Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea cover art

All Episodes

Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea — 488 episodes

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Title
1

Extra: The Genetics of Wrongdoing

2

Did we find evidence of life on Mars in the 1970’s?

3

Extra: Growing Old in Ireland - 20 Years of the TILDA Study

4

How many insects are there?

5

Extra: The Irish scientists tackling organ transplant rejection

6

The Greenland shark discovered on Ireland’s coast

7

Gold: Neil DeGrasse Tyson - A Brief Welcome to the Universe

8

Observing the Solar Eclipse

9

Gold: How does the brain conjure consciousness?

10

Could AI be conscious?

11

Extra: Could base editing lead to designer babies?

12

The fish species with no males

13

Extra: ET Code of Conduct

14

The problem solving powers of bumblebees

15

Extra: Neuroscience and AI

16

Is sitting down for long periods killing us?

17

Extra: What is Cystinosis?

18

Is photographic memory a real thing?

19

Extra: How VR can improve the health of the elderly

20

The Internet of Animals

21

Extra: How Wi-Fi can be used for surveillance

22

What happens when you're struck by lightning?

23

Extra: Can we cure nightmares?

24

Before Trees - What Were ‘Prototaxites’?

25

Extra: Was there human sacrifice in ancient Rome?

26

How does sperm work in outer space?

27

Extra: How microbes tackle pollution

28

The Chimpanzee War in Uganda

29

Extra: New Prostate Cancer Trials in Ireland

30

Learning while you sleep!

31

Extra: Does science back up weird skincare trends?

32

Early flavour memories may shape picky eaters

33

Extra: Bodyoids

34

What is ‘Forensic Botany’?

35

Extra: The Power of Plankton

36

The Smell of the Past

37

Extra: AI Improving Medicine

38

Building a Warp Drive

39

Extra: How apples are engineered

40

Will AI replace scientists?

41

Extra: Why can’t we figure out static electricity?

42

The Dawn of Writing

43

Extra: Why Are We Going Back To The Moon?

44

Building a Robotic Oesophagus

45

Why should we avoid creating contrails?

46

Extra: Movies reconstructed from mouse brain activity

47

What happens during a hallucination?

48

Extra: The Origins of Our Musical Ability

49

How The Brain Can Recover Forgotten Memories

50

Extra: Why animals see the world at different speeds

51

What you don’t know about respiration

52

Extra: What influences your willingness to be helpful towards strangers?

53

Clothes with health tracking technology

54

Extra: What drives the power of our tides and waves?

55

Predicting Scorpion Strikes

56

Extra: Does the Earth’s core hide vast hydrogen reservoirs?

57

Making Life with Artificial Biological Intelligence

58

Extra: Solar Maximum and the Northern lights explained

59

What is Aphantasia? Why some brains can’t visualize

60

Extra: What Is Childhood Dementia?

61

Building a womb lining in the lab

62

Extra: Turning muscle signals into speech

63

Why some wounds won’t heal

64

Extra: What if stopping Alzheimer’s means targeting one gene?

65

Tackling Space Debris

66

Extra: What exactly is DNA?

67

How blood vessels boost lab-grown mini-brains

68

Extra: Earth’s Early Wildfires

69

The Surprising Flaws of Evolution

70

Sustaining human life on the Moon and Mars

71

Extra: CAR T-Cell Therapy (Best of)

72

Best of Futureproof: Creating Dark Matter, Curing Addiction

73

Extra: Obtaining Fingerprints from Ammunition (Best of)

74

Best of Futureproof: Mirror Life & The Science of Embalming

75

Extra: Is butt breathing achievable?

76

The winter hibernation gene in animals

77

Extra: Vitamin D is linked to BMI?

78

Can we witness stars form planets?

79

Extra: How we exploit artificial intelligence

80

Is the human mind the next frontier in warfare?

