Imagine spending six months of every year living in total shade. That’s what life is like for residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan, set so low in a valley that they see no direct sunshine at all from October to March. Marnie Chesterton heads there to hear about an ingenious solution: giant mirrors that beam rays down into the town square, where locals gather to feel the reflected heat. The man behind the project was motivated by a need for winter sun – but how much difference does it really...
Aug 04, 2023•26 min
CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood. From breakup songs to upbeat holiday hits, many of us have made playlists that reflect how we feel, whether that’s down in the dumps or high as a kite. This week CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood. Presenter Anand Jagatia is surprised to learn ...
Jul 28, 2023•35 min
“I’m bored!” We can all relate to the uncomfortable - and at times unbearable - feeling of boredom. But what is it? Why does it happen? And could this frustrating, thumb-twiddling experience actually serve some evolutionary purpose? CrowdScience listener Brian started wondering this over a particularly uninspiring bowl of washing up and it’s ended with presenter Marnie Chesterton going on a blessedly un-boring tour through the science and psychology of tedium. She finds out why some people are m...
Jul 21, 2023•27 min
Why are some people left-handed? Why are some people right-footed? Why do some write with their right and throw a ball with their left? What does this all have to do with our brains? Why is it hard for some people to tell left from right? And what about animals? Can they be left-flippered, or finned, or southpawed? That's what a few CrowdScience listeners want to know, and we've got an expert panel on left, right and everything in between to help answer your questions. From genetics to culture, ...
Jul 14, 2023•35 min
CrowdScience listener Ali wants to know why we experience vertigo. Anand Jagatia finds out that it’s not just the giddy sensation we feel when we’re at the top of a mountain. Vertigo is also a physical illness that can be triggered by a range of disorders. He talks to leading experts on balance to learn what causes the condition, discovers how virtual reality can help people with a phobia of being in high places and volunteers to be turned upside down to experience what it feels like to be treat...
Jul 07, 2023•33 min
We all enjoy a deep-fried Mars bar with french fries from time to time, but why do we crave these unhealthy foods instead of healthy things like spinach or broccoli? And what is a food craving? The answers lie in a complex blend of our psychology, physiology, and even sociology. BBC CrowdScience presenter Alex Lathbridge savours a mystery-meat crocket with the experts on a quest to discover the hidden sources and sauces of our food cravings. Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Richard Walker Ed...
Jun 30, 2023•31 min
Please note: This is a shorter version than the original podcast. A longer version is available here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct3j6y. Humans can walk for miles, solve problems and form complex relationships using the energy provided by daily meals. That is a lot of output for a fairly modest input. Listener Charlotte from the UK wants to know: how efficient are humans? How do they compare to cars, other animals and even to each other? Presenter Marnie Chesterton pits her energetic s...
Jun 23, 2023•28 min
CrowdScience listener Eileen cannot see images in her head of her memories. She only discovered by chance that most other people can do this. She wants to know why she can’t see them and if it is something she can learn to do. Anand Jagatia finds out what mental images are for and whether scientists know why some people can’t create them. Three per cent of the world’s population cannot see mental images like Eileen. And it is only recently been given a name – aphantasia. Anand discovers why ment...
Jun 16, 2023•38 min
Welcome to the exciting new field of generative artificial intelligence - or generative AI. We’re not talking about robots or spaceships: instead these are image generators and chatbots that are already revolutionising the way people write, research and interact in the virtual world. Their capabilities are extraordinary. But before they can produce results they first need to be trained on vast amounts of data. And that’s what got CrowdScience listener Ian wondering. He says: “Before long, much o...
Jun 09, 2023•26 min
CrowdScience listener Nyankami, from Kenya, has a friend with dementia. Despite memory loss and no longer knowing his way around, his friend has no problem communicating. So what’s the connection between memory and language? Caroline Steel discovers how dementia affects our speech. In most cases the illness does have an impact on our ability to speak but it can depend on many factors, including the type of dementia and even how many languages we speak. She meets George Rook, diagnosed with vascu...
Jun 02, 2023•28 min
It may seem like a simple question but could you explain why the earth revolves around the sun? That is what listener Josh from New York wants to know. For much of human history we thought everything revolved around us, literally. So how did humans come to the conclusion that we're not the centre of the universe? And how did the scientific process help us uncover the true order of things? Looking through telescopes from the vantage point of Australia, host Caroline Steel speaks with astronomers ...
