CrowdScience

By BBC World Service

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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Why do I get sleepy?

11.08.2019

We’re all familiar with the sensation of sleepiness – heavy eye-lid, that warm, fuzzy feeling. But, one CrowdScience listener wants to know, what’s actually going on in our body and brain when tiredness takes over? Presenter Marnie Chesterton takes up ...

CrowdScience episodes:

11.08.2019 Why do I get sleepy? We’re all familiar with the sensation of sleepiness – heavy eye-lid, that warm, fuzzy feeling. But, one CrowdScience listener wants to know, what’s actually going on in our body and brain when tiredness takes over? Presenter Marnie Chesterton takes up ...
11.01.2019 Can my stutter be cured? Most of us take the ability to speak fluently for granted, but for listener Breeda it has been a lifelong struggle. She has asked CrowdScience to investigate whether there is a cure for stuttering and, if not, what the best ...
10.25.2019 Will my salmon swim home? Crowdscience listeners Michael and Ricky have been walking a tributary of the River Thames in London, UK. They’ve noticed that there are loads of fish, which have only returned in recent years thanks to clean water initiatives. But what about ...
10.18.2019 Is maths real? Faced with one cake and eight hungry people, it’s pretty obvious how maths underpins reality. But as mathematics gets further from common sense and into seemingly abstract territory, nature still seems to obey its rules - whether in the orbit ...
10.11.2019 How can I live a longer life? Human life expectancy has been increasing for decades. In many developed countries, we can now expect to live into our 80s, and it isn’t uncommon to live to 90 or even 100 years old. But eventually our bodies fail, old ...
10.04.2019 Do green spaces make us healthier? Trees and plants have been quietly growing in the background of our everyday lives for as long as we’ve existed. Now, as millions of us move into densely populated cities for work, school and healthcare, our green neighbours have been ...
09.27.2019 Is a vegan diet better for your health? The number of vegans is on the rise in many parts of the world, with many people swearing by the health benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. But is a vegan diet really better for your health? Is there any evidence ...
09.20.2019 Could I learn to think like Sherlock Holmes? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional detective is renowned for his feats of memory, his observational capacity, tireless energy and an almost supernatural ability to solve the most perplexing crimes from seemingly unconnected facts. CrowdScience listener Asghar wants to know ...
09.13.2019 Can my migraines be cured? The World Health Organization ranks migraines as the second most disabling neurological disorder in the world and in people under the age of 50, it is the single most disabling medical condition. With stats like that, it’s no wonder that ...
09.06.2019 Are extroverts really happier? Sociable, lively, outgoing people are highly valued in certain cultures - think of the stereotype of the hyper-confident American. And there’s even evidence that extroverts all over the world tend to be happier. But are the positive qualities that quieter ...
08.30.2019 Do we need more space stations? Satellites have transformed our lives, giving us digital communications, navigation and observations of Earth, and even an artificial place to live above the atmosphere: The International Space Station. CrowdScience listener Dana wants to know: would more of these satellites and ...
08.23.2019 How can I motivate myself? Many of us struggle to motivate ourselves to carry out certain tasks, from hanging out the washing to writing a job application. How can we best motivate ourselves? And how can we avoid procrastination? Listener Moses in Uganda wants to ...
08.16.2019 Global infertility: Could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality? CrowdScience listeners Mark and Jess have been watching TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale. It's an adaptation of a book by Margaret Atwood and depicts a dystopian future where many have become infertile. The remaining few fertile women, known as Handmaids, ...
08.05.2019 Can I predict the future? Humans have been trying to predict the future since ancient times. The Chinese had the I-Ching while the Greeks preferred to search for answers in animal entrails. These days intelligence agencies around the world mostly rely on expert opinions to ...
08.02.2019 How many fossils are there? The odds of becoming a fossil are vanishingly small. And yet there seem to be an awful lot of them out there. In some parts of the world you can barely look at a rock without finding a fossil, and ...
07.26.2019 Why do we pull faces when we concentrate? Do you stick your tongue out or scowl when you concentrate? Maybe, like one of our listeners, you screw up your face when you’re playing music. Do these facial expressions actually help with the task in hand? And could they ...
07.19.2019 Where’s my time machine? Laser swords, time machines, matter transporters - before the turn of the millennium, movies, books and television promised some extraordinary future technology. Now we’re twenty years into the next century and CrowdScience listeners are wondering: Where is it all? Marnie ...
07.12.2019 Who were the first farmers? Farming is a relatively recent invention for our species. For most of human history, people were hunter-gatherers. They moved around the landscape to get their food, hunting prey and gathering fruits and cereals from their environment. But then, around 10 ...
07.05.2019 Why do some people eat soil? For some people, the idea of eating soil is weird at best and at worst disgusting and dirty. But globally the practice of geophagy – or the regular and intentional consumption of earth – is more common than you might ...
06.28.2019 Can we prevent traffic jams? It’s frustrating to be stuck in traffic. Listener Collins from Nairobi, Kenya, spends at least three hours a day in traffic and he counts himself lucky. Many of his friends will easily spend six hours in traffic jams to get ...
06.21.2019 What’s the best way to breathe? Breathing is automatic: awake or asleep, running or resting, our bodies unconsciously make sure we get enough oxygen to function. But - unlike other bodily functions such as heart rate and digestion - it’s not hard to control our breathing ...
06.14.2019 Are there new ways to beat depression? For decades, people suffering from chronic depression have relied on medicines that affect the levels of chemicals in the brain like serotonin, which regulate mood and emotion. But ten percent of people don’t benefit from any of the existing treatments ...
06.07.2019 Can singing improve our health? Singing can lift our spirits, but research suggests it could also benefit our health, improving breathing for people with lung conditions and helping us cope with dementia. Could it even have a preventative effect? CrowdScience heads to Cheltenham Science Festival ...
05.31.2019 How are we evolving? Medical intervention has disrupted natural selection in humans as many more children survive into adulthood than did a few centuries ago. And as our DNA continues to evolve, in order to adapt to our environment, how might human beings of ...