81

Extra: The one thing you need to know about electricity

82

Treatment-resistant depression

83

Extra: The Age of Rock

84

Creating 'Mirror Life'

85

Extra: How chimps rationally revise their beliefs & face blindness

86

Recovering Lost Memories

87

Extra: How Close Are We To Lab-Grown Teeth?

88

Unusual Metamorphoses

89

Extra: The Origin of Dark Energy

90

Recovering fingerprints from ammunition for forensics

91

Extra: How to verify supplement quality

92

Why do pregnant women get morning sickness?

93

Extra: The Future of Solar Energy

94

The Harms of Over-Diagnosis

95

Extra: Huntington’s disease slowed with gene therapy

96

Rebuilding Our Body With Regenerative Medicine

97

Extra: Making the world's smallest violin

98

The creation of artificial cartilage

99

Extra: Dinosaur eggs directly dated for the first time

100

"Clearest sign" of life on Mars

101

Extra: Heart attacks may be triggered by infections

102

Dublin head scanner is 'breakthrough' in brain research

103

Extra: Misophonia Rehabilitation

104

How Humans Came to Walk Upright

105

Extra: What is Weaver Syndrome?

106

Creating Toothpaste Made From Hair

107

Extra: Eirsat-1 and The Future of Irish Satellites

108

Attacking Cancer: CAR T-Cell Therapy

109

Extra: Is slowing down ageing possible?

110

The science behind memory distortion

111

Extra: Advances In Ophthalmic Medicine and Eyecare

112

Can brain stimulation cure addiction?

113

Extra: Why is our Earth spinning faster?

114

Could colour be the answer to reviving marine life?

115

Extra: The role of mitochondria in why we need sleep

116

What determines the birth sex of a child?

117

Extra: Why newborns feel pain differently to adults

118

Biggest human imaging study completes scan of 100,000 people

119

Extra: Diabetes - could there be a cure?

120

Why are some species better at fooling predators?

121

Extra: How Does Pure Mathematics Shape Our World?

122

Extra: Did black holes create dark matter?

123

Can we programme life like software?

124

Extra: How do new planets form?

125

Vacuuming DNA & Is the ocean darkening?

126

'Mr Mummy' on King Tut's tomb and performing a mummification

127

Extra: Lyme Disease

128

Is The Earth's Core Leaking?

129

Extra: Imperfect Genetics

130

The Future of Fibre Optic Cables

131

Documentary Special: “Is There Anybody Out There?”

132

Extra: Could There Be Life On Mars?

133

The Man Who Endured 200 Snake Bites

134

Extra: Immunology from Deadly Pathogens

135

The Smells of an Epileptic Seizure

136

Extra: is the truth really the truth?

137

The new colour only 5 people have seen

138

Futureproof Extra: The Science of Risk (Best of)

139

Best of Futureproof: Becoming Concious & Rare Blood Plasma

140

Extra: How soon could we see lab-grown teeth?

141

The Science of Embalming

142

Extra: How micro-robots will help detect cancer in patients

143

What we know (and don't know) about the cosmos

144

Extra: Why mosquitos taste before they bite

145

Building a super particle collider

146

Extra: Why We Believe In Conspiracy Theories

147

Self-Assembling Long-Lasting Contraceptive

148

Extra: Using Virtual Reality To Conquer Fear of Public Speaking

149

The Great Whale Pee Funnel

150

Octopuses’ Weird Mating

151

When Do We Become Conscious?

152

Extra: Rare Blood Plasma

153

The Future of Space Food

154

Extra: The Advancement of AI

155

Should we reintroduce wolves to Ireland?

156

Extra: How our Brains Handle Aggression

157

Understanding More About the Sun & The Science of Risk

158

Extra: Solving Obesity

159

The Migration Journey for ‘Animal Athletes’

160

Extra: Meteorite Hunting

161

Toxic Semen in Mosquitoes

162

Futureproof Extra: Bioprinted Hearts

163

When Mega-Icebergs Melt

164

Extra: What is AMOC? And Why is it Changing?

