Naked Scientists Podcast: Five-Year COVID Review, UK Engineering Biology Opportunities, Planet Nine Preview and Dreaming at Altitude

The Naked Scientists episode from Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education surveys five years since the COVID-19 outbreak, discusses the UK House of Lords seizing the opportunity in engineering biology, and looks ahead to the Vera Rubin Observatory's search for Planet Nine. It also delves into why high altitude can affect dreams, based on sleep science.

• COVID-19 five-year view: infections, deaths, vaccine impact, long COVID and ongoing burden
• UK engineering biology: scaling science into industry, regulatory and funding needs
• Xenon in Alzheimer's models: microglia activation and potential pathology reduction
• Planet Nine: how Vera Rubin Observatory could finally locate a missing world

COVID-19 five-year reflection and preparedness

The podcast opens with a retrospective on the COVID-19 pandemic five years on. It notes a global tally of “billions of infections” and a deaths figure reported at just over seven million, with cautions that excess mortality suggests a higher true toll. The discussion highlights stark peaks and subsequent declines in weekly deaths and cases, and emphasizes that the virus is still circulating and capable of causing harm. The speakers reflect on whether the world is better prepared for the next pandemic, acknowledging concrete improvements in surveillance, diagnostics, sequencing, emergency operations, oxygen supply, and PPE, while warning that sustaining these capacities amid a complex, climate- and conflict-driven landscape remains a challenge. The interview also references ongoing work on pandemic financing and the push for legally binding international agreements beyond handshake commitments.

Engineering biology in the UK policy landscape

Attention then shifts to the UK, where the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee published a report titled Dont Fail to Scale Seizing the opportunity of engineering biology. Engineering biology is described as the use of organisms to replace industrial chemistry, read and write DNA, and leverage AI to design and optimize biological systems for real world applications. The discussion underscores how the UK has built a strong science base but faces a historical difficulty in scaling to industrial, commercially viable processes. The report argues that the window is closing as international competitors accelerate, urging bold action to keep the UK at the forefront of bio-based industries. Key policy suggestions include expanding skills and visas for scientists, simplifying regulation via a Regulatory Innovation Office, establishing a National Wealth Fund to de-risk early investors, and creating policy levers like public procurement and sustainable-fuel mandates to drive adoption of engineering biology workflows.

Recommendations and government response

The guests reflect on the recommendations gathered from scientists and industry figures, including the need for a simpler regulatory environment and a clearer single point of entry for companies navigating regulators. They emphasize the importance of skilled migration, investment, and a national strategy that connects research to adoption. With science leadership in government, including Lords Vallance and Maclean, the discussion anticipates a government response that could unlock a strategic UK advantage if action is swift and coordinated.

Xenon and Alzheimer's disease: a potential immunomodulatory avenue

In a different scientific thread, the podcast introduces a study from Harvard’s Brain Science Initiative led by Oleg Batovski (Oleg Pitovsky) on the noble gas xenon. When inhaled, xenon appears to increase microglial mobility and phagocytic activity in mouse models engineered to exhibit Alzheimer’s-like pathology. The team first tested xenon effects in simple models and then in transgenic mice that overexpress pathogenic amyloid and tau proteins. Xenon inhalation briefly increased microglial migration toward dying cells and enhanced phagocytosis, correlating with a reduction in neuritic plaques and amyloid-associated pathology in these models. The researchers emphasize that this is early-stage, animal-model work and that cost and delivery challenges remain before any clinical use. Nevertheless, the findings offer an intriguing potential path to modulate immune cells in the brain to support neuroprotection or repair in Alzheimer’s disease.

Planet Nine and the Vera Rubin Observatory

The program then turns to planetary science with Matt Bothwell of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. The discussion centers on the Planet Nine hypothesis, which posits a large, unseen planet influencing the orbits of distant trans-Neptunian objects. The planetoid could be a few Earth masses up to a Neptune-like gas giant. The Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile is described as a game changer because it will scan the entire sky every few days, down to very faint limits, enabling time-domain astronomy on a scale not previously possible. Rubin’s design stands in contrast to current telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope, which image tiny patches of the sky. Rubin will create a dynamic sky survey, potentially isolating Planet Nine’s perturbations and offering deeper insights into dark energy and dark matter through wide-field mapping. First light is expected in 2025, opening a new era in large-scale, time-resolved astronomy.

Question of the Week: altitude and dreaming

The final major segment addresses high altitude dreaming. Andrew Murray, Professor of Metabolic Physiology at Cambridge, explains that high altitude can disrupt sleep through Cheyne Stokes breathing and periodic apnea, driven by the carotid body’s response to hypoxia and the brain’s chemical buffering. Contrary to a simple expectation that REM sleep would increase with stress, researchers have found that REM sleep tends to decrease at altitude and overall sleep duration also shortens. However, dream recall may increase because awakenings bring dream content more readily into waking consciousness. The discussion links physiology to the phenomenology of high definition dreams and underscores the value of studying sleep under extreme environmental conditions. The episode closes with listener questions and a reminder of donation support.

Closing thoughts and next episode

The hosts invite further listener engagement and mention an upcoming Burns Night special on the science of Scotch whisky. The Naked Scientists show is produced in association with Spitfire and Cambridge affiliations, with support from Rolls-Royce. The program ends with an invitation to contribute and a sign-off from the hosts.