Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Weekly: The first life on Earth; Banana-shaped galaxies; When is smartphone use ‘problematic’?
Season 1 Episode 261
#261
What was the first life on Earth like? Ancient fossils hint it could be a primitive kind of bacteria – but these 3.5 billion-year-old fossilised …
2 years, 1 month ago
CultureLab: Carlo Rovelli on the link between quantum physics and world peace
Quantum theory describes the tiny building blocks that make up everything around us. It has made many successful predictions but could a new, more ra…
2 years, 1 month ago
Weekly: Shocking source of deep sea oxygen; Alcohol really is unhealthy; ‘Green’ plastic downsides
Season 1 Episode 260
#260
Most of us imagine plants when we think about the production of oxygen. But turns out, in the deep sea, metal-rich rocks also seem to generate ox…
2 years, 1 month ago
Dead Planets Society: Can We Burn Uranus?
Season 2 Episode 8
What would it take to set Uranus ablaze? Is it even possible to burn it in the typical sense? If anyone can figure it out, it's the Dead Planets Soci…
2 years, 1 month ago
Weekly: New human cases of bird flu; Sail away to Alpha Centauri; Sea slugs hunt in packs
Season 1 Episode 259
#259
More people in the US are getting bird flu. Though numbers are small – just five new cases, all mild – every new case is a reason for concern. Ho…
2 years, 2 months ago
CultureLab: The incredible, intelligent abilities of plants with Zoë Schlanger
What if we told you plants can hear and see? And memorise information? And track time to adapt their pollination techniques? And even look out for th…
2 years, 2 months ago
Weekly: Woolly mammoth jerky; Google simulates the origin of life; food without farming
Season 1 Episode 258
#258
Fancy a bite of woolly mammoth jerky? A beef-jerky-like fossil of this prehistoric creature has been discovered – a metre-long piece of skin stil…
2 years, 2 months ago
Dead Planets Society: Putting Black Holes Inside Stuff
Season 2 Episode 7
Primordial black holes are tiny versions of the big beasts you typically think of. They’re so small, they could easily fit inside stuff, like a plane…
2 years, 2 months ago
Weekly: World’s Oldest Ritual; Quantum Wi-Fi; Report from the Arctic
Season 1 Episode 257
#257
Two extraordinary findings have been unearthed about our ancient ancestors. The first is a discovery from a cave in Australia – evidence of what …
2 years, 2 months ago
CultureLab: Sonifying Mars, symphonically, with David Ibbett
Despite humans having never set foot on Mars, scientists have been working for decades to paint a picture of life on the red planet. With the help of…
2 years, 2 months ago