May 26, 2023•28 min
Anyone who has ever enjoyed a beach holiday will know there’s something special about being by the seaside. But does sea swimming actually have tangible health effects? This week’s listener Holly is a self-confessed water baby, and says her regular surf sessions on Sydney’s iconic Bondi beach make her feel happier and look younger. But could we get some of the benefits from the beach without getting our feet wet? At the Plymouth Marine Lab, researchers have shown that the smell of the sea makes ...
May 19, 2023•33 min
Lazy. Unmotivated. Procrastinating. If those are words you’re used to hearing from your inner critic, you are not alone. Take CrowdScience listener Laurie. On her days off she loves to relax on the sofa, watch TV, put off chores and generally do as little as possible. Meanwhile she sees other family members and colleagues apparently buzzing with energy: going the extra mile at work, taking up hobbies, going to the gym. Why, she asks, is she so lazy? CrowdScience turns to experts to find out whet...
May 12, 2023•37 min
Meet the ostrich, one of nature’s most unusual creatures: a two-metre-tall, flightless bird that struts about the African savannah. CrowdScience listener Pat found herself entranced by seeing them on a wildlife documentary, where two ostriches were exhibiting some bizarre behaviour. According to her, the female was sitting on her eggs in a ‘nest’ that was barely a dent in the ground, while the male was just flapping his feathers around her. So Pat came to us to ask: what are ostriches for? Anand...
May 05, 2023•29 min
Inside our gut lives an entire ecosystem of bacteria and microbes, called the microbiome. In fact, the human body contains trillions of microorganisms, which outnumber our cells by ten to one. This means that technically we are more microbe than human. But not only do these microbes rely on us to survive, we also rely on them for some vital bodily functions. So what impact do these trillions of microbes have on our health? That’s the question that’s been bothering CrowdScience listener Russell, ...
Apr 28, 2023•33 min
CrowdScience listener Marie, in Sweden, has always had difficulty with her sense of time. She often thinks that events that happened years ago took place recently or that a holiday coming up is happening sooner than it is. So she wants to know if time is a sense, like the sense of taste or touch, and if it’s something she can learn. Anand Jagatia talks to scientists who’ve studied time, memory and how our brains process and store the events in our lives to find an answer to Marie’s question. Alo...
Apr 21, 2023•35 min
What are the actual chances of finding alien life? The idea of meeting an extra-terrestrial has ignited imaginations for hundreds of years, and it has also inspired real science: the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence - or Seti - is an organisation that brings together researchers across the world in pursuit of distant life forms. This same dream is on the mind of listener Andrew in Yorkshire in the UK, who has been looking into the sheer size of the universe, and wants to know: how many ...
Apr 14, 2023•28 min
Compared to the entirety of human existence, our history of flying in aeroplanes is very short indeed. So what does this fast form of travel do to bodies that have evolved for land-based living? That's what listener Sofia wants to know after working as a flight attendant for over a decade. What effect does working at 35,000 feet have on one's health? How disruptive to your circadian rhythms is hopping across ten time zones in less than 24 hours? What's happening in our stomachs if a crisp packet...
Apr 07, 2023•38 min
How do we hear a sound and immediately know where it’s coming from? That’s the question that CrowdScience listener Chiletso asked himself one day as he heard his son bounce a ball and instantly knew its direction. In this ear-opening episode, presenter Anand Jagatia sets out to discover what makes left, right, up and down, sound so different. First, Anand gets blindfolded, so that Alan Archer-Boyd, former auditory scientist and lead engineer at BBC R&D, can put his sound localisation skills ...
Mar 31, 2023•37 min
Sweating, nausea, chest pain and shortness of breath sound like the physical symptoms of a heart attack. For about 4% of the world’s population, they are also symptoms of an underdiagnosed condition that can leave sufferers curled in a ball and screaming on the floor. A CrowdScience listener wants to know why humans have panic attacks. Host Marnie Chesterton brings on board an expert co-presenter, novelist Tim Clare, to talk us through the hows and whys. Tim suffered from crippling panic attacks...
