CrowdScience

Imagine spending six months of every year living in total shade. That’s what life is like for residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan, set so low in a valley that they see no direct sunshine at all from October to March.

Marnie Chesterton heads there to hear about an ingenious solution: giant mirrors that beam rays down into the town square, where locals gather to feel the reflected heat.

The man behind the project was motivated by a need for winter sun – but how much difference does it really make to our health and happiness? That’s the question posed by this week’s CrowdScience listener Michael, who has noticed living in the rainy Australian city of Melbourne is taking its toll.

Many pensioners claim sunshine relieves achiness as well as conditions like arthritis but one of the biggest scientific studies found temperature has no real impact on reported pain levels, while factors like air pressure and humidity may play a role.

When it comes to our mood, it seems that spending time outside is more important than feeling the heat. The optimum temperature for wellbeing is around a cool 19 degrees centigrade, while excessive warm weather has been linked to an increase in violence and crime.

You can watch a visualisation of this episode on YouTube: Is the 'sunshine cure' a real thing? - CrowdScience, BBC World Service podcast - YouTube

Producer: Marijke Peters

Contributors:

Dr Anna Beukenhorst, University of Manchester

(Photo: Young woman enjoying sunset. Credit: Muriel De Seze/Getty Images)

Imagine spending six months of every year living in total shade. That’s what life is like for residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan, set so low in a valley that they see no direct sunshine at all from October to March. Marnie Chesterton heads there to hear about an ingenious solution: giant mirrors that beam rays down into the town square, where locals gather to feel the reflected heat. The man behind the project was motivated by a need for winter sun – but how much difference does it really make to our health and happiness? That’s the question posed by this week’s CrowdScience listener Michael, who has noticed living in the rainy Australian city of Melbourne is taking its toll. Many pensioners claim sunshine relieves achiness as well as conditions like arthritis but one of the biggest scientific studies found temperature actually has no impact on reported pain levels, while factors like air pressure and humidity may play a role. When it comes to our mood, it seems that spending time outside is more important than feeling the heat and the optimum temperature for wellbeing is around a cool 19 degrees centigrade, while excessive warm weather has been linked to an increase in violence and crime.

Contributors:

(Image: Man with smoke coming out of ears. Credit: Getty Images)

CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood.

From breakup songs to upbeat holiday hits, many of us have made playlists that reflect how we feel, whether that’s down in the dumps or high as a kite. This week CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood.

Presenter Anand Jagatia is surprised to learn that newborn babies are more likely to fall asleep when listening to fast tempo happy tunes than soothing sad lullabies, which may be because they’re attuned to multiple auditory stimuli after months in the womb.

But later in life we actually seek out sad songs to make us feel better. The so-called ‘sadness paradox’ has been studied for many centuries. But what is it about melancholy music that might be good for us?

Some scientists believe more empathetic people enjoy listening to these types of tune because they elicit a feeling of compassion towards others, which can be rewarding.

A film composer tells us how scoring suspense isn’t simply about minor or major chords, or even what instruments you use – it all comes down to keeping the audience guessing about what’s coming next.

(Photo: young woman listening to headphones looking sad. Credit: Getty Images)

Presenter: Anand Jagatia

Contributors:

Alex Heffes

“I’m bored!” We can all relate to the uncomfortable - and at times unbearable - feeling of boredom. But what is it? Why does it happen? And could this frustrating, thumb-twiddling experience actually serve some evolutionary purpose?

CrowdScience listener Brian started wondering this over a particularly uninspiring bowl of washing up and it’s ended with presenter Marnie Chesterton going on a blessedly un-boring tour through the science and psychology of tedium.

She finds out why some people are more affected than others, why boredom is the key to discovery and innovation and how we can all start improving our lives by embracing those mind-numbing moments.

(Photo: Bored kids on a park bench. Credit: Getty Images)

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton

Contributors:

Why are some people left-handed? Why are some people right-footed? Why do some write with their right and throw a ball with their left? What does this all have to do with our brains? Why is it hard for some people to tell left from right? And what about animals? Can they be left-flippered, or finned, or southpawed? That's what a few CrowdScience listeners want to know, and we've got an expert panel on left, right and everything in between to help answer your questions.

From genetics to culture, host Caroline Steel works to unpack what's known and what's still unknown about handedness.

David Carey from Bangor University helps Caroline better understand her own mixed-handedness through a series of simple tests and shares some insights into what role handedness (and footedness) plays in the world of sports. Neuropsychologist Marietta Papadatou-Pastou from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens helps break down the numbers on left v. right-handedness and its cultural influences. To better understand the genetics and evolution of handedness, we hear from Sebastian Ocklenburg from Medical School Hamburg, who has investigated the phenomenon in other species.

