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PODCAST

CrowdScience

BBC World Service

We take your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.

science

All Episodes

26:28

Are atoms immortal?

CrowdScience ·

2025/10/10

Atoms are the building blocks of our world. Many have been around since right after the Big Bang created the universe nearly 14 billion years ago. And if life on Earth is made of atoms that are from all the way back then... will those atoms keep existing forever? That’s what CrowdScience Listener Rob in Australia would like to know. Caroline Steel investigates the immortality of atoms by travelling to CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory located along the border of France and

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27:02

Why are some animals black and white?

CrowdScience ·

2025/10/03

In a world bursting with colour, what’s the advantage of standing out in stark contrast? Listener Jude in Canada wants to know why some animals are black and white. Why do zebras risk being so stripy? Why do pandas have such distinct marking? And do they have something in common? Presenter Caroline visits Pairi Daiza, a zoo in Belgium. Together with her guide for the day, Johan Vreys, she looks at these weird and wonderful animals up close. First, she visits three zebras having breakfast

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26:28

Answers to even more questions

CrowdScience ·

2025/09/26

Sometimes in science, when you try to answer one question it sparks even more questions. The CrowdScience inbox is a bulging example of that. We get tons of new questions every week and many of those are following up on episodes we’ve made. Sometimes you want us to go deeper into part of the answer, or sometimes a subject intrigues you so much that it inspires further questions about it. In this episode presenter Caroline Steel is on a mission to answer some of those questions. The CrowdScience

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26:29

Do birds understand us?

CrowdScience ·

2025/09/19

CrowdScience listener David is a bird whisperer. On his family farm in Guinea, he would mimic the call of the black-headed weaver. He could replicate it so well that the birds would fly in close, curious to find out who was calling. David has been wondering if he was actually communicating with the weaver. In the foothills of the Austrian Alps is a research hotspot with a curious history. It was here that a scientist first began studying birds in their natural environment. That work continues today

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26:28

Why am I so sentimental?

CrowdScience ·

2025/09/12

CrowdScience listener Kerry started thinking about his sentimental attachment to his possessions when he began sorting through an old trunk, full of objects from his past. He wants to know why we get so attached to things that often have no use anymore and why it’s so hard to give them away. Anand Jagatia investigates why the objects we accumulate during our lives mean so much to us. He talks to psychologists Mary Dozier and Melissa Norberg and finds out that our possessions offer stability and

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26:29

Will drinking milk help me live longer?

CrowdScience ·

2025/09/05

Milk: drink a lot of it and we’ll grow big and tall with strong bones. That’s what many people are told as children, but just how true is this accepted wisdom? CrowdScience listener JJ in Singapore is sceptical. He wants to live a healthy life for as long as possible, and he’s wondering whether drinking cow’s milk will help or hinder him on this mission. All mammals produce milk, and our mother’s milk is our very first drink as babies. So what actually is the white stuff? Mary Fewtrell, professor of

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34:28

How long will traces of our civilisation last?

CrowdScience ·

2025/08/29

What will remain of us hundreds of millions of years from now? And how can we be so certain that we are the first technologically advanced species on Earth?These unsettling questions have been haunting listener Steve. If fossils can be lost to deep time through erosion and subduction into the Earth’s mantle, how would anyone — or anything — ever know that we had been here? And if an earlier species had built a civilization that rose and fell, would we even be able to find traces of it?To

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36:39

How does camouflage work?

CrowdScience ·

2025/08/22

CrowdScience listener Paul from Uganda is fascinated by military uniforms. The outfits of so many different armies, from different countries all around the world, often look remarkably similar – mottled shades of olive green camouflage. Where did it come from? How does it work as camouflage? And what inspired it?Alex Lathbridge delves into the science, the history and the future of camouflage.

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26:29

How long does light last?

CrowdScience ·

2025/08/15

When listener Rob from Devon, UK, heard of a newly detected planet light years away, he was struck by the sheer scale the light must travel to reach us here on Earth. It got him wondering: How long does light last? What’s the oldest light we’ve ever observed? And does light ever die? To find out, presenter Anand Jagatia calls on some of the brightest minds in astronomy and physics. Astronomer Matthew Middleton from the University of Southampton describes himself as “a kid in a sweet shop” when it

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32:21

Can we stop the rain?

CrowdScience ·

2025/08/08

CrowdScience listener Rit, from Pune in India, is staring out of his window at the falling rain. It’s been pouring for four days now, and shows no sign of stopping. The laundry is piling up, all his shoes are wet, and he’s worried about the effect it’s having on the environment, and on agriculture. When it rains like this, the animals suffer, and the crops are destroyed. Cloud seeding and Weather Engineering are hot topics right now, and can bring the rain to places that need it. But Rit wants to

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30:08

How are teeth made?

