The programme consists of an interview between Jim al-Khalili and the featured scientist.
A variety of third parties contribute anecdotes about each programme's subject.[4]
The programme's BBC Programme Identifier (PID; a unique identifier) is b015sqc7.[1]
| Name | Date | Topic | Programme page | | Paul Nurse | 11 October 2011}} | Biology, winning the Nobel Prize and being President of the Royal Society | [7] |
| Steven Pinker | 18 October 2011}} | Science writing and cognitive psychology | [8] |
| Jocelyn Bell Burnell | 25 October 2011}} | Astronomy | [9] |
| Michael Marmot | 1 November 2011}} | How stress kills | [10] |
| Colin Blakemore | 8 November 2011}} | Neuroscience | [11] |
| Molly Stevens | 15 November 2011}} | Growing human bones in a test tube | [12] |
| Nicky Clayton | 22 November 2011}} | The intelligence of birds | [13] |
| John Sulston | 29 November 2011}} | Biology | [14] |
| Uta Frith | 6 December 2011}} | Changing how we view brain disorders | [15] |
| Tim Hunt | 13 December 2011}} | Molecular biology and winning the Nobel Prize | [16] |
| Robert Winston | 20 December 2011}} | IVF, the House of Lords and scientists' ethical responsiility | [17] |
| Colin Pillinger | 27 December 2011}} | Life on Mars | [18] |
| Robin Murray | 7 February 2012}} | The cause of schizophrenia | [19] |
| Chris Stringer | 14 February 2012}} | Paleoanthropology and who our ancestors were | [20] |
| Tony Ryan | 21 February 2012}} | The future of nanotechnology | [21] |
| Iain Chalmers | 28 February 2012}} | Health services |
| Martin Rees | 6 March 2012}} | The multiverse |
| John Lawton | 13 March 2012}} | Ecology |
| Tejinder Virdee | 20 March 2012}} | The search for the Higgs boson |
| Angela Gallop | 27 March 2012}} | Forensic science |
| James Lovelock | 8 May 2012}} | The Gaia hypothesis, microwave ovens | [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h666h] |
| Frances Ashcroft | 15 May 2012}} | The link between blood sugar and insulin |
| Lloyd Peck | 22 May 2012}} | Giant sea spiders |
| Barbara Sahakian | 29 May 2012}} | Alzheimer's Disease |
| Bob May | 5 June 2012}} | Public trust |
| John Pickett | 12 June 2012}} | GM wheat |
| Steve Jones | 7 August 2012}} | Snail studies |
| Pat Wolseley | 14 August 2012}} | Her obsession with lichen |
| Martin Siegert | 21 August 2012}} | Under the Antarctic ice |
| Ann Dowling | 28 August 2012}} | Silent aircraft |
| Richard Dawkins | 4 September 2012}} | Being a biologist and author |
| Andrea Sella | 11 September 2012}} | Why my chemistry demonstrations are filling theatres |
| David Nutt | 18 September 2012}} | Research into drugs and the brain |
| Sunetra Gupta | 25 September 2012}} | Being a scientist and novelist |
| Mark Walport | 2 October 2012}} | Being Government Chief Scientific Advisor |
| Hugh Montgomery | 9 October 2012}} | The gene for fitness |
| Monica Grady | 16 October 2012}} | Life on Mars |
| Jared Diamond | 4 December 2012}} | Gall bladders, global history and the birds of Papua New Guinea |
| John Gurdon | 18 December 2012}} | Cloning a frog decades before Dolly the Sheep |
| Amoret Whitaker | 8 January 2013}} | Insects and their role in helping solve crimes | |
| Robert Mair | 15 January 2013}} | Tunnelling under Big Ben, Crossrail and engineering for the future | |
| Annette Karmiloff-Smith | 22 January 2013}} | Should babies under two watch TV? | |
| Noel Sharkey | 29 January 2013}} | Robotics and psychology | |
| Valerie Beral | 5 February 2013}} | Breast cancer | |
| Alan Watson | 19 February 2013}} | His quest to discover the source of cosmic rays | |
| Sue Ion | 26 February 2013}} | Working in the nuclear industry | |
| Nancy Rothwell | 7 May 2013}} | Neuroscience | |
| Sanjeev Gupta | 14 May 2013}} | What links the English Channel to valleys on Mars? | |
| John Krebs | 21 May 2013}} | Birds, foot and mouth disease and badgers | |