05.24.2019 Could our household microbes help or harm us? As scientists keep finding ever more fascinating facts about the invisible housemates that share our homes, we dust off our episode on what might be lurking in quiet household corners or under our beds. Marnie Chesterton reminds us how dust ...
05.20.2019 Bonus: 13 Minutes to the Moon Introducing the new podcast about how humans reached the moon. Theme music by Hans Zimmer. Search for 13 Minutes to the Moon or go to www.bbcworldservice.com/13Minutes #13MinutestotheMoon
05.17.2019 Could dark matter harbour dark life? Where the conditions are right, life can arise. But what might the ‘right’ conditions be? Could the dark sector of our Universe be inhabited? That’s what Gautam from Delhi, India has been wondering. He points out that dark matter and ...
05.10.2019 How does a single cell become me? Our bodies are made of cells, tens of trillions of cells. They all have particular roles and functions in the body, from digesting food, to producing hair, to hunting down pathogens. But all of this incredible complexity started as just ...
05.03.2019 Did cooking make us human? Many of us enjoy cooking – but when did we switch from eating our food raw, to heating it? Listener Logan enjoys his beef burgers rare, but wants to know why he still feels compelled to grill them? Presenter Anand ...
04.26.2019 Could viruses help fight super-bugs? We are slowly running out of ammunition to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria. Listener Peter wants to know whether a therapy that he’d heard about in the 1980s could be revived to help us where antibiotics falls short. CrowdScience travels to ...
04.19.2019 Will we ever know what the universe is made of? We are all made of particles – but what are particles made of? It’s a question that’s been perplexing scientists for centuries - for so long, in fact, that listener Doug in Canada wants to know if there’s a limit ...
04.12.2019 Why do we find things beautiful? Humans seem programmed to appreciate beauty - whether that’s an attractive face, a glorious sunset, or a stirring piece of music. Of course, our individual tastes are all different, and culture plays a huge part too - but why are ...
04.05.2019 What are dreams for? There are very good reasons to sleep: to regulate the body’s metabolism, blood pressure and other aspects of health. But do we actually need to dream? Is there an evolutionary reason for it? Marnie Chesterton takes her dream diary to ...
03.29.2019 Which milk is best for me and the planet? Swapping dairy milk for a plant-based milk is a growing trend that promises environmental benefits. But what is the best milk considering both our health and the planet’s? Scottish listener Nancy asks CrowdScience to unpick the pros and cons of ...
03.22.2019 Why do we like some animals and hate others? Cute isn't exactly a scientific term but we all know what we mean by it, don't we? Endearing, adorable, lovable and sweet. So what makes us fawn over a puppy, but run away from rats? Why do we spend millions ...
03.15.2019 When will an African visit Mars? Crowdscience heads to Africa's biggest science festival for a panel debate in front of a live audience that takes us into space then back down to earth to solve listeners' questions. Marnie Chesterton and Anand Jagatia are joined by aspiring ...
03.08.2019 Why am I shy? A racing heart, blushing, feeling sick - most people experience symptoms of shyness in certain situations. But some of us are much shyer than others, and if it gets on top of you, shyness can really limit what you get ...
03.01.2019 What do clouds feel like? This week we turn our gaze skywards to tackle three questions about what’s going on above us. Three year old Zac from the UK wants to know what clouds feel like – if they’re supposedly like steam, then how are ...
02.22.2019 Does brain size matter? The size of brains in the animal kingdom is wildly different, from melon-sized in blue whales to pea-sized in shrews. But does a bigger brain mean a more powerful one? CrowdScience listener Bob wondered just this as he watched various ...
02.15.2019 Where was the last place humans made home? Our species started in Africa, but what was the last habitable landmass we reached? CrowdScience presenters Marnie Chesterton and Geoff Marsh team up to investigate how and when our species journeyed around the world and settled its most far flung ...
02.08.2019 Could a ‘zombie’ virus kill us all? It’s the sort of plot you would expect from a classic sci-fi movie; what if there are viruses trapped deep in Antarctic ice that could wreak havoc on humans? Crowdscience presenter Alex Lathbridge puts on warm gloves and meets the ...
02.01.2019 Is Recycling All Our Waste at Home Possible? Waste, trash, garbage – whatever you call it, unwanted materials have become a major presence in many of our lives and our environment. Every year it is estimated that humans around the world produce 2 billion metric tonnes of waste. ...
01.25.2019 Why Do We Bury Our Dead? The ritual of burying the dead stretches back to the obscure beginnings of human history - and perhaps beyond, with archaeologists uncovering evidence of burials that pre-date our own species. But why do we bury our dead? How important is ...
01.18.2019 Why Can’t I Remember My Accident? When CrowdScience listener, Grady, crashed violently on his motorbike in the desert, he thought he was going to die. Years later he still can’t remember the dramatic seconds just before the impact. Where did the memory disappear to? Did the ...
01.11.2019 Can Volcanoes Power the World? Magma is the hot, molten rock found beneath the Earth’s crust. It’s so plentiful that it got Greek listener Dimitrios wondering whether we could harness this heat. Could we drill directly into the magma and use it to power our ...
01.04.2019 How Bird-Like Were Dinosaurs? Birds are dinosaurs, but did their extinct relatives move, look, or even sing like their avian relatives? From revealing the hidden information within fossilised dinosaur footprints, to reading the messages left by muscle attachments on fossil bones and seeing how ...
12.28.2018 What is the future of space travel? CrowdScience goes interstellar this week to answer listeners’ questions about the future of space travel. Marnie Chesterton heads to Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, where she hears about the engineering challenges of creating a spacecraft that could eventually take ...
12.24.2018 How Much Energy Can I Burn by Thinking? Wouldn’t it be great if you could lose weight and stay fit just by exercising your brain? Trouble is everything takes so much effort - from burning off excess weight to powering our cars. But why? Presenter Marnie Chesterton rummages ...
12.14.2018 Is There a Logic to Romantic Love? Loving someone who doesn’t love you in return makes us feel wretched – can science explain why we must suffer? Parental love makes perfect evolutionary sense but romance just seems to have it in for us time after time. CrowdScience ...
12.07.2018 Why do Women Live Longer than Men? From Russia to Rwanda, women live longer than men and have done so for over 100 years. But why? Is it encoded in our genes or is it something to do with the way we live? This is something CrowdScience ...

