Podcasts by Discovery

Discovery

Explorations in the world of science.

Further podcasts by BBC World Service

Podcast on the topic Wissenschaft

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Discovery
Putting the Mouth Back into the Body from 2023-12-12T17:22

A look at the evidence that links the health of our mouths with the rest of our bodies.

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Cheetahs from 2023-12-11T21:30

Adam Hart investigates the fastest land animal in the world – the cheetah! Built for high-speed chases, these spotted cats are slender, with semi-retractable claws for good grip and a flexible s...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Piranhas from 2023-12-04T21:00

Adam Hart investigates a frenzied and voracious fish from South America – the piranha! Said to be able to strip their prey to the bone in mere minutes, there are plenty of gruesome tales about t...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Great White Sharks from 2023-11-27T21:00

Adam Hart investigates the most famous and feared predator in all the ocean – the great white shark! With rows of large, serrated teeth, it’s often thought of as a ferocious man-eater and was th...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Wolverines from 2023-11-20T21:00

Adam Hart investigates the largest terrestrial member of the weasel family – the wolverine. They’re far more than just a superhero played by Hugh Jackman! With a reputation for gluttony and fero...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Alex Antonelli from 2023-11-13T21:00

With the world's biodiversity being lost at an alarming rate, Alexandre Antonelli, Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has made it his life's mission to protect it. He is a bi...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Paul Murdin from 2023-11-06T21:00

Astronomer Paul Murdin believes a good imagination is vital for scientists, since they're so often dealing with subjects outside the visible realm.

Indeed, over a long and successful caree...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Bahija Jallal from 2023-10-30T21:00

Some of the most complex medicines available today are made from living cells or organisms - these treatments are called bio-pharmaceuticals and in this episode of The Life Scientific Dr Bahija ...

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Discovery
Chris Barratt from 2023-10-23T20:00

Reproductive science has come a long way in recent years, but there's still plenty we don't understand - particularly around male fertility. The reliability and availability of data in this fiel...

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Discovery
Gideon Henderson from 2023-10-16T20:00

We’re used to hearing the stories of scientists who study the world as it is now but what about the study of the past - what can this tell us about our future?

Gideon Henderson’s research ...

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Discovery
Deborah Greaves from 2023-10-10T08:22

If you’ve ever seen the ocean during a storm, you’ll understand the extraordinary power contained in waves. On an island nation like Britain, that power could well be harnessed to produce clean ...

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Discovery
Metamorphosis: Bee brains and the cockroach from 2023-10-02T20:00

Erica McAlister on the bee intellect and whether bigger brains are always better. Plus cockroaches may be reviled by many people, but Erica discovers the extraordinary flexibility of their simpl...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Is the world becoming more allergic? from 2023-10-02T10:11

What are allergies and what is the purpose of them? What can we do to try and prevent them? And what are the best ways of accurately and safely diagnosing them?

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Discovery
Metamorphosis: Soldier fly and desert beetle from 2023-09-25T20:00

Erica McAlister on the innocuous wasp-like black soldier fly, a crown jewel of a fast-growing insect farming industry that's addressing the urgent need to find cheap clean protein. And how Nami...

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Discovery
Metamorphosis: Blowflies and dazzling disguise from 2023-09-18T20:00

Blowflies may be some of the most reviled insects on the planet, but as Erica McAlister discovers, they are central to the surprisingly long tradition of forensic entomology and how there's more...

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Discovery
Metamorphosis: Drosophila melanogaster, hoverfly from 2023-09-11T20:00

Dr Erica McAlister uncovers a treasure trove of remarkable insights from the insect world including the innocuous flies that are Drosophila melanogaster. More is known about these flies than any...

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Discovery
Metamorphosis: Jumping fleas and mighty mouthparts from 2023-09-04T20:00

Dr Erica McAlister uncovers a treasure trove of remarkable insects from the humble flea whose jump enables them to fly without wings and the mystery of the hawkmoth’s tongue, whose varying lengt...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Harald Haas from 2023-08-28T20:00

Imagine a world in which your laptop or mobile device accesses the internet, not via radio waves – or WiFi – as it does today but by using light instead: LiFi.

Well, that world may not be ...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Anne-Marie Imafidon from 2023-08-21T20:00

Anne-Marie Imafidon passed her computing A-Level at the age of 11 and by 16, was accepted to the University of Oxford to study Maths and Computer Science. She's used to the 'child prodigy' label...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Anne Ferguson-Smith from 2023-08-14T20:00

Our genes can tell us so much about us, from why we look the way we look, think the way we think, even what kind of diseases we might be likely to suffer from. But our genes aren't the whole sto...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Bruce Malamud from 2023-08-07T20:00

From landslides and wildfires to floods and tornadoes, Bruce Malamud has spent his career travelling the world and studying natural hazards.

Today, he is Wilson Chair of Hazard and Risk an...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Andre Geim from 2023-07-31T20:00

The world around us is three-dimensional. Yet, there are materials that can be regarded as two-dimensional. They are only one layer of atoms thick and have remarkable properties that are differe...

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Discovery
In search of stardust from 2023-07-24T20:00

Norwegian jazz musician Jon Larsen was having breakfast one clear spring morning when he noticed a tiny black speck land on his clean, white table. With no wind, birds or planes in sight, he wo...

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Discovery
Bodies, brains and computers from 2023-07-17T20:00

We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now.

Evolutionary biologist and broadcaster Professor Ben Ga...

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Discovery
Remote touch from 2023-07-10T20:00

We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Exploring the concept of solastalgia from 2023-07-08T19:00

In The Evidence on the BBC World Service, Claudia Hammond will be exploring the concept of solastalgia; broadly defined as the pain or emotional suffering brought about by environmental change c...

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Discovery
Smelly people from 2023-07-03T20:00

We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change...

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Discovery
Sound solutions from 2023-06-27T12:41

We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change...

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Discovery
Seeing more from 2023-06-22T13:12

We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change...

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Discovery
Sperm counts from 2023-06-12T20:00

James Gallagher get's behind the hype to find out if sperm counts are really falling? There are plenty of headlines telling us they are, but also scientists who disagree - he unpicks the evidenc...

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Discovery
Psychedelics from 2023-06-05T08:00

James Gallagher reports on a psychedelic renaissance; a new wave of research testing hallucinogenic drugs like magic mushrooms to treat mental health conditions.

There’s genuine excitement...

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Discovery
Fungal pandemic threat from 2023-05-29T20:00

We are familiar with fungal infections like Thrush and Athlete’s Foot, but fungal diseases that can kill are on the increase. The World Health Organisation is so concerned that it has published ...

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Discovery
Food Insecurity from 2023-05-22T20:00

Soaring food prices mean putting food on the table is a daily struggle. This is the grim reality for millions around the world. But hunger, so long a feature in lower-income countries, is becomi...

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Discovery
Maggots in medicine from 2023-05-15T20:00

After centuries of use in wound-healing, the maggot is back. The rise of the drug-resistant superbug means fresh eyes are focused on the superpowers of the larvae of the greenbottle fly species,...

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Discovery
Lazy guide to exercise from 2023-05-08T20:00

James Gallagher is on a mission to find out what is the least amount of exercise you can do to still stay healthy. James goes on a Ramblers wellbeing walk, uses a treadmill for the first time an...

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Discovery
The impossible number from 2023-05-01T20:00

There is a bizarre number in maths referred to simply as ‘i’. It appears to break the rules of arithmetic - but turns out to be utterly essential for applications across engineering and physics....

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Discovery
The mind-numbing medicine from 2023-04-27T12:57

This episode will render you oblivious, conked out and blissfully unaware. It’s about anaesthetics: those potent potions that send you into a deep, deathly sleep. Listener Alicia wants to know h...

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Discovery
The resurrection quest from 2023-04-24T20:00

‘Can we bring back extinct species?’ wonders listener Mikko Campbell. Well, Professor Fry is pretty excited by the prospect of woolly mammoths roaming the Siberian tundra once more. And everyone...

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Discovery
The puzzle of the pyramids from 2023-04-10T20:00

The Great Pyramids of Giza are awesome feats of engineering and precision. So who built them - and how? Was it a mysteriously super-advanced civilization now oddly extinct? Was it even aliens? Listen

Discovery
The Case of The Blind Man's Eye from 2023-03-27T20:00

Close your eyes and think of a giraffe. Can you see it? I mean, *really* see it - in rich, vivid detail? If not - you aren’t alone!

We’ve had scores of messages from listeners who report h...

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Discovery
Our Microbes and Our Health from 2023-03-25T20:00

We are a teeming mass of interconnected microbes and the impact of this microscopic universe on our health, our minds, even our moods, is profound.

Made in collaboration with Wellcome Coll...

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Discovery
Judith Bunbury: Unearthing the secrets of Ancient Egypt from 2023-03-20T21:00

Think Sahara Desert, think intense heat and drought. We see the Sahara as an unrelenting, frazzling, white place. But geo-archaeologist Dr Judith Bunbury says in the not so distant past, the reg...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Clifford Johnson from 2023-03-13T21:00

Clifford Johnson's career to date has spanned some seemingly very different industries - from exploring quantum mechanics around string theory and black holes, to consulting on some of Hollywood...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Rebecca Kilner from 2023-03-06T21:00

A fur-stripped mouse carcase might not sound like the cosiest of homes – but that is where the burying beetle makes its nest, and where Rebecca Kilner has focused much of her research.

A p...

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Discovery
The magnetic mystery from 2023-03-04T21:00

Magnets are inside loads of everyday electronic kit - speakers, motors, phones and more - but listener Lucas is mystified. What, he wonders, is a magnetic field?

Our sleuths set out to inv...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Tim Lamont from 2023-02-27T21:00

Tim Lamont is a young scientist making waves. Arriving on the Great Barrier Reef after a mass bleaching event, Tim saw his research plans disappear and was personally devastated by the destructi...

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Discovery
Bad Blood: Newgenics from 2023-02-20T21:00

Are we entering a ‘newgenic’ age - where cutting-edge technologies and the power of personal choice could achieve the kind of genetic perfection that 20th century eugenicists were after?

I...

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Discovery
Bad Blood: The curse of Mendel from 2023-02-13T21:00

In the mid-19th Century, an Augustinian friar called Gregor Mendel made a breakthrough. By breeding pea plants and observing how certain traits were passed on, Mendel realised there must be unit...

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Discovery
Bad Blood: Rassenhygiene from 2023-02-06T21:00

In the name of eugenics, the Nazi state sterilised hundreds of thousands against their will, murdered disabled children and embarked on a programme of genocide.

We like to believe that Naz...

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Discovery
Bad Blood: Birth controlled from 2023-01-30T21:00

Who should be prevented from having children? And who gets to decide? Across 20th century America, there was a battle to control birth - a battle which rages on to this day.

In 1907, the s...

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Discovery
Bad Blood: You will not replace us from 2023-01-23T21:00

"You will not replace us" was the battle cry of white supremacists at a rally in Charlottesville in 2017. They were expressing an old fear - the idea that immigrants and people of colour will ou...

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Discovery
Bad Blood: You've got good genes from 2023-01-16T21:00

We follow the story of eugenics from its origins in the middle-class salons of Victorian Britain, through the Fitter Family competitions and sterilisation laws of Gilded Age USA, to the full gen...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Cougar from 2023-01-09T21:00

Hiding in the shadows across the American continents lives a big cat with many names. From puma to mountain lion to panther to cougar, this animal is carnivorous, cunning and uses stealth to sil...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Wasps from 2023-01-02T21:00

Why do wasps exist? While many see them as unfriendly bees who sting out of spite, their aggression could be interpreted as a fierce form of family protection. They are hugely understudied and e...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: African Wild Dog from 2022-12-26T21:00

As a great African predator and a hot-spot on safari, it is hard to believe that only last century, the African wild dog was considered vermin. It's beautiful coat of painted strokes makes it un...

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Discovery
Preparing for the next pandemic from 2022-12-24T20:00

Infectious diseases which cause epidemics and pandemics are on the rise.

Claudia Hammond is joined by an eminent panel of disease detectives, who spell out why the risks are increasing and...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Komodo dragon from 2022-12-19T21:00

With nicknames like ‘prehistoric monster’ and ‘living dinosaur’, the Komodo dragon has been well and truly judged by its cover. Its gigantic size, razor sharp teeth and deadly attacking power ha...

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Discovery
Wild Inside: The Alpaca from 2022-12-12T21:00

Alpacas may have been domesticated for thousands of years but their native lands are the steep hostile mountains of South America where they continue to thrive far from the modern luxuries of an...

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Discovery
Wild inside: The Harbour Porpoise from 2022-12-05T21:00

Prof Ben Garrod and Dr Jess French get under the skin of the harbour porpoise to unravel this enigmatic and shy aquatic mammal’s extraordinary survival skills - from it’s ability to dive for lon...

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Discovery
Wild inside: Great Grey Owl from 2022-11-28T21:00

One of the world’s large owls by length, the Great Grey Owl is an enigmatic predator of coniferous forests close to the Arctic tundra. It's most often seen hunting around dawn and dusk, when it ...