165

How New Memories Are Formed

166

Extra: Carbon Dioxide's Secrets

167

How Decontamination Happens in Space

168

Extra: The Wallace Line

169

What Trees Can Tell Us

170

Extra: Bird Flu Epidemic in American Cattle

171

What connects cancer & Alzheimer's disease?

172

The Best of 2024

173

Extra: What Animals Understand About Death

174

Into the Unknown

175

Extra: Mushroom Robots

176

How quantum computing works

177

Extra: Private speech in twins

178

Can death be abolished?

179

Extra: The Prosthetic Memory System

180

Evolution's Bite and the Synthetic Age

181

Extra: Regeneration - The Internal World

182

What 'mastering' AI looks like

183

Extra: Regeneration - Virtual Worlds

184

Futureproof Live Science Week Special

185

Extra: A new blood pressure diagnostic device

186

Landing the Paris Agreement

187

Extra: Why are animals the size they are?

188

Extra: What Is The Fairest Electoral System?

189

Was ancient Greece's Antikythera mechanism the world's first computer?

190

Extra: Mapping the brain of a fly

191

The future of law enforcement

192

Extra: Estimating Ireland's ancient populations

193

Replicating the moon

194

Extra: Incredible new heart-imaging technology

195

How drugs are discovered

196

Extra: The Myths of Evolution

197

The Search for Male Contraception

198

Extra: Inflammatory Bowel Disease - What Causes It?

199

A brief history of UFOs

200

Extra: Lucid Dreaming

201

How AI will change your life

202

Extra: When can we have lab grown meat?

203

What happens to your data after you die?

204

Extra: What is Psilocybin and how does it work?

205

Life after death

206

Extra: How our biology shaped world history

207

What really happens during brain surgery

208

Extra: Inflammatory Bowel Disease - What Causes It?

209

Extra: A guide to our immune system

210

How neurons encode the meaning of words

211

Extra: Is the dream of fusion power dead?

212

What is MicroRNA?

213

Extra: The Wooden Age

214

Studying Consciousness

215

Extra: Symbiosis

216

Storm Chasing: The Science of Tornadoes

217

Moon Landing 55th Anniversary Special

218

Extra: Do I know you?

219

Why do some people always get lost?

220

Extra: Turbulence

221

What can we learn from whale ear wax?

222

Extra: Mapping the Cosmos

223

The Evolution of Flight & Digital Babies

224

Extra: You're All Talk, What Our Accents Say About Us

225

The High Seas

226

Extra: The Swiftquake Comes to Dublin!

227

How the things you see could alter how long you live!

228

Extra: The Evolutionary Effects of Endurance Hunting

229

Time Dilation & The Practical Challenges of Interstellar Travel

230

Gold: Faces

231

Extra: Carbon Capture

232

How the way we walk can tell us how healthy we are!

233

Extra: Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation

234

Exoplanet Weather

235

Extra: How Do We Divide Geological Time?

236

The Video Game that Aids Stroke Recovery

237

Extra: Could Europa Clipper Detect Life on Jupiter's Moon?

238

The Evolution of Eggs!

239

Extra: Ant Supercolonies

240

Space Elevators

241

Extra: Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Concussed?

242

The Interstellar Workshop

243

Extra: Extinctions: How Life Survives, Adapts and Evolves

244

The Purpose of the Universe

245

Extra: Could We Cure Brain Tumours?

246

Near Death Experiences

247

Gold: Where Are We?

248

Gold: DARPA - The Pentagon's Brain

249

Extra: Studying psi

250

Nuclear War: A Scenario

251

The Science of Menstruation

252

Eat, Poop, Die

253

Extra: Enhancing Daylight

254

The Nocebo Effect

255

Extra: The Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory

256

Who Owns The Moon?

257

Extra: Brain Fog

258

Why We Humans Can Get Used To Just About Anything

259

Futureproof Extra: A New Habitat in the Pacific Garbage Patch

260

Why Do Humans Grow Up So Slowly?

