Marnie Chesterton

Kiitos, että katsoitte.

4GA in the UK. And I give that address out again because here is the point in the show where we make space to read the best of what you've sent in. And boy, have you sent in a lot of frog-related paraphernalia. Katie, you were on our frog episode a while back, and I think back then I suggested, if people wanted to send us...

Any frogs on stamps. This was just an excellent segue into trying to get more postcards because I love them. And I'm delighted to say that not only do we have the postcards, we have enough frog stamps for a very particular themed frog stamp collection. We've also now got three Canadian stamps featuring fowlers toads.

as well as the oregon spotted togue and we've got two cards featuring american stamps with pacific tree frogs one from omaha and one from michigan you know if if you happen not to have any

Frog-related stamps. You can just draw a picture of a frog for us. I'll add that to the... Maybe you should suggest another animal and then see if we can broaden the range. Yeah, what should we go for next? Salmon. Salmon! Salmon after this. Okay, for the next chapter of the stamp collection here at BBC Towers in Wales. Yes, any fish-related stamps, please do send them in.

Ok, well next time I see one with newspaper advertising on the side, I will pick it up and send it your way. Thank you, I appreciate it. Pleasure, pleasure. I have some quite cool stamps. I've got David Bowie stamps, Darth Vader stamps and I've got...

science astronomy stamps and so if I'm feeling generous then someone gets a Darth Maul or a black hole on their letter rather than just a normal stamp. So not frog related but we do also have a lovely postcard from David in the UK. Katie do you want to read this?

Sure. So David writes, great program. I have hardly missed an episode. It makes for a quick hour, is always of interest. And Marnie Chesterton has a cheery voice. I know, isn't that lovely? I even listen to the repeats and you often pick up on little facts that are gems on the second listen. So I am a genuine fan, even of the theme music. I have managed to work it out on guitar. That's cool too. And we need a proof of that, right?

Yeah, we should feature it in an episode. Well, this is where the problem of postcards comes in, because it's not going to be easy to write back. Do you know what we can do? We can use the broadcasting medium of...

sound to say, hey Davids, I hear you might be listening. Can I do a direct request? I'd love you to send us a copy of your Unexpected Elements theme on guitar. So you can send it very easily via email or WhatsApp. And if other listeners want to get in touch, email is unexpected at bbc.co.uk and our WhatsApp for any

Anything really. Voice notes, text messages, but also attempts to do our theme tune on guitar. Plus 44 330 678 30 80. Still to come on the show. Is there any science to explain a country's taste for spice? And the new research that suggests that singing, painting or visiting a museum can help you age more slowly. That's coming up after this.

Each week we try to fill a niche where AI fails, to answer your science questions. We call it Ask the Unexpected.

And this week's question comes from an anonymous listener in Colombia who asks why some cultures prefer spicy foods while their neighbours, even in very similar environments, don't. So we go from performance enhancement to flavour enhancement. Katie, you've lived in some spicy places.

Singapore, you've moved to Mexico City. Was there a sizable spice shift in the move? Well, interestingly I'd say that both are actually countries where they like a lot of spice. So in Singapore the spicy thing that you kind of encounter a lot is mala, which is this very pervasive red sauce. And then of course Mexico City, it's all about the chilis.

You're making my mouth water. Andrada, I know Romania is not particularly known for its spiciness. You guys are more into sort of pickles and sour flavourings, right? That is correct. I'm not into sour soup or borscht.

But I do like to pickle food myself. Back from pickles to spices. So first up, what do we know about which countries use spices? To find out, we spoke to Lyndall Bromham, an evolutionary biologist at the Australian National University.

The reason that I did some research in this is because I was fascinated by a hypothesis that had been put forward, which is actually called Darwinian gastronomy. So the Darwinian gastronomy hypothesis is that hotter countries tend to have higher rates of foodborne infections.

We know that many spices have antimicrobial activity. The idea is that in a hotter country where you've got a greater risk of food-borne illness, you might have a greater benefit to putting spice in your cuisine. If you want to guess the spiciness of a cuisine of a country, the best kind of information I can give you is...

kuinka kivaa on ruotsissa ja liittyvissä kulttuurissa, koska se tarkoittaa noin puoli variaatiota kivakkuudesta maailmassa. Onnistuu, että kaupungit, jotka ovat lähellä toisistaan, käyttävät samanlaisia kivaa.

That doesn't really answer our listener's question. So do we know what makes up the other 50%? Could that explain why the cuisine in neighbouring countries is sometimes so different? Lindell looked into this. One of the things that we found in our analysis that had the greatest explanatory power is the GDP per capita.