CrowdScience

By BBC World Service

Technology

What's CrowdScience about?

We take your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.

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Which is better: Optimism o...

11.26.2021

In most cultures, the soundtrack to our lives is one of optimism. We are told to aim for the stars, dream big and believe that tomorrow will definitely be a better day. But why do so many people subscribe to ...

CrowdScience episodes:

11.26.2021 Which is better: Optimism or pessimism? In most cultures, the soundtrack to our lives is one of optimism. We are told to aim for the stars, dream big and believe that tomorrow will definitely be a better day. But why do so many people subscribe to ...
11.19.2021 Would my cat survive in the wild? Cats started hanging out with humans thousands of years ago, and nowadays these fluffy, lovable pets are found in many of our homes. But there is no doubt lots of them still have keen hunting instincts - witness all the ...
11.12.2021 Can we recycle concrete? Concrete is the most widely used substance on earth after water. It’s quite literally the foundation of the modern world, and no wonder - it’s strong, cheap, and mouldable into nearly any shape. But these benefits come at a cost: ...
11.05.2021 Can COP26 deliver on climate change? The science is unequivocal: human-made climate change is leading the world into an environmental crisis, and time is running out to prevent permanent damage to ecosystems and make the planet uninhabitable for many of us humans. As communities around the ...
10.29.2021 Could we completely switch to renewable energy? As the world slowly moves away from using fossil fuels for electricity, one tiny Scottish island has proved it’s possible to rely almost entirely on renewables. The inner Hebridean isle of Eigg used to get its power from diesel generators. ...
10.22.2021 Should I have kids? "To be or not to be” was never your decision. No one alive today is an “exister” by consent - your parents made that call for you. But who can blame them? Animals are hardwired with strong impulses towards their ...
10.15.2021 Can we grow a conscious brain? 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 ...
10.08.2021 Does the planet need snails? Snails are a major enemy of gardeners around the world, invading vegetable patches and gobbling prize plants. CrowdScience listener Alexandre reckons he’s removed thousands of them from his garden, which got him wondering: apart from eating his garden to the ...
10.01.2021 Do plants have immune systems? In the past 18 months we have heard lots about the human immune system, as we all learn about how our bodies fight off Covid-19 and how the vaccine helps protect us. But this got listener John, in Alberta, Canada, ...
09.24.2021 How do flowers know when to bloom? This year has been a weird one for UK gardeners – unpredictable spring temperatures meant flowers failed to bloom and throughout the rainy summer, slugs have been savaging salad crops. But why and when plants blossom is about more than ...
09.17.2021 How did eyes evolve? Look into my eyes. What do you see? Pupil, lens, retina… an intricate set of special tissues and mechanisms all working seamlessly together, so that I can see the world around me. Charles Darwin called the eye an ‘organ of ...
09.10.2021 Can we transfer electricity wirelessly? Pioneering physicist and inventor Nikolas Tesla dreamt of connecting the world up through wireless communication and power. Despite demonstrating he could transfer power short distances his longer distance experiments were considerably less successful. But CrowdScience listener, George from Ghana, wants ...
09.03.2021 Can we save our night skies? Our connection to the night sky spans cultures and millennia: observing the stars and planets helped our ancestors navigate the world, tell stories about the constellations, and understand our place in the universe. But these days, for the vast majority ...
08.27.2021 How did our ancestors sleep? How we sleep is a topic of endless fascination and for some can, ironically be quite exhausting. Modern life has allowed us to invade the night, and those pesky late night work emails, social media and TV all conspire to ...
08.21.2021 Why is human skin so rubbish? If you’ve ever fallen over and grazed your skin, maybe you wished it were made of stronger stuff. The tough hide of a rhinoceros or the protective armour of a stag beetle would do a better job. It’s a thought ...
08.13.2021 How can smart tech tackle climate change? Humans are responsible for emitting over 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year – and we all know that we need to reduce that figure to prevent devastating climate change. Listener Saugat wonders whether smart technology ...
08.06.2021 Can video games help me or harm me? Today, up to 3 billion people around the world play video games, from candy based mobile puzzles to virtual battlegrounds filled with weapons. Many people have turned to gaming during the pandemic as a way of staying connected – but ...
07.30.2021 Do I really have to clean my recycling? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It’s a well-known phrase that we all try and follow in our day to day lives. But are our current recycling habits the best they can be? It’s a hot topic at Crowdscience - multiple listeners have ...
07.23.2021 Am I a psychopath? One CrowdScience listener finds herself unconcerned about much of the world’s problems, it leaves her wondering: am I a psychopath? Inspired by a previous episode on empathy, this listener asked is it true that psychopaths don’t empathise and what are ...
07.16.2021 Why do my cables keep getting tangled? Anyone who has ever taken the Christmas lights out of the cupboard, only to discover they’re hopelessly tangled, will sympathise with this week’s listener Eric. He has a 45m garden hose that always seems to snarl up and snag when ...
07.09.2021 Why is standing more tiring than walking? Standing takes less energy than walking, so why does it feel more tiring? At least, it does for CrowdScience listener Nina. She can march for hours without getting tired, but her legs and feet get achy after just a short ...
07.02.2021 Why do I feel hungry? Food. For all of us it is a basic necessity and for those lucky enough, it is something we spend a lot of time planning and enjoying. CrowdScience listeners certainly have a lot of food related questions; in this buffet ...
06.25.2021 What happened to my sense of smell? It took a while before it was officially recognised as a major symptom of Covid-19, but loss of smell has affected up to 60 percent of people who have had the virus. And for a significant portion, smell continues to ...
06.18.2021 Does my equator look big in this? Scales don’t come planet-sized, so answering a question from David in Ghana may require some ingenuity, after all, calculating the weight of the Earth is a huge task. Using a set of weighing scales and a 400 year-old equation, Marnie ...
06.11.2021 Why do I have such a sweet tooth? They say life is sweet. Well that’s certainly the case for CrowdScience listener Trevor in Poland who wonders why he can’t stop reaching for the cookie jar. He grew up drinking fruit juice with added sugar but wonders whether his ...
