This year, BBC Radio 4’s popular natural science series, The Material World again teams up with The Open University. The 2008 series will feature the work of different OU scientists.

The scientists who'll be featured on episodes of the programme broadcasting during the autumn are Dr David Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Biological Science; Dr John Murray, Senior Research Fellow in Earth and Environmental Sciences; John Zarnecki, Professor of Space Science; and Dr Vincent Gauci, Lecturer in Earth Systems and Ecosystem Science.

Each programme follows a scientist as they work on a specific project, bringing an insight into the way scientific projects are conducted and the challenges that have to be overcome - how, for example, do you record the sounds of creatures you can neither see nor hear?

Since science is a collaborative endeavour, Quentin Cooper will also be talking to scientists from outside The Open University and exploring how different approaches, backgrounds and cultures can blend together.

Programme Four: Methane

Quentin Cooper joins scientists from the Open University who are measuring the exchange of methane between plants, soil microogranisms and the atmosphere.

Wetlands such as bogs and swamps are home to some special microorganisms which are important producers of methane, a greenhouse gas twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide. Biogeochemists are trying to better understand the impact of human activities and industrial processes on biological, chemical and geographic systems in the hope that they can find ways to reduce the production of greenhouse gases.

Vince Gauci explains why measuring methane is vital: Methane and me.

Programme Three: On Chesil Beach

Quentin joins John Zarnecki and Karl Atkinson from The Open University as they drop space instruments onto Chesil Beach in Dorset in search of clues about one of Saturn's moons, Titan.

They have been working on a tiny amount of data obtained by the US/European Cassini mission's Huygens probe, which landed on Titan in January 2005.

To get the most out of this data, they have since performed controlled drops of similar instruments on a wide variety of different surfaces on Earth, the latest of which is this experiment on Chesil Beach.

John and Karl share some of their experiences and findings, in Dorset, on Chesil Beach.

Programme Two: Mount Etna

Quentin Cooper joins Open University scientists on Mount Etna, who have been monitoring Europe's most active volcano for more than 30 years.

They visit a fissure on the eastern flank which is slowly producing lava along an underground tube and climb to the summit, which rises and falls under the combined effects of gravity and molten magma. If a giant landslide were ever to reach the sea it could result in a tsunami around the Mediterranean.

The slope now seems to have stabilised, but Etna is not a tame volcano and only through long-term monitoring will scientists fully understand its ways.

John Murray shares his experiences of playing host to Quentin and the team during a rough patch for the study: Clenched Buttocks and sulphurous gas.

Programme One: Speckled bush crickets

In the first programme, Quentin Cooper joins Dr David Robinson as he hunts for speckled bush crickets at Wittenham Clumps, near Didcot in Oxfordshire. David’s work is concentrating on recording the ultrasonic calls between male and female crickets and the technologies used to measure and record them. Quentin also visits the Natural History Museum to see living and dead examples of bush crickets and interviews cricket expert Judith Marshall.

Read David Robinson's blog about the making of the programme - and listen to the sound of crickets: Research with animals we can’t see and sounds we can’t hear

Content last updated: 03/10/2008

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