10 Things to Know About — Season 5

Currently just 30% of Irish electricity comes from renewables and existing plans should bring that to 55% by 2030 but the government has announced a new ambition to make it 70% by then. So where is all that extra energy going to come from? Well, the answer might be right on our doorstep.

61% of adults in Ireland are currently overweight or obese and almost a third of Irish children are now overweight, but there are some amazing people raising awareness of the issue. In this episode, Aoibhinn meets patient advocate Susie Birney who reveals the challenges of living with obesity and we hear from Dr Grace O'Malley and Dr Cathy Breen on the necessary approaches to tackling the obesity crisis. The links between obesity and diseases such as cancer and diabetes are well known, and Jonathan and Kathriona meet researchers Andrew Hogan and Lydia Dyck who are increasingly interested in the important role of our immune system – and our Natural Killer cells – in maintaining a healthy body weight.

They're in everything from your phone to your shower, and from your toothpaste to cream to soothe your baby's bum! Metals that are extracted from the ground underpin every aspect of lives and Ireland is internationally renowned as a resource of metals and minerals. In Episode Three, we dig into the geology of what's here and why, and find out about the technology and techniques used to locate and safely extract them from the ground.

The World Health Organisation describes Air Pollution as the world's single biggest environmental health risk and the right to fresh air is something none of us can take for granted. Poor air quality kills more than 1500 people in Ireland every year and has a serious impact on our environment and ecology. In this episode we ask just what are the dangers in a gulp of air, and meet the scientists who are looking to tackle the issue head on…

Vaccinations are known to save millions of lives every year – yet there is an increasingly worrying trend around the world to mistrust them and refuse vaccination. In Episode Five we look at the history of vaccines and some of the reasons leading to vaccine hesitancy, we find out why a virus most associated with causing Cervical cancer is also connected to an increasing number of HPV-Driven Head and Neck Cancers, and with the HPV vaccine programme being expanded to boys in 2019, we meet Kevin Brennan – brother of the late advocate Laura Brennan – to highlight the importance of the HPV vaccine We'll also look at the latest research in vaccine development for people with compromised immune systems, such as those with HIV, people receiving chemotherapy for cancer, or undergoing organ transplantation.