Discovery

We eat chicken. A LOT of it. We might love the taste, but what about how we're treating those birds?

After witnessing first-hand the reality of indoor chicken farming - how most of the chicken we eat is raised - Dr Chris van Tulleken wants to know: are the birds happy enough, or is our method of rearing cheap chicken actually cruel?

If so, what’s the ‘happier’ alternative – and do carnivores like Chris care enough to pay the price for that, or does a love of meat ultimately trump ethics?

Chris battles with his conscience, and finds the answer hard to stomach.

So we started farming this bird called chicken, and it spread around the world. But what does it actually TAKE to feed us the amount of chicken we want to consume?

100 years ago this was a scrawny, egg-laying bird, only good for a stew once her eggs ran out – no one ate chicken meat. Fast forward to today and it’s the most consumed protein on the planet. How did we come to eat it in the first place, and what are the consequences of producing chicken meat on the vast, industrial scales we now consume it?

Dr Chris van Tulleken uncovers the extraordinary accident of history that birthed a new industry, and changed the way we eat – and think about – meat forever.

Dr Chris van Tulleken is on a mission to find out what we’re eating, why, and who or what might be influencing our decisions. And he’s starting his quest to uncover food truths with the most eaten meat in the world, and one of the most numerous animals on our planet: chicken.

He’s recently been forced to confront a serious gap in his food knowledge - what happens before it gets to our plates - and has decided this, the world’s most popular meat, is an ideal starting point.

Chris’ initial investigations reveal the vast scale of modern chicken consumption; and how a once revered jungle fowl was manipulated to become a modern food success story, a fast-growing heavy-breasted beast to feed the masses.

Now, he's torn: is this a triumph of human ingenuity – or the creation of a monster?

Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber both have a love of science, but it turns out there’s a lot they don’t know about some of the leading women at the front of the inventing game. In Unstoppable, Dr Julia and Dr Ella tell each other the hidden, world-shaping stories of the engineers, innovators and inventors they wish they’d known about when they were starting out as scientists. This week, the inventor whose incredible capacity to solve problems inspired today’s most popular period products.

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner – known as Beatrice – grew up in a family of inventors, creating her first invention at just six years old. And she didn’t stop there – she continued to invent throughout her adult life, including a new and improved sanitary pad in a time when there was still a big taboo around periods.

However, as an African American woman during a time of racial segregation, Beatrice faced injustice and discrimination when trying to get her inventions patented. But if anything, this spurred Beatrice on, and at one point in time she held the most patents of any African American woman.

Dr Julia and Dr Ella are joined by Professor Sharra Vostral and Ashleigh Coren as they tell Beatrice’s remarkable story.

Presenters: Dr Ella Hubber and Dr Julia Ravey

In her last year of high school, Olga González-Sanabria went on a field trip to the University of Puerto Rico’s school of engineering – and immediately knew that was what she wanted to do. She followed her passion and after university was recruited by Nasa, where she carried out instrumental work, without which we would not have the International Space Station.

As the very first Latina woman working in engineering at Nasa, Olga’s career has not always been an easy ride, but is filled with remarkable achievements. Dr Ella and Dr Julia tell her story, and Olga herself gives us a first-hand account of her life so far.

Presenters: Dr Ella Hubber and Dr Julia Ravey

(Photo: Olga González-Sanabria. Credit: Nasa Glenn Research Center)

In a lab in 1950s Kolkata, Asima Chatterjee laboriously extracts chemicals from the Indian snakeroot plant. She knows she will have to send the products away – she does not have the money or resources to analyse them in India. But the tireless and uncompromising chemist perseveres, and her work paved the way for modern-day chemotherapy treatments.

Asima grew up in a time when it was uncommon for women in India to have an education, but went on to become a hugely influential figure in her field whose work is still repurposed and cited today. Dr Ella and Dr Julia take us through her inspirational journey, joined by Prof Sivapriya Kirubakaran and Dr Sarah O’Connor.

