Syma Khalid
Professor of Computational Microbiology at University of Oxford
Appears in 25 Episodes
Question and Answer Time!
In this episode Syma and Tim conduct a Q and A session for the many fantastic questions that have been hitting our email inbox over the last three months or so. They a...
The Science Of Football
Surely there is not much more to football than kicking a ball.? Wrong, There is a whole science behind it. Professor Robbie Wilson explains his work in this area and ...
Science Explainer: Why is it so hard to kill bacteria?
In this explainer, Syma discusses some of the methods bacteria use to defend themselves from attack from external threats such as antibiotics. These ostensibly simple ...
Why Wolves Don’t Change Rivers
Dan MacNulty has studied the wildlife in Yellowstone National Park since 1995. His research, and that of his colleagues, has revealed that the narrative that wolves ha...
Science Explainer: New Funding for US based scientists looking to move to the UK.
Tim breaks down a game-changing shift in global science research: as U.S. funding for future research faces uncertainty, UK funding agencies are seizing the moment—off...
Break Barriers: Women, the Physical Sciences Need You Now!
In this short bonus episode Syma talks to Philipp Kukura. Philipp led the development of a technique called mass photometry which enables tracking the movement of indi...
Why Ginger Cats Are Mostly Boys (and Why Some Wolves Are Black!)
In this third quick hit explainer of the week. Why are most ginger cats male? Simple genetics — the orange fur gene is on the X chromosome. Males only need one to flau...
How To Build A Sustainable World
If we don’t build a more sustainable world our civilisation will collapse, potentially in the coming decades. Paul Behrens spends his time researching our impact on th...
AI Undermines Health Science
In our second quick-hit explainer episode this week, Tim breaks down how AI might be disrupting—not advancing—health science. Is the hype overshadowing real medical in...
Why Is There A Universe? Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
In this quick bonus episode, Tim breaks down one of science’s most intriguing mysteries as featured in BBC News today: the difference between matter and antimatter. Jo...
The Quantum Revolution: Lee Smolin’s Bold Theory to Unite Physics
Theoretical physics has two theories at its core that are not straightforward to link – quantum mechanics and general relativity. Lee Smolin, one of the world’s greate...
Special Edition- Can academia provide solutions to threats to biodiversity?
Biodiversity is under threat, and there are many ongoing efforts to help save it, including from within universities. But are academic contributions doing any good? Ou...
Should we fear AI?
Artificial intelligence is a modern-day technology that will impact the way we live much as past innovations like mastering fire, and inventing the printing press, hom...
Natural and artificial genetic hybrids: dogs, coyotes and dire wolves. PART 2
Colossal Bioscience has brought genetic variation back from the grave. It is a remarkable technological achievement, but is it species de-extinction? In this second pa...
Natural and artificial genetic hybrids: dogs, coyotes and dire wolves.
Colossal Bioscience has brought genetic variation back from the grave. It is a remarkable technological achievement, but is it species de-extinction? We talk to Profes...
Will Zombie ants be the last of us?
A bonus episode in which Tim and Syma discuss how the zombie ant-based creatures seen on popular dystopian future drama Last of Us are based on real fungi (Cordyceps) ...
SPECIAL EDITION - Interview with David Baker 2024 Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry
Syma and Tim are joined by Nobel Laureate David Baker, one of the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on computational protein design. This foll...
De-mything the hype around de-extinction
Colassal says it has de-extincted an animal. Is this a dire wolf or a dire mistake? Join Tim and Syma on this short bonus edition!
Snake venom 'milkers' beware the proteins and not the snake!
Proteins are the workhorses of life, with thousands overseeing and getting involved in reactions within our cells. Biologists have long dreamed of being able to make d...
How did dogs become our best friend?
Dogs are people’s best friend, but how did that happen? Did we tame them or did they train us, or is it a bit of both? Join us as we discuss domestication with Grege...
Not all birds are the same
Not all Birds are the same. In analyses of thousands of hours of bird song our guests, Nilo Merino Recalde and Ben Sheldon found predictable variation in the calls of ...
OSIRIS-REx 'Touch and go' and the emergence of life elsewhere in the cosmos!
OSIRIS-REx is a space craft that visited the asteroid Bennu, returning samples to Earth in late 2023. The first exciting results from the analyses of these samples are...
Unravelling the secrets of our genes.
Tim and Syma’s guests are Gordon Sanghera and Lakmal Jayasinghe of Oxford Nanopore Technologies. They discuss how their elegant technology is transforming the ease wit...
Smart Male Fish Get The Girls!
Later in this episode, Tim flies solo in the wake of Syma's imminent departure for duties on the west coast of the US!Tim's guests are Ivan Vinogradov and Michael Jenn...
Hello! Welcome to our new podcast.
In this introductory episode, Syma and Tim introduce themselves and explain what subjects and ideas they hope to bring to their audience, and some of the things they w...