Alok Jha and the team are joined by science writer Gabrielle Walker, who tells us about her latest book The Hot Topic: How to Tackle Global Warming and Still Keep the Lights On.
It concerns practical solutions to the biggest global challenge of our generation, and in the pod we discuss the hypocrisy of some of the trendier and more high-profile greenies (Live Earth, anyone?) and ask: can technology solve everything? The book is co-authored by the former government chief scientist Sir David King and it's out now.
Also in the show, as Craig Venter announces the creation of a synthetic chromosone, we discuss how close we are to creating artificial life. Ian Sample pops in to explain the Thousand Genomes project. James Randerson tells us about a robotic doll called Stan D. Ardman (geddit?) that's helping medical students with their diagnoses, if not their bedside manner. And Nell Boase fills us in on some more bad news about coral reefs.
Finally, Caspar Melville, editor of New Humanist magazine, kicks off our new feature, Thought for the Pod, by giving us his opinion on the famous confrontation between the papacy and Galileo. You can read the full text here