261

Documentary Special: Scorched Earth

262

Extra: Managing Stress Via The Gut

263

Could We Delay The Menopause?

264

Futureproof Extra: The origins of Guinness yeast

265

How does a brain implant affect your mind?

266

Futureproof Extra: What is the Coriolis Effect?

267

How does the human eye see so many colours?

268

Futureproof Extra: How does our skin age?

269

The science of quantum teleportation

270

Futureproof Extra: The vest that could help predict sudden cardiac death

271

What makes urine yellow?

272

Futureproof Extra: Reaching for the Sun

273

Warning drivers of road obstacles with 3D holograms

274

Best of 2023 - The Fascinating History of Measurement

275

Best of 2023 - Why Can't we Breathe Underwater?

276

Best of 2023 - Can we Live on Mars?

277

How can Humans Survive Extreme Cold?

278

The Atmospheric Phenomenom: STEVE

279

Futureproof Extra: How your organs can be a different age to the rest of your body

280

Creating VR Goggles for Mice

281

The Potential of Functional Foods

282

The Benefits of Hypoxia Training with Prof. Phil Jakeman

283

Futureproof Extra: How leaves form their shapes

284

The importance of scepticism in science

285

Futureproof Extra: Where do we save our memories?

286

Should we delay clamping the umbilical cord?

287

Science Week Special: What are the biggest threats to humanity?

288

Futureproof Extra: Exploring why UTIs persist with artificial bladders

289

EIRSAT-1: Ireland’s first satellite set for launch

290

Best of Futureproof: Why You Can't Focus

291

Futureproof Extra: The problem with 'Forever Chemicals'

292

Nature’s most effective and delicious toxins

293

Futureproof Extra: Pigments in the fossil record & the medical applications of Biophotonics

294

Does free will exist?

295

Do athletes perceive the world differently?

296

Futureproof Extra: What causes male pattern hair loss?

297

What are the "JuMBO" objects found in the Orion Nebula?

298

Futureproof Extra: Just how big can our brains get?

299

Are we too fixated on optimising our world?

300

Futureproof Extra: Toxoplasma Gondii

301

Lessons in longevity from the naked mole-rat

302

Futureproof Extra: Protecting our underwater cultural heritage

303

Can a robot be a person?

304

Futureproof Extra: The World of Dust

305

What our eyes can tell us about our health

306

Futureproof Extra: How rotational force is essential to everything

307

Will we soon be able to cure obesity?

308

Futureproof Extra: The Science of Cultured Meat

309

Womb transplants and the future of reproductive medicine

310

Futureproof Extra: Capturing Cosmic Dust

311

Can we reverse or stop ageing completely?

312

Futureproof Extra: Burying nuclear waste in Finland

313

How to build a spacesuit

314

Futureproof Extra: The Science of Suncream

315

Black Holes in Bathtubs

316

How technology affects our sleep

317

The relationship between your gut and your relationships

318

Futureproof Extra: How To Expect The Unexpected

319

How deepfakes impact your memory

320

Weapons of the Future, The Fibonacci Sequence & Cryo Conservation

321

Futureproof Extra: Geothermal Power

322

MDMA as a treatment for PTSD

323

Futureproof Extra: Ηow air pollution affects our health

324

The Woman Who Feels No Pain

325

Futureproof Extra: Harvesting electricity from thin air

326

The development of a new drug to prevent blood clotting

327

Futureproof Extra: Creating the First Synthetic Human Embryo

328

Why Ireland Has Fewer Earthquakes Than Britain

329

Futureproof Extra: The Dangers & Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence

330

Tackling the growing problem of light pollution

331

Futureproof Extra: Combating Bad Data & Misleading Numbers

332

Innovating Healthcare: Galway's Clinical Revolution

333

Futureproof Extra: Immunology Breakthrough

334

The First Egyptian Astronaut

335

Futureproof Extra: AI Mindreading

336

Why can’t we breathe underwater?

