 ghastly and never going to give you up. Now, Professor Luke O'Neill has a new book out the world-renowned immunologist and professor of biochemistry at Trinity and the author of a number of best-selling books, including the Great Irish Science Book and What Makes Us Human for Children. Now, this is named at Younger Readers as well. It is called Show Me the Science and I'm delighted that Professor O'Neill joins us now. I was streaming and joins us on the radio. Luke, good afternoon. Good afternoon, John. Thanks for having me on. No problem. Good to talk. And I couldn't have we flicked through this book as well because it, well, it answers some big questions. Like, I'm just, I'm picturing this scenario now that you're in the car with your eight or nine-year-old and they're asking, they're asking some questions that just you absolutely have no answer for. Like, you know, why is he driving so fast, Daddy? And then other ones that you kind of think, well, I shouldn't know the answer to that. Like, I don't know, why is this guy blue? Yeah. And, and you, you, you deal with some of them in this book. I do indeed. Yes. Well, you see, the young mind is inquisitive, isn't it, John? It's fantastic, especially, you know, those teens and 10, 11, 12-year-olds. And the book is aimed at them. You know, it's trying to explain the world through the lens of science, shall we say, and explain quite complicated things. But it's not wonderful how they're always asking questions. Isn't that great? You know, so my, my job is to try and help them answer some of those questions really. Yeah. The time to worry is when they stop asking the questions. That's true. That's very true. Yeah. Let's hope they stay inquisitive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Regardless of whether we have the answers or not. But this book might help a lot. In fact, I just see in the introduction that the, the motto of the oldest scientific society in the world, the Royal Society actually means it's, it's in Latin, I think. It means take nobody's word for it. And I suppose we shouldn't, or we shouldn't accept easy answers for that matter. That is the essence of the book, John, precisely. Yes. There's the oldest scientific society. It's motto isn't science is great, right? The motto is take nobody's word. Now, what that means is show me the science. If you're going to say something as a scientist, back it up with the evidence. And that's what makes science so powerful. You know, so for example, climate change, show me the evidence that's climate change is happening, or whatever the question might be. That's the power of science shown in a way. It gives us evidence to support something, you know. Yeah. And for young inquisitive minds, they want the evidence and they want the answers and they don't want just the S or no, or I don't know. They, they, they want the details. They do want the details. Yeah. They're, they're very demanding, aren't they, in so many ways. And of course, especially the teens, it's kind of aimed at the 12 to 15 year olds reading. And I'm dealing with very serious things like depression, say, or addiction, and those sorts of very important issues. And if you're that age, you'd love to know more about those topics, of course. And as we know, mental health issues are very big in the teenage group as well. So my book hopefully will provide them with a bit of information, maybe even comfort. To me, John, science is a great comfort. It gives us a bit of information that can be very useful to us. And yet some of the chapters you might think, well, you know, how, how can science answer this? Things like, you know, why do we break the law? Or why can't we just cheer up and things like that? But you know, there's, there's science behind them all. Oh, very much so. That was the basis for depression. Obviously, it's an imbalance in chemicals in your brain. Can we understand more about that? Can we get evidence of what the imbalance is? And of course, then you might design medicines to correct the imbalance and then treat depression, for example, you know, and then of course, the big one is that there's chapter on vaccines, if I dare mention them shot, you know, and of course, I explained how they were discovered, how they work, the science behind vaccines is all there as well. So, so the book that really captures the essence of some of these topics from a scientific point of view. And it's also a book that you can, you can just dip in and out of where you could take it, you know, the one chapter at a time and in no particular order. You can't exactly. Yes. I mean, one of my favorite chapters, John, is what are men and women different? There's a controversial question for you now, you know, what a science say about that. And guess what, John? We're not, you know, there was this perception that men were better at maths, say, or parking a car. That's nonsense. So women are just as good at those things as men are, you know, and the science has proven this, you see. So there's a good one, a good one for us to consider. All right. And to find out more, you're just going to have to get the book. Get those. Thank you, John. Get the book. Exactly. I'm sure anybody who has a teenager around, whether they're, you know, nephews or nieces, they're in their family or their neighbor. This book is the book for the inquiring teenage mind. I hope they get something out of it. There's another chapter that says, why are we wrecking the planet? Yeah. Why are we wrecking the planet? Why are we intent? It seems like wrecking the planet. And it's a big, it's a big ask. It doesn't seem a bit counterintuitive that we're destroying our own planet, doesn't it? You know, and yet we are. Now, that chapter is all about climate change. What's the evidence for it? You know, the humans are, are causing this to happen. And what can we do about it? The great thing about science, John, it gives us solutions as well, potentially, you know? So that's all about how are we going to, of course, for young people, we're destroying the planet for them, you know? And it's not very well for an elf better like me, you know? But I don't want my, if I ever have grandchildren, I mean, we don't, leaving them, leaving them a planet that's damaged wouldn't be great. So there are solutions. Science gives us answers to the questions and then might provide solutions. And that chapter goes into some of the possible answers to climate change. Just, yeah, and just more people need to, I suppose, follow the science or listen to the answers that science is providing to us. But aside from books and science, how's the guitar playing going? You play about a guitar as well. I'm devastated. You didn't ask me to sing a song, John. That's very disappointing. Not over yet. Not over yet. I do. I do. That's my, that's my release. I escape from the science occasionally, get the guitar out, turn it up to 11, you know, crank out a bit of heavy metal you can't play it. It's a great way to relax. So some music keeps me going. Yeah, yeah, brilliant stuff. And, and you know, in a way, I'm kind of thinking if it wasn't for the pandemic, we'd never have got to know a professor, Luke O'Neill, because TV stations and radio stations all turned, we were all looking for answers. And we turned to, well, other scientists as well. But you, you seem to be the go-to man. And, and it was great because, you know, you, you went through all the info and outlined it. And it was all a matter of fact. And this is, this is how it is. And this is what's likely to happen. And are you, it was a busy time for you. Extremely busy. Yes, it was incredible. Looking back on it now, we all remember the pandemic, don't we? You know, but for me personally, I was working 24 seven, trying to get the message out. Obviously, as a scientist and an immunologist, I felt my time had come in a way to inform the public because there was so much fear, so much uncertainty. And again, the more than this book, it says science, I kept saying science will get us out of this mess, you know. And thankfully, it did with the vaccines, for example, you know, also therapy is in various medical interventions, you know. So I thought, I thought it was part of my job, really, to get the information to people. And as you know, John, the appetite was massive for obvious reasons, you know. It was, it was absolutely. We were all looking for information. Anyhow, if you want info on all sorts of things and all sorts of questions answered, the book is out now. And it's published by Gill Books. It's just come out. It's called Show Me the Science. Highly like me that it'll be another bestseller. Professor Luke O'Neill, thank you very much. Thank you very much.