
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Drs Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry are on hand to solve everyday mysteries sent in by listeners. For the last few weeks they've been collecting cases to investigate using the power of science - from why people shout on their mobile phones to what causes traffic jams.
In the first episode, called 'The Scarlet Mark', they get to the root of the following conundrum, posed by Sheena Cruickshank in Manchester:
'My eldest son is ginger but I am blonde and my husband brunette so we are constantly asked where the red came from. Further, people do say the "ginger gene" is dying out, but how good is that maths or is it just anecdotal?'
Our science sleuths set out to discover what makes gingers ginger with a tale of fancy mice, Tudor queens and ginger beards.
Featuring historian and author Kate Williams and Jonathan Rees from the University of Edinburgh, one of the team who discovered the ginger gene.
If you have any scientific cases for the team to investigate please email: [email protected]
Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
By BBC Radio 44.8
738738 ratings
Drs Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry are on hand to solve everyday mysteries sent in by listeners. For the last few weeks they've been collecting cases to investigate using the power of science - from why people shout on their mobile phones to what causes traffic jams.
In the first episode, called 'The Scarlet Mark', they get to the root of the following conundrum, posed by Sheena Cruickshank in Manchester:
'My eldest son is ginger but I am blonde and my husband brunette so we are constantly asked where the red came from. Further, people do say the "ginger gene" is dying out, but how good is that maths or is it just anecdotal?'
Our science sleuths set out to discover what makes gingers ginger with a tale of fancy mice, Tudor queens and ginger beards.
Featuring historian and author Kate Williams and Jonathan Rees from the University of Edinburgh, one of the team who discovered the ginger gene.
If you have any scientific cases for the team to investigate please email: [email protected]
Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford

7,875 Listeners

527 Listeners

854 Listeners

1,073 Listeners

296 Listeners

5,571 Listeners

2,095 Listeners

1,968 Listeners

4,872 Listeners

480 Listeners

408 Listeners

228 Listeners

362 Listeners

475 Listeners

354 Listeners

235 Listeners

148 Listeners

329 Listeners

3,221 Listeners

78 Listeners

86 Listeners

667 Listeners

568 Listeners

629 Listeners

195 Listeners

392 Listeners

242 Listeners

49 Listeners

77 Listeners

49 Listeners

82 Listeners