CrowdScience

Why do insects prefer to bite certain people?

21 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A lovely day out in the countryside can be blighted when swarms of midges or mosquitos invite themselves to the party. A CrowdScience listener in New ...

What is cancer?

14 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world. Many of us will at some point in our lives be confronted with the disease – either by fall...

How did humans discover medicine?

07 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today, once-fatal diseases like the plague, sepsis, or cholera can be treated simply and quickly with a pill. These tiny tablets hold compounds that c...

Can digital technology transform West Africa?

01 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

CrowdScience heads to Freetown, Sierra Leone for a panel debate in front of a live audience to answer listener questions about how artificial intellig...

Could we survive an extinction event?

24 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Super-sized volcanic eruptions and giant asteroids crashing in from outer space are the stuff of disaster movies. They have listener Santosh from Sout...

What is infinity?

17 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Is there something bigger than infinity? Does quantum mechanics affect how I think? And why can I suddenly do algebra? As ever, we’re not afraid to ...

How low-carbon can CrowdScience go?

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Reducing climate change and global warming is one of the biggest and most urgent challenges for everyone as we enter a new decade. The CrowdScience te...

How does the sun affect my body and mind?

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago reporter Anand Jagatia travelled up beyond the Arctic Circle to meet Norwegian researchers in order to answer a question from US listene...

What is empathy?

03 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What is empathy? This week’s question comes from Maria in Amsterdam who has noticed that when one of her friends is in pain, she feels their pain to...

Did Crowdscience change your life?

20 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As CrowdScience celebrates its third birthday, the team takes time to revisit some of our early episodes, and catch up with listeners to discover if t...

Can I save the insects?

13 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Buzzing insects that sting and fall into your food can be annoying. But perhaps we should think twice before taking aim with the fly swatter because b...

Would humans exist if dinosaurs were still alive?

05 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

66 million years ago, a huge asteroid hit the earth, wiping out most of the dinosaurs that roamed the land. It would still be tens of millions of year...

Could humans hibernate during interstellar travel?

29 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Science fiction is full of people settling on distant planets. But even the closest stars would take millennia to reach with current speeds of travel,...

Should I stop eating palm oil?

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Australian listener Lizzy is trying to reduce her footprint on this planet and is particularly interested in palm oil. It is everywhere - in shampoo, ...

Can a machine read my mind?

15 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For decades science fiction has been imagining the incredible ways that machines might interact directly with our minds, from enabling telepathic comm...

Why do I get sleepy?

08 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We’re all familiar with the sensation of sleepiness – heavy eye-lid, that warm, fuzzy feeling. But, one CrowdScience listener wants to know, what’...

Can my stutter be cured?

01 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us take the ability to speak fluently for granted, but for listener Breeda it has been a lifelong struggle. She has asked CrowdScience to inve...

Will my salmon swim home?

25 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Crowdscience listeners Michael and Ricky have been walking a tributary of the River Thames in London, UK. They’ve noticed that there are loads of fi...

Is maths real?

18 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Faced with one cake and eight hungry people, it’s pretty obvious how maths underpins reality. But as mathematics gets further from common sense and ...

How can I live a longer life?

11 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Human life expectancy has been increasing for decades. In many developed countries, we can now expect to live into our 80s, and it isn’t uncommon to...

Is a vegan diet better for your health?

27 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The number of vegans is on the rise in many parts of the world, with many people swearing by the health benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. But is a ...

Could I learn to think like Sherlock Holmes?

20 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional detective is renowned for his feats of memory, his observational capacity, tireless energy and an almost s...

Can my migraines be cured?

13 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The World Health Organization ranks migraines as the second most disabling neurological disorder in the world and in people under the age of 50, it is...

Are extroverts really happier?

06 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sociable, lively, outgoing people are highly valued in certain cultures - think of the stereotype of the hyper-confident American. And there’s even ...

Do we need more space stations?

30 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Satellites have transformed our lives, giving us digital communications, navigation and observations of Earth, and even an artificial place to live ab...

How can I motivate myself?

23 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us struggle to motivate ourselves to carry out certain tasks, from hanging out the washing to writing a job application. How can we best motiv...

Global infertility: Could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality?

16 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

CrowdScience listeners Mark and Jess have been watching TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale. It's an adaptation of a book by Margaret Atwood and depicts ...

Can I predict the future?

05 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have been trying to predict the future since ancient times. The Chinese had the I-Ching while the Greeks preferred to search for answers in ani...

How many fossils are there?

02 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The odds of becoming a fossil are vanishingly small. And yet there seem to be an awful lot of them out there. In some parts of the world you can barel...

Why do we pull faces when we concentrate?