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Discovery
Wild inside: The Cheetah from 2022-11-21T21:00

Zoologist Ben Garrod and veterinary surgeon Jess French delve deep into some amazing internal anatomy to unravel the secrets to survival of some of nature’s iconic animals.

They begin with...

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Discovery
The puzzle of the plasma doughnut from 2022-11-14T21:00

What do you get if you smash two hydrogen nuclei together? Helium and lots of energy – it's nuclear fusion!

Nuclear fusion is the power source of the sun and the stars. Physicists and engi...

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Discovery
The Riddle of Red-Eyes and Runny-Noses from 2022-11-07T21:00

Sneezes, wheezes, runny noses and red eyes - this episode is all about allergies.

An allergic reaction is when your immune system reacts to something harmless – like peanuts or pollen – as...

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Discovery
The problem of infinite Pi(e) from 2022-10-31T21:00

Pi is the ratio between a circle’s diameter and its circumference. Sounds dull – but pi turns out to have astonishing properties and crop up in places you would never expect. For a start, it goe...

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Discovery
The suspicious smell from 2022-10-24T19:32

Why are some smells so nasty and others so pleasant? Rutherford and Fry inhale the science of scent in this stinker of an episode.

Our sleuths kick off with a guided tour of the airborne m...

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Discovery
The Wild and Windy Tale from 2022-10-17T19:32

How do winds start and why do they stop? asks Georgina from the Isle of Wight. What's more, listener Chris Elshaw is suprised we get strong winds at all: why doesn't air just move smoothly betwe...

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Discovery
The Case of The Missing Gorilla from 2022-10-10T19:32

DO WE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?

Good! But how does that work!?

Our intrepid science sleuths explore why some things immediately catch your eye - or ear - while others slip by totally unno...

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Discovery
Chi Onwurah from 2022-10-03T20:00

Chi Onwurah tells Jim Al-Khalili why she wanted to become a telecoms engineer and why engineering is a caring profession.

As a black, working class woman from a council estate in Newcastle...

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Discovery
The Evidence: How pandemics end from 2022-10-01T18:06

Six and a half million dead. More than a hundred times that infected. The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe. But in the final months of the third year of this health crisis, s...

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Discovery
David Eagleman from 2022-09-26T19:32

Literature student turned neuroscientist, Prof David Eagleman, tells Jim Al-Khalili about his research on human perception and the wristband he created that enables deaf people to hear through t...

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Discovery
Frances Arnold from 2022-09-20T04:00

Nobel Prize winning chemist Frances Arnold left home at 15 and went to school ‘only when she felt like it’. She disagreed with her parents about the Vietnam war and drove big yellow taxis in Pit...

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Discovery
Sir Martin Landray from 2022-09-12T20:00

Who could forget the beginning of 2020, when a ‘mysterious viral pneumonia’ emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Soon, other countries were affected and deaths around the world began to climb. ...

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Discovery
How Covid Changed Science, part 3 from 2022-09-05T19:32

In the third and final part of our series How Covid Changed Science, Devi Sridhar Professor of Global Health at Edinburgh University looks at the legacy and lessons of the pandemic for scientifi...

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Discovery
How Covid changed science, part 2 from 2022-08-29T19:32

In the second of our series How Covid Changed Science, Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Health at Edinburgh University looks at the scientific messaging. Just how do you explain to both politic...

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Discovery
How Covid changed science, part 1 from 2022-08-22T19:32

Until 2020 developing a new drug took at least 15 years. Scientists by and large competed with each other, were somewhat secretive about their research and only shared their data once publicatio...

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Discovery
Satellites versus the stars from 2022-08-15T19:32

If you look up into the night sky, there are around 7,000 active satellites orbiting the Earth. They’re part of our daily life – essential for things like the internet, the GPS in our cars and g...

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Discovery
Plant based promises, diet and health from 2022-08-08T19:32

Giles Yeo learns how to make a Thai green curry with Meera Sodha. This is a recipe without meat or prawns but with tofu and lots of vegetables. If we need to eat less meat and dairy to help prev...

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Discovery
Plant based promises and sustainability from 2022-08-01T19:32

In Plant Based Promises, Giles Yeo a foodie and academic at Cambridge University, asks how sustainable are commercial plant based products? This is a fast growing sector with a potential value o...

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Discovery
Plant based promises, rise of the plant based burger from 2022-07-25T19:32

In Plant Based Promises, foodie, researcher and broadcaster Giles Yeo looks at the science behind plant based diets and the increasing number of plant based products appearing in supermarkets an...

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Discovery
The mysterious particles of physics, part 3 from 2022-07-18T19:32

The smaller the thing you look at, the bigger the microscope you need to use. That’s why the circular Large Hadron Collider at CERN, where they discovered the Higgs boson is 27 kilometres long, ...

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Discovery
The mysterious particles of physics, part 2 from 2022-07-11T19:32

Episode 2: Lost in the Dark

Physics is getting a good understanding of atoms, but embarrassingly they’re only a minor part of the Universe. Far more of it is made of something heavy and da...

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Discovery
The mysterious particles of physics, part 1 from 2022-07-04T19:32

The machine that discovered the Higgs Boson 10 years ago is about to restart after a massive upgrade, to dig deeper into the heart of matter and the nature of the Universe.

Roland Pease re...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Adam Hart from 2022-06-27T19:32

Ant-loving professor, Adam Hart, shares his passion for leaf cutting ants with Jim Al Khalili. Why do they put leaves in piles for other ants to pick up?

Talking at the Hay Festival, Adam ...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Jacinta Tan from 2022-06-20T20:00

When a person with severe anorexia nervosa refuses food, the very treatment they need to survive, is that refusal carefully considered and rational, as it can appear to those around them? Or is ...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Pete Smith from 2022-06-13T19:32

Pete Smith is very down to earth. Not least because he’s interested in soil and the vital role it plays in helping us to feed the world, mitigate climate change and maintain a rich diversity of ...

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Discovery
The colour conundrum from 2022-06-06T20:00

The world is full of colour! But, listener Maya Crocombe wonders ‘how do we see colour and why are some people colour blind?’

Dr Rutherford and professor Fry set out to understand how spec...

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Discovery
The Turn of the Tide from 2022-05-30T20:00

Mathematician Hannah Fry and geneticist Adam Rutherford investigate your everyday science queries. Today, they get stuck into two questions about tides. Lynn Godson wants to know why isn’t high ...

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Discovery
The Evidence: The nature of mental health from 2022-05-28T19:06

Today The Evidence goes green as Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts discuss plant power, how nature and the natural environment affect our mental health.

Produced in collaboration wi...

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Discovery
The Shocking White Hair from 2022-05-23T20:00

Why does human hair go grey and is it ever possible for it to go white overnight from shock? Hannah and Adam explore why hair goes grey, how much stressful life events and a lack of sleep can sp...

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Discovery
Surprising symmetries from 2022-05-16T19:32

Two eyes, two arms, two legs - we are roughly symmetrical on the outside, but inside we are all over the place! We just have one heart, which is usually on the left, one liver on the right, one ...

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Discovery
The weird waves of wi-fi from 2022-05-09T19:32

We use wi-fi every day, but do you know how it works? “Is it waves and science or just some mystical magical force?” wonders listener Abby.

Well, our science sleuths are on the case. To he...

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Discovery
The Mystery of the Teenage Brain from 2022-05-02T19:32

‘Why are teens prone to risky behaviour?’ asks Dr Mark Gallaway, ‘especially when with their friends?’ 13 year old Emma wonders why she’s chatty at school but antisocial when she gets home. And ...

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Discovery
Wild Inside: The Ocean Sunfish from 2022-04-25T19:32

Ben Garrod and Jess French get under the skin of Mola mola the world's largest bony fish to unravel this bizarrely shaped predator's ability to swim to a huge range of depths.

Producer Adr...

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Discovery
Wild Inside: The Burmese Python from 2022-04-18T19:32

Ben Garrod and Jess French delve deep inside the predatory Burmese Python to examine its extraordinary body plan that enables it to catch, constrict and consume huge prey whole.

Producer A...

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Discovery
Wild Inside: Jungle royalty - the Jaguar from 2022-04-11T19:32

Wild Inside embarks on something we hardly ever witness – a look inside some of nature’s most wondrous animals. Its a rare chance to delve deep into some enigmatic and very different wild animal...

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Discovery
The Evidence: War trauma and mental health from 2022-04-02T18:06

War and conflict turns lives upside down and millions of adults and children witness atrocities, lose loved ones and often lose their homes and even their countries. The psychological and emotio...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Steve Brusatte on the fall of dinosaurs and the rise of mammals from 2022-03-28T19:32

Steve Brusatte analyses the pace of evolutionary change and tries to answer big questions. Why did the dinosaurs die out and the mammals survive? How did dinosaurs evolve into birds? If you met ...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Shankar Balasubramanian on decoding DNA from 2022-03-21T20:32

Sir Shankar Balasubramanian is responsible for a revolution in medicine. The method he invented for reading, at speed, the unique genetic code that makes each one of us who we are, is ten millio...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Wolves from 2022-03-14T20:32

We look at wolves and the programme is a little different, because the predator we’re talking about is very much a predator of our imaginations. Wolves are the spirit of the wilderness, but the...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Army ant from 2022-03-08T04:32

The army ant might be small enough to squash under foot but, make no mistake, it’s a formidable predator. When they club together in their thousands they are a force to be reckoned with. Pictur...

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Discovery
Tooth and Claw: Venomous snakes from 2022-02-28T20:32

Adam Hart discovers why rattlesnakes make good mothers and how deadly their venom is. There are over 600 different species of venomous snakes around the world with fearsome fangs delivering dea...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Drug-resistant superbugs from 2022-02-26T19:06

Today, Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts focus on what’s been called “the silent pandemic”, the threat to modern medicine of anti-microbial resistance or AMR.

Infections are increas...

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Discovery
Tooth and claw: Spotted hyena from 2022-02-21T20:32

Cursed as a worthless scavenger and cast as villainous cowardly sidekicks in Disney’s The Lion King, the spotted hyena is one of the world’s most misunderstood of all predators. It may scavenge...

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Discovery
Deep sea exploration from 2022-02-14T20:32

UCL oceanographer Helen Czerski explores life in the ocean depths with a panel of deep sea biologists. They take us to deep ocean coral gardens on sea mounts, to extraordinary hydrothermal vent ...

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Discovery
A new space age? from 2022-02-07T20:32

In 2021, Captain James Kirk, aka William Shatner, popped into space for real for a couple of minutes, transported by space company Blue Origin's tourist rocket New Shepard. Elon Musk's Space X f...

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Discovery
African science, African future from 2022-01-31T21:00

Professor Tom Kariuki has spent his career battling for science in Africa, both as a leading immunologist and as the former director of the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Afr...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Africa, the pandemic and healthcare independence from 2022-01-29T19:06

In a special edition of The Evidence, Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts focus on Africa, on how the more than fifty countries on the continent, home to 1.3 billion people and the most you...

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Discovery
The venomous vendetta from 2022-01-24T20:32

Whilst watching a documentary about some poisonous frogs, Curio Janni in Amsterdam, started to wonder what would happen if a frog licked itself or another frog of the same species. She asks Dr A...

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Discovery
The slippery situation from 2022-01-17T20:32

'What is the slipperiest thing in the world?' asks 8 year old Evelyn? 'Why do my feet slip on a wet floor but when my feet are even slightly moist it's nearly impossible to put on a pair of sock...

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Discovery
The painless heart from 2022-01-10T20:32

Dr Mitch Lomax is a sports scientist at the University of Portsmouth. She helps actual Olympic swimmers get faster. She explains how most of the muscles attached to our skeletons work: Tiny fibr...

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Discovery
The weirdness of water, Part 2 of 2 from 2022-01-03T20:32

“I don’t really understand why water has so many properties on different scales ranging from very large and cosmic to very small quantum and quarky - Could you help by zooming in and out on wate...

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Discovery
The weirdness of water, Part 1 of 2 from 2021-12-27T20:32

“I don’t really understand why water has so many properties on different scales ranging from very large and cosmic to very small quantum and quarky - Could you help by zooming in and out on wate...

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Discovery
The Evidence: When will the pandemic end? from 2021-12-25T19:06

Everybody hopes that the new super-charged Omicron variant of coronavirus will be less severe, but even if it is, it’s spreading so fast and infecting so many people, health services around the ...

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Discovery
The guiding hound from 2021-12-20T20:32

Dogs and humans have gone paw in hand for thousands of years. Historic and genetic evidence shows we’ve shaped each other's existence over millennia. But dogs were only first trained as guides f...

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Discovery
The James Webb Space Telescope from 2021-12-13T20:32

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is only days away. Scheduled for lift off on 22 December, the largest and most complex space observatory ever built will be sent to an orbit beyond...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Healthcare pushed out by the pandemic from 2021-11-27T19:06

As all eyes have been on the virus, other serious killer diseases took a backseat. Resources and staff were diverted, lockdowns were common all over the world and a very real fear of Covid-19 kept ...

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Discovery
Genetic dreams, genetic nightmares from 2021-11-22T20:32

Biologist Matthew Cobb presents the first episode in a series which looks at the 50-year history of genetic engineering, from the concerns around the first attempts at combining the DNA of one orga...