Producer/presenter: Dr Ella Hubber and Dr Julia Ravey

Florence Bell’s scientific career began in the 1930s whilst studying at Cambridge University. The University did not grant degrees to women at the time, but this did not dissuade Florence. She was so talented at an imaging technique called X-ray crystallography that she started a PhD in the field – and it was during this time that she would make a pivotal discovery about the molecule of life.

Florence is an unsung hero of the DNA story. Her work laid the foundation for a vital field of research, yet her contribution was buried for years. Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber tell Florence’s tale, with input from Dr Kersten Hall, science historian and visiting fellow at the University of Leeds.

Producer/presenter: Dr Ella Hubber and Dr Julia Ravey

(Photo: Florence Bell. Credit: Courtesy of her son Chris Sawyer. No reuse)

Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber both have a love of science, but it turns out there’s a lot they don’t know about some of the leading women at the front of the inventing game. In Unstoppable, Dr Julia and Dr Ella tell each other the hidden, world-shaping stories of the engineers, innovators and inventors they wish they’d known about when they were starting out as scientists. This week, the story of an engineer who turned plastic into gold, all starting from her mother’s backyard.

Every day, around 500 tonnes of plastic waste is generated in the Kenyan city of Nairobi. Hardly any of it is recycled – but engineer Nzambi Matee is on a mission to change that. Frustrated by the level of pollution, in 2017 Nzambi constructed a laboratory in her mother’s backyard. It was here that she used her self-taught engineering skills to convert plastic waste into bricks that are stronger and more eco-friendly than concrete.

Since then, Nzambi’s backyard operation has grown into a company – Gjenge Makers – and the bricks are widely used across Nairobi. And at only 31, Nzambi is just getting started. As Dr Julia and Dr Ella trace Nzambi’s journey, we hear from Nzambi herself about what it took to get to this point, as well as her ambitions for the future.

Presenters: Dr Ella Hubber and Dr Julia Ravey

(Photo: Nzambi Matee, Kenyan entrepreneur and inventor, holds plastic polymer recycled to make bricks. Credit: SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images)

Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber both have a love of science, but it turns out there’s a lot they don’t know about some of the leading women at the front of the inventing game. In Unstoppable, Dr Julia and Dr Ella tell each other the hidden, world-shaping stories of the engineers, innovators and inventors they wish they’d known about when they were starting out as scientists. This week, the story of the Hollywood starlet whose brilliant ideas would go on to revolutionise the way we live.

Known as the ‘most beautiful woman in film’ during the 1940s, Hedy Lamarr was one of the most in demand Hollywood actresses of her time. But she wasn’t just a movie star. From a young age, she also had a knack for inventing – she liked to take her toys apart just to see how they worked. And she carried this passion into her adult life – creating an invention that laid the groundwork for technology many of us couldn’t live without: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

But it didn’t come without struggle. Dr Julia and Dr Ella take us through Hedy’s remarkable journey, and we get a first-hand look into Hedy’s life from her daughter Denise Loder-DeLuca.

Presenters: Dr Ella Hubber and Dr Julia Ravey

(Photo: Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born American actress and inventor. Credit: Eric Carpenter/John Kobal Foundation/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The process of childbirth can be painful yet amazing, but at times and in some places, also very dangerous. Recorded in Malawi, East Africa, Claudia Hammond is joined by a panel of maternal health experts to figure out why it is that the equivalent of a large jumbo jet full of women die every day due to pregnancy or childbirth. Together, they examine how so many women can still be at risk during this period despite a greater access to healthcare. They also look into whether an eighty-year-old drug could be a game-changer when it comes to haemorrhage. Plus, they consider a study of 1.3 million women which asked what it is that women actually want from maternal healthcare. With Owen Chikwaza from the Malawi Ministry of Health, Linda Mipando of Kamuzu University and Elimase Kamanga-Gama, Director of the White Ribbon Alliance Malawi, Claudia looks at the many challenges and successes within the field, drawing from local experiences to offer global insights.

Produced by: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

(Photo: Pregnant woman being examined by a doctor. Credit: Holly Squire BBC)