Throughout the show, Caroline tries to understand why handedness exists in the first place and why our species is so biased to the right. She tries to answer listener Barb’s question as to why ambidexterity isn’t more ubiquitous, and it leads to some brainy tangents. We also hear questions from listeners Scotia and Roland, and travel to India with BBC reporter Chhavi Sachdev to hear how cultural norms are not in favour of lefties.

Presenter: Caroline Steel

Featuring:

Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Neuropsychologist and Assistant Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

(Image: Close up of group of hands raised. Credit: JGI/Getty Images)

CrowdScience listener Ali wants to know why we experience vertigo.

Anand Jagatia finds out that it’s not just the giddy sensation we feel when we’re at the top of a mountain. Vertigo is also a physical illness that can be triggered by a range of disorders.

He talks to leading experts on balance to learn what causes the condition, discovers how virtual reality can help people with a phobia of being in high places and volunteers to be turned upside down to experience what it feels like to be treated for vertigo.

Contributors:

Peter Rea, consultant ENT surgeon, University Hospitals of Leicester, Honorary Professor of Balance Medicine, De Montfort University, Honorary Professor in Life Sciences, University of Leicester, UK

Presenter: Anand Jagatia

With thanks to Andrew Hugill for permission to include his composition Verdigrade, commissioned by The Space as part of ‘Culture in Quarantine’, BBC.

Image: CrowdScience presenter Anand Jagatia tries out a machine for diagnosing and treating vertigo at Leicester Royal Infirmary

We all enjoy a deep-fried Mars bar with french fries from time to time, but why do we crave these unhealthy foods instead of healthy things like spinach or broccoli? And what is a food craving? The answers lie in a complex blend of our psychology, physiology, and even sociology.

BBC CrowdScience presenter Alex Lathbridge savours a mystery-meat crocket with the experts on a quest to discover the hidden sources and sauces of our food cravings.

Presenter: Alex Lathbridge

(Image: Stack of cheeseburgers and French fries. Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Please note: This is a shorter version than the original podcast. A longer version is available here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct3j6y.

Humans can walk for miles, solve problems and form complex relationships using the energy provided by daily meals. That is a lot of output for a fairly modest input. Listener Charlotte from the UK wants to know: how efficient are humans? How do they compare to cars, other animals and even to each other?

Presenter Marnie Chesterton pits her energetic self against everything from cars to rabbits to find out how she shapes up.

Marnie also explores whether humans are born equal when it comes to fuel efficiency. Does the energy from one banana get converted into the same amount of movement from person to person? Marnie gets on a treadmill to find out how efficient she really is. With contributors from Herman Pontzer, Duke University, Rhona Pearce, Loughborough University and Christian Gammelgaard Olesen from Wolturnus wheelchair manufacturing company.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton

(Image: Illustration of an airplane, a red car and a female wheel chair user. Credits: Getty Images)

CrowdScience listener Eileen cannot see images in her head of her memories. She only discovered by chance that most other people can do this. She wants to know why she can’t see them and if it is something she can learn to do.

Anand Jagatia finds out what mental images are for and whether scientists know why some people can’t create them.

Three per cent of the world’s population cannot see mental images like Eileen. And it is only recently been given a name – aphantasia.

Anand discovers why mental images are useful, why they are sometimes traumatic and how people who are blind or visually impaired can also create images of the world around them.

Contributors:

Emily Holmes, professor of clinical psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden

Presenter: Anand Jagatia

Image credit: Andriy Onufriyenko | GETTY IMAGES | Creative #1397973635

Welcome to the exciting new field of generative artificial intelligence - or generative AI. We’re not talking about robots or spaceships: instead these are image generators and chatbots that are already revolutionising the way people write, research and interact in the virtual world. Their capabilities are extraordinary. But before they can produce results they first need to be trained on vast amounts of data. And that’s what got CrowdScience listener Ian wondering. He says: “Before long, much of the material on the internet will have been written, or at least co-written, by AIs. What will happen when AIs are being trained on texts they have written themselves?”

To answer this question Anand Jagatia first meets artist and scientist Michelle Huang. Michelle recently embarked on a therapy project to try and connect with her own “inner child”. She took a decade’s worth of her diaries from her childhood and fed them into an AI to try and simulate a conversation between her and her younger self. Can a machine convincingly recreate the voice of a human being? You can be the judge!

Then, data scientist Briana Brownell joins Anand to explain a little about how ‘generative AI’ like this actually works. Together they open up the popular chatbot, ChatGPT, to put it to the test: but can it help Anand solve his personal conundrum?

Presenter: Anand Jagatia