Nuclear medicine shortages and Jane Goodall on COP29

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

A shortage of medical isotopes used to detect cancer has experts concerned that the shortfall could be delaying diagnosis and could even be costing lives.

Exactly what these nuclear medicines are and how they are made is key to understanding the national scarcity. So, we’re going back to basics and learning all about medical isotopes.

We also speak to world-famous conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall who, now aged 90, continues to travel the globe campaigning to protect the natural world.

Dame Goodall reflects on a life of studying our closest living animal relatives, chimpanzees, and as COP29 gets under way, speaks about the “closing window of time” to turn the tide on climate change and nature loss.

Also this week, we answer the listener question “Why don’t we just throw nuclear waste into volcanoes?” and can Marnie spot AI vs real poetry?

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.
0:08.0	But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA
0:12.0	was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.
0:18.0	Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day,
0:24.0	who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA.
0:28.5	Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:43.1	You're listening to BBC Inside Science, first produced on the 14th of November 2024.
0:45.3	I'm Marnie Chesterton. Hello.
0:52.6	We still have a window of time to start slowing down climate change and loss of biodiversity.
0:55.6	But it's a window that's closing.
0:59.1	That's legendary chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall.
1:01.9	Plenty more from her coming up on Inside Science.
1:05.3	Plus, can we chuck nuclear waste into a volcano and a very particular kind of culture war?
1:08.3	Can you tell AI poetry from the real stuff?
1:11.9	But first, you may have read in the news that, according to experts, medical isotopes are in
1:17.5	short supply in the UK. Now, at this point, maybe you're trying to dredge the word isotope
1:22.8	out of a bit of your brain that stores your GCSE or O-level science, don't worry, refresher approaching.
1:29.8	Medical isotopes are crucial to medicine, particularly in helping doctors seek out and sometimes
1:35.8	destroy cancerous cells. And there are concerns that this shortage could be delaying diagnoses,
1:43.0	and that could even be costing lives. It turns out
1:47.0	that how you make them is really quite central to this issue. So joining me now to talk vanishing
1:53.2	isotopes is expert in reactors for nuclear medicine, Simon Middleborough. Hello Simon. Hello there.
	...

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