Crowd funding programmes like Kick-starter have been used to raise money for music projects and Hollywood films, but now it could even be used to raise funding for long running scientific projects. The so-called Keeling Curve is the world's longest unbroken record of how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, but after funding cuts it's now asking the public to chip in to keep the data going. To find out more about this archive and the gas it measures, here's your Quick Fire Science with...

This week, Hell literally froze over, as the small Michigan town of Hell experienced temperatures of minus 17 degrees Celsius. And Hell wasn't alone temperatures across the United States have plummeted to record lows as cold air from the Arctic has reached much lower latitudes than is usual. To explain how this has come about, here's your Quick Fire Science about the polar vortices with Kate Lamble and Dominic Ford

NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012, and it has spent that past 15 months exploring a region of the planet called Gale Crater. This week the team running the rover reported on what they've found so far, and so here's your Quick Fire Science about our planetary next door neighbour with Dominic Ford and Hannah Critchlow.

The UK government has this week announced changes to its subsidies for renewable energy generation. But how much energy does the UK generate using renewables? Here's your quickfire science on renewable energy with Dominic Ford and Dave Ansell.

This week is AIDS Awareness Week. It is thought that, worldwide, 35 million people carry the HIV virus, and although current drugs work well to prevent AIDS, there is no cure in sight. Here's your Quick Fire Science on the history and science of HIV and AIDS, with Kate Lamble and Simon Bishop.

The 19th November was World Toilet Day. Established in 2001, the event seeks to draw attention to global sanitation and health problems associated with a lack of toilets, and break the taboo associated with the topic. Here's your quick fire science on sanitation and the humble toilet, with Simon Bishop and Dominic Ford.

This week, reports suggest that the 2013 opium harvest in Central and South Asia was the largest on record. But what is opium? Here's your quick fire science with Kate Lamble and Simon Bishop.

This week archaeologists in Queensland, Australia, found part of a fossil from an ancient platypus that was a metre-long. Archaeologists have already found the remains of many giant ancestors of modern creatures, so here's two modern day giant animals - Simon Bishop and Matt Burnett - with this week's Quick Fire Science looking at why animals grew so big in the past.

Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot. We see no reason, why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot! So here's your quick fire science on gunpowder and fireworks just in time for Bonfire Night, with Kate Lamble and Simon Bishop.

This week saw the final of the Great British Bake Off, a television programme in which 13 people spend a weekend in a tent, baking cakes and bread. Over 6 million viewers tuned in each week to catch the adventures of the amateur bakers, as they crafted three-dimensional novelty vegetable cakes, tricky millefeuille and choux pastry delights, while avoiding that ultimate sin against pastry - a soggy bottom. It has also inspired a new generation of home bakers. Here's your quick fire science on...

It's official: the UK has a slug problem. This week, researchers from the John Innes Centre in Norwich asked the public for help to help them track down the Spanish slug, a rapidly reproducing invasive species that eats crops and is not deterred by slug pellets. Here's your quick fire science on invasive species, with Matt Burnett and Simon Bishop.

This week, the Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry were awarded. Here's your quickfire science on the life of the prize's founder, Alfred Nobel, and past recipients of the award with Matt Burnett and Simon Bishop.

A mummified body known as the Cashel man was recently found to be the oldest so called 'bog body' with intact skin anywhere in the world. Here's your quickfire science on how wetlands can preserve ancient human remains with Kate Lamble and Matt Burnett... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, salvage experts have been trying to raise the MS Costa Concordia, a cruise liner which partially sank near the island of Giglio off the coast of Italy in January 2012. Here's the quick-fire science on the Concordia and the salvage operation to raise it.

Zoo keepers in Edinburgh have said this week that they're uncertain whether a giant panda in the city's zoo might give birth to a cub. But why is it so notoriously difficult to get pandas to breed in captivity, and how can there be so much doubt over whether a panda is pregnant?

You may have heard this week about a new building at 20 Fenchurch St, in the City of London. The 37-storey skyscraper, which has already been dubbed the 'Walkie-talkie' due to its unusual shape, has been blamed for cooking a number of vehicles parked nearby. Some suggest that this might be due to the novel shape of the building, which causes it to act as a parabolic reflector, targeting sun's rays. Here's the quick fire science behind parabolic reflectors and their uses. Like this podcast?...

This week, nuclear expert Mycle Schneider, formerly an adviser to the French and German governments has said that he's deeply worried about contaminated cooling water leaking from tanks at the site of the Fukushima nuclear reactors.- Huge amounts of energy can be released by joining or fusing small atoms together to make larger atoms, or by splitting apart larger atoms like uranium.- In nuclear reactors, atoms such as Uranium 235 and Plutonium 239 are bombarded by neutrons which causes...

US-based entrepreneur Elon Musk is not a man who's lacking ambition in life. His company Space-X has already built rockets which compete with those used by NASA and the European Space Agency, and last year one of them became the first commercial spacecraft to visit the International Space Station. This week, however, it's another of his projects which has been in the news - a new kind of train which he thinks could transport people over the 350-miles between Los Angeles and San ...

This week, star gazers have been turning their eyes to the sky to look for shooting stars, as the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak. But what are meteors, and what's the best way to observe them?

This week the world's first lab grown beef burger was cooked and eaten in London. But how was it made and why is it important?

This weeks Quick Fire Science on Jellyfish Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This Sunday sees the start of the 19th World Transplant Games in Durban, South Africa. The games offer the opportunity for those who have undergone a transplant to compete in a variety of competitive sports at the highest level. Here's the Quick Fire Science on organ donation and transplantation.

This week, a team at Toronto university won the "Igor I. Sikorsky Competition" by building a man-powered helicopter and flying their machine "Atlas" within a 10mx10m box, at a height of 3m for over a minute.

A baby has been born in the US using a new genetic screening test for IVF embryos

What causes wildfires?