Older episodes

CrowdScience

What's CrowdScience about?

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CrowdScience episodes:

Why do I get sleepy?

Can my stutter be cured?

Will my salmon swim home?

Is maths real?

How can I live a longer life?

Do green spaces make us healthier?

Is a vegan diet better for your health?

Could I learn to think like Sherlock Holmes?

Can my migraines be cured?

Are extroverts really happier?

Do we need more space stations?

How can I motivate myself?

Global infertility: Could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality?

Can I predict the future?

How many fossils are there?

Why do we pull faces when we concentrate?

Where’s my time machine?

Who were the first farmers?

Why do some people eat soil?

Can we prevent traffic jams?

What’s the best way to breathe?

Are there new ways to beat depression?

Can singing improve our health?

How are we evolving?

Could our household microbes help or harm us?

Bonus: 13 Minutes to the Moon

Could dark matter harbour dark life?

How does a single cell become me?

Did cooking make us human?

Could viruses help fight super-bugs?

Will we ever know what the universe is made of?

Why do we find things beautiful?

What are dreams for?

Which milk is best for me and the planet?

Why do we like some animals and hate others?

When will an African visit Mars?

Why am I shy?

What do clouds feel like?

Does brain size matter?

Where was the last place humans made home?

Could a ‘zombie’ virus kill us all?

Is Recycling All Our Waste at Home Possible?

Why Do We Bury Our Dead?

Why Can’t I Remember My Accident?

Can Volcanoes Power the World?

How Bird-Like Were Dinosaurs?

What is the future of space travel?

How Much Energy Can I Burn by Thinking?

Is There a Logic to Romantic Love?

Why do Women Live Longer than Men?

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