06.04.2021 What is the point of menstruation? It's a topic that's taboo in many cultures, yet it's also something nearly every woman experiences – on average upwards of 400 times throughout her life: menstruation. Responding to a flood of questions from our CrowdScience listeners, Marnie Chesterton seeks ...
05.28.2021 Is my neighbour’s noise harming my health? As millions more of us move to live in densely populated cities, we almost inevitably face living in closer proximity to our neighbours. Neighbour noise can certainly be a source of annoyance – but could it even be damaging to ...
05.21.2021 How old are the elements? You are a star. Literally. You are a carbon-based life form and those atoms of carbon in the molecules that make up your cells were formed by a nuclear fusion reaction at the heart of long dead stars. That goes ...
05.14.2021 Could we turn poisonous plants into edible crops? There are over 400,000 species of plant on earth, they’re on every continent including Antarctica. But humans only regularly eat about 200 species globally, with the vast majority of our nutrition coming from just three species. Many of the fruits, ...
05.07.2021 Why is learning stuff harder as you get older? Have you taken classes to learn a new sport or musical instrument or a language? It’s hard work! Why is it that as children we effortlessly absorb new skills and we don’t as adults? That’s what 50-something listener Gary Grief ...
04.30.2021 Why are seeds such different sizes? When eating a blackberry one day, CrowdScience listener Charles got a tiny seed stuck in his teeth. That got him wondering: why are seeds the size they are? Why does a blackberry have dozens of tiny pips, while a peach ...
04.23.2021 What can we learn from wastewater? Most of us don’t like to dwell on our toilet habits, but this week Crowdscience has gone down the drain to discover what wastewater can tell us about our health. It’s been more than a year since scientists across the ...
04.16.2021 Why does grief leave me feeling this way? Grief is universal. It is something almost all of us will go through at some point. And it is something that the people we love will experience when we die. Grief can be all consuming, it can make everyday tasks ...
04.09.2021 Why do we gossip? Gossip often has negative connotations, but does it get a bad rap? Might it serve a useful function and should we think of gossiping as an advanced social skill rather than a personality defect? CrowdScience listener Jayogi thinks it might ...
04.02.2021 If a tree falls in a forest… does it make a sound? If a tree falls in a forest, and no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? This is an age-old debate that listener Richard and his family have been arguing about for years. Can CrowdScience settle it ...
03.26.2021 Do animals use medicine? Animals experience all the colds, stomach pains, headaches, parasites, and general illnesses that humans do. But unlike us, animals can’t just grab a painkiller off the shelf at the supermarket to cure it. They don’t have a pharmacy to browse… ...
03.19.2021 Can space exploration be environmentally friendly? The space industry, with its fuel-burning rockets, requirements for mined metals and inevitable production of space junk, is not currently renowned for its environmental credentials. Can space exploration ever be truly environmentally friendly? Presenter Marnie Chesterton answers a selection of ...
03.12.2021 How does my mind talk to my body? This week CrowdScience investigates the information superhighway connecting mind with body. The Vagus nerve is part of our parasympathetic nervous system, delivering information from all our major organs to the brain stem, and stimulating it can help us switch off ...
03.05.2021 Why does it feel so good to swear? The sudden agony of stubbing a toe or burning a finger can make even the most polite among us swear our heads off. It’s like a reflex, a quick-release valve for the shock. But why do expletives give us such ...
02.26.2021 Why do men rule the world? Listener Paula from Kenya is a computer scientist, she can’t help but notice the inequality in her workplace. With only 1 in 10 countries having female heads of state, there is no doubt that men are in charge. Paula wants ...
02.19.2021 Can we build houses from living trees? It’s the stuff of fairy tales – a beautiful cottage, with windows, chimney and floorboards … and supported by a living growing tree. CrowdScience listener Jack wants to know why living houses aren’t a common sight when they could contribute ...
02.12.2021 Can I improve my sense of direction? Do you find your bearings quickly or are you easily disorientated? Do your friends trust you with the directions in a new city? Finding our way in the physical world – whether that’s around a building or a city - ...
02.05.2021 Can being happy help me fight infection? Could being happier help us fight infectious disease? As the world embarks on a mass vaccination programme to protect populations from Covid-19, Crowdscience asks whether our mood has any impact on our immune systems. In other words, could being happier ...
01.29.2021 Will giving up alcohol improve my sperm count? When planning to have a baby, women are expected to give up everything from smoking to alcohol, even soft cheese. But the other half of fertility comes from the sperm, usually provided by a man. So should men also give ...
01.22.2021 Are there downsides to deep cleaning? Covid-19 has prompted a cleaning frenzy. CrowdScience listener William works as a personal trainer in a gym, and while cleaning’s always been part of his job, it’s now taken over much of his working day. He’s constantly wiping down equipment ...
01.15.2021 What are the limits of human endurance? When it comes to speed, humans have got nothing on cheetahs - or greyhounds, kangaroos or zebras for that matter. It’s over long distances we really come into our own: when running for hours or even days, our body structure ...
01.08.2021 Do green spaces make us healthier? One of the more surprising consequences of the pandemic has been the trend for people wanting to move out of cities and back to the countryside. Not everyone has that privilege of course, but undoubtedly for some living in urban ...
01.01.2021 Is a fungus intelligent? As regular listeners may recall, CrowdScience has delved into the strange world of fungi before, as we dug down into the forest floor to reveal how plants and trees are connected to the vast mycelial network known as the “wood ...
12.25.2020 Do animals exercise? At Christmas, is there a better gift than knowledge? CrowdScience has cooked up its own version of 'secret Santa', with members of the team setting one another the challenge of answering surprising questions from all over the world. Are humans ...
12.18.2020 Was I born clumsy? CrowdScience listener Simon has a problem. He’s always bumping into things, dropping tools and knocking stuff over. And he’s sick of it. He wants to know what is going on. Was he born like this? Or is it contagious? And ...

