51³Ô¹ÏÍø

In this edition: Delving into long covid, bioplastics and the future of recycling, and a first-year physics project that became a peer-reviewed paper.

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– We catch up with the latest REACT results, showing coronavirus infections doubling every six days but antibodies also ramping up, and meet the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø students and alumni competing in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

– We catch up with Dr Danny Altmann, who is investigating long COVID – who gets it, what are the symptoms, how long might it last, and what other health impacts might it cause?

You can also listen to an of this interview.

– Despite decades of recycling, plastic pollution is still a major problem. We talk to Sarah Kakadellis, who says bioplastics may be a solution, but the distinction between different types needs to be clear to help consumers make the right decisions when disposing of plastics.

– We meet two students (and their supervisor) who turned their first-year physics undergraduate project – using real data about molecules coming from Saturn’s moon Enceladus – into a peer-reviewed paper.

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The podcast is presented by Gareth Mitchell, a lecturer on 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's MSc Science Communication course and the presenter of on the BBC World Service, with contributions from our roving reporters in the Communications and Public Affairs Division.