26 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Do you stick your tongue out or scowl when you concentrate? Maybe, like one of our listeners, you screw up your face when you’re playing music. Do t...

Where’s my time machine?

19 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Laser swords, time machines, matter transporters - before the turn of the millennium, movies, books and television promised some extraordinary future ...

Who were the first farmers?

12 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Farming is a relatively recent invention for our species. For most of human history, people were hunter-gatherers. They moved around the landscape to ...

Why do some people eat soil?

05 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For some people, the idea of eating soil is weird at best and at worst disgusting and dirty. But globally the practice of geophagy – or the regular ...

Can we prevent traffic jams?

28 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s frustrating to be stuck in traffic. Listener Collins from Nairobi, Kenya, spends at least three hours a day in traffic and he counts himself lu...

What’s the best way to breathe?

21 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Breathing is automatic: awake or asleep, running or resting, our bodies unconsciously make sure we get enough oxygen to function. But - unlike other b...

Are there new ways to beat depression?

14 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, people suffering from chronic depression have relied on medicines that affect the levels of chemicals in the brain like serotonin, which ...

Can singing improve our health?

07 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Singing can lift our spirits, but research suggests it could also benefit our health, improving breathing for people with lung conditions and helping ...

How are we evolving?

31 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Medical intervention has disrupted natural selection in humans as many more children survive into adulthood than did a few centuries ago. And as our D...

Could our household microbes help or harm us?

24 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As scientists keep finding ever more fascinating facts about the invisible housemates that share our homes, we dust off our episode on what might be l...

Could dark matter harbour dark life?

17 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Where the conditions are right, life can arise. But what might the ‘right’ conditions be? Could the dark sector of our Universe be inhabited? That...

How does a single cell become me?

10 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Our bodies are made of cells, tens of trillions of cells. They all have particular roles and functions in the body, from digesting food, to producing ...

Did cooking make us human?

04 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us enjoy cooking – but when did we switch from eating our food raw, to heating it? Listener Logan enjoys his beef burgers rare, but wants to...

Could viruses help fight super-bugs?

26 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We are slowly running out of ammunition to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria. Listener Peter wants to know whether a therapy that he’d heard about...

Will we ever know what the universe is made of?

19 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We are all made of particles – but what are particles made of? It’s a question that’s been perplexing scientists for centuries - for so long, in...

Why do we find things beautiful?

12 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Humans seem programmed to appreciate beauty - whether that’s an attractive face, a glorious sunset, or a stirring piece of music. Of course, our ind...

What are dreams for?

05 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There are very good reasons to sleep: to regulate the body’s metabolism, blood pressure and other aspects of health. But do we actually need to drea...

Which milk is best for me and the planet?

29 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Swapping dairy milk for a plant-based milk is a growing trend that promises environmental benefits. But what is the best milk considering both our hea...

Why do we like some animals and hate others?

22 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Cute isn't exactly a scientific term but we all know what we mean by it, don't we? Endearing, adorable, lovable and sweet. So what makes us fawn over ...

When will an African visit Mars?

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Crowdscience heads to Africa's biggest science festival for a panel debate in front of a live audience that takes us into space then back down to eart...

Why am I shy?

08 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A racing heart, blushing, feeling sick - most people experience symptoms of shyness in certain situations. But some of us are much shyer than others, ...

What do clouds feel like?

01 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week we turn our gaze skywards to tackle three questions about what’s going on above us. Three year old Zac from the UK wants to know what clou...

Does brain size matter?

22 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The size of brains in the animal kingdom is wildly different, from melon-sized in blue whales to pea-sized in shrews. But does a bigger brain mean a m...

Where was the last place humans made home?

15 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Our species started in Africa, but what was the last habitable landmass we reached? CrowdScience presenters Marnie Chesterton and Geoff Marsh team up ...

Could a ‘zombie’ virus kill us all?

08 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the sort of plot you would expect from a classic sci-fi movie; what if there are viruses trapped deep in Antarctic ice that could wreak havoc o...

Is Recycling All Our Waste at Home Possible?

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Waste, trash, garbage – whatever you call it, unwanted materials have become a major presence in many of our lives and our environment. Every year i...

Why Do We Bury Our Dead?

25 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The ritual of burying the dead stretches back to the obscure beginnings of human history - and perhaps beyond, with archaeologists uncovering evidence...

Why can’t I remember my accident?

18 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When CrowdScience listener, Grady, crashed violently on his motorbike in the desert, he thought he was going to die. Years later he still can’t reme...

Can Volcanoes Power the World?

11 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Magma is the hot, molten rock found beneath the Earth’s crust. It’s so plentiful that it got Greek listener Dimitrios wondering whether we could h...

