Instant Genius

This week we catch up with Kevin Fong about the new series of his award-winning podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon.

Whereas the first series celebrated the 50th anniversary of one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements, the Moon landing, the new season follows what could have been one of our worst disasters – an explosion aboard the spacecraft Apollo 13.

We discuss what happened on this ill-fated mission, how it impacted the astronauts and staff at Mission Control, and whether catastrophe at space could ever happen again.

If you have a burning science question you want an expert to answer, send them to us on twitter at @sciencefocus, and we may answer them in a future episode.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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What happens to all your digital data once you die? We ask social psychologist, host of BBC Radio 4's Digital Human and BBC Science Focus columnist Aleks Krotoski about life after death, and she enlightens us on how much digital data is really out there, the value of virtual gravestones and why big data firms really don’t care if you’re alive or dead.

If you have a burning science question you want an expert to answer, send them to us on twitter at @sciencefocus, and we may answer them in a future episode.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

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This week, we’re going on a search for the theory of everything.

The two main theories of physics are at odds with one another. Einstein's general relativity explains gravity, but it contradicts quantum theory: how we understand matter, atoms and particles.

Theoretical physicist at Imperial College London Professor Fay Dowker has been working on a solution to this quantum gravity problem, and tells us why the theories are incompatible, and how she plans to bring them together.

If you have a burning science question you want an expert to answer, send them to us on twitter at @sciencefocus, and we may answer them in a future episode.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

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Imagine, just for one moment, that you’re flying. What can you see? How high up are you? Can you feel the rush of wind in your face? Keep these thoughts in mind while you listen to this week's podcast.

Your imagination is a strange old thing, with some people experiencing vivid senses while some struggle to picture anything at all. In this episode, we speak to Jim Davies, whose book, Imagination: The Science of Your Mind's Greatest Power (£21.99, Pegasus), sheds light on this mysterious function of the brain.

As you can imagine, we go deep into the neuroscience of conjuring up mental images, but we also find out why your memory doesn’t need to be perfect, the joys of playing video games after a bad day, the benefits of imaginary friends, and, rather bizarrely, how to make a better door.

If you have a burning science question you want an expert to answer, send them to us on twitter at @sciencefocus, and we may answer them in a future episode.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

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You’ve probably bought something from a corner shop and taken it home in a plastic bag that says it’s biodegradable, or eaten takeaway food with a compostable fork.

But when you’re done with your bag or your fork, what do you do with them? Can you put them in your food waste bin, your compost heap, or even the recycling bin?

To find out, we spoke to materials scientist Professor Mark Miodownik. Mark is leading the Big Compost Experiment, a nationwide citizen science experiment to explore whether home-compostable plastics really do compost in your garden.

If you sent us a question for Mark, listen out for his answer towards the end of the episode.

If you have a burning science question you want an expert to answer, send them to us on twitter at @sciencefocus, and we may answer them in a future episode.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

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This week we’re boldly going where no Science Focus Podcast has gone before.

Dr Erin Macdonald is the new science consultant for the Star Trek franchise. With the release of Star Trek: Picard on Amazon Prime, she takes us through the science of both the new and classic series.

She tells our production assistant and resident Trekkie Holly Spanner about supernovae, what a science consultant really does, and whether warp drive is possible.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

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Adam Rutherford is a geneticist at the University College London, which has one of the most prestigious population, genetics and evolution departments in the world.

However, the university was also the home of ideas such as eugenics and race science.

Times have changed, and although our current understanding of genetics and biology should have consigned them to history, these insidious ideas are making their way back into the mainstream.

In his new book, How to Argue with a Racist (£12.99, Weidenfeld & Nicolson), Adam wants to show his readers that what we understand as race doesn’t really hold up with the genomic data, why professional sport is not a particularly good data set for studying race, and whether we can ever truly remove racism from science.

He speaks to our editorial assistant Amy Barrett.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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In this week's episode of the Science Focus Podcast we’re investigating long-extinct animals. No, not dinosaurs, they get plenty enough coverage already. Instead, we’re going to look at creatures that lived in the Pleistocene era, a period of time that covered the last known ice age.

During this period enormous creatures roamed the Earth, with some surprising animals making what we now know as the British Isles their home.

What makes these often-enormous animals so interesting is that they lived side-by-side humans and other early human species, which means we have more than just fossilised bone fragments to learn from - we have cave art, sculpture, tools and even cooking utensils that we can use to build our understanding.

Ross Barnett is a palaeontologist, whose recent book The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain's Lost Mammals (£16.99, Bloomsbury Wildlife) explores the story of Britain’s lost megafauna.

He speaks to our online assistant Sara Rigby about Britain’s biggest beasts, humans’ role in their extinction, and what they can teach us about the future of conservation.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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We all appreciate the buzz of the humble bee in the garden, however, not a summer goes past without hearing news that our bee population is under threat, with the finger usually pointing at habitat loss or chemicals containing neonicotinoids.

But in reality, there are a whole host of reasons why our vital bee population is in decline.

And given they provide pollination services for every one in three bites of the food we eat, their survival is critical to our very way of life.

In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast, University of Vermont environmental scientist and pollination specialist Samantha Alger talks about her work uncovering the secret life of bees, what is causing the decline in bee numbers, and what we can do so save them.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

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We all love a good story, and sometimes a lie is more interesting to hear than the truth, but there is more to it than spinning a good yarn.

According to Marcel Danesi, linguist and author of the book The Art of the Lie (£11.95, Prometheus Books), throughout history certain ‘Liar Princes’ have perfected the art of lying to gain fame, fortune and notoriety.

In this week’s podcast, he explains what makes them so effective at this so-called ‘Machiavellian intelligence’, what happens in the brain when we twist the truth, and why we’re all liars in one way or another.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:

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