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Discovery
Genetic dreams, genetic nightmares from 2021-11-22T20:32

Biologist Matthew Cobb presents the first episode in a series which looks at the 50-year history of genetic engineering, from the concerns around the first attempts at combining the DNA of one orga...

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Discovery
Listening to coral reefs from 2021-11-15T20:32

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and also some of the noisiest. Up close, a healthy reef teems with trills, whoops, buzzes, hums and snaps made by the diverse lifef...

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Discovery
Geoengineering The Planet from 2021-11-01T20:32

Even with the best efforts, it will be decades before we see any change in global temperatures through our mitigation efforts. Given the pace of global heating and the time lag before our emissions...

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Discovery
The Evidence: When misinformation kills from 2021-10-30T18:06

A maelstrom of misinformation and its sinister cousin, disinformation, have been swirling all around us about Covid-19. The rumours and conspiracy theories have raced around the globe as fast as th...

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Discovery
Chilean mummies from 2021-10-25T20:00

Think of ancient mummies, and you might imagine Egyptian pharaohs in their highly decorated cases. But in actual fact, Chile has the oldest mummies in the world. Unesco recently addded the archaeol...

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Discovery
Earthshot 3 - The prize winners from 2021-10-18T20:00

Over the last 2 weeks we have featured the 15 finalists in the Earthshot prize, an initiative to highlight and award projects designed to conserve and sustain natural environments, and improve our ...

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Discovery
Earthshot 2 – Tackling our energy crisis from 2021-10-11T19:32

Just how do we balance the growing demand for electricity worldwide with the need to reduce fossil fuel emissions to address climate change? In our second programme on the Earthshot prize Chhavi...

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Discovery
Earthshot 1 from 2021-10-04T19:32

While international meetings to discuss climate change and polices that affect the world can seem rather distant to us as individuals, on a local level there are many exciting and creative initiati...

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Discovery
Earthshot 1 from 2021-10-04T19:32

While international meetings to discuss climate change and polices that affect the world can seem rather distant to us as individuals, on a local level there are many exciting and creative initiati...

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Discovery
The Evidence: To boost or not to boost? from 2021-10-02T18:06

The divide between the Covid vaccine haves and have-nots has been described as “criminal”, with only 20% of people in low and middle income countries having had one dose, compared with 80% in highe...

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Discovery
China's great science leap from 2021-09-20T19:32

President Xi Jinping is investing seriously into his strategic vision of turning China into a nation of scientific pace-setters. China’s past contributions to modern science have been proportionall...

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Discovery
Covid origins: The science from 2021-09-13T19:32

Presenter: Roland Pease Picture: Wuhan Residents Told Not To Leave As Coronavirus Pneumonia Spreads, Credit: Stringer/Getty Images

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Discovery
Future vaccines from 2021-09-06T19:32

The COVID19 pandemic has revolutionised the way vaccines are made, and underlined the inequalities in access to vaccines. But will it leave a legacy? Roland Pease explores the potential for mRNA an...

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Discovery
Tamsin Edwards on the uncertainty in climate science from 2021-08-30T19:32

Certainty is comforting. Certainty is quick. But science is uncertain. And this is particularly true for people who are trying to understand climate change. Climate scientist, Tamsin Edwards tackl...

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Discovery
The Evidence: How will the pandemic end? from 2021-08-29T23:06

When all restrictions are lifted in a highly vaccinated country, how manageable is the coronavirus? Both Israel and UK’s experiments to do just that, have raised new worries about raising the risk ...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Professor Martin Sweeting from 2021-08-23T19:32

When Martin Sweeting was a student, he thought it would be fun to try to build a satellite using electronic components found in some of the earliest personal computers. An amateur radio ham and spa...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Dr Nira Chamberlain from 2021-08-16T19:32

When does a crowd of people become unsafe? How well will the football team Aston Villa do next season? When is it cost-effective to replace a kitchen? The answers may seem arbitrary but, to Nira Ch...

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Discovery
Lost for words from 2021-08-09T19:32

Struggling to find words might be one of the first things we notice when someone develops dementia, while more advanced speech loss can make it really challenging to communicate with loved ones. An...

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Discovery
Introducing: Season 2 of 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter from 2021-08-06T17:15

How animals make us smarter – we thought you might like to hear our brand new episode. It’s about a robotic arm inspired by an elephant’s trunk. For more, search for 30 Animals That Made Us Smarte...

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Discovery
A sense of music from 2021-08-02T19:32

Music can make us feel happy and sad. It can compel us to move in time with it, or sing along to a melody. It taps into some integral sense of musicality that binds us together. But music is regime...

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Discovery
Whatever happened to…those Covid-19 stories from 2021-07-31T18:06

Whatever happened to those sniffer dogs who were seeking out any passengers infected with Covid-19 at Helsinki airport? And did plans to sample sewage to spot outbreaks early prove successful? Th...

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Discovery
Dare to repair: Fixing the future from 2021-07-26T19:32

Mark Miodownik, explores the environmental consequences of the throwaway society we have become and reveals that recycling electronic waste comes second to repairing broken electronics. He asks wha...

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Discovery
Dare to repair: The fight for the right to repair from 2021-07-19T19:32

Many electronics manufacturers are making it harder for us, to fix our broken kit. There are claims that programmed obsolescence is alive and well, with mobile phone batteries designed to wear out ...

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Discovery
Dare to Repair: How we broke the future from 2021-07-12T19:32

Materials engineer Professor Mark Miodownik looks back to the start of the electronics revolution to find out why our electronic gadgets and household goods are less durable and harder to repair no...

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Discovery
Tooth and claw: Tigers from 2021-07-05T19:32

“As it charges towards you, you can actually feel the drumbeat of its feet falling to the ground”. Nothing quite says fear more than standing before a charging tiger. Yet so often it’s also the pos...

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Discovery
Tooth and claw: Bears from 2021-06-28T19:32

Teddy bears might be popular with children but real bears are anything but cuddly. Brown, Black and Grizzly bears are the most well-known and have a well-deserved fearsome reputation. But for most ...

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Discovery
The Evidence: How Covid damages the human body from 2021-06-26T18:06

A year and a half in, and in many ways Covid-19 is still an enigma. All over the world, doctors and scientists are still struggling to understand exactly how this new virus undermines our defences ...

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Discovery
Tooth and claw: Lions from 2021-06-21T19:32

From Aslan to Simba, from the Wizard of Oz to heraldry, children in the West probably recognise this king of beasts before they can name the animals in their own back yards. But what about people w...

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Discovery
Tooth and claw: Crocodiles from 2021-06-14T19:32

We have a morbid fascination with predators. And we've had it since the very first people carved figures or painted on cave walls thousands of years ago. Predators are still revered as gods in many...

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Discovery
Peter Goadsby on migraine from 2021-06-07T19:32

neurological condition is far more common than you might think, affecting more people than diabetes, epilepsy and asthma combined. While medications, to help relieve the symptoms of migraine, have...

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Discovery
Patient zero: First outbreak from 2021-05-31T19:32

“Aboriginal people had a name for it... they called it ‘Devil Devil’...”

In 1789, a disease tore through Aboriginal communities around Sydney Cove, or Warrane, leaving dead bodies floating...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Sharing Vaccines – what’s gone wrong? from 2021-05-29T18:06

The lofty ambition of the global community was that across the globe, those with the highest risk of losing their lives to this virus should be vaccinated first. With 99% of deaths coming in the ov...

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Discovery
Patient zero: Back from the brink from 2021-05-24T19:32

A six-year old boy in Papua New Guinea woke up one day in 2018 and was suddenly unable to stand up. Less than a year later, children in three other Asia Pacific nations were experiencing the same a...

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Discovery
Patient zero Ticking time bomb from 2021-05-17T19:32

In 2012 doctors in Tennessee started seeing patients with unusual symptoms. It became a race against time to find a diagnosis. A series of investigations revealed that the patients were infected wi...

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Discovery
Patient zero: Spillover in suburbia from 2021-05-10T19:32

A horse mysteriously falls ill in her paddock, and before long dozens of other horses from her stables are sick. As the horses start to die vicious, painful deaths, their trainer falls into a coma ...

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Discovery
The noises that make us cringe from 2021-05-03T19:32

Why do some people find noises like a fork scraping a plate so terrible? asks Findlay in Aberdeenshire. Rutherford and Fry endure some horrible noises to find out the answer. Warning - This episod...

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Discovery
The Hamster Power Hypothesis from 2021-04-26T19:32

"How many hamsters on wheels would it take to power London?" asks Judah from Virginia in the USA. Rutherford&Fry return with engineering, ethics and economics to answer this electric query. Smart ...

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Discovery
The Martian Mission from 2021-04-19T19:32

What would it take for humans to live permanently on Mars? asks Martin in Weston-super-Mare, UK. The doctors dig into requirements and possibilities of a long-term Martian outpost. We know that man...

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Discovery
The equal rights stuff from 2021-04-12T19:32

In 1976, Nasa launched a campaign to help recruit the next generation of Astronauts. It was fronted by African-American actress Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura, as part of an effort to ensu...

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Discovery
Lithium: Chile’s white gold from 2021-04-05T19:32

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2019 was awarded to John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino "for the development of lithium-ion batteries." These rechargeable batteries are in our p...

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Discovery
Patient zero: Coronavirus and contact tracing from 2021-03-29T19:32

Today’s episode is about the history we’re still living. From Melbourne to Munich, Lombardy to Wuhan and all the way back again, this episode is about what happened when we faced those first corona...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Mental health and the pandemic from 2021-03-27T19:06

Year two of the pandemic, and in tandem with rising rates of illness, death, acute economic shock and restrictions on everyday life, mental health problems have risen too. Claudia Hammond and her...

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Discovery
Patient zero: the December transplant from 2021-03-22T21:32

Three transplant patients died within a week of each other in Melbourne in December 2006 and alarm bells started ringing. One of the patients was Karen. When she got a phone call from the hospital ...

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Discovery
Patient zero: something in the water from 2021-03-15T20:32

It was October 2010 when reports first emerged of a mysterious disease spreading through Haiti. In a hospital in Saint Marc, about an hour north of the country's capital Port-au-Prince, 400 cases o...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Jane Hurst from 2021-03-08T20:32

Mice, like humans, prefer to be treated with a little dignity, and that extends to how they are handled. Pick a mouse up by its tail, as was the norm in laboratories for decades, and it gets anxio...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Cath Noakes from 2021-03-01T20:32

Professor Cath Noakes studies how air moves and the infection risk associated with different ventilation systems. Early in the pandemic, she was invited to join the government’s Scientific Advisory...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Keeping out Covid-19 from 2021-02-27T19:06

From flight bans and entry bans to compulsory quarantine and virus testing, most countries have introduced travel restrictions in an effort to control the spread of the virus. But for a virus that ...

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Discovery
The Life Scientific: Giles Yeo from 2021-02-22T20:32

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work.

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Discovery
The power of night from 2021-02-15T20:32

Lucy Cooke meets some of the animal kingdom’s nocturnal inhabitants to understand why it pays to stir once the sun goes down. She examines some of the extraordinary nocturnal adaptations from the ...

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Discovery
The power of one from 2021-02-08T20:32

We humans are a supremely social species, but the coronavirus pandemic has forced many of us into solitary confinement. It feels like an unnatural, regressive move, that goes against our collectiv...

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Discovery
The power of celibacy from 2021-02-01T20:32

You might think that sex is essential for life, but you'd be wrong! Lucy Cooke travels to the Hawaiian island of Oahu to meet a community of mourning geckos - self-cloning sisters who have done aw...

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Discovery
The Evidence: The Shapeshifting Virus from 2021-01-30T19:06

News that at least three new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged in three separate continents have sent a chill throughout the scientific community. All viruses mutate but the speed and scale of th...

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Discovery
Science Trumped from 2021-01-25T20:32

When US health expert sighed last week that science could now speak again, his sense of relief was shared by many scientists. Since the start of the Trump administration, experts inside the US gove...

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Discovery
Plant scientist Dale Sanders from 2021-01-18T20:00

Professor Dale Sanders has spent much of his life studying plants, seeking to understand why some thrive in a particular environment while others struggle. His ground breaking research on their mol...

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Discovery
Astrophysicist Andy Fabian from 2021-01-11T20:32

Professor Andrew Fabian from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy has spent his career trying to unravel the mystery of how some of the most dramatic events in the universe can profoundly influence i...

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Discovery
Marine conservationist Heather Koldewey from 2021-01-04T20:32

Professor Heather Koldewey wants to protect our oceans from over-fishing and plastic pollution. An academic who is not content to sit back and let the science speak for itself, she wants to turn sc...

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Discovery
Climate meltdown from 2020-12-28T21:00

The year 2020 started with wildfires raging across parts of Australia, exceptional floods in East Africa, and a heatwave in the Arctic. Extremes persisted through the year in the north - where wild...

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Discovery
Hopes and fears for Covid-19 vaccines from 2020-12-26T20:00

Less than a year in, and the first vaccines are already being rolled out, with many more in the pipeline. It is an unprecedented scientific response to the global pandemic and researchers around th...

