In this episode:

01:12 “Oh powered flight”

In the first of our festive songs, We pay tribute to NASA’s Ingenuity craft — which took the first powered flight on another planet earlier this year. Lyrics by Noah Baker and performed by The Simon Langton School choir, directed by Emily Renshaw-Kidd.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the lyrics.

Video: Flying a helicopter on Mars: NASA’s Ingenuity

News: Lift off! First flight on Mars launches new way to explore worlds

07:40 Communicating complex science with common words

In this year’s festive challenge, our competitors try to describe some of the biggest science stories of the year, using only the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language. Find out how they get on …

Test your skills communicating complex science with simple words with the Up-Goer Five Text Editor

18:04 Alphafold oh Alphafold

Our second song brings some Hanukkah magic to Deep Mind’s protein-solving algorithm Alphafold. Lyrics by Kerri Smith and Noah Baker, arranged and performed by Phil Self.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the lyrics.

News: ‘It will change everything’: DeepMind’s AI makes gigantic leap in solving protein structures

21:01 Nature’s 10

Every year, Nature’s 10 highlights some of the people who played key roles in science. We hear about a few of the people who made the 2021 list.

Nature’s 10 — Ten people who helped shape science in 2021