The first of two articles for the BBC Focus end of year special – ‘Radical Ideas to Expand Your Mind’ – explored how microorganisms known as ‘ice-nucleation active bacteria’ can affect the weather. Read More »
Author: Tom Ireland
Interview with Dame Georgina Mace on the crisis of global biodiversity loss (The Biologist)
Scientists have failed to expressed the urgency of species loss in the way they have for climate change, says UCL’s professor of biodiversity and ecosystems Dame Georgina Mace.
Pop-up science labs and hipster biotech (The Guardian/ Observer)
I spent time with a community of biotech entrepreneurs working out of shipping containers in the middle of London’s Shepherd’s Bush Market. Read More »
What is Cannabis oil and can it be used as medicine? (BBC Focus)
Following a series of high-profile legal cases involving parents using cannabis oil to treat their children’s epilepsy, and with shops like Holland & Barrett now selling ‘cannabis-based’ oil, I did a Q&A for BBC Focus to clarify what this product really is and whether using it as medicine is a good idea.
In cold blood: How therapeutic hypothermia can save lives
History is littered with miraculous tales of people surviving hours without a pulse in extremely cold conditions. My latest article for BBC Focus explores how this has inspired medics to induce hypothermia in patients suffering strokes, heart attacks, and even multiple gunshot wounds in order to help stave off death.
Interview with DIY gene-editing maverick Josiah Zayner for The Guardian
I interviewed biohacker Josiah Zayner, who recently became one of the first people in the world to conduct DIY gene therapy on himself. Our wide-ranging conversation covered lots of ground, from his own bedroom experiments with poo, to the problems with clinical trials, to humans with tails and the future of us as a species. Read More »
Understand antibiotic resistance (BBC Focus)
As part of the BBC Focus ‘instant expert’ series, I explored how microorganisms develop resistance to antimicrobial drugs, what we can do to stop it – and what the world will be like if we don’t. Read More »
Should we resurrect the wooly mammoth? (BBC World/Sky News appearance)
No, of course not. And it probably isn’t going to happen anyway. Read More »
Who wants to live forever? (BBC Focus)
In the small town of Comfort, Texas, an audacious ‘Timeship’ is being built to cryogenically freeze thousands of human bodies, in the hope they will be revived by a future civilisation. Could such an idea ever work?Read More »
The art of saving lives (BBC Focus)
I spoke to photographer Reiner Riedler about his 2015 project The Lifesaving Machines, which involved him documenting the enormous, expensive, and sometimes eerie machines built to help keep us alive. Read More »