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Discovery
Evolutionary biologist Alice Roberts from 2020-12-21T20:32

It’s amazing what we can learn from a pile of old bones. Having worked as a paediatric surgeon for several years (often doing the ward round on roller blades), Alice Roberts spent a decade teaching...

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Discovery
Steve Haake from 2020-12-14T20:32

Steve Haake has spent much of his career using technology to help elite sports people get better, faster and break records. He has turned his hand to the engineering behind most sports, from studyi...

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Discovery
The Space Burrito from 2020-12-07T20:32

Is there a point in space where the Sun could heat a burrito perfectly? asks Will. The doctors tackle this and a plethora of other conundrums from the Curious Cases inbox. Featuring expert answers...

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Discovery
The Zedonk Problem from 2020-11-30T20:32

Today I learnt that tigons and ligers are what you get when lions and tigers interbreed?!’ surprised listener Jamz G tells the doctors. ‘What determines whether species can interbreed?’ Geneticist...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Pandemic rules: follower or flouter? from 2020-11-28T19:06

Millions of us, across the world, are subject to curfews, stay-at-home orders and lockdowns but what makes us stick to the rules, bend them or ignore them altogether? Claudia Hammond and her expert...

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Discovery
The end of everything from 2020-11-23T20:32

Everyone knows about the Big Bang being the beginning of the universe and time - but when and how is it going to end? ask brothers Raffie and Xe from Rome. For this series, with lockdown learning i...

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Discovery
Broad spectrum from 2020-11-16T20:32

Autism is a lifelong condition, often seen as particularly ‘male’. Yet a growing number of women, and those assigned female at birth, are being diagnosed as autistic in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and bey...

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Discovery
Birds: singing for survival from 2020-11-09T20:32

As large areas of the world have locked down this year, many of us have become more aware of the birdsong around us. The relative silence has allowed us to listen in. But scientists have known for ...

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Discovery
Digital touch from 2020-11-02T20:32

Claudia Hammond asks if touch can be replicated digitally? What devices exist already and how likely are we to use them? Michael Banissy, co-creator of the Touch Test, neuroscientist David Eagleman...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Are national lockdowns evidence of policy failure? from 2020-10-31T19:06

As a surge of cases risks overwhelming health services in parts of Europe, Claudia Hammond and experts from around the world examine the evidence behind using lockdowns to supress the virus. Lock...

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Discovery
Affectionate touch from 2020-10-26T20:32

Claudia Hammond looks at the neuroscience behind our sense of touch. Why does a gentle touch from a loved one make us feel good? This is a question that neuroscientists have been exploring since th...

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Discovery
Unwanted touch from 2020-10-19T19:32

Claudia Hammond explores unwanted touch and who we do and don’t mind touching us – and where. She draws on insights from the largest study that’s ever been conducted on the topic of touch – The Tou...

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Discovery
Touch hunger from 2020-10-12T19:32

Claudia Hammond explores our experience of touch hunger, and asks if we have enough touch in our lives. Covid-19 and social distancing have changed how most people feel about touch but even before ...

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Discovery
Megadrought in Chile from 2020-10-05T19:32

Drought is a massive problem for Chile. Jane Chambers has been living in the capital Santiago for more than ten years and has seen huge changes in that time. It used to rain frequently in the winte...

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Discovery
The sting in the tail from 2020-09-28T19:32

"What’s the point of wasps?" asks listener Andrew, who is fed up with being pestered. For this series, with lockdown learning in mind, Drs Rutherford and Fry are investigating scientific mysteries ...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Covid lessons for safe school reopening from 2020-09-26T18:05

Claudia Hammond and experts from around the world consider the evidence behind schools, colleges and coronavirus spread. Listeners from India, Cuba, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, France, the US...

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Discovery
The seeded cloud from 2020-09-21T19:00

"Could you make a machine to make it rain in minutes?" asks listener Alexander from Hampshire, aged 12. For this series, with lockdown learning in mind, Drs Rutherford and Fry are investigating sci...

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Discovery
The growling stomach from 2020-09-14T19:32

"Why do our tummies rumble - and when they do, does it always mean we are hungry?" asks listener James, aged 12. For this series, with lockdown learning in mind, Drs Rutherford and Fry are investig...

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Discovery
Return to Mars from 2020-09-07T19:32

In February 2021, three spacecraft will arrive at Mars. One is the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter - the first interplanetary probe sent by the Arab world. Tianwen-1 will be China’s first mi...

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Discovery
Liz Seward from 2020-08-31T19:32

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to Liz Seward, Senior Space Strategist for Airbus Defence and Space. Liz's young interest in Science Fiction led to a career designing spacecraft and robots for explo...

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Discovery
Professor Emma Bunce from 2020-08-24T19:32

Emma Bunce, Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics at the University of Leicester, was inspired to study the solar system as a child by a TV programme that featured Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune. She...

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Discovery
Frank Kelly from 2020-08-17T19:30

Long before most of us gave air pollution a second thought, Frank Kelly was studying the impact of toxic particles on our lungs. In a pioneering set of experiments on human volunteers in northern S...

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Discovery
On the menu from 2020-08-10T19:32

Shark, bear and crocodile attacks tend to make the headlines but humans fall prey to a much wider variety of predators every year, from big cats and snakes, to wolves, hyenas and even eagles that’v...

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Discovery
Human Genome Project's 20th Anniversary from 2020-08-03T19:32

Adam Rutherford celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of the most ambitious and revolutionary scientific endeavours of all time - the Human Genome Project. Its scope and scale was breath-taking, ...

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Discovery
Brian Greene from 2020-07-27T19:32

Brian Greene studies the universe at the largest and smallest scales imaginable. When he was just twelve years old, Brian wandered round Columbia University in New York looking for someone to teach...

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Discovery
Jane Goodall from 2020-07-20T19:32

Jane Goodall, aged 86, reflects on the years she spent living with the wild chimpanzees in Gombe in eastern Tanzania and tells Jim Al Khalili why she believes the best way to bring about change is ...

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Discovery
Bed from 2020-07-13T19:32

After a long journey, there’s nothing nicer for Katy than climbing into her own bed. It’s often the first major purchase we make when we grow up and leave home. Its significance was not lost on ou...

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Discovery
Covid-19: Recovery from 2020-07-11T05:06

Claudia Hammond and a panel of international experts look at the latest research into Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus which is sweeping through the world. Our panel of experts...

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Discovery
Toilet from 2020-07-06T19:32

You may call it the toilet, the loo, the privy, the potty, the can or even the bathroom, but whatever you call it, this everyday object has its roots in Bronze Age Pakistan. It even had a seat! Bu...

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Discovery
Wine glass from 2020-06-29T19:32

Have you got one of those wine glasses that can hold an entire bottle of wine? Katy Brand does and she’s even used it for wine - albeit because of a sprained ankle, which would have stopped her fro...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Covid 19: vaccines and after lockdown from 2020-06-27T05:06

Claudia Hammond and a panel of international experts look at the latest research into Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus which is sweeping through the world. We look at vaccines ...

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Discovery
Fork from 2020-06-22T19:32

The fork is essential. Even camping without one is a false economy, in Katy’s experience. Even a spork - with a spoon at one end and a fork at the other, with a knife formed along one prong - just ...

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Discovery
High heel from 2020-06-15T19:32

Katy Brand loves a high heel. Once known by friends and family for her ‘shoe fetish’, her dad even gave her a ceramic heel that could hold a wine bottle at a jaunty angle. These days, Katy’s cheri...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Covid 19: Transmission and South America from 2020-06-13T05:06

Claudia Hammond and a panel of international experts look at the latest research into Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus which is sweeping through the world. As the disease sprea...

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Discovery
Toothbrush from 2020-06-08T19:32

What is the most personal item you own - one you don’t want anyone else using? For Katy Brand it’s her toothbrush. So how did the toothbrush become one of life’s essentials?With the help of reside...

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Discovery
Helium from 2020-06-01T19:32

Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, celebrates the art and science of the chemical elements. Today he looks at helium. Helium is a finite resource here on...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Covid 19: Sub-Saharan Africa and Testing from 2020-05-30T05:06

Claudia Hammond and a panel of international experts look at the latest research into Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus which is sweeping through the world. As the disease spreads...

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Discovery
Aluminium and strontium from 2020-05-25T19:00

Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, celebrates the art and science of the chemical elements. Today he looks at aluminium and strontium, elements that give u...

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Discovery
Gold and silver from 2020-05-18T19:00

Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, celebrates the art and science of chemical elements. In this episode he looks at two elements we have valued for millenn...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Covid 19: ending lockdowns from 2020-05-16T05:06

Claudia Hammond and her panel of scientists and doctors analyse the latest science on the coronavirus and answer the audience’s questions on the impact of the pandemic. Dr Lucy van Dorp of UCL ex...

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Discovery
Science of Dad from 2020-05-13T16:28

Whilst most men become fathers, and men make up roughly half the parental population, the vast majority of scientific research has focused on the mother. But studies have started to reveal the imp...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Mental health and Covid 19 from 2020-05-02T05:06

Now that more than half the population of the world has been living for a time in lockdown, Claudia Hammond and her panel of psychologists and psychiatrists answer the audience’s questions on the i...

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Discovery
Desert locust swarms from 2020-04-27T19:00

The pictures coming in from East Africa are apocalyptic. Billions of locusts hatching out of the wet ground, marching destructively through crops, and launching into flight in search of new terrain...

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Discovery
Anne Magurran from 2020-04-20T19:32

Anne Magurran started her career as an ecologist counting moths in an ancient woodland in northern Ireland in the 1970s, when the study of biological diversity was a very young science. Later she s...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Young people, lifting lockdowns, USA and Kenya updates from 2020-04-18T05:06

Claudia Hammond and a panel of international experts look at the latest research into Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus which is sweeping through the world. As the disease spread...

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Discovery
Richard Wiseman from 2020-04-13T19:00

How do you tell if someone is lying? When Richard Wiseman, Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, conducted a nationwide experiment to identify the ...

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Discovery
Professor Saiful Islam from 2020-04-06T19:32

Not so long ago, all batteries were single use. And solar power was an emerging and expensive technology. Now, thanks to rechargeable batteries, we have mobile phones, laptops, electronic toys, co...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Taiwan, Vaccines, Africa Preparedness from 2020-04-04T05:06

International experts discuss the latest research into Covid-19

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Discovery
Elizabeth Fisher: Chromosomes in mice and men from 2020-03-30T19:32

Elizabeth Fisher, Professor of Neurogenetics at University College London, spent 13 years getting her idea – finding a new way of studying genetic disorders – to work. She began her research career...

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Discovery
Adrian Owen from 2020-03-24T12:43

Neuroscientist Adrian Owen has spent much of his career exploring what he calls ‘the grey zone’, a realm of consciousness inhabited by people with severe brain injuries, who are aware yet unable to...

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Discovery
The Evidence: Coronavirus Special from 2020-03-21T20:00

A panel of international experts take a global look at the science of Covid-19. We hear about vaccines, treatments, strategies to contain the virus and the role of big data.

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Discovery
Professor Martha Clokie from 2020-03-16T20:32

Professor Martha Clokie tells Jim Al-Khalili how she found viruses that destroy antibiotic-resistant bugs by looking in stool samples, her son's nappies and estuary mud.Could viruses improve our he...

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Discovery
Demis Hassabis from 2020-03-10T13:51

Jim Al-Khalili finds out why Demis Hassabis wants to create artificial intelligence and use it to help humanity. Thinking about how to win at chess when he was a boy got Demis thinking about the p...

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Discovery
Isaac Newton and the story of the apple from 2020-03-02T20:30

The story of how Newton came up with his gravitational theory is one of the most familiar in the history of science. He was sitting in the orchard at Woolsthorpe, thinking deep thoughts, when an ap...

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Discovery
Science Stories - Sophia Jex-Blake from 2020-02-24T20:30

Naomi Alderman tells the science story of Sophia Jex-Blake, who led a group known as the Edinburgh Seven in their bid to become the first women to graduate as doctors from a British university. He...

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Discovery
Science Stories - Mary Somerville, pioneer of popular science writing from 2020-02-17T20:30

Mary Somerville was a self-taught genius who wrote best-selling books translating, explaining and drawing together different scientific fields and who was named the nineteenth century's "queen of s...

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Discovery
Stem cells: Hope and hype from 2020-02-10T20:30

Lesley Curwen reports on the magical aura that has been drawing so many people around the world to pay for “regenerative” therapies which harness the healing power of stem cells. In this programme,...

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Discovery
Stem cell hard sell from 2020-02-03T20:30

Stem cells are cells with superpowers. They can become many different types of cells in our bodies, from muscle cells to brain cells, and some can even repair tissue. But the remarkable promise of ...

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Discovery
The road to Glasgow from 2020-01-27T20:30

Climate change is upon us. In 2018 the IPCC published a report with the most significant warning about the impact of climate change in 20 years. Unless the world keeps warming to below 1.5% degree...

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Discovery
Ecological grief from 2020-01-20T20:32

As the Earth experiences more extreme weather, and wildlife is dying, from corals, to insects, to tropical forests, more people are experiencing ecological anxiety and grief. Science journalist Gai...

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Discovery
The misinformation virus from 2020-01-13T20:30

In this online age, the internet is a global megaphone, billions of messages amplified and shared, even when they're false. Fake science spreads faster than the truth ever could, unhindered by nati...

