CrowdScience

Why do humans have wisdom teeth if so many of them get removed soon after they appear? Wisdom teeth, the third molars in the back of our mouths, are so called because they normally appear in late teenage, early adulthood – the time in life we supposedly have learned some wisdom. But around 25% of people don’t develop all four. Of those that do emerge, it is not uncommon for them to appear at nasty...

When the first person set the very first clock, how did they know what time to set it to? This question, from listener Chris in the UK, sends CrowdScience off on a quest into the history of timekeeping. From sundials to water clocks, from uneven hours to precision seconds determined by the vibration of an atom, we examine how we came to measure time. We visit possibly the oldest working mechanical...

In 2011, CrowdScience listener Amanda survived the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. It arrived unannounced - as all earthquakes do - leaving her with no time to prepare a response. So Amanda wants to know whether science will ever be able to give us advance warning of quakes. To explore her question CrowdScience heads to New Zealand to meet listener Amanda, as well as the brain...

Have you ever been through a romantic break up, unable to shift the ex from your thoughts? You are, obviously, not alone… Listener Elkin, experienced just that. But rather than wallowing in self-pity, he sought out an explanation. Where better to get it, than from CrowdScience. Now, Alex Lathbridge is putting on his thinking cap to find out why we daydream? Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Har...

Presenter Marnie Chesterton and the team pit their wits against a multitude of mind-bending puzzles from an old TV gameshow - all in the name of answering a question from Antonia in Cyprus: how do we work out how clever someone is? Is IQ the best measure of cleverness? Why do we put such weight on academic performance? And where does emotional intelligence fit into it all? In the search for answer...

What evidence is there for a semi-aquatic period in human evolutionary history? That’s the question that’s been bothering listener Dave in Thailand. He thinks our lack of hair and love of water might indicate that, at some point, we were more water-based than we are now. But what does science have to say on the matter? The theory that our ape ancestors returned to the water for a phase in our evol...

Our question this week comes from a father and his two young boys. They want to know whether it’s possible to plant enough trees to soak up all the extra carbon we are putting into the atmosphere? The quest to find answers takes us to a remote reforestation project in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania which could be a model for other projects looking to tackle the climate crisis through reforest...

Noise pollution from vehicles in the public space has a huge impact on human health. But as the world switches to quieter electric-powered means of transport there’s a debate about whether we will actually see any noticeable improvement to our quality of life. Discovering more than just engineering solutions to the problem, CrowdScience visits one of the world’s loudest cities, Mumbai in India. It...

Welcome to Part 2 of our year-end extravaganza and the final episode of 2023! We’ve had a brilliant year hunting down the answers to your science questions - on everything from food and phobias to friction and flying - and in this episode presenter Anand Jagatia is revisiting some of the best stories we covered. We’re bringing you some extra juicy bonus content that we couldn’t fit in to those sho...

Welcome to Part 1 of CrowdScience’s year-end extravaganza! It’s an extra-festive episode this week. For those who celebrate it, Christmas is the perfect time to pause and look back at the year just gone. Here on CrowdScience we’ve had a great 2023: we answered dozens of listener questions, ranging from climbing plants and ostriches to panic attacks and the weight of the internet. This week present...

Seeds are crucial to human existence – we eat them, we grow them and then we eat what they become. But what is a seed and how come it can sit there doing nothing for ages and then suddenly, when the conditions are right, burst into a plant? That’s what CrowdScience listener Anke has been wondering. She runs an aquaponic salad farm near Stockholm in Sweden and she germinates thousands of seeds ever...

If, like this week’s Crowdscience listener Lili, you enjoy working out in the gym, you may have wondered where your fat disappears to when you exercise? 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....

*Warning* This episode includes references to suicide. When listener Ben heard about a Kenyan “starvation cult” in the news, he wondered whether the members of this group had been brainwashed. Is it possible to control someone’s mind? In this episode presenter Caroline Steel learns how easily people can be influenced. She hears what it’s like to be part of a cult, and gets to the bottom of a decad...

