CrowdScience

Most of us want to be nice. But is it all it's cracked up to be? It's a question that's been nagging at listener Tony in Illinois, USA, for over 25 years. While studying at university, the lecturer asked him whether competing or co-operating was the best strategy for success – essentially, does it pay to work together or should we sharpen our elbows and look after number one?

Nastaran Tavakoli-Far goes in search of answers. She talks to a local hero about why he puts his life on the line for others, and visits a neuroscientist to find out what happens in the brain when we help others. Her quest also leads her to question whether women really are the more co-operative sex and how an animal called a kudu might reveal how human co-operation evolved in the first place.

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at [email protected]

(Image: John Cook from Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service. Credit: Anna Lacey / BBC)

How would a fourth dimensional being appear to humans?

"It would look just weird" is one way to answer the question 'How would a fourth dimensional being appear to humans?' But it's more complicated than that - theoretical cosmologist Andrew Pontzen describes how objects are viewed from one dimension to another, and how it might affect parking spaces.

Also on the programme: our panel of experts discuss bubble experiments, a theory that the Black Death was a virus, space elevators, algae as a biomass fuel, what affects the speed of digestion in our gut, a short definition of dark energy and the question is it true our DNA has alien properties?

With Helen Czerski, department of mechanical engineering, University College London; virologist Jonathan Ball, University of Nottingham; and cosmologist Andrew Pontzen, University College London.

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at [email protected].

(Image: Stripes and points of light, one guess what a 4th dimension might look like, Credit: Thinkstock)

What effect does air travel have on the climate? That is the question listener Neil sent CrowdScience from New Zealand. If you have ever looked up at the sky and seen the wispy white streaks that airplanes leave behind, then you are looking at one of the major environmental impacts of air transport – contrails.

To find out more, Anand Jagatia goes on a journey through the rugged, lava-ridden Icelandic landscape with earth scientist Thor and discovers how both natural events like volcanic eruptions as well as man-made acts of terror can shed light on the environmental impact of aircraft. Plus, we meet a man who tailgates 737 airliners to measure their emissions.

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at [email protected].

Where did the first viruses come from? They have the potential to wipe out life on Earth. But could life on Earth itself have evolved from the first viruses? Like the chicken and the egg, there are fierce arguments about which came first and rival scientists get quite cross about it all.

We take a dip into the primordial soup of creation and try to answer listener Ian's excellent question. Along the way, we revisit medieval plagues, travel to Texas to the largest urban bat colony in the world and take a walk through the dense mosquito-infested Ugandan forest that gave its name to the Zika virus.

Plus, we reveal how a virus is responsible for the placenta. No virus, no placenta; no placenta, no humans?

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at [email protected]

This programme has been edited since broadcast to remove a brief reference to ‘bubonic plague’ being included in a list of viral diseases.

(Photo: HIV viruses attacking a Cell. Credit: ThinkStock)

How much electric energy storage would it take to run the average home for 24 hours? Also: When will it be economical to locally store several days of electric energy for our home? Listener Gus in Texas, USA, wants to know – especially because he’s one of many people around the world who sometimes face lengthy power cuts.

Presenter Marnie Chesterton takes Gus’s question to energy experts. She heads to two national research facilities: The National Grid Scale Energy Storage Lab at University College London, and the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago – which originated from the early stages of the Manhattan Project. On the way, Marnie finds out where the word ‘battery’ came from, discovers why our mobile phone batteries gradually die with age, and hears how the next generation of power storage could change the world.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton

(Picture: Isolated cabin at night Credit: Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages)

What do scientists think is outside our universe? Asks Rebecca Standridge from San Francisco in the US.

It’s a question which goes right to the limits of human understanding.

We look for the answer using balloons, bubbles and the world’s oldest radio telescope.

If you have a question about science that you'd like us to investigate email [email protected].

Photo: Lovell telescope Jodrell Bank

Is it possible to get power from lightning? This was the first CrowdScience question posed by listener John Emochu in Kampala, Uganda.

Presenter Marnie Chesterton goes hunting for the answer at a lightning lab in Cardiff, Wales. What is a lightning lab? And how was she able to make a tiny – but very loud – lightning bolt? Marnie also discovers humanity's early history with lightning, how aeroplanes are protected from lightning strikes, and where the greatest number of thunderstorms occur in the world.

With contributions from John Emochu, Rhys Phillips, Chris Stone, Rachel Albrecht, Shaaron Jimenez and Manu Haddad.

Picture: Photograph of lightning from the US Environmental Protection Agency.