A Question of Science is back - with free tickets to live recordings available now!

Join Professor Brian Cox in person and put your questions to a panel of leading scientists and experts on a huge range of topics.

We’ll be exploring how A.I. is changing medicine, what’s really happening inside the teenage brain, how can science help save our oceans, beat superbugs, tackle addiction, and what elite sport science can teach us about human strength and endurance. 

The series is being recorded in June and July at the Francis Crick Institute in London, one of the world’s leading centres for biomedical research.

To book your tickets visit: crick.ac.uk/tickets

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Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of ancient DNA, with two experts returning to answer more of your questions.

How far can we go back in time using DNA? How accurate is ancient DNA when it comes to understanding our past? Why was diversity in DNA vital for the survival of early humans? Do we really share 60% of our genetic code with bananas?

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Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of fertility, with a panel of returning experts answering more of your questions. 

Should we sequence the DNA of embryos and use A.I. to choose which to implant? Are ultra-processed foods and microplastics really effecting fertility? And will new technologies mean humans could one day reproduce like squid?

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Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of global warming and how society should adapt, with two experts returning to answer more of your questions. 

Will new green technologies really help us reach net zero? What is solar forcing? Which regions of the planet will become uninhabitable and when?

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Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of cancer, with a panel of returning experts answering more of your questions.

Do tumours communicate with the brain, is glucose carcinogenic and could our immune system’s natural killer cells be used to combat cancer?

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Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of nutrition, with a panel of returning experts answering more of your questions.  

What is food noise, what is the impact of artificial sweeteners on the gut and why do many women turn from a pear to an apple shape during menopause? 

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Professor Brian Cox takes a deeper dive into the science of ageing, with two experts returning to answer more of your questions. How do men and women age differently? Why is it healthy to forget things? What’s the latest research on regenerating old cells?

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Introducing More Questions of Science – bite-size episodes where we revisit some of the biggest ideas from the first 12 episodes of the series and take the conversation even further.

Professor Brian Cox will be in his home studio, catching up with some of the expert panellists from earlier in the series. Together, they’ll tackle your follow-up questions, explore new angles and go deeper into the topics that sparked your curiosity.

And because science never stops, we’ll also bring you the latest breakthroughs, discoveries and developments.

Send your follow up questions on cancer, fertility, ageing, ancient DNA, climate change and nutrition to the team: [email protected]

More Questions of Science arrives on YouTube and podcast platforms in early 2026.

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Professor Brian Cox and our expert panel explore the frontier of human bioengineering and building, replacing, and enhancing our bodies.  

Will we ever have bionic brains and cloned humans? Is there a danger of science fiction getting too close for comfort?   

From mechanical implants to lab-grown organs to whether humans could evolve to live in space, the discussion delves into what’s possible today and where science might take us next. 

Panellists 

• Mark Pollock – Explorer, motivational speaker and Chairman of Collaborative Cures
• George Malliaras – Prince Philip Professor of Technology, University of Cambridge
• Madeline Lancaster – Group Leader, Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology   
• Robin Lovell-Badge – Group Leader, Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute 

Watch the video version of this episode and read a transcript on our website: www.crick.ac.uk/podcast/buildahuman  

A BBC Studios Production for the Francis Crick Institute.  

Music by John Biddle 

© BBC Studios / Francis Crick Institute 2025 

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Professor Brian Cox and an expert panel explore the elusive science of consciousness – what it is, how it arises, whether it can be observed in the brain, and the most compelling theories explaining it. 

In a deep, often mind-bending discussion, the panel tackles the many ways of interpreting consciousness itself, and how fields like psychophysics can be used to quantify imagination and perception.    

With questions from the audience, the conversation delves into hallucinations and reality, how memory helps to build identity, and whether AI could ever be conscious too. 

Panellists 

• Anil Seth – Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, University of Sussex
• Katharina Schmack – Consultant Psychiatrist and Group Leader, Neural Circuits and Immunity in Psychosis Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute
• Steve Fleming – Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL
• Alex O’Connor – Host of ‘Within Reason’ podcast 

Watch the video version of this episode and read a transcript on our website: www.crick.ac.uk/podcast/consciousness 

A BBC Studios Production for the Francis Crick Institute.   

Music by John Biddle

© BBC Studios / Francis Crick Institute 2025 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.