Question of the Week - From the Naked Scientists

This week we speak with NASA's Planetary Protection Officer to find out if we could, and should, introduce life onto Mars. Plus we ask is a human producing Vitamin D a bit like a photosynthesising plant?.....

Can the type of cutlery used to prepare and serve food really alter its flavour? And does it really change, or is it just our perception?

We find out if applying ice to an injury actually helps to speed up healing. Plus we ask, would dining with a silver spoon make your food taste better?

We find out if you can escape detection at a crime scene by using clever gene therapy techniques. Plus we ask, does applying ice to an injury actually help? And if so, how?

We find out why men generally die before women. Plus we ask can we use gene therapy to cheat a DNA test and escape a crime scene......

We find out if we can create a living organism from basic elements. Plus we ask, why do women live longer than men?

This week we find out how a species has so successfully infiltrated the verges of the UK road systems. Plus we ask can we create life by heating up basic chemicals...

We apply some Naked Science force to this week's question and find out if we make a magnet so strong that is squashes, rather thanks sticks to, your white goods. Plus we ask do motorways create a microclimate?

This week we hone our noses and sniff out the answer to this stinker of a question...."Why do toenails, and even feet in general, smell cheesy? Plus we ask can we make a magnet so strong that is squashes, rather thanks sticks to, our white goods?

We find out why, if the gene that codes for men having hairy chests and backs provides an evolutionary advantage in response to an environmental pressure, don't women have beards and hairy chests too? Plus we ask why feet smell cheesy.......

We find out if monitors, screens and e.books are more than your standard page turner leaving you tossing and turning and up all night. Plus we ask, why have women lost their hairy beard and chests.....

This week we find out if a liberal slathering of oil based moisturiser makes up part of our daily calorie quota. Plus we ask, are monitor screens and e.books more than your standard page turner, leaving you tossing and turning and up all night?....

This week we find out why our bodies can't get their priorities right. We find out why we seek out food when we already have enough energy stored around our waists in the form of love handles and pot bellies. Plus we ask - will our skin soak up the calories in sun cream?

This week we find out about the inequality of the temperature scale as a listener asks: "If we can have a lower limit on temperature - absolute zero - so cold that nothing happens, why do we not have an upper limit - a temperature that is so hot that atoms and particles are so hot that they are ripped into the most elementary units and become so excited that they cannot react with anything around them?" Plus we wonder why we don't always get our priorities right........

Could you get cancer from someone else? Tasmanian devils can catch cancer transmitted through biting. Are there instances of cancers being transmitted this way in humans? Can you catch cancer through a blood transfusion? Plus we ask, why is there not an upper absolute in the temperature scale......