Mar 24, 2023•42 min
When imagining a robot, a hard-edged, boxy, humanoid figure may spring to mind. But that is about to change. CrowdScience presenter Alex Lathbridge is on a mission to meet the robots that bend the rules of conventionality. Inspired by how creatures like us have evolved to move, some roboticists are looking to nature to design the next generation of machines. And that means making them softer. But just how soft can a robot really be? Join Alex as he goes on a wild adventure to answer this questio...
Mar 17, 2023•29 min
CrowdScience listener Eric, in New Zealand, has noticed his wisteria growing towards a neighbouring tree. He thinks that it actually knows where it’s going. But how can a plant have a sense of direction? Plants don’t have the advantage of brains or eyes, but that doesn’t seem to stop them from being clever enough to find out from their environment where to move and how to get there – all while being rooted to the spot. Marnie Chesterton visits the Natural History Museum and Kew Gardens in London...
Mar 03, 2023•29 min
If, like this week’s Crowdscience listener Lili, you’re an avid gymgoer, you may well have wondered where your fat disappears to when you exercise? Well, the short answer is that we convert it to energy that powers a whole range of physical processes, from breathing to walking as well as lying down and doing nothing. But the science behind energy expenditure is a little more complicated than that. Presenter Anand Jagatia pops on an exercise bike to have his metabolism measured, and learns that h...
Feb 24, 2023•34 min
Yoga benefits our health in many ways, say the yogis, but which claims are backed up by science? Can yoga actually alleviate depression, fix lower-back pain or even reduce cardiovascular disease? Presenter Marnie Chesterton gets into her Lotus (position) and finds out first-hand at a class. Whilst in warrior one, she discusses the potential physical and mental health benefits of this ancient art of stretching, balance and movement with her class teacher. Returning from mat to studio, Marnie puts...
Feb 17, 2023•28 min
Why does the thought of giving a talk to an audience fill so many of us with sheer terror? Marnie Chesterton investigates for listener Nhial, who has seen his fellow students in Morocco become panic stricken at the prospect and wants to know the reason for our anxiety. According to one study, 77 per cent of us share that fear. Marnie finds out about the relationship between stress, our brains and our voices from research associate Dr Maria Dietrich at the University Hospital, Bonn University. Sh...
Feb 09, 2023•28 min
We generate a huge amount of noise, whether it’s our rumbling roads, pumping parties, or talkative tourists. And the topic of noise also generates a lot of questions from our listeners. In this episode we explore three of them, with the help of acoustic scientist Kurt Fristrup and neuropsychologist Catherine Loveday. Listener Dominique finds it hard to experience even one minute of a natural soundscape without some intrusion of human-made noise. He wonders how noise pollution is affecting both t...
Feb 03, 2023•35 min
From Lawrence of Arabia to Star Wars via tales of intrepid adventurers traversing lonely sand-swept landscapes, deserts have always had a powerful pull on the popular imagination. But if a desert is full of sand, where did all that sand come from in the first place? That is what CrowdScience listener Andy wants to know, so presenter Caroline Steel heads off into the dunes to find out. She begins by finding out what a desert is anyway and whether it is always sandy, as well as tracing the flow of...
Jan 27, 2023•28 min
When falling in love or fancying someone, one emotion can dominate over the rest: jealousy. Some may try to play it cool and act aloof, but seeing - or even thinking - of a romantic partner engaging with others can lead people to act completely out of character. The green-eyed monster can hijack thoughts for days to weeks on end, making us spend precious energy ruminating on situations that may never arise. So why is it that humans feel jealousy? Do people experience this emotion differently? An...
Jan 20, 2023•30 min
When CrowdScience listener Eric spotted a few gnats flying around on a milder day in mid-winter it really surprised him - Eric had assumed they just died out with the colder weather. It got him wondering where the insects had come from, how they had survived the previous cold snap and what the implications of climate change might be for insect over-wintering behaviour? So he asked CrowdScience to do some bug investigation. CrowdScience presenter Marnie Chesterton takes up the challenge and heads...
Jan 13, 2023•28 min
ow do we stay up when we ride a bicycle? Lots of us can do it without even thinking about it, but probably very few of us can say exactly HOW we do it. Well, CrowdScience listener Arif and his children Maryam and Mohammed from India want to understand what’s going on in our heads when go for a cycle, and how we learn to do it in the first place. Presenter Marnie Chesterton is on the case, tracking down a neuroscientist studying how our brains and bodies work together to keep us balanced whether ...
Jan 06, 2023•28 min