| Linda Partridge | 28 May 2013}} | The science of longevity | |
| Athene Donald | 4 June 2013}} | The physics behind everyday stuff | |
| Ewan Birney | 11 June 2013}} | Deciphering the human genome and junk DNA | |
| David Spiegelhalter | 18 June 2013}} | Risk and uncertainty | |
| Elizabeth Stokoe | 25 June 2013}} | Studying real-life conversations | |
| Russell Foster | 20 August 2013}} | Circadian rhythms and jet lag | |
| Joanna Haigh | 27 August 2013}} | Climate | |
| Mark Lythgoe | 3 September 2013}} | Medical imaging and mountain climbing | |
| Mike Benton | 10 September 2013}} | Digging up dinosaurs in remote places | |
| Ian Stewart | 17 September 2013}} | Sci-fi and popularising maths | |
| Sophie Scott | 24 September 2013}} | The science of laughter | |
| Jenny Graves | 1 October 2013}} | Kangaroos and the death of the Y chromosome | |
| Wendy Hall | 8 October 2013}} | The development of the web | |
| Peter Higgs | 18 February 2014}} | The real story of the Higgs boson | |
| Sue Black | 25 February 2014}} | Identifying human bodies | |
| Vikram Patel | 4 March 2014}} | Global mental health | |
| Mark Miodownik | 11 March 2014}} | Nuclear weapons, 3D printers and smart materials | |
| Anne Glover | 18 March 2014}} | Glow-in-the-dark bacteria and advising ministers | |
| Alf Adams | 25 March 2014}} | His small idea that changed the world (the strained-layer quantum-well laser) | |
| Veronica van Heyningen | 1 April 2014}} | The gene that builds the eye | |
| Julia Slingo | 8 April 2014}} | Being chief scientist at the Met Office | |
| Michael Rutter | 3 June 2014}} | Child psychiatry | |
| Janet Hemingway | 10 June 2014}} | Malaria and the coming of insecticide resistance | |
| Chris Lintott | 17 June 2014}} | Crowd sourced astronomy and Galaxy Zoo | |
| Sandy Knapp | 24 June 2014}} | Her adventures collecting plants in South America | |
| Chris Llewellyn Smith | 1 July 2014}} | Nuclear fusion | |
| Zoe Shipton | 8 July 2014}} | Fracking | |
| Jeremy Farrar | 15 July 2014}} | Fighting viruses | |
| Carol Robinson | 22 July 2014}} | Chemistry | |
| Brian Cox | 23 September 2014}} | Quantum mechanics | |
| Jackie Akhavan | 30 September 2014}} | Explosives | |
| Elspeth Garman | 7 October 2014}} | Crystallography | |
| Chris Toumazou | 14 October 2014}} | Inventing medical devices | |
| Margaret Boden | 21 October 2014}} | Artificial intelligence | |
| Richard Fortey | 28 October 2014}} | Fossils | |
| Sally Davies | 4 November 2014}} | Public health | |
| Dave Goulson | 11 November 2014}} | Bees | |
| John O'Keefe | 10 March 2015}} | Memory | |
| Matt Taylor | 17 March 2015}} | The Rosetta space mission | |
| Sarah-Jayne Blakemore | 24 March 2015}} | Teenage brains | |
| Jane Francis | 31 March 2015}} | Antarctica | |
| Stephanie Shirley | 7 April 2015}} | Computer coding | |
| Nigel Shadbolt | 14 April 2015}} | The World Wide Web | |
| Susan Jebb | 21 April 2015}} | Nutrition | |
| Anil Seth | 16 June 2015}} | Consciousness | |
| Kate Jones | 23 June 2015}} | Bats and biodiversity | |
| Henry Marsh | 30 June 2015}} | Brain surgery | |
| Dorothy Bishop | 7 July 2015}} | Language disorders | |
| Carlos Frenk | 14 July 2015}} | Dark matter | |
| Niamh Nic Daéid | 21 July 2015}} | Forensic science | |
| E. O. Wilson | 28 July 2015}} | Ants and evolution | |
| Geoff Palmer | 4 August 2015}} | Brewing | |
| Carol Black | 6 October 2015}} | Public health | |
| Danielle George | 13 October 2015}} | Electronics | |
| Robert Plomin | 20 October 2015}} | The genetics of intelligence | |
| Patrick Vallance | 3 November 2015}} | Pharmaceuticals | |
| Kathy Willis | 10 November 2015}} | Botany | |
| Paul Younger | 17 November 2015}} | Energy for the future | |
| Peter Piot | 9 February 2016}} | Tackling ebola and HIV | |
| Naomi Climer | 16 February 2016}} | Engineering | |
| Nick Lane | 23 February 2016}} | The origin of life on earth | |
