BBC Inside Science

Is AI really plotting against us? In a week where an Anthropic researcher believes there is more than a 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans' we're delving deeper into the capabilities of AI agents. Tom Whipple is joined by Alex Mallen, from Redwood Research, the team whose recent investigation exposed the surprising, weird, and worrying scale of a website hack conducted by OpenAI agents.
Is this the most important story we will ever cover on Inside Science? Or is this all just credulous sci fi hype? Professor Stuart Russell helps us unpick how we might align AI with humanity’s hopes.
Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel has trawled the news to bring us the science stories you might have missed. This week Caroline discusses how AI has allegedly helped solve a Millennium Prize maths problem and why planetary scientists are turning their attention to a shrinking Mercury.
To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, Tabitha Taylor-Buck
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

The quest for Dark Matter just got interesting. Researchers on an international project called the Lux-Zeplin (LZ) Dark Matter Experiment reported they may have discovered the signature of a bit of Dark Matter passing through an underground mine in South Dakota. Kimberly Palladino, professor of physics at Oxford and a member of that LZ collaboration, speaks to Roland Pease to explain how dark matter is being detected.
Probiotics have long been all the rage in health advice, but this week we discovered they may also be good for corals. Microbiologist turned ecologist Erika Santoro has been testing a probiotic treatment on reefs in the Red Sea and joins us to divulge her findings.
We’re continuing with a tone of optimism with this week’s shortlisted book for the Royal Society’s coveted Trivedi Science Book Prize. Despite it All: A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls by veteran environmental journalist Fred Pearce, focuses on the progress humanity has made in protecting the planet.
Plus, mathematician Kit Yates is back, bringing us some of the week’s most exciting science news, including how we might use the earth's magnetic field to authenticate artefacts and a puzzling ten-sided cloud structure on Saturn's south pole.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Reports about the impacts of datacentres, including carbon emissions, water usage and power consumption, vary drastically and the truth can be hard to decipher. Deborah Andrews, Emeritus Professor at London South Bank University, joins us for some myth busting.
Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel has been scouring the journals and brings us some of this week’s most exciting science news, including the failed attempts to save the Swift space telescope.
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

This week Merck (known as MSD in Europe) and Moderna announced that a personalised cancer vaccine had significantly improved the outcomes of melanoma patients. Is the era of the cancer vaccine, at last, upon us? What does that mean? Anne Willis, a cancer cell biologist at the Medical Research Council, joins us to discuss.
In just a few weeks the Royal Society will be putting out the red carpet as the most coveted prize in non-fiction science is about to be awarded. We will be speaking weekly to the shortlisted authors for the Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, and we are starting with Kit Chapman, author of the Age of Alchemy.
Plus, Penny Sarchet has, like an alchemist of old, been scouring the most obscure texts and journals to bring us the latest science knowledge.
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Alex Mansfield, Tabitha Taylor Buck, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

The extreme possibilities of synthetic biology hit the headlines last week, when researchers at Stanford University in the US announced they had created new kinds of viruses designed by Artificial Intelligence. Roland Pease is joined by microbiologist Dr Simon Clarke from Reading University and Joy Zhang, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, to discuss whether we should be concerned about the prospect of AI viruses.
Meanwhile, 50 years ago NASA's remarkable Viking space probes touched down on Mars, breaking new frontiers in space science. Claire Cousins, part of the European Space Agency's team working on the ExoMars Rover, joins us to take a look at how today’s ambitious projects built on their success.
And science and technology journalist Gareth Mitchell joins us to discuss the week’s science news.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Tabitha Taylor-Buck, Dan Welsh, Keiran Manetta-Jones
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth