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PODCAST

The Infinite Monkey Cage

Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince host a witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists’ eyes. Joined by a panel of scientists, experts and celebrity science enthusiasts they investigate life, the universe and everything in between on The Infinite Monkey Cage from the BBC. From the smallest building blocks of life to the furthest stars, the curious monkeys pull apart the latest science to reveal fascinating and often bizarre insights into the world around us and what lies beyond. Can trees

science

All Episodes

42:23

Illuminating Light - Jess Wade, Russell Foster and...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/08/20

What is light? How has it shaped our understanding of the universe, our biology, and even our culture?In this illuminating episode Brian Cox and Robin Ince shine a spotlight on the fascinating science and history of light. From sun and circadian rhythms to the dazzling complexity of quantum, they explore how humans have understood and been influenced by light across time. Joining them to shed light on the subject are physicist Dr Jess Wade, Neuroscientist Professor Russell Foster and comedian

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42:08

Moths v Butterflies - Katy Brand, Jane Hill and Chris...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/08/13

What really separates a moth from a butterfly? Is it just a matter of day and night, or is there more to this fluttering feud than meets the eye?Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince flap into the fabulous world of Lepidoptera with Professor Jane Hill, Professor Chris Jiggins, and comedian Katy Brand. Together, they chase colourful wings through science and storytelling, uncovering epic insect migrations, the secrets behind dazzling wing patterns, and most importantly, why Katy has a butterfly tattoo

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42:26

Technofossils - Sarah Gabbott, Mark Miodownik and...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/08/06

Brian Cox and Robin Ince dig deep into the strata of an imagined human history to unearth the curious concept of technofossils. Joined by paleobiologist Sarah Gabbott, material scientist Mark Miodownik and comedian and tech enthusiast Aurie Styla the panel unearth how the everyday objects that we throw away today compare to fossils of the past. Together, the panel investigates how these modern artifacts could degrade over time to become the fossils of the future. From old smartphones buried in

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42:43

The Mighty Spud - Sandy Knapp, Glenn Bryan and Susan...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/07/30

Robin Ince and Brian Cox get out the ketchup and peel back the layers of one of the most versatile and beloved foods - potatoes. From the science of starch to the surprising role potatoes have played in history, we’re digging deep to uncover the truth behind the mighty spud. Chipping into the conversation are botanist Sandy Knapp, geneticist Glenn Bryan and potato passionate comedian Susan Calman. Susan is astonished to learn that the potatoes lining our supermarket shelves all belong to a single

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42:22

How to Build the Perfect Athlete - Helen Glover, Hugh...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/07/23

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are limbering up for a high-performance episode all about what it takes to build the perfect athlete.Joining them on the track are physiologist Dr Emma Ross, sports engineer Professor Steve Haake, Olympic rowing legend Helen Glover, and comedian Hugh Dennis - who’s getting into gear and reliving his cycling adventures in the Pyrenees. From muscle power and mental grit to high-tech training tools, the team dives into the science of champions. Can we engineer the ultimate

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42:46

Should We Settle in Space? - Tim Peake, Kelly...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/07/16

Brian Cox and Robin Ince blast off into a cosmic controversy as they ask, should humanity become an interplanetary species? At Harwell Campus, a space science innovation hub, they’re joined by astronaut Tim Peake, biologist and Royal Society prize winning author Kelly Weinersmith, and comedian Alan Davies to explore the science, ethics, and challenges of settling on Mars or on the Moon.Are we bold pioneers venturing into the unknown, or just reckless tenants abandoning Earth in search of a new

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42:35

201st Birthday Bonanza - Mel Giedroyc, Deborah Meaden...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/07/09

Get ready for a landmark episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage as we celebrate our 201st show! Brian Cox and Robin Ince invite a lively panel of celebrity guests to pose their burning scientific questions to a top-tier team of scientists.Mel Giedroyc is tunnelling into the world of engineering, asking how we build and operate trains under some of the world’s busiest cities? Mel has found a new best friend in, Isabel Coman, Director of Engineering at Transport for London, who is here to guide her

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42:27

Nature's Shapes - Dave Gorman, Sarah Hart and Thomas...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/03/26

Brian Cox and Robin Ince unpick the hidden codes behind the shapes we see in nature with mathematicians Sarah Hart & Thomas Woolley and comedian Dave Gorman.The panel marvel at how evolution so often beats mathematicians to finding the most elegant solutions, after all, it’s had millennia to experiment. How do trees achieve the optimal distribution of leaves and why are tortoise shells so geometrically exciting?Plus we learn why the cheetah got its spots, thanks to the work of Thomas Woolley’s

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42:43

The Sound of Music - Brian Eno, Sam Bennett and...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/03/19

Brian Cox and Robin Ince explore the history of music recording, joined by acoustics professor Trevor Cox, music professor Sam Bennett and musician and producer Brian Eno. Together they guide us through the evolution of sound recording, a space in which technology hasn’t stood still since its advent in the mid-1800s. We hear the very first recognisable recording of a voice made with a brush making marks in soot and put a spotlight on the Fairlight CMI, a revolutionary digital synthesizer of the

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42:21

Saturn v Jupiter - Katherine Parkinson, Paul Abel and...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/03/12

Brian Cox and Robin Ince referee as Saturn and Jupiter square up to each other in a planetary face-off. Representing Team Saturn is space physicist Professor Michele Dougherty, and in the opposite corner is Dr Paul Abel on Team Jupiter. Katherine Parkinson judges this cosmic contest, casting the final vote to decide who will be awarded the coveted Kuiper Belt. It is not all about looks of course, but it is a significant factor in a first impression. Both Saturn and Jupiter score highly in this

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42:32

Adventures on Ice - Darren Harriott, Liz Morris,...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/03/05

Robin Ince and Brian Cox venture into the captivating and surprisingly mysterious realm of ice. Joining them on this cool adventure are former ice dancer Darren Harriott, glaciologist Liz Morris, polar explorer Felicity Aston and ice chemist Christoph Salzmann. From beautifully formed snowflakes to ice shelves in Antarctica, our guests discuss the fascinating science suspended in solid water and how much is still to be discovered. With the help of a gin and tonic they explore the properties of ice -

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42:26

How selfish are we really? - Jo Brand, Matti Wilks...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/02/26

Brian Cox and Robin Ince kindly open the door for each other as they step into understanding altruism, asking why humans have evolved to help each other. Joining them to explore the human tendency to be kind is evolutionary biologist Steve Jones, psychologist Matti Wilks and comedian Jo Brand. Starting with the animal kingdom, we probe the biological underpinnings of why organisms might act to help others at an energetic cost to themselves and where this fits alongside the theory of evolution. We

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42:40

Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Phil Wang, Ana...

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/02/19

Brian Cox and Robin Ince slice deep into the lesser explored world beneath us. To join them on the journey from the crust to the core they are joined by seismologist Ana Ferreira, geologist Chris Jackson and comedian Phil Wang.School children learn about the makeup of the earth with an image depicting the earth's core, mantle and crust layered neatly on top of each other, but is this an oversimplification? Our experts reveal that the earths innards are less uniform than we might think and mysteries

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4:08

Brian and Robin introduce the new series

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2025/02/13

Brian Cox and Robin Ince look ahead to the topics and guests you can enjoy in Series 32 of The Infinite Monkey Cage.Listen first on BBC Sounds from Wednesday 19 February, 2025.

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42:25

An Unexpected History of the Body

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2024/12/25

Brian Cox and Robin Ince uncover the unexpected history of the body in the archives of the Royal Society with special guests Prof Helen King, Sir Mark Walport, Keith Moore and Ed Byrne. Together they dissect some of the most surprising and peculiar beliefs that have been held about the body over the last 500 years, from wandering-womb hypotheses to tobacco-enema resuscitations. They unearth how scientific discoveries have often originated from brave individuals, willing to volunteer their own bodies

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42:27

Is Extinction the End?

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2024/12/18

Brian Cox and Robin Ince dig into de-extinction asking, could we and should we resurrect creatures of the past? They are joined by geneticist Adam Rutherford, palaeontologist Susannah Maidment and comedian/virologist Ria Lina.Extinction has played a significant role in shaping the life we see on Earth today. It is estimated around 95% of species to have ever existed are already extinct - but could any of these extinctions be reversed? Our panel explore the different methods being pursued in these

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42:44

Fantastic Elastic

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2024/12/11

Brian Cox and Robin Ince expand their knowledge of elasticity with Olympian Bryony Page, comedian Jessica Fostekew & experts Dr Anna Ploszajski and Prof James Busfield from Queen Mary University of London. What makes stretchy things stretch? Together our panel journey through different applications of elastic materials and examine, at the molecular level, what happens when we stretch a material and crucially what causes it to return to its original shape. This is especially pertinent to our

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42:00

The Science of Baby Making

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2024/12/04

Brian Cox and Robin Ince investigate the science of baby making - don’t worry, all theory no practice! They are joined by Professor Joyce Harper, Dr Ben Steventon and comedian Sara Pascoe to discuss how just two cells can turn into trillions, or in other words, how an embryo can turn into an embryologist. The embryo building processes across species are remarkably similar, yet there is still so much we don’t know about the beginning of life. Our panel discuss these unknowns, the latest in fertility

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42:25

Starless World

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2024/11/27

Brian Cox and Robin Ince consider how different our understanding of the universe would be without the stars. They are joined by Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Roberto Trotta and comedian John Bishop who illuminate all that we have learnt from the stars and how different life would be without them.Every culture has looked up at the night sky, but why are we so drawn to the pin pricks of light in the sky above us all and how have they helped shape human civilisation? Roberto Trotta takes us back to the

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42:34

Hedgehogs

The Infinite Monkey Cage ·

2024/11/20

Brian Cox and Robin Ince emerge from the hedge row waking up their guests from hibernation to discuss the fascinating lives of Britain’s favourite mammal, the hedgehog. They are joined by hedgehog experts Hugh Warwick and Sophie Lund Rasmussen (also know as Dr Hedgehog), and by broadcaster and poet Pam Ayres. Sophie Lund Rasmussen has crowd sourced 14 freezers worth of dead hedgehogs for her research and has brought one of her more unique samples with her, the penis of the oldest known hedgehog who

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235 results

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