| George Davey Smith | 1 March 2016}} | Health inequalities | |
| Venki Ramakrishnan | 8 March 2016}} | Ribosomes | |
| Helen Sharman | 15 March 2016}} | Being an astronaut | |
| Carolyn Roberts | 22 March 2016}} | Flood control | |
| Lawrence Krauss | 31 May 2016}} | Dark energy | |
| Marcus du Sautoy | 7 June 2016}} | Mathematics | |
| Sheila Rowan | 14 June 2016}} | Gravitational waves | |
| Nick Davies | 21 June 2016}} | Cuckoos | |
| Hazel Rymer | 28 June 2016}} | Volcanoes | |
| Faraneh Vargha-Khadem | 5 July 2016}} | Memory | |
| Georgina Mace | 12 July 2016}} | Threatened species | |
| Trevor Cox | 19 July 2016}} | Sound | |
| Ian Wilmut | 4 October 2016}} | Dolly the Sheep | |
| Frans de Waal | 11 October 2016}} | Chimpanzees | |
| Lynne Boddy | 15 November 2016}} | Fungi | |
| Roger Penrose | 22 November 2016}} | Black holes, quantum mechanics, consciousness | |
| Julia Higgins | 29 November 2016}} | Polymers | |
| Richard Morris | 6 December 2016}} | How we know where we are | |
| Neil deGrasse Tyson | 20 December 2016}} | Pluto | |
| Michele Dougherty | 10 January 2017}} | Saturn | |
| Jan Zalasiewicz | 17 January 2017}} | The Age of Man | |
| Sadaf Farooqi | 24 January 2017}} | What makes us fat | |
| Alison Smith | 31 January 2017}} | Algae | |
| Sean Carroll | 7 February 2017}} | How time and space began | |
| Simon Wessely | 14 February 2017}} | Unexplained medical syndromes | |
| Alan Winfield | 21 February 2017}} | Robot ethics | |
| Alison Woollard | 28 February 2017}} | What she has learnt from mutant worms | |
| Daniel Dennett | 4 April 2017}} | The evolution of the human brain | |
| Nick Fraser | 11 April 2017}} | Triassic reptiles | |
| Liz Sockett | 18 April 2017}} | Friendly killer bacteria | |
| Graham MacGregor | 25 April 2017}} | Tackling the demons in our diet | |
| Ann Clarke | 2 May 2017}} | The Frozen Ark | |
| Fay Dowker | 9 May 2017}} | A new theory of space-time | |
| Ottoline Leyser | 16 May 2017}} | How plants decide what to do | |
| Tim O'Brien | 23 May 2017}} | Transient stars and science and music festivals | |
| Tamsin Mather | 30 May 2017 | Volcanology | [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08t0d3w] |
| Jennifer Doudna | 19 September 2017}} | Gene editing | |
| Tracey Rogers | 26 September 2017}} | Leopard seals and Antarctica | |
| Lucie Green | 3 October 2017}} | The Sun | |
| Steve Cowley | 10 October 2017}} | Nuclear Fusion | |
| Tim Birkhead | 17 October 2017}} | Bird promiscuity | |
| Ellen Stofan | 24 October 2017}} | Being NASA Chief Scientist | |
| Adrian Thomas | 31 October 2017 | The mechanics of flight |
| Eben Upton | 16 January 2018 | Raspberry Pi |
| Eugenia Cheng | 23 January 2018 | The mathematics of mathematics |
| Wendy Barclay | 30 January 2018 | The flu virus | [22] |
| Richard Henderson | 13 February 2018 | The molecules of life |
| John Burn | 20 February 2018 | The genetics of cancer |
| Ailie MacAdam | 27 February 2018 | The biggest construction project in Europe |
| Clare Grey | 6 March 2018 | Big battery challenge |
| Steve Reicher | 13 March 2018 | Psychology of crowds |
| Callum Roberts | 1 May 2018 | Marine conservation |
| Carlo Rovelli | 8 May 2018 | Why time is not what it seems |
| Caroline Dean | 15 May 2018 | Genetic secrets of flowering |
| John Taylor | 29 May 2018 | Being an inventor |
| Adrian Thomas | 05 June 2018}} | The mechanics of flight | [23] |
| Frank Close | 12 June 2018 | Particle physics |
| Rachel Mills | 19 June 2018 | Exploring the sea floor |
| Jacqueline McGlade | 23 October 2018 | Monitoring the environment from space |
| Noel Fitzpatrick | 30 October 2018 | Becoming a supervet |
| Suzanne O'Sullivan | 6 November 2018 | Detective of the mind |
| Mike Stratton | 13 November 2018 | Cancer genes |
| Caroline Hargrove | 20 November 2018 | Formula One |
| Alastair Hay | 27 November 2018 | Banning chemical weapons |
| Maggie Aderin-Pocock | 4 December 2018 | Sky at Night presenter |
