Instant Genius

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Instant Genius episodes

October 23, 2019Bill Bryson: What should we know about how our bodies work?
In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast, we hear from renowned travel writer and science communicator, Bill Bryson.
Beloved by readers around the world, his works have included Notes from a Small Island, an observation of life in England, and the best-selling science book A Short History of Nearly Everything.
His new book is called The Body: A Guide for Occupants (£25, Doubleday), where he turns inward to look at the mechanisms that keep us alive.
Subscribe to the Science Focus Podcast on these services: Acast, iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, Overcast
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:
Does data discriminate against women? – Caroline Criado Perez
What does our skin tell us about ourselves? – Dr Monty Lyman
Is an implantable electronic device the future of medicine? – Gordon Wallace
What does a world with an ageing population look like? – Sarah Harper
What does it mean to be a man? – Gary Barker
Is gene editing inspiring or terrifying? – Nessa Carey

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45 min
October 16, 2019Gretchen McCulloch: How has the internet affected how we communicate?
Scroll through Facebook or Twitter and you’ll notice that many people type in a particular style: full of lols and emoji, and rarely using punctuation or capital letters.
Does this mean that we’re losing the ability to use our language correctly? Gretchen McCulloch, author of Because Internet (£12.99, Penguin Books), says absolutely not: in fact, internet users have collaboratively developed a style of language that makes communication much richer.
Here’s Gretchen talking to BBC Science Focus online assistant Sara Rigby about how sarcasm and humour drive our use of language, the value of emoji, and the history of lol.
Subscribe to the Science Focus Podcast on these services: Acast, iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, Overcast
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:
To become Prime Minister, change your voice – Trevor Cox
Dr Tilly Blyth: How has art influenced science?
Why ASMR gives you tingles – Emma WhispersRed
Robert Elliott Smith: Are algorithms inherently biased?
Monica Grady: What is the future of space science?
How do you launch a successful space mission? – Mark McCaughrean

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31 min
October 09, 2019Robert Elliott Smith: Are algorithms inherently biased?
In this week’s podcast, we speak Robert Elliott Smith, an expert in evolutionary algorithms and researcher of artificial intelligence.
His latest book, Rage Inside the Machine: The Prejudice of Algorithms, and How to Stop the Internet Making Bigots of Us All (£20, Bloomsbury), explores how the harmful effects of bigotry, greed, segregation and mass coercion are finding their way into the AI that runs our lives, without us even realising it.
He tells us how powerful algorithms have been manipulated to divide people, why algorithmic bias has a dark history in the field of eugenics, and what we can do to fight back against the insidious influences of social media.
Subscribe to the Science Focus Podcast on these services: Acast, iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, Overcast
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:
What's the deal with algorithms? – Hannah Fry
Does data discriminate against women? – Caroline Criado Perez
Is racism creeping into science? – Angela Saini
What happens when maths goes horribly, horribly wrong? – Matt Parker
How technology is changing politics – Jamie Susskind
There's no such thing as Blue Monday – Sir David Spiegelhalter
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40 min
October 02, 2019Monica Grady: What is the future of space science?
Today on the Science Focus Podcast, we’re talking to Professor Monica Grady, planetary and space scientist, ahead of World Space Week.
World Space Week runs from 4 to 10 October, and this year’s theme is ‘The Moon: Gateway to the Stars’. Events to celebrate World Space Week are being held in the UK and across the world, including Monica’s talk at the Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.
Monica’s research spans to the Moon and beyond, and Asteroid 4731 is named Monicagrady, in honour of her contributions to the field.
Here, she speaks to editorial assistant Amy Barrett about working in the industry and the challenges faced by current and future space scientists.
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:
How do you launch a successful space mission? – Mark McCaughrean
Why is the Moon landing still relevant 50 years on? – Kevin Fong
The mindset behind the Moon landing – Richard Wiseman
What if the Earth’s magnetic field died? – Jim Al-Khalili
The most mysterious objects in the Universe – Colin Stuart
What NASA’s InSight will tell us about Mars – Bruce Banerdt
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38 min
September 25, 2019Dr Tilly Blyth: How has art influenced science?
Science and art have not always been separately defined. Leonardo Da Vinci studied anatomy, neuroscientist Cajal created beautiful drawings of the cells in the cerebellum and hippocampus, and the painter John Constable observed the skies with an almost scientific study.
Though their pursuits have diverged into distinct fields, the relationship between art and science has remained tightly woven together.
Documenting the history of this tumultuous relationship is The Art of Innovation. Comprised of a 20-part BBC Radio 4 series, an exhibition at the Science Museum and an accompanying book, The Art of Innovation shows how scientific discoveries have influenced, and been influenced by, artists and the general public.
Editorial assistant Amy Barrett visited the Science Museum’s Dana Research Centre and Library to meet the Head of Collections & Principle Curator at the Science Museum and the co-host of The Art of Innovation radio series, Dr Tilly Blyth.
The Science Museum’s major free exhibition runs from now until the 24 January 2020. You can also read 20 stories from the history of art and science in The Art of Innovation (£25, Transworld).
Image: A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on an Orrery, in which a Lamp is put in the Place of the Sun, by Joseph Wright, exhibited 1776, oil on canvas © Derby Museums Trust
Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:
Why is Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific legacy so often overlooked? – Martin Clayton
What can the father of Gaia theory tell us about our future? – James Lovelock
Richard Dawkins: Can we live in a world without religion?
Do you believe in magic? – Gustav Kuhn
Is religion compatible with science? – John Lennox
Inside the mind of a comedian – Robin Ince
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42 min
September 18, 2019Richard Dawkins: Can we live in a world without religion?
Richard Dawkins is considered one of the top British intellectuals of the 21st Century. He’s known for his opinions on atheism and his books on evolution. In his most recent book, Outgrowing God, he talks about his own experience with religion, and how science offers us a far more convincing and concrete view of the world we live in.
We sat down with Richard to discuss his views on faith, flat-earthers and Facebook.
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:
Is religion compatible with science? – John Lennox
Does data discriminate against women? – Caroline Criado Perez
What does a world with an ageing population look like? – Sarah Harper
Are Generation Z our only hope for the future? – John Higgs
Is racism creeping into science? – Angela Saini
How can we save our planet? – Sir David Attenborough
Follow Science Focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard

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43 min
September 11, 2019Does data discriminate against women? – Caroline Criado Perez
When Apple launched its health tracker app HealthKit in 2014, they promised users the ability to track everything from their blood pressure to their copper intake – but not their periods.
This seems like a startling oversight, but Apple aren’t alone in failing to consider women’s needs. For example, it wasn’t until 2015 that the EU required new cars to be tested on a female crash-test dummy.
Caroline Criado Perez, whose book Invisible Women (£16.99, Chatto and Windus) has been shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize, calls this the gender data gap, and it appears in everything from public policy to medical research.
In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast, we talk to Caroline about the gender data gap and how it causes everything from mild inconvenience to potential fatality.
She speaks to BBC Science Focus online assistant Sara Rigby.
Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast which we think you will find interesting:
Why aren’t there more women in science?
Is racism creeping into science? – Angela Saini
Is religion compatible with science? – John Lennox
Is body positivity the answer to body image issues? – Phillippa Diedrichs
What makes me ‘me’? – Aoife McLysaght
Inequality in science – Angela Saini
Follow Science Focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard

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43 min
September 04, 2019How do you launch a successful space mission? – Mark McCaughrean
Launching a rocket into space doesn’t come cheap. That much won’t surprise anybody, but what goes into the planning, construction and the science before the mission even gets off the ground? And when it’s up there, what does it do, and what makes it a success?
One man that knows how to put a space project together is Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor for science and exploration at the European Space Agency. During his 10 years at ESA, he’s worked on numerous projects, including the Rosetta mission to land a probe on a comet, and the enormous James Webb Space Telescope.
Ahead of his talk at ESA's Space Rocks event on 21 September 2019, he talks to BBC Science Focus Online Editor Alexander McNamara about how to build a space project from start to finish, why studying space is so important for life on Earth, and reaching out through the power of rock music.
We now have more than 85 episodes of the Science Focus Podcast, each of which is still well worth a listen. Here are a few that you might find interesting:
What happened at Bluedot festival 2019? – Libby Jackson, Tom Shakespeare and Danielle George
Is there anybody out there? – Mike Garrett
What asteroids can tell us about our Solar System – Natalie Starkey
Why is the Moon landing still relevant 50 years on? – Kevin Fong
The most mysterious objects in the Universe – Colin Stuart
Project Discovery and its search for exoplanets - Bergur Finnbogason
Follow Science Focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard

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53 min
August 28, 2019What does our skin tell us about ourselves? – Dr Monty Lyman
The largest organ in the body isn’t the lungs or the brain, but the skin. Our skin performs a vast array of functions for us, from protecting us from disease to helping us make friends.
Dr Monty Lyman, author of The Remarkable Life of The Skin (£20, Bantam Press), calls skin the ‘Swiss Army Organ’ because of all the tasks it carries out.
Monty talks to BBC Science Focus Online assistant Sara Rigby about what the skin is for, why vanity is good for you, and what kind of creatures inhabit our skin.
We now have more than 75 episodes of the Science Focus Podcast, each of which is still well worth a listen. Here are a few that you might find interesting:
Is an implantable electronic device the future of medicine? – Gordon Wallace
What is your brain doing while you sleep? – Dr Guy Leschziner
Is the cure for cancer hiding in human breast milk? – Professor Catharina Svanborg
Is gene editing inspiring or terrifying? – Nessa Carey
Can we slow down the ageing process? – Sue Armstrong
Is body positivity the answer to body image issues? – Phillippa Diedrichs
Follow Science Focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard

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45 min
August 21, 2019Are Generation Z our only hope for the future? – John Higgs
If you grew up on a steady stream of Hollywood blockbusters filled with killer robots, alien invasions and apocalyptic natural disasters, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the future looks pretty bleak. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be that way.
In fact, according John Higgs, a writer who specialises in finding previously unsuspected narratives hidden in obscure corners of our history and culture, the group of adults of school-leaving age might be just the sort of individuals we need if we’re going to avoid the dystopian future science fiction would have us believe inevitable.
In his book, The Future Starts Here (£20, Orion), he explains why this Generation Z have inherited a world apparently on the brink of self-destruction, and why their enthusiasm for wider social networks will be key to a brighter future.
He speaks to BBC Science Focus Online editor Alexander McNamara about what Star Trek can teach us about generational attitudes, the desire for meaning over stuff, and why life on Mars would be rubbish, and who kicks things off by asking him why he decided to write a book about the future.
We now have more than 75 episodes of the Science Focus Podcast, each of which is still well worth a listen. Here are a few that you might find interesting:
How can we save our planet? – Sir David Attenborough
There is no Plan B for planet Earth – Lord Martin Rees
What we got wrong about pandas and teenagers
What does a world with an ageing population look like? – Sarah Harper
Can we really predict when doomsday will happen? – William Poundstone
Is body positivity the answer to body image issues? – Phillippa Diedrichs
Follow Science Focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard

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42 min

About Instant Genius

From the publisher's feed

Whether you’re curious about getting healthy, the Big Bang or the science of cooking, find out everything you need to know with Instant Genius. The team behind BBC Science Focus Magazine talk to world-leading experts to bring you two bite-sized masterclasses on a new subject each week.