Science Weekly

Social affairs correspondent Robert Booth tells Madeleine Finlay why a class of synthetic opioids called nitazenes, first developed in the 1950s, is leading to a worrying number of fatal overdoses in the UK. And she hears from toxicology and addiction specialist Dr Joseph D’Orazio about a tranquilliser called xylazine that has been showing up in alarming volumes in the US illegal drug supply and is now starting to appear in toxicology reports in the UK

Ian Sample talks to prof Erica Cartmill about her work on apes and teasing and asks, given how annoying teasing is, why do apes, and humans, do it?

Dermatologists warn children as young as eight years old are using potentially damaging anti-ageing skin care products. Madeleine Finlay discusses this trend, and alternative skincare, with Dr Emma Wedgeworth

Ian Sample speaks to bioethicist Prof Lisa Campo-Engelstein of the University of Texas and Prof Chris Barratt from the University of Dundee to find out why male contraceptives have been so difficult to develop, and what kind of options are in the pipeline

The Guardian’s biodiversity reporter, Phoebe Weston, tells Ian Sample why the spread of bird flu through the Antarctic’s penguin colonies would be so catastrophic

Ian Sample and science correspondent Hannah Devlin discuss the big science stories of the week – from news that Elon Musk’s Neuralink has implanted its first chip into a human, to research suggesting Alzheimer’s can pass between humans in rare medical accidents, and the revelation that Rishi Sunak begins each week with a 36-hour fast

Ian Sample meets professor in cutaneous biology Julie Thornton who tells him how it helps with everything from wound healing to immunity

Madeleine Finlay meets Ina Schuppe Koistinen, associate professor at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and author of the book Vulva: Facts, Myths and Life-Changing Insights. Ina explains what makes the vaginal microbiome special, why it could hold the key to understanding pregnancy complications, and how we can better care for and protect it

Ian Sample speaks to colorectal surgeon and researcher, James Kinross, about the miraculous world of our gut microbiome, and what we can all do to look after it

The author Catherine Price tells Madeleine Finlay how her own excessive phone use inspired her to investigate the science behind our relationships with our devices, and what we know about how to break the cycle. And Prof Barbara Sahakian of Cambridge University explains why many of us are drawn to looking at bad news on our phones, and what it’s doing to us