Guardian Science Weekly

Off Duty: The Crime

Loading player...
On the evening of 29 December 2011, police officer Clifton Lewis was moonlighting as a security guard at a Chicago minimart when two men walked in. They shot Lewis several times, then took off with his gun and police star. A week later, police had their suspects: four men affiliated with a gang called the Spanish Cobras. For hours, under intense police questioning, they all said they did not do it. But that did not seem to matter. This is episode one of Off Duty, an investigation by the Guardian’s Melissa Segura. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
21 Mar English United Kingdom Science · Nature

Other recent episodes

Is male testosterone in freefall?

Men’s average testosterone levels have halved over the past 50 years, according to scientists who say society is facing a male fertility crisis. Rising levels of obesity and diabetes are expected to play a part, but the team behind the work suggest that environmental factors such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals –…
9 Jul 14 min

‘A break from scrolling’: how Gen Z fell in love with birding

In the last 50 years, Britain has lost an astonishing 73 million wild birds from its landscape, according to the British Trust for Ornithology. Habitat loss, pesticides, disease, cats and the climate crisis mean there are fewer birds than ever before. For children and young people it can be difficult…
7 Jul 16 min

‘Beautiful blobs’: can scientists build life from scratch?

Researchers claim they are closer to creating life from nothing after building tiny, quivering blobs that use lab-made DNA to feed, grow and multiply in a dish. To find out how significant this step is, and where scientists hope it will lead, Madeleine Finlay hears from co-host Ian Sample and…
2 Jul 16 min

Reflecting pool algae: the science Trump needs to know

The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in Washington DC has hardly been out of the news since April when President Trump vowed to have it renovated, and painted ‘American flag blue’ by 4 July. Despite the pool being stripped, cleaned, coated and refilled, within days the algae that has plagued it…
30 Jun 16 min

Nature or nurture: can genes shape our behaviour?

How much do our genes determine about our lives, and could they influence traits like risk-taking, antisocial behaviour or even violence? Ian Sample talks to Kathryn Paige Harden, a behavioural geneticist and professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin who studies how genetic factors shape human behaviour…
25 Jun 19 min
All episodes