| Clive Oppenheimer | 11 December 2018 | Volcanic offerings of our angry earth |
| Jim Al-Khalili | 5 February 2019 | HIS life scientific
Interviewed by Adam Rutherford |
1. ^1 {{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015sqc7|title=The Life Scientific|work=BBC Online|accessdate=24 January 2014}}
2. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.futureoffood.ox.ac.uk/news/lord-john-krebs-life-scientific-radio-4|title=Lord John Krebs on The Life Scientific, Radio 4|date=2013-05-22|work=Future of Food|accessdate=24 January 2014}}
3. ^{{cite web|url=http://wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/blog/hittingtheheadlines/2013/08/30/imperial-in-the-news-the-life-scientific/ |title=Imperial in the news: The Life Scientific|last=Jones|first=Michael|date=2013-08-30|accessdate=24 January 2014}}
4. ^1 2 {{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/oct/11/radio-head-one-to-one|title=Radio head: The Life Scientific and One to One|last=Mahoney|first=Elisabeth|date=2011-10-11|work=The Guardian|accessdate=24 January 2014}}
5. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015sqc7/episodes/guide|title=The Life Scientific - Episode guide|work=BBC Online|accessdate=24 January 2014}}
6. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015sqc7/episodes/downloads |title=Podcasts - The Life Scientific |publisher=BBC |date=1970-01-01 |accessdate=2014-07-15}}
7. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015n3b7|title=Paul Nurse, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
8. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015zm90|title=Steven Pinker, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
9. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016812j|title=Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
10. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016ld4q|title=Sir Michael Marmot, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
11. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016wxtx|title=Colin Blakemore, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
12. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0174gk0|title=Molly Stevens, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
13. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017cd0v|title=Nicky Clayton, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
14. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017mrbd|title=John Sulston, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
15. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017w65r|title=Uta Frith, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
16. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0184rfy|title=Tim Hunt, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
17. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018cbnx|title=Lord Robert Winston, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
18. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018g5tm|title=Colin Pillinger, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
19. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bwmvt|title=Robin Murray, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
20. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bllwz|title=Chris Stringer, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
21. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01c7pq0|title=Tony Ryan, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
22. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09plntp|title=Wendy Barclay and the flu virus, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
23. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09byqf7|title=Adrian Thomas on the mechanics of flight, The Life Scientific - BBC Radio 4|website=BBC}}
{{commons category|The Life Scientific}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Life Scientific}}