337

Futureproof Extra: Is Immortality by 2045 Possible?

338

The Science of Measurement

339

Futureproof Extra: The Secrets Of Our Seas

340

Lab-Grown Blood

341

Futureproof Extra: Curing Hearing Loss

342

Vaccine Patches

343

Futureproof Extra: The Future of Surrogacy & AI

344

Short Term Memory Illusions

345

Futureproof Extra: 'JUICE' Mission & Exploring Jupiter

346

Injectable Brain Implants

347

Futureproof Extra: Interpreting Alien Signals

348

Have we smelled everything in the world?

349

Futureproof Extra: How are diamonds formed?

350

Thomas Hertog on space, time, and working with Stephen Hawking

351

Futureproof Extra: The Trust Race

352

Tickertape Synesthesia & The Future of Quantum Computing

353

Futureproof Extra: Tenacious Beasts

354

Space prisons & other realities of living beyond Earth

355

Is ChatGPT the beginning of a general AI revolution?

356

Futureproof Extra: Ireland's first solar-powered racing car

357

Futureproof Gold: Face Blindness & Super Recognition

358

Do facial expressions influence our emotional state?

359

The Psychology of Revenge

360

Futureproof Extra: Will we soon be living on the moon?

361

The Science of Antidepressants

362

Creating a contraceptive pill for men

363

How to conduct an autopsy

364

Futureproof Extra: Underwater Avalanches

365

The Science of Sleep & Dreams

366

Do facial expressions influence our emotional state?

367

The Science of Semiconductors

368

Understanding Endometriosis With Single-Cell Genomics

369

Futureproof Extra: Hybrid Biomaterials for Spinal Cord Injuries

370

Origins of the Africanized Honey Bee

371

Futureproof Extra: What makes Roman concrete so duarble?

372

How to build the first city on Mars

373

Futureproof Extra: The Benefits of Sperm Swimming in Groups

374

Is it getting harder to maintain focus?

375

Futureproof Special: The Best of 2022

376

Futureproof Extra: Beyond Our Five Senses

377

Do Dark Matter & Dark Energy Actually Exist?

378

Futureproof Gold: Evolution's Bite

379

Futureproof Extra: The Origins of Sentience

380

Is Human Hibernation A Possibility?

381

Futureproof Extra: The Art of Making the Invisible Visible

382

Evidence of the Multiverse

383

Futureproof Gold: Enemies of the State

384

Futureproof Live: Is there a limit to our intelligence?

385

Futureproof Live: Is it possible to run forever?

386

Futureproof Extra: Neurostimulation in E-Sports

387

Gravity Batteries

388

The Sounds We Cannot Hear & What Can We Take To Make Us Live Longer?

389

Using AI to fight blindness

390

What is energy anyway?

391

Futureproof Extra: How do we tackle chronic pain?

392

Can Humpback whales be altruistic?

393

Is “Gamification” making fools of all of us?

394

Futureproof Extra: The science behind bees' waggle dance

395

Futureproof Extra: The new science of the heart

396

Human Organs-on-Chips

397

Futureproof Extra: The End of Medicine As We Know It

398

Thorium Nuclear Reactors

399

Futureproof Extra: The Large Hadron Collider & The Search for a Fifth Force

400

Longevity, Immortality and the quest to defeat death with Aubrey De Grey

401

The Future of Transport

402

Futureproof Extra: Survival of the Richest

403

Exploring the Idea of Plant Intelligence

404

Futureproof Extra: What Animals Can Teach Us About Living Longer

405

Futureproof Extra: The Genetic Age

406

Chemputers & The Future of Chemistry

407

The Futureproof Language Special

408

Futureproof Extra: Prader-Willi Syndrome

409

The Science of Attraction

410

Futureproof Extra: The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

411

Inside The Mind of a Bee

412

Futureproof Extra: The Trouble with Cloning Birds

413

Why Usain Bolt Can’t Outrun Your Cat

414

Futureproof Extra: Why Do We See Ghosts?

