The show, episode by episode

The Life Scientific

BBC Radio 4

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future

The Life Scientific

Dean Lomax on discovering ichthyosaurs and defying nay-sayers

Helen Hastie on the future of human-robot relations

Seth Berkley on the importance of vaccinating the world

Hiranya Peiris on unravelling the story of the universe

Washington Yotto Ochieng on the navigation tech that keeps our world moving

Lucy Carpenter on how our oceans are destroying ozone

Jens Juul Holst on the gut hormone discovery behind weight-loss drugs

Jim Ashworth-Beaumont on how a near-fatal accident made him a better clinician

Jehane Ragai on the science of authenticating artworks

Tony Juniper on parrots, princes and environmental protection

Pierre Friedlingstein on carbon’s pivotal role in climate change

Julia Simner on tasty words and hearing colours

Caroline Smith on meteorites and potential ancient life on Mars

AP De Silva on building molecular fluorescence sensors for healthcare

Peter Knight on quantum technologies

Eleanor Schofield on conserving Tudor warship the Mary Rose

George Church on reimagining woolly mammoths and virus-proofing humans

Gareth Collett on a career in bomb disposal

Sonia Gandhi on building model brains to tackle Parkinson’s disease

Mark O'Shea on close encounters with venomous snakes

Kevin Fong on medical planning for Mars and Earth-based emergencies

Dame Pratibha Gai on training atoms to do what we want

Catherine Heymans on the lighter side of the dark universe

Tim Coulson on how predators shape ecosystems and evolution

Claudia de Rham on playing with gravity

Neil Lawrence on taking down the 'digital oligarchy' and why we shouldn't fear AI

Liz Morris on Antarctic adventures and the melting polar ice sheets

Anthony Fauci on a medical career navigating pandemics and presidents

Brian Schmidt on Nobel Prize-winning supernovae and the joys of making wine

Jacqueline McKinley on unearthing bones and stories at Britain's ancient burial sites

Jonathan Shepherd on a career as a crime-fighting surgeon

Doyne Farmer on making sense of chaos for a better world

Tori Herridge on ancient dwarf elephants and frozen mammoths

Sir Magdi Yacoub on pioneering heart transplant surgery

Tim Peake on his journey to becoming an astronaut and science in space

Anna Korre on capturing carbon dioxide and defying expectations

Rosalie David on the science of Egyptian mummies

Peter Stott on climate change deniers and Italian inspiration

Ijeoma Uchegbu on using nanoparticles to transform medicines

Darren Croft on killer whale matriarchs and the menopause

Bill Gates on vaccines, conspiracy theories and the pleasures of pickleball

Kip Thorne on black holes, Nobel Prizes and taking physics to Hollywood

Vicky Tolfrey on parasport research and childhood dreams of the Olympics

Dawn Bonfield on inclusive engineering, sustainable solutions and why she once tried to leave the sector for good

Raymond Schinazi on revolutionising treatments for killer viruses

Janet Treasure on eating disorders and the quest for answers

Anne Child on Marfan syndrome and love at first sight

Conny Aerts on star vibrations and following your dreams

Mike Edmunds on decoding galaxies and ancient astronomical artefacts

Hannah Critchlow on the connected brain

Fiona Rayment on the applications of nuclear for net zero and beyond

Nick Longrich on discovering new dinosaurs from overlooked bones

Sheila Willis on using science to help solve crime

Sir Charles Godfray on parasitic wasps and the race to feed nine billion people

Jonathan Van-Tam on Covid communication and the power of football analogies

Michael Wooldridge on AI and sentient robots

Mercedes Maroto-Valer on making carbon dioxide useful

Sir Harry Bhadeshia on the choreography of metals

Cathie Sudlow on data in healthcare

Sir Michael Berry on phenomena in physics' borderlands

Professor Sarah Harper on how population change is remodelling societies.

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy on human evolution and parenthood

Edward Witten on 'the theory of everything'

Alex Antonelli on learning from nature's biodiversity to adapt to climate change

Paul Murdin on the first ever identification of a black hole

Bahija Jallal on the biotech revolution in cancer therapies

Sir Colin Humphreys on electron microscopes, and the thinnest material in the world

Chris Barratt on head-banging sperm and a future male contraceptive pill

Gideon Henderson on climate ‘clocks’ and dating ice ages

Deborah Greaves on wave power and offshore renewable energy

Harald Haas on making waves in light communication

Anne Ferguson-Smith on unravelling epigenetics

Anne-Marie Imafidon on fighting for diversity and equality in science

Bruce Malamud on modelling risk for natural hazards

Gillian Reid on making chemistry count

Andre Geim on levitating frogs, graphene and 2D materials

Julie Williams on Alzheimer’s disease

James Jackson on understanding earthquakes and building resilience

Marie Johnston on health psychology and the power of behavioural shifts