Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedians Jo Brand and Ross Noble, alongside Nobel prize winner Sir Paul Nurse and geneticist Prof Aoife Mclysaght to ask the biggest question of all: What is Life and how did it start? They look at the amazing feat of nature that has somehow created all of life from just four fundamental units of simple chemistry. From chickens to butterflies to yeast, we are all far more closely related than we think, but how did the spark of life occur, and what has any of this got to do with Ewoks?

Producer: Alexandra Feachem

What is Life?

Brian Cox and Robin Ince host a witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists' eyes.

Comedy

Science

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are on a mission to discover whether extra-terrestrials exist. But if there really is other life out there, what would it look like? Comedian Conan O’Brien is hoping for lizard-like creatures with superhuman strength, while Greg Proops imagines little green girls, like the ones in the Star Trek series he grew up with. Or possibly Ewoks. Either way, nobody can agree on the best way to communicate with them if we do ever make contact. Should we send them complicated equations so they realise how intelligent we are, and is playing Bach to aliens too much like showing off? New episodes will be released on Wednesdays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem Episodes featured:
Series 1: Extraterrestrial Life
Series 25: Exploring Our Solar System
Series 12: San Francisco Special
Series 9: To Infinity and Beyond

The Infinite Monkey's Guide To…  Talking to Aliens

Robin Ince and Brian Cox dig into the secret lives of plants to discover that there’s more going on in your average garden than you might at first think. They hear why trees are better than humans at re-growing broken bits, while comedian Ed Byrne reveals a surprising understanding of horticulture, despite dropping out of his university degree early. And while they’re still no closer to discovering if they’re alive or dead, the team find a new debate to have about strawberries, as they argue with forensic botanist Dr Mark Spencer over whether they should be classified as an invasive species. But what about other common pests? Phill Jupitus tells them about an intimate encounter with grey squirrel, and entomologist Erica McAllister puts up a strong defence of the mosquito, claiming they don’t deserve such a bad reputation. New episodes will be released on Wednesdays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem Episodes featured:
Series 11: What’s the Point of Plants?
Series 18: Invasion!
Series 23: Bats v Flies

The Infinite Monkey's Guide To… Gardening

Love is in the air(waves) as Brian and Robin trawl through the Monkey Cage archive. From using maths to find a boyfriend or girlfriend, to why birds and bees have far more exciting sex lives than you might imagine, this week’s episode is all about passion. Number crunching might not sound sexy but mathematician Hannah Fry tells Robin Ince and Brian Cox why research shows it pays to be proactive when you’re searching for a partner, even when that means risking total humiliation. But when it comes to the world's most extraordinary mating rituals the best place to look is… in the garden. Female bees go on a special nuptial flight, where they’re impregnated by males mid-air, and we hear how cockerels are surprisingly picky when it comes to which chicken they choose to cosy up with. New episodes will be released on Wednesdays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem Episodes featured:
Series 13: Maths of Love and Sex
Series 17: The Secret Life of Birds
Series 27: Bees v Wasps
Series 17: How Animals Behave

The Infinite Monkey's Guide To… Love

Brian Cox, Robin Ince and their guests will send a shiver down your spine as they sift through the science on murder, and hear some of the more creative techniques scientists use to catch killers. Apparently rambling through brambles is a great way to find buried bodies at the edge of abandoned fields and entomologist Amoret Whitaker says she relies on flies and fleas to tell her whether a crime has been committed. According to criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw, we’ve all got it in us to bump someone off, but it isn’t just humans who have this homicidal intent. The zombie wasp paralyses her cockroach prey, then slowly eats it alive, and we also hear about the murderous mushrooms threatening unsuspecting worms. New episodes will be released on Wednesdays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem Episodes featured:
Series 26: The Perfect Murder
Series 12: Forensic Science
Series 16: Will Insects Inherit the Earth?
Series 27: Bees v Wasps
Series 27: The Magic of Mushrooms

The Infinite Monkey's Guide To… Murder

Brian Cox and Robin Ince visit CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva in search of the Higgs Boson. Joining them on their particular quest is comedian Katy Brand, actor Ben Miller and physicists Tevong You and Clara Nellist. They find out which particle is the one you’d most want to spend time with at a party, how cosmology is inspiring experiments in the collider and why the Higgs Boson - known as the 'god' particle' - is of so much interest to science. Producer: Melanie Brown
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

What is Life?

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