415

Is Animal Translation Possible?

416

Futureproof Extra: The Science of Bisexuality

417

The Hidden Depths of Animal Perception

418

The Dream Machine

419

Gazing Into the Deepest Depths of the Cosmos

420

Futureproof Extra: The Secret Perfume of Birds

421

How To Change Someone's Mind

422

Futureproof Gold: DARPA - The Pentagon's Brain

423

Futureproof Extra: The Cutting-Edge Tech of Modern Operating Theatres

424

A Brief History of Weaponised Insects

425

Futureproof Gold: What is Time?

426

Futureproof Extra: Fair Seas & Potecting Our Marine Habitats

427

SIRT 6: The Longevity Gene

428

Could Google's LaMDA Really Be Sentient?

429

How The Science of Dogs Changed The Science of Life

430

Futureproof Extra: Treating Spinal Cord Injuries

431

Futureproof Extra: How Sensors Shape Our Everyday Life

432

What Does It Mean To Be Alive?

433

Futureproof Gold: The Science of Smell

434

Futureproof Special: United By DNA

435

Futureproof Extra: The Sound of The Universe & Everything In It

436

The Cutting-Edge Science of Transplants

437

Futureproof Extra: A Genetic History of the Americas

438

What Happened Before The Big Bang?

439

The Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory

440

Futureproof Extra: Upcycling CO2

441

A New Understanding Of Epilepsy

442

What Goes In To Designing A Rollercoaster?

443

Futureproof Extra: Are Smaller Scorpions More Deadly

444

Sequencing the Complete Human Genome

445

Futureproof Extra: Paleoburrows

446

50 Years of the The Dunedin Study

447

Futureproof Extra: What We Don't Know About Gravity

448

Creating Synthetic Alcohol

449

Futureproof Extra: The Joy of Science with Jim Al-Khalili

450

Designing a Vaccine for Covid-19

451

Futureproof Extra: Why Do We Hate?

452

The End of the Age of Astronauts

453

Futureproof Extra: Genomics

454

How Motorsport Science Can Save The World

455

Futureproof Extra: The Expectation Effect

456

Can Animals Detect Natural Disasters?

457

Futureproof Extra: Measuring Intelligence

458

NeoMimix: The New Sperm Selection Technology

459

Futureproof Extra: The Winchcombe Lockdown Meteorite

460

A Forensic Look at Solving Crimes

461

Futureproof Extra: Hybrid Humans

462

Unraveling the Mysteries of our Ancient Dead

463

What Sleep Can Teach Us About Epilepsy

464

Can Geoengineering Help in the Fight Against Climate Change?

465

Why Are We So Obsessed With Measuring Time?

466

Why Is Chewing So Important?

467

Could We Be On The Verge Of A Vaccine For MS?

468

Futureproof Extra: How Do We Navigate?

469

Where Are All The Irish Dinosaurs?

470

Futureproof Extra: A Natural History of the Future

471

What Life In Space Teaches Us About Life On Earth

472

Futureproof Gold: The Milgram Experiments

473

Futureproof Extra: The Robbers Cave Experiment

474

What Is Testosterone?

475

Futureproof Extra: Reading Monkey Brains with AI

476

Why Do We Kiss?

477

Futureproof Extra: Resignation Syndrome & Other Mysterious Illnesses

478

FutureProof Gold: The Pentagon's Brain

479

How Military Funding Shapes What We Know About The Oceans

480

Deepfakes: Have We Crossed The Uncanny Valley?

481

Futureproof Extra: Of Sound Mind

482

Can We Make Synthetic Blood?

483

The Cosmos, Blackholes & Time Loops With Neil deGrasse Tyson

484

Futureproof Extra: The Invisible Universe

485

Can Self-Driving Cars Be Moral?

486

The Intricate Skills Required For Bomb Disposal

487

Futureproof Extra: Fighting Infectious Diseases

488

Life As We Made It