Crowdscience

Humans have an outsized impact on the planet: we’ve wreaked havoc on countless ecosystems and one study estimates only 3% of land on Earth remains untouched by our influence. CrowdScience listener Teri has witnessed the harmful effects of development on natural habitats near her home, and wonders whether we can ever function as part of a healthy ecosystem. We look for answers in Teri’s home state, California. Humans have lived here for over 10,000 years and its first inhabitants formed a connection to their landscape unlike the exploitative approach of many later settlers. Today, the beliefs and traditions of the Karuk Tribe of northern California still emphasise a symbiotic relationship with nature, seeing plants and animals as their relations. Over the past couple of centuries much of the Karuk’s land has been degraded by mining, the timber industry and the outlawing of traditional burning practices. Tribal members show us how they’re working to try to restore ecological balance.As for the rest of humanity:

It's pretty obvious to each of us that we are conscious, as we go about our days and feel the experience of just ‘being ourselves'. But how do we know that someone else is conscious? It’s something we lose during dreamless sleep, under anaesthesia or in a coma. But what exactly is consciousness? On the one hand, it’s pretty obvious - it’s what we all feel as we go about our daily lives. It's the experience of 'being you'. On the other hand, it gets pretty tricky when we try to pin down the science of it all. How do we know that someone (or something) else is conscious? CrowdScience listener Sylvester was wondering about this and he got in touch with a few questions on the subject. What is the relationship between our consciousness and reality? Is it all just a hallucination? When does it start and stop? Does consciousness reside in a particular part of the brain? Host Marnie Chesterton sets out to tackle this elusive but utterly fundamental quality of life and sees how researchers are attempting to conceptu

Philosophers have long pondered the concept of a brain in a jar, hooked up to a simulated world. Though this has largely remained a thought experiment, CrowdScience listener JP wants to know if it might become reality in the not-too-distant future, with advances in stem cell research.In the two decades since stem cell research began, scientists have learned how to use these cells to create the myriad of cell types in our bodies, including those in our brains, offering researchers ways to study neurological injuries and neurodegenerative disorders. Some labs have actually started 3D printing stem cells into sections of brain tissue in order to study specific interactions in the brain. Human brain organoids offer another way to study brain development and diseases from autism to the Zika virus.So, might stem cell research one day lead to a fully-grown human brain, or is that resolutely in the realm of science fiction? If something resembling our brains is on the horizon, is there any chance that it could actual

Everyone has fears – but what makes a fear become a phobia? Why are some people scared of spiders (arachnophobia), buttons (koumpounophobia), or the colour yellow (xanthophobia)? Or why are others are scared of situations, like small spaces (claustrophobia), empty rooms (kenophobia) or heights (acrophobia)? This is a question which has been bothering Crowdscience listener Scott, who has a phobia of bridges. He gets anxious and panicky when driving over bridges and is scared he’ll lose control of the car. It’s also a question that struck a chord with presenter Caroline Steel. She is claustrophobic, particularly in lifts, steering clear of them at all costs and even once climbing nine flights of stairs in crutches to avoid using the lift. But where do these phobias come from and why do some people have them and not others? To investigate, Caroline speaks to experts to discover where phobias come from, why we have them and how they develop. And she visits a psychologist to learn about different types of treatme

CrowdScience listener Leo gets stressed when his young children start screaming at the same time in the middle of the night. He wants to know why we haven’t evolved to deal with the stress more effectively. The challenges of bringing up a family are nothing new and we don’t face the same dangers as our ancestors, so why do we still react as if it’s a life-threatening emergency? Caroline Steel finds out what stress is for, what it does to us and whether we have in fact evolved to manage it. Contributors: Tashfia Ahmed, biomedical engineer, post-doctoral researcher, City University, London Anne-Kathrin Gellner, neurologist and psychiatrist, Bonn University James Rilling, anthropologist and neuroscientist, Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Emory University Gunter Wagner, evolutionary biologist, Vienna University Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Jo Glanville Editor: Richard Collings Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris Studio Manager: Jackie Margerum(Im

