Life Sciences » Life Sciences News (tag [TV/Radio])

Dave Chandler on the Instant Genius: The future of Food Podcast

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:06:00 GMT

As part of a four-part miniseries, Future of Food, Dr Dave Chandler, a crop researcher and agricultural scientist based at the University of Warwick, Warwick Crop Centre tells the podcast how current global food production practices are one of the most significant drivers of environmental damage and biodiversity loss, how climate change is threatening our ability to grow fresh produce to put on our plates and details some of the current thinking on how we can ensure the future of food production worldwide.

Recent UN data tells us that currently 670 million people around the world are going hungry. There’s little doubt that food security is one of the most serious problems that the human race is facing. How have we reached this point of crisis and what solutions can we put in place to make sure everyone on the planet has enough nutritious food to eat without causing further harm to the environment?

As part of our four-part miniseries, Future of Food, we’re joined by Dr Dave Chandler, a crop researcher and agricultural scientist based at the University of Warwick.

He tells us how current global food production practices are one of the most significant drivers of environmental damage and biodiversity loss, how climate change is threatening our ability to grow fresh produce to put on our plates and details some of the current thinking on how we can ensure the future of food production worldwide.

Earth is heading for a food emergency. Can we stop it?

The dirty truth: how common are faecal bacteria on your everyday care products?

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 11:05:00 GMT

Dr Fabrizio Alberti and Dr Pan Prasongpholchai recently tested toothbrushes for the presence of bacteria for a BBC Morning Live item about dirty toothbrushes. The episode aired on Friday 25 October.
Watch the clip on iPlayer.
Find out more in the Alberti Lab blog.

The University of Warwick celebrates the successful harvest of "GODIVA" and ‘OLIVIA’ – two novel dry beans inspired by local cultural history.

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 09:41:00 GMT

Researchers at Warwick Crop Centre have celebrated the successful harvest of a homegrown bean developed to thrive in a British summer.

Press Release (9 September 2023)

Professor Eric Holub and research fellow Rosanne Maguire discuss the novel bean varieties on BBC CWR.

Radio interview

Producing a baked bean suitable for growing in the UK

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 14:03:00 GMT

On Thursday 13 October, Professor Eric Holub, a plant scientist at Warwick Crop Centre, was featured on Channel 5 discussing his research to produce baked bean varieties suitable for growing in the UK climate on a commercial scale.

Growing haricot beans in the UK will offer a low food miles alternative supply model to those currently imported from North America.

Watch Secrets of Your Supermarket Shop: Episode 6 (from 28 mins).

Digging for Britain - DNA testing

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 11:22:00 GMT

On 5 January Professor Robin Allaby featured in the BBC's Digging for Britain programme. He discussed the DNA testing of sediment from a Mesolithic settlement located on the seabed of the Solent. The analysis determined what was being eaten by the Mesolithic people. The appearance of wheat, 2000 years earlier than previously accepted was a major revelation.
Watch on iPlayer (from 46:10)

Arctic Drift: A Year in the Ice - watch the documentary on 16 October

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 12:27:00 GMT

On Saturday 16 October 2021 at 6:30pm, Channel 4 will be showcasing the documentary 'Arctic Drift: A Year in the Ice', covering the goal of MOSAIC and the science undertaken during the Expedition.

In September 2019, the icebreaker RV Polarstern left her home port in Bremerhaven to sail north. Her goal was to act as the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC), the largest Arctic Research Expedition ever undertaken, with the collaboration of over 80 institutions from 20 countries, to study both winter and summer processes and relationships between ocean, ice and atmosphere.

University of Warwick SLS scientists Dr Alison Webb, Professor Hendrik Schaefer and Professor Yin Chen, undertook the 'Sea Ice Microbiology and the Role in Cycling of Sulfur' (SIMbRICS) Project during the second half of MOSAiC. Overall, this project, in collaboration with the University of Groningen (NL) and the University of East Anglia (UK), aimed to study the in-situ production of the climate-relevant biogenic gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) and to link this with the diversity of the microbial community.

As the sea ice transitioned from the long Arctic winter, through a short spring to summer of 24 hours of daylight, ice melt created a highly variable environment of meltponds and a stratified surface ocean, which changed again through the onset of autumn. These changes create a high stress environment for the microbiome and the SIMbRICS project is investigating how these changing conditions affect the production of climate-relevant trace gases such as DMS.

Find out more about the MOSAiC Expedition

Researcher on fast track thanks to dementia charity founded by F1 legend

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 14:09:00 GMT

Dr Emily Hill, a School of Life Sciences researcher investigating Alzheimer’s disease, has been named as one of four new Race Against Dementia Fellows, with the opportunity to receive support from not only leading scientists studying dementia, but also experts in innovation and problem solving from the world of Formula 1.

Press release (23 September 2021)

Hunting for life-saving phage in sewage

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 09:00:00 GMT

Dr Eleanor Townsend and Dr Ellie Jameson were part of a documentary on the ‘Secret Science of Sewage', aired on Thursday 18 March. The researchers were filmed collecting samples from Minworth Sewage works and characterising the phages they contain, as a possible solution in the fight against antimicrobial resistant bacteria. Dr Eleanor Townsend was filmed in the School of Life Sciences imaging suite, imaging the phages on the Transmission Electron Microscope. Dr Ellie Jameson discussed the results with Dr George McGavin.

The Jameson laboratory, at the University of Warwick, is developing phage cocktails to prevent the most common UTI infections (Enterobacteriaceae) that can lead to severe complications. Findings have recently been published on the use of phages to prevent catheter biofilms: Townsend, E. M., Moat, J., & Jameson, E. (2020). CAUTI’s Next Top Model–model dependent Klebsiella biofilm inhibition by bacteriophages and antimicrobials. Biofilm, 2, 100038. This involves hunting for novel, diverse phages in sewage and characterising them.

The Jameson laboratory has also supplied their rigorously characterised phages for compassionate use in patients with no other treatment options. This work was recently peer reviewed and accepted in the journal; Phage - Townsend, E., Kelly, L., Gannon, L., Muscatt, G., Dunstan, R., Michniewski, S., ... & Jameson, E. (2020). Isolation and characterisation of Klebsiella phages for phage therapy. bioRxiv.

Work is currently being expanded to design phage cocktails to treat pneumonia, bloodstream infections and inflammatory bowel disease in collaboration with Professor Trevor Lithgow at Monash University.

Watch 'The Secret Science of Sewage'

Coronavirus: What is a second wave and is one coming?

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 16:55:00 GMT

BBC News talks to Dr Mike Tildesley about the possibility of a second wave and predicting when it might happen.

BBC News (24 June 2020)

Six Months of Coronavirus: What Have We Learned?

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 12:45:12 GMT

Professor Andrew Easton discusses the last six months on TRT World: