Inside Science: Bionic Eye Breakthrough, Skeleton Pregnancy Test, Weather Rescue Volunteers, and Martian Ice from Volcanoes

Episode snapshot

This edition highlights a wireless bionic eye implant that restores central vision, a hormone-based pregnancy test for ancient bones, and the Met Office Weather Rescue citizen-science project that keeps daily rainfall records. Caroline Steele surveys Mars equatorial ice formed by volcanic eruptions, and Brenna Hassett explains why scientists are exploring menstrual-like processes in mice. The show also recounts a dramatic nocturnal encounter where a bat takes on a robin, recorded with tracking gear. Across these stories, scientists blend biology, geology and citizen science to expand knowledge of living systems, planetary science and climate history.

The programme also notes how infrared stimulation supports a preserved peripheral retina, and why 200 years of rainfall data collected by volunteers help trace climate change, alongside discussions of ancient hormone signals in bones and the wild complexity of predator-prey interactions in the night sky.

Bionic eye: wireless retinal implant and high-contrast vision

The Inside Science team discusses a bionic eye that sits under the retina, paired with glasses that capture the scene and a wireless transducer that sharpens the image before infrared light stimulates the implant. This approach preserves peripheral vision and delivers high-contrast signals that reach the brain via the optic nerve, offering meaningful improvements for people with central vision loss. The host and expert explain how this technology compares to earlier implants and why the eye is a particularly suitable target for such devices, given its transparent structure and retained neural pathways. Francesca Cordero, ophthalmologist at Imperial College London is quoted as describing the progress as a huge step forward.

"It is a huge improvement on anything that has been put forward before" — Francesca Cordero, ophthalmologist, Imperial College London.

Ancient pregnancies: hormone testing on skeletal remains

A skeleton pregnancy test is developed by extracting hormones from bone and dental samples to detect estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, using a method akin to home pregnancy tests. Progesterone is highlighted as a key marker for pregnancy. The method enables researchers to determine whether skeletal remains from past populations were recently pregnant, offering deeper insight into reproductive life histories and the evolution of human gestation. Brenna Hassett, a bioarchaeologist, explains the significance for understanding women's lives in the past and how hormone analysis on ancient tissues opens new avenues for investigation.

"Progesterone, particularly is the one that's really important, that pregnant women have lots of progesterone" — Brenna Hassett, bioarchaeologist.

Weather data from volunteers: Weather Rescue

The show spotlights the Weather Rescue project led by Ed Hawkins, which reclaims long-form rainfall data from archives and transcribes it into digital records for climate analysis. Volunteers collect daily rainfall using traditional gauges, providing a continuity that automated systems can miss during outages or failures. Hawkins notes the historical value of 200 years of rainfall data across the British Isles and discusses how AI may eventually accelerate transcription of the remaining daily sheets. The story underscores the importance of human observation in maintaining credible meteorological records and demonstrates how citizen science connects everyday activity to climate research.

"Having that manual connection with the same technology, is what gives us great confidence" — Ed Hawkins, Professor of Climate Science, University of Reading.

Mars ice and Earthbound implications

Caroline Steele explains a Nature Communications study showing that volcanic eruptions on Mars could loft water into the atmosphere up to about 65 kilometres, where it would freeze and fall as ice, insulated by volcanic ash. This mechanism could explain the salience of equatorial ice despite Mars' overall cold climate and has implications for future exploration and potential habitation. The discussion situates this discovery in the broader context of Martian hydrology and the challenges and opportunities of terraforming or long-term settlement at the equator.

"over the course of millions of years, these eruptions could have blasted water from the interior of the planet up into the atmosphere, 65 kilometres up into the atmosphere, because there's not much gravity on Mars" — Caroline Steele.

Night-time dynamics: bats and robins

The programme closes with a remarkable nocturnal case: a European greater noctule bat, outfitted with a position tag and acoustic recorder, encounters a robin while hunting. The overnight recording reveals a dramatic tussle and then a prolonged chewing sequence as the bat captures and consumes prey, illustrating how migration patterns bring nocturnal predators into new prey windows. This segment highlights the adaptability of predators and the seasonal shifts in prey vulnerability.

In addition, the episode touches on ongoing work to model menstrual-like processes in laboratory mice, a developing area that could illuminate conditions such as endometriosis and the evolution of human reproductive biology.

Conclusion

Across these stories, Inside Science demonstrates how advances in medical implants, ancient biomarker analysis, climate data collection, planetary science, and animal behavior research come together to deepen our understanding of biology, earth and space sciences, and the human story.