Many of us are worried about the environment, but the aim of living in a truly sustainable way is hard to pin down. Do we all need to stop buying things? Is it down to governments to make the changes for us? Is there somewhere in the world painting a picture of the end goal? It’s a question that has bothered CrowdScience listener Cate for 20 years! She’s worried we’re not doing enough for the environment and just wants a clear scenario of what it might look like to live sustainably, in a way that could work for all eight billion of us on the planet. It’s a big question, so this week presenter Caroline Steel has teamed up with her friend and colleague Graihagh Jackson from The Climate Question podcast to answer it. They head to the remote Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, which is aiming to go carbon neutral by 2025 and zero waste by 2032. How are they going about it and could this be replicated elsewhere? We visit a ground-breaking project turning nappies into compost, meet a glassblower making ta

For hundreds of millions of years insects controlled the skies. Before birds, bats and pterodactyls, insects were the only creatures that had evolved the ability to fly: a miracle of physics and physiology requiring their bodies to act in coordinated ballet. This week three separate CrowdScience listeners have been asking questions about the flight of butterflies and moths. How do they move so erratically, yet land so precisely? What makes such tiny insects such accurate flyers? Presenter Anand Jagatia -- not the biggest fan of either butterflies or moths -- visits Butterfly Paradise at London Zoo to meet keeper Mark Tansley. Anand tries to get over his aversion by immersing himself in fluttering creatures. He then meets insect flight expert Sanjay Sane to learn the hidden mechanics behind their aeronautical skills: the vortexes of air generated by their wings and the complex muscle architecture inside their torsos. Next, aerospace engineer Amy Lang explains how the scales on their wings reduce air resistan

How do you think about the internet? What does the word conjuror up? Maybe a cloud? Or the flashing router in the corner of your front room? Or this magic power that connects over 5 billion people on all the continents of this planet? Most of us don’t think of it at all, beyond whether we can connect our phones to it. CrowdScience listener Simon has been thinking and wants to know how much it weighs. Which means trying to work out what counts as the internet. If it is purely the electrons that form those tikitok videos and cat memes, then you might be surprised to hear that you could lift of the internet with 1 finger. But presenters Caroline Steel and Marnie Chesterton argue that there might be more, which sends them on a journey. They meet Andrew Blum, the author of the book Tubes – Behind the Scenes at the Internet, about his journey to trace the physical internet. And enlist vital help from cable-loving analyst Lane Burdette at Telegeography, who maps the internet. To find those cables under the ocean

Dogs have been our best animal buddy for thousands of years. They’ve helped us out in countless ways from hunting alongside us to guiding us as service dogs. Talk to any pet owner and they’ll tell you how much joy their dog brings them. But you’ll also probably hear about vets bills, muddy footprints, or chewed up slippers. There are plenty of claims about the ways in which dogs might benefit our physical and mental health -- but how strong is the evidence?This week on CrowdScience, listeners Jason and Finn in Guernsey want to know if there’s any real evidence that our furry friends can benefit our health and wellbeing. Join Anand Jagatia as he enlists the help of his own pup, Stella, to explore the evidence. He uncovers the profound effects that service dogs can have on the mental health of military veterans in the US. Anand ponders the strangely unique relationship between humans and dogs and we learn about the surprising ways that about growing up with a pet dog can impact your health.Presenter: Anand Jaga

Imagine spending six months of every year living in total shade. That’s what life is like for residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan, set so low in a valley that they see no direct sunshine at all from October to March. Marnie Chesterton heads there to hear about an ingenious solution: giant mirrors that beam rays down into the town square, where locals gather to feel the reflected heat. The man behind the project was motivated by a need for winter sun – but how much difference does it really make to our health and happiness? That’s the question posed by this week’s CrowdScience listener Michael, who has noticed living in the rainy Australian city of Melbourne is taking its toll. Many pensioners claim sunshine relieves achiness as well as conditions like arthritis but one of the biggest scientific studies found temperature has no real impact on reported pain levels, while factors like air pressure and humidity may play a role. When it comes to our mood, it seems that spending time outside is more impor

