The Infinite Monkey Cage

The Infinite Monkey Cage teleports to California for this special episode recorded at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They are joined by comedian and talk-show host Conan O'Brien, alongside JPL's Dr Katie Stack Morgan and Dr Kevin Hand, and discuss the incredible missions that are hunting for signs of life within our own solar system. From the iconic Mars Rovers currently exploring the martian surface, to amazing future missions to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, the panel discuss the tantalising prospect of finding signs of life this close to home, and the incredible engineering and ingenuity that goes into planning these missions.

Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince return for a new series with an illustrious panel of experts to discuss what scientists have learnt from Covid and what we have all learnt about the nature of science by watching it happen so spectacularly over the course of the pandemic. They are joined by Dame Sarah Gilbert, creator of one of the very first Covid vaccines, Immunologist Prof Dan Davis and Dr Chris Van Tulleken, infectious disease clinician and broadcaster. They discuss the incredible speed of vaccine delivery and whether we have learnt lessons for future pandemics, the gaps that Covid has revealed in our knowledge of our immune system, and what the public have witnessed in terms of science happening in real time as we all lived through the pandemic.

Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Sara Pascoe and the very numerate Prof Hannah Fry, maths comedian Matt Parker and statistician Prof David Spiegelhalter for a unique maths class. Are some of us just innately bad at maths or can everyone get to grips with algebra and calculus? What do our panel wish they'd been taught at school, and what is the key to a life-long love of numbers? Get your calculators ready!

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Alan Davies and neuroscientists Prof Uta Frith and Prof Sophie Scott. They discover the secret to why humans are such social creatures and why two brains are definitely better than one. Our brains are wired to learn from and mimic other brains we come into contact with, even though most of the time we don't even realise that is what they/we are doing. The subtle cues we get from other people and the information in their brains, affects our own wiring and experience of the world. With this incredible complexity, might we ever be able to create an artificial brain that mimics our own and the human experience?

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince look back at Planet Earth from the unique perspective of space with the help of astronauts Nicole Stott and Chris Hadfield, Space scientist Carolyn Porco and comedian and author Katy Brand. What can we learn about our own planet by looking back at it from space? The panel talk about the emotional response of looking back on earth, either from the ISS or via amazing photographs like Voyager's Pale Blue Dot, and the importance of realising our own place and significance in the vast cosmos.

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Monty Python's Eric Idle, and cosmologists Dr Netta Engelhardt and Dr Janna Levin as they tackle one of the biggest challenges in cosmology. What happens when you throw something (Robin!) into a black hole? Is the information about Robin lost forever, or is there a chance, sometime in the far future, a super intelligent alien civilisation could piece back some key information to discover proof he ever existed? Are Robin and his cardigans lost for all eternity?

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Ted Lasso's Brendan Hunt, Professor of forest ecology and author of "The Mother Tree", Suzanne Simard and botanist Mark Spencer to discover how trees and plants communicate and what they are saying. Suzanne's incredible discovery that trees form a wood wide web of communication has changed our entire understanding of forests and how they work. With the help of amazing fungi, this incredible network of communication allows the trees and plants in a forest to pass information backwards and forwards to help protect themselves against predators and optimize resource. Incredibly, this could even be viewed as a form of intelligence. Brian and Robin find out how this should change the way we look at all plants, and in particular how we manage our forests and discover some of the secrets of those whispering trees.

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian and musician Tim Minchin and oceanographers Diva Amon and Jon Copley to uncover what mysteries still lie at the bottom of our oceans. It is often said that we know more about the surface of the Moon then we do about our own ocean floor, but is that really true? What have modern-day explorers such as Diva and Jon discovered during their many expeditions to the deepest points of our oceans, and can they persuade Tim to join them on their next voyage? From extraordinary life forms with incredible survival strategies, to the gruesome sex life of the angler fish, the panel discuss some of the greatest discoveries of the last few years, and what questions they still hope to answer.

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Brian Cox and Robin Ince kick off the new series by tackling one of the greatest questions ever posed by science: which are better, bats or flies?

Joining them for this unusual version of animal Top Trumps are a bat expert (Prof Kate Jones), a fly expert (Dr Erica McAlister) and Dave Gorman. Pitching arguably two of the least-lovable groups of creatures against each other, the battle for victory explores why we should favour flies or find bats beautiful. Although both are much maligned thanks to their association with some nasty diseases, Erica and Kate battle furiously to show why their respective species should be loved not loathed and how our planet would simply not be the same without them. Dave Gorman joins the panel in an attempt to help adjudicate.

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

A History of Rock

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by rock enthusiasts Ross Noble, Paleontologist Susie Maidment and Geologist Chris Jackson to look at the history of rock. Unfortunately for Ross, this turns out to mean actual rolling stones, rather than THE Rolling Stones. We hear what secrets the study of rock reveals about the very birth of our planet, to the incredible creatures that walked the Earth many millions of years ago, preserved in our ancient stones.

Producer: Alexandra Feachem