Episodes
| Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forests, Pharma And Phages | 20230924 | 20230926 (R4) | Tim Hayward has been in and around professional kitchens for years, and has long seen bacteria as the enemy, attempting to kill them at every opportunity and in every possible way. In this three-part series, he starts to wonder if things are quite as simple as that and, before long, discovers that these tiny organisms are unlike anything he had ever imagined. In this second episode, Tim encounters a massive steel tank in which bacteria are manufacturing medicinal molecules, finds out how forest microbes are changing human immune systems at an urban daycare centre in Finland, and comes face-to-face with something altogether astonishing - a microscopic organism that resembles a lunar lander, a bacteriophage (phage). Contributors: Alexandra Adams, chemical engineer, Stanford University Aude Bernheim, microbiologist, Pasteur Institute Martha Clokie, microbiologist, Centre for Phage Research at the University of Leicester Paul Turner, microbiologist, Yale University Presenter: Tim Hayward Producer and Sound Design: Richard Ward Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones A Loftus Media production for Radio 4 Tim Hayward re-enters the bacterial realm and comes face-to-face with a phage. New series uncovering the science and magic of bacteria. Tim Hayward has been in and around professional kitchens for years, and has long seen bacteria as the enemy, attempting to kill them at every opportunity and in every possible way. In this three-part series, he starts to wonder if things are quite as simple as that and, before long, discovers that these tiny organisms are unlike anything he had ever imagined. In this second episode, Tim encounters a massive steel tank in which bacteria are manufacturing medicinal molecules, finds out how forest microbes are changing human immune systems at an urban daycare centre in Finland, and comes face-to-face with something altogether astonishing - a microscopic organism that resembles a lunar lander, a bacteriophage (phage). Contributors: Alexandra Adams, chemical engineer, Stanford University Aude Bernheim, microbiologist, Pasteur Institute Martha Clokie, microbiologist, Centre for Phage Research at the University of Leicester Paul Turner, microbiologist, Yale University Presenter: Tim Hayward Producer and Sound Design: Richard Ward Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones A Loftus Media production for Radio 4 Tim Hayward re-enters the bacterial realm and comes face-to-face with a phage. New series uncovering the science and magic of bacteria. |
| Microbial Cities And New Worlds | 20230917 | 20230919 (R4) | Tim Hayward has been in and around professional kitchens for years - and has long seen bacteria as the enemy, attempting to kill them at every opportunity and in every possible way. In this three-part series, he starts to wonder if things are quite as simple as that and, before long, discovers that these tiny organisms are unlike anything he had ever imagined. In this first episode, Tim climbs aboard the Magic School Bus to go on a bacteria hunt, gets shrunken down to the size of a microbe, and witnesses time travel and evolution in an Erlenmeyer flask. Features: Laura Hug, environmental microbiologist, University of Waterloo Richard Lenski, evolutionary biologist, Michigan State University Justin Stewart, evolutionary biologist, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Presenter: Tim Hayward Producer and sound design: Richard Ward Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4 Tim Hayward enters the bacterial jungle and discovers a whole new world of possibilities. New series uncovering the science and magic of bacteria. |
| Our Interconnected Planet | 20231001 | 20231003 (R4) | Tim Hayward has been in and around professional kitchens for years, and has long seen bacteria as the enemy, attempting to kill them at every opportunity and in every possible way. In this three-part series, he starts to wonder if things are quite as simple as that, and before long discovers that these tiny organisms are unlike anything he had ever imagined. In this third and final episode, Tim finds unique and unfathomably precious communities of bacteria in unexpected places - and examines the Earth's past, present and future through microbial goggles. Contributors: Pierce Bozeat, research scientist, CyanoCapture Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, microbiologist, Rutgers University Laura Hug, environmental microbiologist, University of Waterloo Valeria Souza, biologist, Universidad Nacional Aut noma de M退xico (UNAM) Franciska de Vries, soil ecologist, University of Amsterdam Extract from article by Roger Payne I Spent My Life Saving the Whales. Now They Might Save Us', Time 5th June 2023. Reading by Michael Goldfarb Presenter: Tim Hayward Producer and sound design: Richard Ward Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones A Loftus Media production for Radio 4 Tim Hayward examines the earth's past, present and future through microbial goggles. New series uncovering the science and magic of bacteria. |