Imagine spending six months of every year living in total shade. That’s what life is like for residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan, set so low in a valley that they see no direct sunshine at all from October to March. Marnie Chesterton heads there to hear about an ingenious solution: giant mirrors that beam rays down into the town square, where locals gather to feel the reflected heat. The man behind the project was motivated by a need for winter sun – but how much difference does it really make to our health and happiness? That’s the question posed by this week’s CrowdScience listener Michael, who has noticed living in the rainy Australian city of Melbourne is taking its toll. Many pensioners claim sunshine relieves achiness as well as conditions like arthritis but one of the biggest scientific studies found temperature actually has no impact on reported pain levels, while factors like air pressure and humidity may play a role. When it comes to our mood, it seems that spending time outside is more impor

CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood.From breakup songs to upbeat holiday hits, many of us have made playlists that reflect how we feel, whether that’s down in the dumps or high as a kite. This week CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood. Presenter Anand Jagatia is surprised to learn that newborn babies are more likely to fall asleep when listening to fast tempo happy tunes than soothing sad lullabies, which may be because they’re attuned to multiple auditory stimuli after months in the womb. But later in life we actually seek out sad songs to make us feel better. The so-called ‘sadness paradox’ has been studied for many centuries. But what is it about melancholy music that might be good for us? Some scientists believe more empathetic people enjoy listening to these types of tune because they eli

“I’m bored!” We can all relate to the uncomfortable - and at times unbearable - feeling of boredom. But what is it? Why does it happen? And could this frustrating, thumb-twiddling experience actually serve some evolutionary purpose? CrowdScience listener Brian started wondering this over a particularly uninspiring bowl of washing up and it’s ended with presenter Marnie Chesterton going on a blessedly un-boring tour through the science and psychology of tedium. She finds out why some people are more affected than others, why boredom is the key to discovery and innovation and how we can all start improving our lives by embracing those mind-numbing moments. (Photo: Bored kids on a park bench. Credit: Getty Images)Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Samara Linton Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris Editor: Richard Collings Contributors: Professor James Danckert, University of Waterloo, Canada Dr Elizabeth Weybright, Washington State University Dr Christian Chan, Hong Kong University Annie Runkel,

Why are some people left-handed? Why are some people right-footed? Why do some write with their right and throw a ball with their left? What does this all have to do with our brains? Why is it hard for some people to tell left from right? And what about animals? Can they be left-flippered, or finned, or southpawed? That's what a few CrowdScience listeners want to know, and we've got an expert panel on left, right and everything in between to help answer your questions. From genetics to culture, host Caroline Steel works to unpack what's known and what's still unknown about handedness. David Carey from Bangor University helps Caroline better understand her own mixed-handedness through a series of simple tests and shares some insights into what role handedness (and footedness) plays in the world of sports. Neuropsychologist Marietta Papadatou-Pastou from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens helps break down the numbers on left v. right-handedness and its cultural influences. To better understand the

CrowdScience listener Ali wants to know why we experience vertigo. Anand Jagatia finds out that it’s not just the giddy sensation we feel when we’re at the top of a mountain. Vertigo is also a physical illness that can be triggered by a range of disorders. He talks to leading experts on balance to learn what causes the condition, discovers how virtual reality can help people with a phobia of being in high places and volunteers to be turned upside down to experience what it feels like to be treated for vertigo. Contributors: Peter Rea, consultant ENT surgeon, University Hospitals of Leicester, Honorary Professor of Balance Medicine, De Montfort University, Honorary Professor in Life Sciences, University of Leicester, UK Tammy Barker, clinical scientist, Balance Centre, Leicester Royal Infirmary, UK Rupal Rajani, broadcast journalist and member of Life on the Level Tara Donker, clinical psychologist, Freiburg University, Germany Andrew Hugill, composer, musicologist and deputy director, Institute for Digit

