Is Surgery Scientific?
Can surgery be submitted to the same rigorous clinical trials as drugs to ensure the right surgical procedures are being carried out? No two surgeons will ever carry out the exact same operation. How do we know therefore, which procedure is best?
The answer is not straightforward. By its very nature, surgery, a craft, is dependent on the surgeon carrying out the operation, on the patient before him and on the manifestation of the disease he is dealing with in that patient. No two operations will be the same. In this programme Geoff Watts looks at the problems faced by surgeons and how they may be overcome.
Freud Museum
Filmmaker Richard Macer visits three different museums struggling to connect with a modern audience. In today's programme, Richard visits the Freud Museum in Hampstead, London.
The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud lived his final year here after escaping the Nazis in Austria. He managed to smuggle out all his possessions, including the famous couch where his patients lay. This iconic piece of furniture is now a shrine to therapists and Freud fans from all over the world. But despite its gravitas, this small museum is struggling to stay relevant.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Wednesday 30 March, 19:30, BBC Four
Costing the Earth
The threat to wildlife from invasive species is now one of the greatest across the world and it is growing. In the UK we have endlessly debated the problem of the grey squirrel and Japanese knotweed but in Spain the invaders are being driven out permanently. Can their plan work and would eradication return native species to abundance or simply create new problems in our ecosystems?
There are also a growing number of scientists who argue that to eradicate invasives is costly, cruel and ultimately unnecessary. If we can't beat them then it may even be time to learn from these ecological survivors.
Wednesday 30 March, 21:00, BBC Radio 4
It Is Rocket Science
Helen Keen presents her off-beat comic take on the history of rocket science starring Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane.
This week Helen asks if humanity will ever make it to the stars, and ponders some of the greater mysteries of the universe, such as time travel, parallel universes and faster than light travel. And have aliens ever made it here? If so have they been tempted to use their vastly superior intelligence to really clean up in pub quizzes?
BBC News: In pictures: UFOs in the UK
Wednesday 30 March, 23:00, BBC Radio 4
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