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Discovery
The silence of the genes from 2020-01-06T20:30

In summer of 2019 NICE approved the use of a completely new class of drugs: the gene silencers. These compounds are transforming the lives of families who have rare debilitating – and sometimes fat...

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Discovery
Alexis Carrel and the immortal chicken heart from 2019-12-30T20:32

Philip Ball tells the story of Alexis Carrel, the French surgeon who worked to preserve life outside the body and create an immortal chicken heart in a dish. His quest was to renew ageing flesh, re...

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Discovery
Ramon Llull: Medieval prophet of computer science from 2019-12-23T20:30

Philip Ball tells the story of Ramon Llull, the medieval prophet of computer science. During the time of the Crusades Llull argued that truth could be automated and used logic over force to prove t...

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Discovery
Ignaz Semmelweiss: The hand washer from 2019-12-16T20:30

Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of Ignaz Semmelweiss, the hand washer. In a world that had no understanding of germs, he tried to apply science to halt the spread of infection. Ignaz Semmelweis ...

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Discovery
Madame Lavoisier's Translation of Oxygen from 2019-12-09T20:00

Philip Ball tells the story of Madame Lavoisier; translator of oxygen. At a time when science was almost a closed book to women, Madame Marie Anne Lavoisier’s skills were indispensable. A translato...

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Discovery
Galileo's lost letter from 2019-12-02T20:00

Galileo famously insisted in the early 17th Century that the Earth goes round the Sun and not vice versa – an idea that got him into deep trouble with the Catholic Church. In 1633 Galileo was put o...

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Discovery
Robin Dunbar from 2019-11-25T20:32

Maintaining friendships is one of the most cognitively demanding things we do, according to Professor of Evolutionary Psychology Robin Dunbar. So why do we bother? Robin has spent his life trying...

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Discovery
Katherine Joy from 2019-11-18T20:30

Katherine Joy studies moon rock. She has studied lunar samples that were brought to earth by the Apollo missions (382kg in total) and hunted for lunar meteorites in Antarctica, camping on ice for w...

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Discovery
Sir Gregory Winter from 2019-11-11T20:32

In an astonishing story of a scientific discovery, Greg Winter tells Jim Al-Khalili how decades of curiosity-driven research led to a revolution in medicine. Forced to temporarily abandon his work...

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Discovery
Turi King: Solving the mystery of Richard III through DNA from 2019-11-04T20:32

When a skeleton was unearthed in 2012 from under the tarmac of a car park in Leicester in the English East Midlands, Turi King needed to gather irrefutable evidence to prove that this really was th...

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Discovery
Plastic pollution with Richard Thompson from 2019-10-28T20:30

A Professor of Marine Biology who was not particularly academic at school, Richard Thompson went to university after running his own business selling greetings cards for seven years. When the rest ...

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Discovery
Protecting heads in sports from 2019-10-21T19:32

The death last week of boxer Patrick Day, four days after he was stretchered out of the ring in a coma, is the latest reminder of how vulnerable sportsmen and women are to traumatic brain injury. D...

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Discovery
Early diagnosis and research from 2019-10-14T19:32

James Parkinson described a condition known as the “shaking palsy” over 200 years ago. Today there are many things that scientists still don’t understand explaining why diagnosis, halting the progr...

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Discovery
Exercise from 2019-10-07T19:32

Can exercise help people living with Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative condition, with symptoms such as loss of balance, difficulty walking and stiffness in the arms and legs. Jane Hill travels to ...

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Discovery
Living with Parkinson's from 2019-09-30T19:32

BBC newsreader Jane Hill knows all about Parkinson’s. Her father was diagnosed in t1980s and lived with the condition for ten years — her uncle had it, too. She’s spoken about the dreadful experien...

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Discovery
Preventing pesticide poisoning from 2019-09-23T19:32

Thanks to a ban on several hazardous pesticides Sri Lanka has seen a massive reduction in deaths from pesticide poisoning, and the World Health Organisation is recommending other countries should f...

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Discovery
The power of peace from 2019-09-16T19:32

“Nature red in tooth and claw”. “Dog eat dog”. “Fighting for survival". You may well think that the natural world is one dangerous, violent, lawless place, with every creature out for itself. And i...

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Discovery
The power of petite from 2019-09-09T19:32

Bigger is better, right? An ancient lore in biology, Cope's rule, states that animals have a tendency to get bigger as they evolve. Evolution has cranked out some absolutely huge animals. But most ...

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Discovery
The power of deceit from 2019-09-02T19:30

Lucy Cooke sets out to discover why honesty is almost certainly not the best policy, be you chicken, chimp or human being. It turns out that underhand behaviour is rife throughout the animal kingdo...

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Discovery
Patient Undone from 2019-08-26T19:30

Professor Deborah Bowman reveals how a diagnosis of cancer has transformed her view of medical ethics and what it means to be a patient. As Professor of Ethics and Law at St George's, University o...

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Discovery
The Great Science Publishing Scandal from 2019-08-19T19:30

Matthew Cobb, Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester, explores the hidden world of prestige, profits and piracy that lurks behind scientific journals. Each year, hundreds of thousan...

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Discovery
Erica McAlister from 2019-08-12T19:30

Dr Erica McAlister, of London's Natural History Museum, talks to Jim Al-Khalili about the beautiful world of flies and the 2.5 million specimens for which she is jointly responsible. According to...

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Discovery
Richard Peto from 2019-08-05T19:30

When Sir Richard Peto began work with the late Richard Doll fifty years ago, the UK had the worst death rates from smoking in the world. Smoking was the cause of more than half of all premature dea...

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Discovery
Lovelock at 100: Gaia on Gaia from 2019-07-29T19:30

James Lovelock is one of the most influential thinkers on the environment of the last half century. His grand theory of planet earth, Gaia, the idea that from the bottom of the earth's crust to the...

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Discovery
What next for the Moon? from 2019-07-22T19:30

The Moon rush is back on. And this time it’s a global race. The USA has promised boots on the lunar surface by 2024. But China already has a rover exploring the farside. India is on the point of se...

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Discovery
Irene Tracey on pain in the brain from 2019-07-15T19:30

Pain, as we know, is highly personal. Some can cope with huge amounts, while others reel in agony over a seemingly minor injury. Though you might feel the stab of pain in your stubbed toe or sprain...

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Discovery
Paul Davies on the origin of life and the evolution of cancer from 2019-07-08T19:30

Physicist Paul Davies talks to Jim al-Khalili about the origin of life, the search for aliens and the evolution of cancer.Paul Davies is interested in some of the biggest questions that we can ask....

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Discovery
Can psychology boost vaccination rates? from 2019-07-01T19:30

In the 1950s a batch of polio vaccine in the US was made badly, resulting in 10 deaths and the permanent paralysis of 164 people. Paul Offit, a paediatrician in Philadelphia, says the disaster did ...

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Discovery
Global attitudes towards vaccines from 2019-06-24T19:30

Global attitudes towards vaccinations are revealed in the Wellcome Trust’s Global Monitor survey. Our guide through the new data is Heidi Larson, Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Scienc...

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Discovery
Why do birds sing? from 2019-06-17T19:30

"What happens to the human voice as we age? If I hear a voice on the radio, I can guess roughly how old they are. But singer's voices seem to stay relatively unchanged as they age. Why is this?" Al...

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Discovery
Does infinity exist? from 2019-06-10T19:30

“Is anything in the Universe truly infinite, or is infinity something that only exists in mathematics?” This question came from father and son duo from Edinburgh in Scotland, Tom and Sorely Watson....

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Discovery
Why do we get déjà vu? from 2019-06-03T19:30

4/6 Part 1: Déjà vu "Do we know what causes déjà vu?" asks Floyd Kitchen from Queenstown in New Zealand.Drs Rutherford and Fry investigate this familiar feeling by speaking to world-leading reseac...

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Discovery
Will we ever find alien life? from 2019-05-27T19:30

3/6 In this instalment of The Curious Cases of Rutherford&Fry, Hannah and Adam boldly go in search of scientists who are hunting for ET, spurred on by questions sent in by listeners across the glob...

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Discovery
Why people have different pain thresholds from 2019-05-20T19:30

2/6 "How fast can a human run and would we be faster as quadrapeds?" This question flew in via Twitter from Greg Jenner. Is there a limit to human sprinting performance? In this episode we investi...

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Discovery
How do instruments make music? from 2019-05-13T19:30

1/6 "We play many musical instruments in our family. Lots of them produce the same pitch of notes, but the instruments all sound different. Why is this?" asks Natasha Cook aged 11, and her Dad Jere...

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Discovery
A sense of time from 2019-05-06T20:00

Our senses create the world we experience. But do animals have a ‘sense’ of time, and does that differ between species, or between us and other animals? We know that animal senses reveal a wealth...

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Discovery
Cat Hobaiter on communication in apes from 2019-04-29T20:00

Dr Catherine Hobaiter studies how apes communicate with each other. Although she is based at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, she spends a lot of her time in the forests of Uganda, at the ...

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Discovery
Carlo Rovelli on rethinking the nature of time from 2019-04-22T19:45

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who became a household name when his book Seven Brief Lessons on Physics became an unexpected international bestseller. His concise, and poetic, introductio...

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Discovery
Corinne Le Quéré on carbon and climate from 2019-04-15T20:05

Professor Corinne Le Quéré of University of East Anglia talks to Jim Al-Khalili about tracing global carbon. Throughout the history of planet Earth, the element carbon has cycled between the atmos...

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Discovery
Ken Gabriel on why your smartphone is smart from 2019-04-08T20:00

Jim Al-Khalili talks to Ken Gabriel, the engineer responsible for popularising many of the micro devices found in smartphones and computers. Ken explains how he was inspired by what he could do wit...

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Discovery
Donna Strickland and extremely powerful lasers from 2019-04-01T19:30

Donna Strickland tells Jim Al-Khalili why she wanted to work with lasers and what it feels like to be the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for Physics in 55 years. When the first laser was built in...

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Discovery
Unbottling the past from 2019-03-25T21:00

Imagine finding a notebook containing the secret recipes of some of the world’s most iconic perfumes? Formulas normally kept under lock and key. That’s what happened to medical research scientist...

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Discovery
California burning from 2019-03-18T21:00

When Paradise burned down last year, it made the Camp Fire the most destructive and deadly in Californian history. A few months earlier the nearby Ranch Fire was the largest. In southern California...

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Discovery
ShakeAlertLA - California’s earthquake early warning system from 2019-03-11T21:00

Los Angeles is a city of Angels, and of earthquakes. Deadly earthquakes in 1933, 1971 and 1994 have also made it a pioneer in earthquake protection – for example with tough engineering standards to...

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Discovery
From the Cold War to the present day from 2019-03-04T20:32

For more than 100 years chemical weapons have terrorised, maimed and killed soldiers and civilians alike. As a chemist, the part his profession has played in the development of these weapons has lo...

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Discovery
From the Crimean War to the end of World War Two from 2019-02-25T20:32

In the first of two programmes he looks back to the first attempts to ban the use of chemical weapons at the end of the 19th century. Heavily defeated in the Crimea, Russia succeeded in getting una...

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Discovery
Tracks across time from 2019-02-18T20:32

In a dry creek bed in the middle of the Australian outback is a palaeontological prize like no other: 95-million-year-old footprints stamped in a sandstone slab by three species of dinosaur.One of ...

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Discovery
Trouble in paradise from 2019-02-11T20:32

The atoll of Tetiaro is a string of tiny islands in French Polynesia, about 60km away from Tahiti. The islands – known as ‘motus’ to local Polynesians – are unique ecosystems that are crucial nesti...

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Discovery
Back from the Dead from 2019-02-04T20:32

The Night Parrot was supposed to be extinct and became a legend among birdwatchers in Australia: a fat, dumpy, green parrot that lived in the desert and came out at night. The last bird seen alive ...

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Discovery
Eye in the Sky from 2019-01-28T20:32

On this mission, SOFIA is setting out to study Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, by flying into the faint shadow that it casts as it blocks the light from a faraway star. It’s a phenomenon called an oc...

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Discovery
Kepler's Snowflake from 2019-01-14T20:32

The Six Cornered Snowflake, a booklet written by Johannes Kepler as a New Year's gift, sought to explain the intricate and symmetrical shape of winter's tiny stars of snow. His insightful speculati...

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Discovery
Lucretius, Sheep and Atoms from 2019-01-07T20:32

2000 years ago Lucretius composed a long poem that theorised about atoms and the natural world. Written in the first century BCE, during a chaotic and frightening time when the Roman Republic was c...

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Discovery
Eddington's eclipse and Einstein's celebrity from 2018-12-31T20:32

Philip Ball's tale is of a solar eclipse 100 years ago observed by Arthur Eddington, a British astronomer who travelled to the remote island of Principe off the coast of West Africa and saw the sta...

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Discovery
Earthrise from 2018-12-24T20:32

On Christmas Eve in 1968 Bill Anders was in orbit around the moon in Apollo 8 when he took one of the most iconic photos of the last fifty years: Earthrise. The image got to be seen everywhere, fro...