We all enjoy a deep-fried Mars bar with french fries from time to time, but why do we crave these unhealthy foods instead of healthy things like spinach or broccoli? And what is a food craving? The answers lie in a complex blend of our psychology, physiology, and even sociology. BBC CrowdScience presenter Alex Lathbridge savours a mystery-meat crocket with the experts on a quest to discover the hidden sources and sauces of our food cravings.Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Richard Walker Editor: Richard Collings(Image: Stack of cheeseburgers and French fries. Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Please note: This is a shorter version than the original podcast. A longer version is available here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct3j6y.Humans can walk for miles, solve problems and form complex relationships using the energy provided by daily meals. That is a lot of output for a fairly modest input. Listener Charlotte from the UK wants to know: how efficient are humans? How do they compare to cars, other animals and even to each other? Presenter Marnie Chesterton pits her energetic self against everything from cars to rabbits to find out how she shapes up. Marnie also explores whether humans are born equal when it comes to fuel efficiency. Does the energy from one banana get converted into the same amount of movement from person to person? Marnie gets on a treadmill to find out how efficient she really is. With contributors from Herman Pontzer, Duke University, Rhona Pearce, Loughborough University and Christian Gammelgaard Olesen from Wolturnus wheelchair manufacturing company. Presenter: Marnie C

CrowdScience listener Eileen cannot see images in her head of her memories. She only discovered by chance that most other people can do this. She wants to know why she can’t see them and if it is something she can learn to do. Anand Jagatia finds out what mental images are for and whether scientists know why some people can’t create them. Three per cent of the world’s population cannot see mental images like Eileen. And it is only recently been given a name – aphantasia. Anand discovers why mental images are useful, why they are sometimes traumatic and how people who are blind or visually impaired can also create images of the world around them. Contributors: Emily Holmes, professor of clinical psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden Adam Zeman, professor of cognitive and behavioural psychology, Exeter University, UK Joel Pearson, professor of cognitive neuroscience, University of New South Wales, Australia Paul Gabias, associate professor, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada M

Welcome to the exciting new field of generative artificial intelligence - or generative AI. We’re not talking about robots or spaceships: instead these are image generators and chatbots that are already revolutionising the way people write, research and interact in the virtual world. Their capabilities are extraordinary. But before they can produce results they first need to be trained on vast amounts of data. And that’s what got CrowdScience listener Ian wondering. He says: “Before long, much of the material on the internet will have been written, or at least co-written, by AIs. What will happen when AIs are being trained on texts they have written themselves?” To answer this question Anand Jagatia first meets artist and scientist Michelle Huang. Michelle recently embarked on a therapy project to try and connect with her own “inner child”. She took a decade’s worth of her diaries from her childhood and fed them into an AI to try and simulate a conversation between her and her younger self. Can a machine conv

CrowdScience listener Nyankami, from Kenya, has a friend with dementia. Despite memory loss and no longer knowing his way around, his friend has no problem communicating. So what’s the connection between memory and language? Caroline Steel discovers how dementia affects our speech. In most cases the illness does have an impact on our ability to speak but it can depend on many factors, including the type of dementia and even how many languages we speak. She meets George Rook, diagnosed with vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s, who’s a passionate campaigner for people with dementia and talks to dementia nurse Helen Green, who explains how the illness can affect our behaviour. She discovers that speaking more than one language can actually protect our brains from decline and finds out about cutting edge research that is helping people with dementia to improve their memory and capacity to speak. Featuring: George Rook, Lived Experience Advisory Panel, Dementia UK Helen Green, Admiral Nurse, specialising in dement