Earlier in the year whilst researching an article about podcasting I came across the Naked Scientists group hidden away in BBC UK regional transmissions. Shortly afterwards I heard that a funding crisis looked like it was going to put the Naked Scientists out of business. I have news on this front. My original post of 20 March 2005 BBC not funding Naked Scientists summarized the crisis and provided a link to my previous Probing Podcasting from the Professionals article.
But now it looks like the Naked Scientists have found some continuation funding from somewhere and, far from withdrawing from the arena, they now intend to expand their activities. Whilst this group of science communicators were already offering an MP3 archive when I first came across them, they hadn't yet made the conceptual leap to podcasting. They've now done so and their podcast link is:
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/naked_scientists_podcast.xml
But they're not content with MP3 audio files, so they intend to include some video as well. We're apparently not talking spurious 'talking head' type video either (which is a relief) but video where only the moving image can really convey the message, the experiment, or the demonstration. The Naked Scientist forum is already image rich in parts so I look forward to seeing what this group can do with podcasts.
Great stuff guys, we need more people who can bring science to life and make it meaningful to future scientists and the general public alike.
Respect!