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Discovery
The Supercalculators from 2018-12-17T20:32

Alex Bellos is brilliant at all things mathematical, but even he can't hold a candle to the amazing mathematical feats of the supercalculators. Alex heads to Wolfsburg in Germany to meet the contes...

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Discovery
The China Syndrome from 2018-12-10T20:32

Plastic waste and pollution have become a global problem but is there any sign of a global solution? And how did we allow this to happen in the first place?Materials scientist and broadcaster, Prof...

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Discovery
How Much Plastic Can We Recycle? from 2018-12-03T20:32

Plastics are fantastically versatile materials that have changed our lives. It is what we do with them, when we no longer want them, that has resulted in the global plastic crisis. Mark Miodownik e...

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Discovery
Why We Fell In Love with Plastic from 2018-11-26T20:32

Plastic waste and pollution have become a global problem but is there any sign of a global solution? And how did we allow this to happen in the first place?Materials scientist and broadcaster, Prof...

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Discovery
Finding the Coelacanths from 2018-11-19T20:32

The first Coelacanth was discovered by a woman in South Africa in 1938. The find, by the young museum curator, was the fish equivalent of discovering a T- Rex on the Serengeti, it took the Zoologic...

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Discovery
The Big Bang and Jet Streams from 2018-11-12T20:32

Evidence for the big bang was initially thought to be a mistake in the recording. Jet streams in the upper atmosphere were revealed by the dust emitted by Krakatoa and a collection of interested ci...

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Discovery
Viagra and CRISPR from 2018-11-05T20:32

Viagra’s effects on men were first discovered as an unexpected side-effect during trials for a medication meant to help patients with a heart condition. CRISPR cas– 9 is now a tool that can be used...

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Discovery
Tracking the First Animals on Earth from 2018-10-29T20:32

What were the earliest animals on Earth? The origin of the animal kingdom is one of the most mysterious chapters in the evolution of life on Earth. Our animal ancestors appeared and began to divers...

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Discovery
Mary Anning and Fossil Hunting from 2018-10-29T11:32

Mary Anning lived in Lyme Regis on what is now known as the Jurassic Coast in the first half of the 19th century. Knowing the shore from childhood and with a remarkable eye for detection she was ex...

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Discovery
Cooling the City from 2018-10-22T19:32

The summer of 2003 saw the largest number of deaths ever recorded in a UK heatwave - but by 2040 climate models predict the extreme summer temperatures experienced then will be normal. We will also...

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Discovery
Tourism and Transparency from 2018-10-15T19:32

In the second programme exploring the Chinese approach to organ transplantation, Matthew Hill looks at what is happening today. Where are the organs coming from today? Have the Chinese overcome the...

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Discovery
Who To Believe? from 2018-10-08T19:32

For many years the Chinese sourced organs for transplant from executed prisoners. Around a decade ago the authorities acknowledged that this practice had gone on and announced that it was to be sto...

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Discovery
The Long Hot Summer - Part Two from 2018-10-01T20:00

This summer the Northern Hemisphere has been sweltering in unusually high temperatures. It has been hot from the Arctic to Africa. This has led to increased deaths, notably in Canada, and more wild...

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Discovery
The Long Hot Summer from 2018-09-24T20:30

This summer the Northern Hemisphere has been sweltering in unusually high temperatures. It’s been hot from the Arctic to Africa. This has led to increased deaths, notably in Canada, and more wildfi...

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Discovery
Sodium from 2018-09-17T19:32

Sophie Scott on why sodium powers everything we do, and why it might be the key to a new generation of pain killers. Putting sodium into water is one of the most memorable experiments from school ...

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Discovery
Iron from 2018-09-10T19:32

Beyond war and peace, Dr Andrew Pontzen explores how iron has shaped human biology and culture. From weapons to ploughshares, iron holds a key place as the element for the tools of the rise and de...

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Discovery
Fluorine from 2018-09-03T19:32

Chemist Andrea Sella tells the story of how the feared element ended up giving us better teeth, mood and health. Many chemists have lost their lives trying to isolate the periodic table’s most che...

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Discovery
Hypatia: The Murdered Mathematician from 2018-08-20T19:32

Naomi Alderman's tale is a murder mystery, the story of Hypatia, the mathematician murdered by a mob in the learned city of Alexandria, around the year 415 CE. Hypatia was a communicator of science...

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Discovery
Descartes' "Daughter" from 2018-08-13T19:32

There's a story told about French philosopher René Descartes and his daughter. He boards a ship for a voyage over the North Sea with a large wooden box which he insists be handled with such great c...

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Discovery
Making Natural Products in the Lab from 2018-08-06T19:32

Philip Ball tells the science story of German chemist Friedrich Wöhler’s creation of urea, an organic substance previously thought only to be produced by living creatures. Yet in 1828 Wöhler create...

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Discovery
The Real Cyrano de Bergerac from 2018-07-30T19:32

Philip Ball reveals the real Cyrano de Bergerac - forget the big nosed fictional character - and his links to 17th Century space flight. Cyrano was a soldier, gambler and duellist who retired from ...

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Discovery
The Nun’s Salamander from 2018-07-23T20:00

A convent of Mexican nuns is helping to save the one of the world's most endangered and most remarkable amphibians: the axolotl, a truly bizarre creature of serious scientific interest worldwide an...

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Discovery
The Aztec Salamander from 2018-07-16T19:32

Victoria Gill tells the extraordinary story of the Mexican axolotl: an amphibian that is both a cultural icon and a biomedical marvel. In its domesticated form, the aquatic salamander is a valuab...

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Discovery
Gateway to the Mind from 2018-07-09T19:32

The microbiome is the strange invisible world of our non human selves. On and in all of us are hoards of microbes. Their impact on our physical health is becoming clear to science, but a controvers...

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Discovery
Dirt and Development from 2018-07-02T19:32

BBC Health and Science correspondent James Gallagher explores the latest research into how our second genome, the vast and diverse array of microbes that live on and in our bodies, is driving our m...

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Discovery
Manipulating Our Hidden Half from 2018-06-25T19:32

Are we on the cusp of a new approach to healthy living and treating disease? BBC Health and Science correspondent James Gallagher explores the latest research into how our second genome, the vast a...

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Discovery
Do Insects Feel Pain? from 2018-06-18T19:32

Insects such as fruit flies provide important insights into human biology and medicine. But should we worry whether insects experience pain and suffering in scientists’ hands? Entomologist Adam H...

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Discovery
Killing Insects for Conservation from 2018-06-11T19:32

Prof Adam Hart stirred a hornet’s nest of controversy by asking the public to kill wasps for science. He explores why scientists kill insects to save them from extinction. The work of the entomo...

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Discovery
What’s the Tiniest Dinosaur? from 2018-06-04T20:00

Two small creatures are at the heart of today’s questions, sent in to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk. The Tiniest Dinosaur"What is the tiniest dinosaur?" asks young listener Ellie Cook, aged 11. Our hunt...

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Discovery
Can Anything Travel Faster Than Light? from 2018-05-28T19:32

Two astronomical questions today sent in to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk for Drs Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford to answer. The Cosmic Speed Limit"We often read that the fastest thing in the Universe is ...

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Discovery
Why Do We Dream? from 2018-05-21T19:32

Adventures in Dreamland "Why do we dream and why do we repeat dreams?" asks Mila O'Dea, aged 9, from Panama.Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford delve into the science of sleep. From a pioneering experim...

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Discovery
Can We Use Chemistry to Bake the Perfect Cake? from 2018-05-14T19:32

Domestic science is on the agenda today, with two culinary questions sent in by listeners to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk The Curious Cake-OffCan chemistry help us bake the perfect cake? Listener Helena...

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Discovery
Why Do Some Songs Get Stuck in Your Head? from 2018-05-07T19:32

Two very annoying cases today sent in by listeners to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk to our scientific sleuths, mathematician Dr Hannah Fry and geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford. The Sticky SongWhy do songs g...

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Discovery
Behaving Better Online from 2018-04-30T19:32

Humans have become the most successful species on earth because of our ability to cooperate. Often we help strangers when there is no obvious benefit to us as individuals. But today in the age when...

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Discovery
The Cooperative Species from 2018-04-23T19:32

People are incredibly rude to each other on social media. Much ruder than they would ever be face to face. The great potential of the internet to bring humanity together in a glorious collaborating...

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Discovery
Bringing Schrodinger's Cat to Life from 2018-04-16T19:32

Schrodinger's cat is the one that's famously alive and dead. At the same time. Impossible! Roland Pease meets the quantum scientists hoping to bring one to life in the laboratory. Not a real cat, t...

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Discovery
Barbara McLintock from 2018-04-09T19:32

Barbara McClintock’s work on the genetics of corn won her a Nobel prize in 1983. Her research on jumping genes challenged the over-simplified picture of chromosomes and DNA that Watson and Crick’s ...

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Discovery
D'Arcy Thompson from 2018-04-02T19:32

One hundred years ago D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson published On Growth and Form, a book with a mission to put maths into biology. He showed how the shapes, forms and growth processes we see in the liv...

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Discovery
The Far Future from 2018-03-26T19:32

How do we prepare for the distant future? Helen Keen meets the people who try to. If our tech society continues then we can leave data for future generations in huge, mundane quantities, detaili...

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Discovery
Why We Cut Men from 2018-03-19T20:32

Male circumcision is one of the oldest and most common surgical procedures in human history. Around the world, 1 in 3 men are cut. It’s performed as a religious rite in Islam and Judaism; in other ...

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Discovery
Iodine from 2018-03-12T20:32

The phrase 'essential 'element' is often incorrectly used to describe the nutrients we need, but can aptly be applied to iodine - without it we would suffer severe developmental problems. Iodine is...

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Discovery
Phosphorus from 2018-03-05T20:32

What links trade unions with urine, Syria with semiconductors, and bones and bombs? The answer is phosphorus, UCL Inorganic Chemistry Professor Andrea Sella, who is himself engaged in researching n...

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Discovery
Lead from 2018-02-26T20:32

From the plumbing of ancient Rome, to lead acid batteries, paint, petrol and a dangerous legacy, the metal lead has seen a myriad of uses and abuses over thousands of years. In bullets, and poisons...

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Discovery
The Power of Sloth from 2018-02-19T21:00

Zoologist and founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, Lucy Cooke, unleashes her inner sloth to discover why being lazy could actually be the ultimate evolutionary strategy. The explorers of t...

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Discovery
Pain of Torture from 2018-02-12T20:32

Does knowing that someone is inflicting pain on you deliberately make the pain worse? Professor Irene Tracey meets survivors of torture and examines the dark side of pain. Producer: Geraldine Fit...

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Discovery
Controlling Pain from 2018-02-05T20:32

What if your brain could naturally control pain? Professor Irene Tracey and her colleagues are trying to unlock the natural mechanisms in the brain that limit the amount of pain we feel. We hear a...

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Discovery
Knowing Pain from 2018-01-29T20:32

Scientists reveal why we feel pain and the consequences of life without pain. One way to understand the experience of pain is to look at unusual situations which give clues to our everyday agony. ...

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Discovery
Seeing Pain from 2018-01-22T14:31

Mystery still surrounds the experience of pain. It is highly subjective but why do some people feel more pain than others and why does the brain appear to switch off under anaesthesia so we are una...

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Discovery
Humphry Davy from 2018-01-15T20:32

In Bristol in 1799, a young man started to experiment with newly discovered gases, looking for a cure for tuberculosis. Humphry Davy, aged 20, nearly killed himself inhaling carbon monoxide. Nitrou...

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Discovery
Lise Meitner from 2018-01-09T14:17

Philip Ball reveals the dramatic tale of Lise Meitner, the humanitarian physicist of Jewish descent, who unlocked the science of the atom bomb after a terrifying escape from Hitler's Germany. One o...

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Discovery
The Day the Earth Moved from 2018-01-01T21:00

Roland Pease tells the story of how fifty years ago geologists finally became convinced that the earth’s crust is made up of shifting plates. The idea of mobile continents, continental drift, had b...

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Discovery
Maria Merian from 2017-12-25T20:32

Maria Merian was born in 1647. At the time of her birth, Shakespeare had been dead for 30 years; Galileo had only just stood trial for arguing that the Earth moved around the Sun. And yet, here in ...

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Discovery
Alcuin of York from 2017-12-18T20:32

The Dark Ages are often painted as an era of scholarly decline. The Western Roman Empire was on its way out, books were few and far between, and, if you believe the stereotype, mud-splattered peasa...

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Discovery
Cheating the Atmosphere from 2017-12-11T20:32

All countries are supposed to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions but BBC environment correspondent, Matt McGrath, reveals there are gaping holes in national inventories. He uncovers ...

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Discovery
Better Brains from 2017-12-04T20:32

Every three seconds someone is diagnosed with dementia, and two thirds of the cases are Alzheimer’s Disease. As the global population ages, this is becoming an epidemic, and with no cures currently...

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Discovery
What would happen if you fell into a black hole? from 2017-11-21T20:32

Two deadly cases today sent in by listeners to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk The Dark Star"What's inside a black hole and could we fly a spaceship inside?" asks Jorge Luis Alvarez from Mexico City. Astr...

