It’s 1973 and the UK is in crisis: runaway inflation, industrial strike action and political turmoil. Unnoticed at the time - in hospitals and front rooms around the country -  something odd is happening with the country’s newborns. A higher proportion of boys are being born than ever before in the 20th Century. What was behind this puzzling trend?  Hannah Fry follows one researcher’s obsessive mission to unravel the mystery. Episode Producer: Ilan Goodman
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls 
Story Editor: John Yorke A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.

1. The Returning Soldier

Behind every line on a graph, there lies an extraordinary human story. Mathematician Hannah Fry is here to tell us ten of them. 
 
Uncharted with Hannah Fry will lead us through ten captivating mysteries to reveal the power of numbers behind each one. Along the way we discover the remarkable people who followed the data and unearthed something extraordinary.

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Thomas Herndon was happily studying economics at the University of Massachusetts, when one day is punctured by a discovery. It appears to be an anomaly which, if true, will shake the intellectual foundations of a global movement, and could undermine politicians around the world.  Hannah Fry tells the extraordinary story of a student who will go head to head with two of the greatest economic minds in modern times. But can he win? Episode Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter 
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.

10. Devil in the Detail

A young researcher gains access to a secretive data set and discovers something shocking.
What happens when a system designed to help people harms them instead?  Hannah Fry tells a tale about the mysterious realm of artificial intelligence. Episode Producers: Lauren Armstrong-Carter and Clem Hitchcock
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.

9. Access Denied

What is the secret to ageing well?  Humankind has been in search of an answer for millions of years. But one man believes he may have found the beginnings of an answer, and it’s hiding in a convent. Hannah Fry tells a tale of a single scatter graph which might reveal the key to longevity. Episode Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls 
Story Editor: John Yorke A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.

8. In the Habit

2008, Hungary: a researcher stands on a factory floor quizzing a bemused employee. The tile manufacturing company is in trouble, and the researcher is there to help. But his questions seem silly: Who do you go to for advice? Who do you chat to?  What use is the science of networks to a company producing floor tiles?  Hannah Fry tells a tale about the precarious power of networks. Episode Producer: Ilan Goodman
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.

7. The Gossip Mill

Life has its ups and downs, its sudden successes and unexpected obstacles. But amongst all the unpredictable variation, two economists believe they have identified a deep and powerful influence on our happiness: age. Happiness, it turns out, is U shaped.  Hannah Fry tells a tale of orangutans, joy and misery…and joy! Presenter: Hannah Fry
Executive Producer: Martin Smith
Series Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter
Episode Producer: Ilan Goodman A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.

1. The Returning Soldier

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