Older episodes

CrowdScience

What's CrowdScience about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

CrowdScience episodes:

Which is better: Optimism or pessimism?

Would my cat survive in the wild?

Can we recycle concrete?

Can COP26 deliver on climate change?

Could we completely switch to renewable energy?

Should I have kids?

Can we grow a conscious brain?

Does the planet need snails?

Do plants have immune systems?

How do flowers know when to bloom?

How did eyes evolve?

Can we transfer electricity wirelessly?

Can we save our night skies?

How did our ancestors sleep?

Why is human skin so rubbish?

How can smart tech tackle climate change?

Can video games help me or harm me?

Do I really have to clean my recycling?

Am I a psychopath?

Why do my cables keep getting tangled?

Why is standing more tiring than walking?

Why do I feel hungry?

What happened to my sense of smell?

Does my equator look big in this?

Why do I have such a sweet tooth?

What is the point of menstruation?

Is my neighbour’s noise harming my health?

How old are the elements?

Could we turn poisonous plants into edible crops?

Why is learning stuff harder as you get older?

Why are seeds such different sizes?

What can we learn from wastewater?

Why does grief leave me feeling this way?

Why do we gossip?

If a tree falls in a forest… does it make a sound?

Do animals use medicine?

Can space exploration be environmentally friendly?

How does my mind talk to my body?

Why does it feel so good to swear?

Why do men rule the world?

Can we build houses from living trees?

Can I improve my sense of direction?

Can being happy help me fight infection?

Will giving up alcohol improve my sperm count?

Are there downsides to deep cleaning?

What are the limits of human endurance?

Do green spaces make us healthier?

Is a fungus intelligent?

Do animals exercise?

Was I born clumsy?

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