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Discovery
What will happen when the Earth’s poles swap? from 2017-11-20T20:32

The Polar Opposite No one knows why the Earth's magnetic North and South poles swap. But polar reversals have happened hundreds of times over the history of the Earth.John Turk emailed curiouscases...

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Discovery
Why can’t we remember being a baby? from 2017-11-13T20:32

The Astronomical Balloon "How far up can a helium balloon go? Could it go out to space?" asks Juliet Gok, aged 9.This calls for an experiment! Dr Keri Nicholl helps Adam launch a party balloon and ...

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Discovery
How do cats find their way home? from 2017-11-06T20:32

“How on earth do cats find their way back to their previous home when they move house?" asks Vicky Cole from Nairobi in Kenya. Our enduring love for our feline friends began when Egyptian pharaoh...

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Discovery
How much of my body is bacteria? from 2017-10-30T20:32

Science sleuths Drs Rutherford&Fry take on everyday mysteries and solve them with the power of science. Two cases in this episode concerning the inner workings of our bodies, and not for the faint ...

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Discovery
Sydney Brenner: A Revolutionary Biologist from 2017-10-23T19:32

Sydney Brenner was one of the 20th Century’s greatest biologists. Born 90 years ago in South Africa to impoverished immigrant parents, Dr Brenner became a leading figure in the biological revoluti...

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Discovery
SOS Snail from 2017-10-16T19:32

This is a big story about a little snail. Biologist Helen Scales relates an epic tale that spans the globe and involves calamity, tragedy, extinction and we hope, salvation. It stars the tiny tree-...

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Discovery
Indian Science – The Colonial Legacy from 2017-10-09T19:32

For more than 200 years Britain ruled India, bringing many aspects of British culture to India - including European science developed during the enlightenment. However centuries earlier India had a...

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Discovery
India's Ancient Science from 2017-10-02T19:32

We go behind the scenes of a new exhibition on India at London’s Science Museum. What can historical objects tell us about India’s rich, and often hidden scientific past? We look at the influential...

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Discovery
Africa’s Great Green Wall from 2017-09-25T19:32

Can Africa’s Great Green Wall beat back the Sahara desert and reverse the degrading landscape? The ambitious 9 miles wide and 5000 miles long line of vegetation will stretch all the way from Dakar ...

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Discovery
Internet of Things from 2017-09-18T19:32

Can we Control the Dark Side of the Internet? The Internet is the world's most widely used communications tool. It’s a fast and efficient way of delivering information. However it is also quite du...

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Discovery
Dark Side of the World Wide Web from 2017-09-11T19:32

With the coming of the World Wide Web in the 1990s internet access opened up to everybody, it was no longer the preserve of academics and computer hobbyists. Already prior to the Web, the burgeoni...

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Discovery
The Origin of the Internet from 2017-09-04T19:32

Just how did the Internet become the most powerful communications medium on the planet, and why does it seem to be an uncontrollable medium for good and bad? With no cross border regulation the in...

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Discovery
Silicon - The World's Building Block from 2017-08-28T20:00

Silicon is literally everywhere in both the natural and built environment, from the dominance of silicate rocks in the earth crust, to ubiquitous sand in building materials and as the basis for gla...

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Discovery
The Day the Sun Went Dark from 2017-08-21T20:30

For the first time in almost 100 years the USA is experiencing a full solar eclipse from coast to coast on August 21st 2017. Main image: Totality during the solar eclipse at Palm Cove on Novemb...

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Discovery
Carbon - the backbone of life from 2017-08-14T19:32

Carbon is widely considered to be the key element in forming life. It's at the centre of DNA, and the molecules upon which all living things rely. Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary Science at t...

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Discovery
And then there was Li from 2017-08-07T19:32

From the origins of the universe, though batteries, glass and grease to influencing the working of our brains, neuroscientist Sophie Scott tracks the incredible power of lithium. It's 200 years ag...

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Discovery
Oxygen: The breath of Life from 2017-08-01T10:06

Oxygen appeared on Earth over two billion years ago and life took off. Now it makes up just over a fifth of the air. Trevor Cox, professor of acoustic engineering at the University of Salford, Engl...

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Discovery
Mercury - Chemistry's Jekyll and Hyde from 2017-07-24T20:00

The most beautiful and shimmering of the elements, the weirdest, and yet the most reviled. Chemist Andrea Sella tell the story of Mercury, explaining the significance of this element not just for ...

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Discovery
Eating Well in Lyon: Healthy Diets to prevent Bowel Cancer from 2017-07-17T19:32

Anu Anand is in Lyon, looking at what we eat and drink and the risk of bowel cancer

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Discovery
Catching Prostate Cancer Early in Trinidad from 2017-07-10T19:32

Anu Anand on detecting and treating prostate cancer in Trinidad and Tobago.

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Discovery
The USA’s Deadly Racial Divide: Black Women&Breast Cancer from 2017-07-03T19:32

Anu Anand explores why more black women are more likely to die of breast cancer in the US

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Discovery
Screening and Treating Cervical Cancer in Tanzania from 2017-06-26T19:32

Anu Anand on how vinegar and a head torch are used to tackle cervical cancer in Tanzania

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Discovery
Taking On Tobacco - Lung Cancer in Uruguay from 2017-06-21T15:50

For more than 65 years we have known that smoking kills. So how can it be that a Mexican wave of tobacco use, disease and death is heading at breakneck speed towards the world’s poorest people? Mil...

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Discovery
Dying in Comfort in Mongolia from 2017-06-16T12:07

The Mongolian matriarch who is helping people with terminal liver cancer die in comfort

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Discovery
Can Robots be Truly Intelligent? from 2017-06-05T19:32

From Skynet and the Terminator franchise, through Wargames and Ava in Ex Machina, artificial intelligences pervade our cinematic experiences. But AIs are already in the real world, answering our qu...

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Discovery
Robots - More Human than Human? from 2017-05-29T19:32

Robots are becoming present in our lives, as companions, carers and as workers. Adam Rutherford explores our relationship with these machines. Have we made them to be merely more dextrous versions ...

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Discovery
History of the Rise of the Robots from 2017-05-22T19:32

The idea of robots goes back to the Ancient Greeks. In myths Hephaestus, the god of fire, created robots to assist in his workshop. In the medieval period the wealthy showed off their automata. In ...

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Discovery
Quantum Supremacy from 2017-05-15T19:32

IBM is giving users worldwide the chance to use a quantum computer; Google is promising "quantum supremacy" by the end of the year; Microsoft's Station Q is working on the hardware and operating sy...

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Discovery
Re-engineering Life from 2017-05-08T19:32

Synthetic biology, coming to a street near you. Engineers and biologists who hack the information circuits of living cells are already getting products to the market. Roland Pease meets the experts...

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Discovery
Hunting for Life on Mars from 2017-05-01T19:32

As a small rocky planet, Mars is similar in many respects to the Earth and for that reason, many have thought it may harbour some kind of life. A hundred years ago, there was serious talk about the...

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Discovery
Lifechangers: Charles Bolden from 2017-04-24T19:32

In Lifechangers, Kevin Fong talks to people about their lives in science. Major General Charles Bolden – a former NASA administrator – talks to Kevin Fong about his extraordinary life, from chil...

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Discovery
Lifechangers: Neil deGrasse Tyson from 2017-04-17T19:32

In Lifechangers, Kevin Fong talks to people about their lives in science. Astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, Neil deGrasse Tyson is well known in the US sinc...

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Discovery
Lifechangers: George Takei from 2017-04-10T18:32

In the start of a new series of Lifechangers, Kevin Fong talks to three people about their lives in science. His first conversation is with a man better known for his life in science fiction, Ge...

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Discovery
The Bee All and End All from 2017-04-06T11:08

Bees pollinate and can detect bombs and compose music. What would we do without them? The world owes a debt of gratitude to this hard working but under-appreciated insect. One third of the food we ...

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Discovery
Extending Embryo Research from 2017-03-27T18:32

Since the birth of Louise Brown - the world’s first IVF baby - in England in 1978, many children have been born through in vitro fertilisation. IVF doesn’t work for everyone but over the last few d...

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Discovery
The Split Second Decision from 2017-03-20T19:32

As the pace of technology moves at ever greater speeds, how vulnerable are we when making split second decisions? Kevin Fong flies with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, making split-second...

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Discovery
Human Hibernation from 2017-03-13T19:32

Ever wished you could miss an entire cold dark winter like bears or dormice? Kevin Fong explores the possibilities than humans could hibernate. This ability could help us recover from serious injur...

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Discovery
Delivering Clean Air from 2017-03-03T14:03

Internet shopping continues to rise worldwide. That means a lot more delivery vans on the streets of our towns and cities. Those vans and trucks, often powered by dirty diesel engines, are contribu...

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Discovery
Make Me a Cyborg from 2017-02-27T19:32

Frank Swain can hear Wi-Fi. Diagnosed with early deafness aged 25, Frank decided to turn his misfortune to his advantage by modifying his hearing aids to create a new sense. He documented the st...

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Discovery
Why do some people have no sense of direction? from 2017-02-21T11:17

Two challenges for the team today involving singing and navigating.The Melodic Mystery "Why is my mother tone deaf?" asks listener Simon, "and can I do anything to ensure my son can at least carry ...

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Discovery
Why am I left-handed? from 2017-02-13T19:32

Neal Shepperson asks, "What determines left or right handedness and why are us lefties in the minority?" One in ten people are left-handed, but where does this ratio come from and when did it appe...

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Discovery
Does the full Moon make us act oddly? from 2017-02-06T19:32

Listener Paul Don asks: "I'm wondering what's the feasibility of terraforming another planet ie Mars and if it is possible to do the same thing with something like the moon? Or, why isn't there alr...

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Discovery
Why do we get middle-aged spread? from 2017-01-30T19:32

Two cases today for Drs Adam Rutherford&Hannah Fry to investigate, involving strength and weight. The Portly Problem"Why do we have middle aged spread?" asks Bart Janssen from New Zealand. In this...

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Discovery
Does nothing exist? from 2017-01-23T19:32

"Is there any such thing as nothing?" This question from Bill Keck sparked a lot of head scratching. Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Hannah Fry first consider the philosophy and physics of nothing. As ...

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Discovery
Sesame Open from 2017-01-16T19:32

There's a new light of hope in the Middle East. It's a scientific experiment called SESAME - intended to do world-class science and bring together researchers from divided nations. Its members inc...

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Discovery
The Future of the Climate Deal from 2017-01-09T19:32

The incoming administration of President Trump has frightened many in the international environmental community. The result of US election in November was announced during the 2016 Marrakech UN Cli...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 3 - Mesmerism and Parapsychology from 2017-01-02T19:32

Anton Mesmer was a doctor who claimed he could cure people with an unknown force of animal magnetism. He was the subject to a committee that found there was no evidence for his powers. Phil Ball ta...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 3 - The Woman Who Tamed Lightning from 2016-12-26T19:32

Naomi Alderman tells the story of Hertha Marks Ayrton, the first woman to be admitted to the Institution of Electrical Engineers, who improved electric arc lights. Photo: Street lamps light up a r...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 3 - Testosterone: Elixir of Masculinity from 2016-12-19T19:32

Testosterone has been claimed as one of the most important drivers of human life – through the agency of sex and aggression. In the 19th century, Charles-Eduoard Brown-Séquard injected himself with...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 3 - Making the Earth Move from 2016-12-12T19:32

Prior to 1543 it was generally believed that the earth lay static in the centre of the universe, while the Sun, moon, planets and stars revolved around it in various complex paths, some even loopin...

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Discovery
Origins of Human Culture from 2016-12-05T19:32

We humans are such a successful species. Homo sapiens have been around for only around 100 000 years and in that time we have utterly transformed the world around us. Our shelters allow us to live...

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Discovery
Mind Reading from 2016-11-28T19:32

Whether it's gossiping over a drink, teaching our children, or politicians debating we use words to communicate with each other and share ideas. It’s what makes us human. But what if we can’t? Coul...

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Discovery
Custom of Cutting from 2016-11-21T19:32

More than 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone female genital mutilation, or cutting. It is where parts or all of a girl's genitals are damaged or removed. There are no medical be...

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Discovery
The Inflamed Mind from 2016-11-14T19:32

Depression or psychotic illness is experienced by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people in the UK. James Gallagher talks to the psychiatrists investigating this new understanding of me...

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Discovery
The City that Fell into the Earth from 2016-11-07T19:38

How do you move a city? Lesley Riddoch travels to Arctic Sweden to find out. Kiruna is gradually sliding into Europe's biggest iron ore mine. The city has to be rebuilt two miles away. That requir...

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Discovery
The Sun King of China from 2016-10-31T20:00

Meet Huang Ming, the Chinese inventor who describes himself as, 'the number one crazy solar guy in the world'. One of the prize exhibits of his museum in northern China is a vintage solar panel. It...

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Discovery
The Mars of the Mid-Atlantic from 2016-10-24T20:15

Ascension Island is a tiny scrap of British territory, marooned in the tropical mid-Atlantic roughly halfway between Brazil and Africa. It is the tip of a giant undersea volcano – rugged, remote an...

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Discovery
Creating the Crick from 2016-10-17T21:32

The Francis Crick Institute, in the centre of London, is the UK’s brand new, game-changing centre for biology and medical research. Roland Pease joins the scientists as they move into the building....