CrowdScience ·

2025/08/01

CrowdScience listener Jon started wondering how our teeth are created while he was in the dentist’s chair. It took his mind off the drilling. He wants to know how our teeth are made, what goes into them and how come we only get two sets of teeth when other animals, like sharks, grow thousands of new ones throughout their lives.Anand Jagatia goes back to prehistoric times to discover how the story of teeth began millions of years ago. Palaeontologist Yara Haridy explains that teeth weren’t designed

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3:29

Trailer: 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

CrowdScience ·

2025/07/28

The epic space story of a sci-fi dream that changed spaceflight forever. Told by the Nasa astronauts and team who made it happen. Our multi-award-winning podcast is back, hosted by space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock. She tells the story of triumph and tragedy - of a dream that revolutionised modern space travel forever.You can listen to the trailer here. To hear episodes, search for 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. 13 Minutes Presents: The Space

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26:28

Could technology improve our brains?

CrowdScience ·

2025/07/25

What comes to mind when you imagine the future of humanity? Could a computer make your mind more efficient? Enhance your cognition? Or cure a disorder you've been grappling with all your life? CrowdScience listener Mariana from Mexico hopes that one day technology will be able to help improve our brains.  Presenter Alex Lathbridge seeks out some of these brain boosters, exploring emerging technologies in deep brain stimulation at City St George’s University of London in the UK. Professor Francesca

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26:29

What if the Earth spun backwards?

CrowdScience ·

2025/07/18

Your whole life is governed by spin. The rotation of our planet tells you when to wake up, and Earth’s orbit around the Sun is the reason why some of us dig out a jumper for half the year and a t-shirt for the rest. But what if that all changed? That’s exactly what 8-year-old Geronimo in Ecuador wants to know. He and his dad, Fabian, have got themselves dizzy trying to figure out what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning, or better yet, started spinning in the opposite direction. Would

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31:13

Where did Earth’s water come from?

CrowdScience ·

2025/07/11

Here's a conundrum that has captivated scientists: when Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, our planet was essentially a ball of molten rock. Any water that might have been present during the planet's formation would surely have boiled away immediately. Yet today, water covers about 70% of Earth's surface. So where did all this water come from? And more intriguingly, when did it arrive? Listener Bill in the USA wants to know, and Presenter Caroline Steel is after answers. Assistant Professor

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26:28

Can we harness solar energy from other stars?

CrowdScience ·

2025/07/04

Listener Dickson Mukisa from Uganda has been gazing up at the stars. But he’s not making wishes. He wants to know whether we can harness their energy, in the same way we do with our OWN star – the sun. After all, they may seem small and twinkly to us, but each one is a gigantic flaming ball of energy, with a power outputs averaging around 40 quadrillion kilowatt-hours per year – EACH! With somewhere between 100 and 400 BILLION stars in our own galaxy alone, that’s a lot of power! Can we get ‘solar

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26:28

Why are twins special?

CrowdScience ·

2025/06/27

No one really cares that CrowdScience listener Sam has a younger brother, but they do care about his sister. In fact, they’re fascinated by her. That’s because Sam and his sister are fraternal twins. He’s been wondering all his life why he’s treated differently. Could it be cultural? Twins have long appeared in classical mythology, revered literature, and playful comedies—captivating artists and audiences alike across time and continents. Or is there something more scientific behind our fascination

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26:28

How can we persuade more people to cycle?

CrowdScience ·

2025/06/20

Cycling is good for our health, good for the planet, and it can be an efficient way of moving around busy cities. But despite all the rational arguments for it, in most cities the number of people who get on their bikes is low.CrowdScience listener Hans wants to know whether it’s time to change our tactics. Could we persuade more people to cycle if we moved away from focusing on well-intentioned rational arguments and use messages that appeal to our desires and vanity instead? What does the science

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26:28

Was there an idyllic time before carnivores?

CrowdScience ·

2025/06/13

Was there ever a time when life on earth was peaceful? Free of violence? No predators, no prey, just... vibes? Or has nature always been 'Red in Tooth and Claw'? Have we always been eating each other? Our listener Scott sent us on a quest to discover the origins of predators and prey, and to find out what all this ‘eat or be eaten’ stuff is really about. Taking us back to the very dawn of life on earth, Professor Susannah Porter from the University of Santa Barbara lets Alex peer into an

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28:21

What’s that background hum I hear?

CrowdScience ·

2025/06/06

In the dead of night at his home in Machinjiri, Malawi, CrowdScience listener John can hear a small, but persistent, hum. Whenever it’s quiet enough, the hum is there – but what’s causing it? And is John the only one who can hear it?Reports of consistent, low-pitched noise have been popping up around the world for decades. No one knows this better than Dr Glen MacPherson, who runs the World Hum Map. He tells presenter Caroline Steel his theory for what’s behind these hums.And Caroline does some

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482 results

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