchen Science - How Useless is a Chocolate Teapot? - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/how-useless-is-a-chocolate-teapot/
3. ^ Kitchen Science - Fizzes from Peroxide - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/fizzes-from-peroxide/
4. ^ Kitchen Science - Glowing Tape - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/glowing-tape/
5. ^ Kitchen Science - How Fat would you need to be to stop a bullet? - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/how-fat-would-you-have-to-be-to-stop-a-bullet/
6. ^ Biosciences Federation Science Communication Award 2006, Biosciences Federation
7. ^ And the winner is..., Manchester Science Festival, October 25, 2007
8. ^ Royal Society Kohn Award for Excellence in Engaging the Public with Science, The Royal Society
9. ^ 29th Annual Global Media Award Winners Announced, The Population Institute Press Release, October 31, 2008
10. ^ European Podcast Award 08/09 Winners announced

External links

• The Naked Scientists website