CrowdScience listener Michael wants to know whether the brain responds differently if we listen to books instead of reading them. Do we retain information in the same way? And is there a difference between fiction and non-fiction? Anand Jagatia finds out whether curling up with a good book is better than putting on his headphones. She is speaks to Prof Fatma Deniz from the Technical University of...

Lying is something all humans do. We find it in every culture around the world. It’s in the world of work, in our relationships and online. It’s all pervasive and hard to escape. Our question this week is from listener Anthony from Cambodia. He asked us to find out why we lie, and wants to know how conscious we are of the lies that we tell? CrowdScience’s Caroline Steel is in the hot seat, on a jo...

Our planet is quickly approaching 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Scientists say we might cross this milestone in just six years. Listener Julian wants to know what life will look like on the other side of that threshold. With the help of climate scientists, the BBC’s Anand Jagatia dives into the worlds of virtual climate models. From heatwaves to higher humidity indices t...

“You are what you eat” is a well-known saying. But is it really true? That’s what we explore in this week’s CrowdScience thanks to a question from listener Claire from Australia. We each have trillions of tiny microbes and bacteria inside our bodies, living in our mouths, skin, ears and even in our eyes. Each community of microbes and bacteria is known as a microbiome. The most populous of these i...

Why are some animals cute, cuddly, adorable – and some are slimy, creepy and downright weird? This edition of Crowdscience, recorded in front of a live audience, comes to you directly from the world-famous Green Man Festival in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Cymru (Wales). The programme recording was powered entirely by hydrogen. Our inbox has been bursting at the seams with questions about c...

Salmon are one of the world’s most popular fish. And - in terms of the size of the industry - they’re also the world’s most valuable. They provide crucial proteins and fatty acids to many people’s diets. But like other species of fish, their production is undergoing a historic change. Plenty of salmon is still caught from the wild, but the majority is now farmed off the coasts of countries like No...

CrowdScience listener Kristine from Wisconsin in the USA wants to know why herbs and spices taste so good to so many of us. She’s intrigued to know if there's evidence that herbs and spices can keep us healthy. Anand Jagatia visits the historic naval city of Portsmouth in the UK, where exotic spices from around the world were first brought in from the East Asia more than 600 years ago. He’s on a j...

Humans have an outsized impact on the planet: we’ve wreaked havoc on countless ecosystems and one study estimates only 3% of land on Earth remains untouched by our influence. CrowdScience listener Teri has witnessed the harmful effects of development on natural habitats near her home, and wonders whether we can ever function as part of a healthy ecosystem. We look for answers in Teri’s home state,...

It's pretty obvious to each of us that we are conscious, as we go about our days and feel the experience of just ‘being ourselves'. But how do we know that someone else is conscious? It’s something we lose during dreamless sleep, under anaesthesia or in a coma. But what exactly is consciousness? On the one hand, it’s pretty obvious - it’s what we all feel as we go about our daily lives. It's the e...

Philosophers have long pondered the concept of a brain in a jar, hooked up to a simulated world. Though this has largely remained a thought experiment, CrowdScience listener JP wants to know if it might become reality in the not-too-distant future, with advances in stem cell research. In the two decades since stem cell research began, scientists have learned how to use these cells to create the my...

Everyone has fears – but what makes a fear become a phobia? Why are some people scared of spiders (arachnophobia), buttons (koumpounophobia), or the colour yellow (xanthophobia)? Or why are others are scared of situations, like small spaces (claustrophobia), empty rooms (kenophobia) or heights (acrophobia)? This is a question which has been bothering Crowdscience listener Scott, who has a phobia o...

CrowdScience listener Leo gets stressed when his young children start screaming at the same time in the middle of the night. He wants to know why we haven’t evolved to deal with the stress more effectively. The challenges of bringing up a family are nothing new and we don’t face the same dangers as our ancestors, so why do we still react as if it’s a life-threatening emergency? Caroline Steel find...