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Discovery
Black Holes: A Tale of Cosmic Death and Rebirth from 2016-10-10T21:32

The discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO observatory opens up a new form of astronomy, which will allow scientists explore the ultimate fate of dead stars, Black Holes. Roland Pease report...

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Discovery
The Whale Menopause from 2016-10-03T21:32

Killer whales and humans are almost unique in the animal kingdom. The females of both species go through the menopause in their 40s or 50s, and then live for decades without producing any more offs...

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Discovery
Reversing Parkinson's from 2016-09-26T21:32

Parkinson’s Disease is one of the major neurodegenerative conditions. Cells die, for reasons not fully understood, causing a reduction in the production of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, and a raf...

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Discovery
Could we send our litter into space? from 2016-09-19T21:32

Two spacey cases today for doctors Rutherford and Fry to investigate, both sent in to BBC Future via Facebook.

The Stellar Dustbin
'Can we shoot garbage into the sun?' asks Elisabeth H...

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Discovery
Why do we faint? from 2016-09-13T02:32

Swooning maidens and clever horses feature in today's Curious Cases, sent in by listeners to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk.

The Squeamish Swoon
Science sleuths Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford ...

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Discovery
Why do people shout on their cellphones? from 2016-09-05T21:32

How does traffic jam? And, why do some people shout into their cellphones in public places? Two subjects guaranteed to annoy even the most patient listeners.

The Phantom Jam
Listener M...

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Discovery
How do you make the perfect cup of tea? from 2016-08-29T21:32

A story of sorrow and comfort today, as Doctors Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry investigate two mysteries sent in by listeners.

The Psychic Tear
Edith Calman challenges our scientific s...

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Discovery
What makes gingers ginger? from 2016-08-22T21:32

Doctors Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry set out to solve the following perplexing cases sent in by listeners:

The Scarlet Mark
Sheena Cruickshank in Manchester asks, "My eldest son is g...

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Discovery
China Science Rising from 2016-08-15T21:32

China is super-sizing science. From building the biggest experiments the world has ever seen to rolling out the latest medical advances on a massive scale and pushing the boundaries of exploration ...

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Discovery
The Power of Cute from 2016-08-08T21:32

Zoologist and broadcaster Lucy Cooke explores the science behind our seeming obsession with all things adorable. There has been an explosion in interest in cuteness, particularly online, with an ev...

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Discovery
Failing Gracefully from 2016-08-01T22:00

Dr Kevin Fong concludes his exploration of the boundaries between the medical profession and other industries for valuable lessons that might be of use to us all.



In this final ...

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Discovery
Going Lean: Health and the Toyota Way from 2016-07-25T22:00

In the third programme in the series, Dr Kevin Fong explores the concept of ‘lean’ in healthcare. He visits Toyota’s largest car assembly plant in the United States and discovers how the company’s ...

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Discovery
“Faster, Better, Cheaper” from 2016-07-18T21:32

Kevin Fong explores the success and failure of NASA’s missions to Mars

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Discovery
The Business of Failure from 2016-07-12T15:13

Dr Kevin Fong flies with a US air ambulance crew and discovers why it’s seen as one of the most dangerous occupations in America.

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Discovery
Cleaning Up the Oceans from 2016-07-04T21:32

More than five million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the oceans every year. The abandoned fishing gear and bags and bottles left on beaches can smother birds and sea life. Now there is also ev...

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Discovery
Life on the East Asian Flyway - Part 4: The Arctic from 2016-06-27T21:32

After flying thousands of kilometres from faraway Bangladesh and New Zealand via the Yellow Sea, the shorebirds of the East Asian Flyway complete their northward migration. They touch down in the A...

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Discovery
Life on the East Asian Flyway - Part Three: Yellow Sea North from 2016-06-20T21:32

Can China’s new generation of birdwatchers and North Korea’s weak economy save migratory birds from extinction?



Habitat loss for shorebirds in the Yellow Sea is rapid as the mu...

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Discovery
Life on the East Asian Flyway – Part Two: Yellow Sea South from 2016-06-13T21:32

Ann Jones flies north to Shanghai as shorebirds from as far away as Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh arrive on the coast of the Yellow Sea.



Here she meet...

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Discovery
Life on the East Asian Flyway from 2016-06-06T21:32

One of the great wonders of the natural world is in deep trouble.



Millions of shorebirds fly from Australia and Southeast Asia to the Arctic every year. They follow the planet’s...

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Discovery
The Neglected Sense from 2016-05-30T21:32

We may fear going blind, deaf or dumb, but few of us worry about losing our olfactory senses. And yet more than 200,000 people in the UK are anosmic - they cannot smell.



Kathy Cl...

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Discovery
After Ebola from 2016-05-23T21:32

Last November Sierra Leone was declared Ebola free. By then, the epidemic had killed over 11,000 people in West Africa. The speed at which it took off highlighted the poor state of healthcare in th...

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Discovery
Benefits of Bilingualism - Part Two from 2016-05-16T21:30

More than half the world speaks more than one language. New research is showing that being multilingual has some surprising advantages – it can help us keep healthier longer. Gaia Vince finds out h...

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Discovery
Benefits of Bilingualism - Part One from 2016-05-09T21:30

More than half of the world's people speak more than one language. Some people may have been forced to learn a language at school or had to pick up one because they moved to a new country. Others ...

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Discovery
Our Unnatural Selection from 2016-05-02T21:30

Humans have been altering animals for millennia. We select the most docile livestock, the most loyal dogs, to breed the animals we need. This 'artificial selection' is intentional. But as Adam Hart...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 2 - Margaret Cavendish from 2016-04-25T21:00

In the spring of 1667 Samuel Pepys queued repeatedly with crowds of Londoners and waited for hours just to catch a glimpse of aristocrat writer and thinker Margaret Cavendish. Twice he was frustrat...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 2 - Orgueil Meteorite from 2016-04-18T21:00

In 1864 a strange type of rock fell from the sky above Orgueil in rural France. Shocked and frightened locals collected pieces of the peculiar, peaty blob from the surrounding fields, and passed th...

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Discovery
The Horn Dilemma from 2016-04-11T21:00

The majority of white and black rhinoceros are found in South Africa. This stronghold for these magnificent creatures is now being threatened by poachers killing rhino for their horns.

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Discovery
African Einsteins from 2016-04-01T14:55

Will Einstein’s successors be African? It’s very likely - and some of them will be women.



Back in 2008 South African physicist Neil Turok gave a speech in which he declared his ...

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Discovery
Feeding the World - Part Two from 2016-03-28T21:32

As the world’s population grows and the climate challenges our ability to grow crops, how can agriculture provide enough food? Can we get more from our current food crops for less?


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Discovery
Feeding the World - Part One from 2016-03-21T20:00

As the world’s population grows and the climate challenges our ability to grow crops, how can agriculture provide enough food? Can we get more from our current food crops for less?


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Discovery
Editing the Genome - Part Two from 2016-03-14T20:30

There is a new genetic technology which promises to revolutionise agriculture and transform our influence over the natural world. Research is well underway to create pigs and chickens immune to pan...

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Discovery
Editing the Genome from 2016-03-07T20:30

Over the last four years, scientists have discovered a simple and powerful method for altering genes. This will have massive implications for all of us as it raises the possibility of easily chang...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 1 - Einstein’s Ice Box from 2016-02-29T20:30

In the late 1920s Einstein was working on a grand unified theory of the universe, having given us E=mc2, space-time and the fourth dimension. He was also working on a fridge.

Perhaps moti...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 1 - Eels and Human Electricity from 2016-02-22T20:30

Naomi Alderman presents an alternate history of electricity. This is not a story of power stations, motors and wires. It is a story of how the electric eel and its cousin the torpedo fish, led to t...

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Discovery
Science Stories: Series 1 - Cornelis Drebbel from 2016-02-15T20:30

Philip Ball dives into the magical world of Cornelis Drebbel , inventor of the world's first submarine in 1621.

How did the crew of this remarkable vessel manage to breathe underwater, co...

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Discovery
El Nino from 2016-02-08T21:00

Floods in South America, fires in Indonesia, famine threatened in Ethiopia, yet more drought in Southern Africa and central America. Plus, a stunning peak in global temperatures for 2015. The curre...

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Discovery
An Infinite Monkey's Guide to General Relativity from 2016-01-25T20:30

It is 100 years since the publication of Einstein's great theory, and arguably one of the greatest scientific theories of all time. To mark the occasion, Brian Cox takes Robin Ince on a guided tour...

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Discovery
Scotland’s Dolphins from 2016-01-18T20:30

The chilly waters of north-east Scotland are home to the world’s most northerly group of bottlenose dolphins. They are protected by EU conservation laws and despite being a small population, appear...

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Discovery
Nature's Numbers from 2016-01-11T20:30

Mathematics is one of the most extraordinary things humans can do with their brains but where do our numerical abilities come from? Maths writer Alex Bellos looks for answers from a tribe in the B...

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Discovery
Future of Energy from 2015-12-28T20:30

Professor Jim Skea, from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, joins Jack Stewart in the studio and brings his insight from the Paris climate ...

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Discovery
The Power of Equations from 2015-12-21T20:30

Jim al-Khalili was sitting in a physics lecture at the University of Surrey when he suddenly understood the power of equations to describe and predict the physical world. He recalls that sadly his ...

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Discovery
Enceladus: A second genesis of life at Saturn? from 2015-12-14T20:30

Discovery invites you on a mission to the most intriguing body in the solar system – Saturn’s moon Enceladus. It’s a small icy world with gigantic geysers, blasting water into space at supersonic...

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Discovery
Humboldt - the Inventor of Nature from 2015-12-07T21:30

Alexander Von Humboldt - the forgotten father of environmentalism - warned of harmful human induced climate change over 200 years ago.

Explorer, nature writer and scientist he climbed the ...

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Discovery
Unbreathable: The Modern Problem of Air Pollution from 2015-11-30T21:30

The shock news three months ago, that Volkswagen had used defeat devices to circumvent emissions tests in the United States, has brought back into the news a continuing problem of modern life - air...

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Discovery
Future of Biodiversity from 2015-11-23T21:30

"I'm determined to prove botany is not the 'Cinderella of science'". That is what Professor Kathy Willis, director of Science at the Royal Botanic Garden in Kew, told the Independent in 2014. In th...

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Discovery
Problems of Developing Drugs from 2015-11-16T21:30

Patrick Vallance is something of a rare breed - a game-keeper turned poacher; an academic who has moved over into industry. And not just any industry, but the pharmaceutical industry. At the time, ...

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Discovery
The Genetics of Intelligence from 2015-11-09T21:30

Professor Robert Plomin talks to Jim al-Khalili about what makes some people smarter than others and why he is fed up with the genetics of intelligence being ignored. Born and raised in Chicago, Ro...

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Discovery
How to Make an Awesome Surf Wave from 2015-11-02T21:00

Can we make better surfing waves than the wild ocean, asks marine biologist and writer Helen Scales.



Helen loves surfing but she describes it as an extreme form of delayed gratif...

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Discovery
Lion Hunting in Africa from 2015-10-26T20:30

In June 2015 the death of Cecil the lion was international news and a social media sensation. Yet trophy hunting of lions and other species is common in Africa. Foreigners pay big money to adorn th...

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Discovery
The Infinite Monkey Cage USA Tour: San Francisco from 2015-10-19T20:30

Brian Cox and Robin Ince take to the stage in San Francisco for the last of their USA specials. They talk alien visitations, UFOs and other close encounters with astronomer Dr Seth Shostack, NASA s...

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Discovery
The Infinite Monkey Cage USA Tour: Chicago from 2015-10-12T20:32

Brian Cox and Robin Ince take to the stage in Chicago, Illinois, to discuss fossil records and evolution. They are joined on stage by host of NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" Peter Sagal, comedian a...

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Discovery
The Infinite Monkey Cage USA Tour: Los Angeles from 2015-10-05T19:30

Brian Cox and Robin Ince continue their tour of the USA, as they take to the stage in LA, as they ask what happens when science meets Hollywood. They ask why so many movies now seem to employ a sci...

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Discovery
The Infinite Monkey Cage USA Tour: New York from 2015-09-26T21:00

The BBC’s award-winning radio science/comedy show The Infinite Monkey Cage has transported itself to the USA bringing its unique brand of witty, irreverent science chat to an American audience for ...

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Discovery
Life Changers - Didier Queloz from 2015-09-21T21:00

One night in 1995, PhD student Didier Queloz was running a routine test on a new detector they had just built at the Observatoire de Haute Provence in France, when he noticed something strange. The...

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Discovery
Life Changers - Anita Sengupta from 2015-09-14T21:00

When Anita Sengupta was a little girl, she dreamed of time travel aboard the TARDIS, along with Tom Baker, her favourite incarnation of Dr Who. It was this and watching episodes of Star Trek with h...

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Discovery
Life Changers - Venki Ramakrishnan from 2015-09-07T21:00

Kevin Fong talks to Venki Ramakrishnan, Professor of structural biology in Cambridge and joint-winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009. Celebrated for his work on the ribosome, the remarkabl...

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