Do you really know?

In June 2025, the Met Office announced that the UK had had its warmest spring on record, with a mean temperature of 9.5°C, beating the previous mark set just a year prior in 2024 and exceeding the long term average by 1.4°. It’s becoming increasingly important to adapt to periods of extreme heat, and one way to make stiflingly hot days more bearable is to adjust what you eat. What should be avoide...

Have you ever seen the Black Mirror episode called "Be right back"? It aired back in February 2013 and sees a character called Ash die in a car accident, leaving behind his pregnant wife Martha. During Ash's funeral, Martha’s friend Sarah tells her about a company which creates AI versions of dead people, by using personal data they had shared online. Initially reluctant, Martha eventually caves i...

They buzz around your fruit salad, hover over your barbecue, and seem to think the edge of your pool is their hangout. Every summer, it’s the same story - wasps turning your outdoor bliss into a swatting frenzy. But it doesn’t have to be this way; there are ways to keep them at bay.  There are gentler, and smarter ways to make them buzz off. Essential oils are a great place to start. Scents l...

Some people believe they simply can’t function in the morning until they’ve had a cup of coffee. Others seem to be grumpy every morning, as if they’ve got out of the wrong side of the bed.  Of course, a poor night’s sleep can be the cause, whether it be down to stress, not getting to bed early enough, drinking or other physical conditions like sleep apnea. Psychological factors can also...

There are plenty of ways to get the attention of someone you're crushing on. It might come very naturally to some, but for others, flirting can be an intimidating proposition. Have you ever wondered if someone is flirting with you, because of their somewhat ambiguous approach? Well, they may have been micro-flirting, a technique that dating experts say is used by shy men in particular. And there a...

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, there are as many as 430 deaths per year due to wrong-way crashes in the United States alone. That might be hard to believe as for most of us driving on the “right” side of the road is as automatic as brushing your teeth. But there is of a course a divide between countries that drive on the left and those that drive on the right. In ancient times...

What is squirting? Thanks for asking! OK, so from their teenage years onwards most men get used to fluid shooting out of their genitals on a regular basis. But female ejaculation is a thing too, and it’s known colloquially as squirting. Most often, it’s when a woman expels fluid from the vulva either before or during an orgasm. It’s generally seen as a pleasurable sensation, even when it doesn’t h...

What is Godwin’s Law? Thanks for asking! The events of the Holocaust are part of the compulsory curriculum in many countries across the world, especially in Europe. Indeed, it’s pretty rare to come across any adult who hasn’t heard of the unique horrors that took place.  Most people would agree that comparing recent Covid-19 restrictions and vaccination campaigns to Nazi atrocities is at best...

What are blue zones? Humans have wondered about the secrets behind longevity since the beginning of time. Well, as it turns out, the world’s five blue zones offer some revealing insight into this mystery. In these regions, people seem to live longer than in the rest of the world. Researchers have sought to understand the unique lifestyles that may be behind this phenomenon. Let’s go back to the ye...

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Thanks for asking! During the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world have taken it on themselves to judge what’s essential or not for their citizens. Think of non-essential shops, businesses, products and leisure activities, for example. Restrictions based on these judgements have evolved constantly during various stages of lockdown or closures. At an...

What is Ocean Viking? Thanks for asking! The Ocean Viking humanitarian vessel now has well over 500 survivors on board, located in waters between Italy, Malta and Libya. It has carried out a number of rescue operations in the last week. According to NGO SOS Mediterranee, who operate Ocean Viking, survivors on board are mainly refugees and migrants. Many are minors, some of whom were attempting the...

She's one of the most influential women in the world. Taylor Swift, a country star in the United States who has become a global pop star, is shattering all records. She has been named the Personality of 2023, and has won Album of the Year for the record-breaking 4th time. In November 2024, Joe Biden, the President of the United States, is standing for re-election. His main opponent is still Donald...

"Do you really know?" is Bababam's daily podcast, which helps you understand the words, acronyms, and concepts that are making the news every day. From December 6th to 20th, discover the words that have left their mark on the year, with our 2021 Retrospective. From the "Pandora Papers" affair to the "#QuitMyJob" hashtag and of course the "Long Covid" condition, (re)discover these words that sum up...

