Science Weekly podcast: AAAS 2011, drugs and the sound of the stars

Alok is back from this year's AAAS science festival in Washington DC. He rounds up the highlights of the festival including stuttering mice, dwindling fish stocks and links between being bilingual and Alzheimer's.

While at the meeting Alok spoke to astroseismologist Bill Chaplin from the University of Birmingham (UK). Bill describes the 10-second recording he's made of the stars.

Former government drugs adviser professor David Nutt pops into the studio to tell us about the latest research his group, the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, is doing on the classification of drugs. He also anlayses the approach the British and US governments are taking towards drugs.

In our new "further reading" section, see a huge diamond now on display at London's Natural History Museum and stunning photographs from the 2011 Wellcome Image awards.

Subscribe for free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).

Meet the Guardian's crack team of science bloggers:

The Lay Scientist by Martin Robbins
Life and Physics by Jon Butterworth
Punctuated Equilibrium by GrrlScientist
Political Science by Evan Harris

Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science.

Email scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com.

Guardian Science is now on Facebook. You can also join our Science Weekly Facebook group.

We're always here when you need us, listen back through our archive.