The World Health Organisation says that children between the ages of two and five should get no more than one hour of sedentary screen time per day, while children under two shouldn’t get any at all. But the general consensus is that many parents don’t enforce those guidelines, and many toddlers end up overexposed to digital devices as a result. Increasingly, early childhood professionals are repo...

Not everyone has the same relationship with social contact. Introverts, for example, recharge by spending time alone. Meanwhile extroverts get their energy from being around other people. But here’s the thing: being introverted or enjoying solitude isn’t the same as being lonely. Loneliness can actually become painful, and even harmful, when it drags on for too long. What happens when loneliness b...

What is rape culture? Thanks for asking!   Society generally sees rape as one of the most heinous crimes that exists. But the sociological theory of rape culture suggests that sexual assault continues to be so common precisely because of certain attitudes on gender and sexuality. Certain myths and misconceptions are handed down from generation to generation, ending up embedded in cultural nor...

Ever feel like a grey cloud is hanging over you? Life seems a bit gloomy, and your days are dull. You’re craving a change, but you’re stuck in a rut. Well,  there is good news and  the solution might be much closer than you think. Sometimes, all it takes is tweaking one or two elements of your day to transform your life. Enter the ‘Yes Man’ technique. Where does it come from? Should...

Eating raw fish like sushi and sashimi has never been more popular, whether that’s in restaurants or on supermarket shelves. The good news is that such dishes are rich in fatty acids and vitamins from the A, D, and E groups, which brings a host of health benefits. But on the flipside, they can also be sources of contamination. It’s mostly down to improper handling and storage at seafood markets, o...

What is terraforming? Thanks for asking! If you’re a fan of sci-fi, the idea of terraformation should be familiar. It refers to all the techniques and technologies which aim to transform the surface of a planet, making it suitable for human inhabitation. Basically, it means making a planet similar to Earth. To make a Hollywood comparison, that’s exactly the purpose of the Weyland-Yutani company in...

What is the Pegasus Project? Thanks for asking! Ever since the Snowden case of 2013, the world has gotten used to the idea that states use surveillance to monitor people’s activity. All the same, the fallout from the Pegasus Project revelations of recent weeks has been huge, making it a highly significant cyber espionage scandal. The initiative was coordinated by French media nonprofit organizatio...

No one's proud of being unfaithful, but what if some people’s cheating was actually caused by genetics, rather than selfishness? That might sound like a convenient excuse, but actually there could be some scientific basis behind it. In 2022 researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia analysed the DNA of over 7,300 twins aged between 18 and 49, all of whom had been in relationships for...

What is geophony? Thanks for asking! Taking its name from the Greek prefix geo, as in the earth and phony as in sound, geophony could be most simply described as part of Planet Earth’s music. It’s a component of the soundscape that has surrounded us humans ever since we have been present on Earth.  We owe the concept to experts like Canadian composer and environmentalist Raymond Murray Schafe...

The idea of a broken heart may make you think of a cartoon, an emoji or a bad break-up from your past. But broken heart syndrome is a real physical condition, which is also known as Tako-tsubo. Good guess but just wide of the mark. Tako-tsubo syndrome was described for the first time in Japan, at the start of the 1990s. Researchers in the western world didn’t acknowledge the condition until s...

Ah, the G-spot... An often cited but frequently elusive erogenous zone which has a reputation of being able to unlock intense female orgasms if you know how to stimulate it the right way.  The G-spot was first discovered by German gynecologist Ernst Gräfenberg - hence the G part of the name - back in 1950. But the term was only coined in his honour in the 1980s, by a group of researchers who...

Because moving and doing regular physical activity is important for our physical and mental health! Listen again to our episodes about sport! After an intense and sweaty workout, the first thing most of us want to do is jump into the shower to relax our muscles and wash off the sweat. However, that’s not actually the best idea. Showering too soon after a workout can have harmful effects on our hea...