How Bird-Like Were Dinosaurs?

04 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Birds are dinosaurs, but did their extinct relatives move, look, or even sing like their avian relatives? From revealing the hidden information within...

What is the future of space travel?

28 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

CrowdScience goes interstellar this week to answer listeners’ questions about the future of space travel. Marnie Chesterton heads to Nasa’s Kenned...

How Much Energy Can I Burn by Thinking?

24 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Wouldn’t it be great if you could lose weight and stay fit just by exercising your brain? Trouble is everything takes so much effort - from burning...

Is There a Logic to Romantic Love?

14 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Loving someone who doesn’t love you in return makes us feel wretched – can science explain why we must suffer? Parental love makes perfect evoluti...

Why do Women Live Longer than Men?

07 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

From Russia to Rwanda, women live longer than men and have done so for over 100 years. But why? Is it encoded in our genes or is it something to do wi...

Is Soil The Secret to Slowing Climate Change?

30 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere - and stopping it getting up there in the first place - is becoming increasingly urgent if we want to prev...

Do You Smell What I Smell?

23 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We may take our ability to smell for granted but it’s a far more complex sense than many people realise. Listener Annabel wants Crowdscience to inve...

Which Language is Most Efficient?

16 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Communicating quickly, accurately and, ideally, in a way that's well-received is no easy feat, wherever you live in the world. For this week's listene...

Can We Make an Artificial Womb?

09 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

From IVF to premature babies we explore what science we would need to make a baby outside the body in a pursuit to answer a question from Nigerian lis...

How Do We Deal with Nuclear Waste?

02 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How should we tackle the biggest clean-up job in history? Listener Michelle from Ireland sends CrowdScience to investigate what to do with years’ wo...

Could Bionic Eyes Help Me See Again?

26 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Mohammed is from India and he’s blind. He emailed CrowdScience because he wanted to know more about new technologies that could help him see again. ...

What are the limits of human endurance?

19 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to speed, humans have got nothing on cheetahs - or greyhounds, kangaroos or zebras for that matter. It’s over long distances we really...

What Makes Us Superstitious?

12 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Would you willingly break a mirror, walk under a ladder or cut up an image of someone you love - or might you be worried about tempting fate – even ...

Can We Prevent Hurricanes?

09 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As the US reaches the end of another hurricane season listener Kelly wants to know if it’s possible to prevent these devastating storms? She lives i...

Does Asking Questions Improve Your Memory?

28 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As the show that takes your questions and turns them into audio adventures reaches its 100th episode, Marnie Chesterton revisits a few of our most lik...

What’s The Point of Laughter?

21 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This violent and repetitive involuntary constriction of the chest muscles is highly infectious, and can result in convulsions, profuse tears and a red...

Is Vaping Bad for your Health?

14 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

E-cigarettes and vaping may only have been around for a decade or so but it's estimated more than 35 million people globally have taken it up. Marnie ...

Why Do Drivers Zone Out?

07 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever been out driving and noticed your mind… wandering? CrowdScience listener Sian Gardiner has. When travelling to visit her parents she h...

Why Do Some Animals Change Sex?

31 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In humans if you have two X chromosomes you are female and if you have an X and a Y then you are male. It is textbook science. But CrowdScience listen...

Is there life on Mars?

24 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the central question for the current generation of Mars missions. Since the first close-up pictures of the red planet back in 1965, decades of ...

Could humans live in underwater cities?

18 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The idea of creating underwater habitats has captured the imagination of writers, thinkers and scientists for decades. However, despite numerous grand...

Can we trap light in a box?

10 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What is light and can we trap it in a box? On this edition of CrowdScience, Marnie Chesterton brings you a kaleidoscope of colourful questions from li...

How Do You Stop a Hedgehog Invasion?

03 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Hedgehogs are the UK’s favourite British mammal. They have cute furry faces, a snuffly nose and the ability to gobble up garden slugs. What’s not ...

Why Does History Repeat Itself?

27 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Teenagers are known for ignoring their parents’ advice, but is this reputation for rebellion well-founded? If so, is rejecting the advice of previou...

How Do Magnets Work?

20 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This deceptively simple question from listeners Andy, Mike and James is actually one of the hardest questions CrowdScience has ever tackled. Why? Beca...

Why do Humans have Different Coloured Skin?

13 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Anand Jagatia heads to the rainbow nation of South Africa, to answer listener Lucy’s deceptively simple question. He follows the path of early human...

Where Do All Our Vegetables Come From?

06 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Listener Pogo wants to know why there aren’t any cabbages – or any of the other vegetables – in his local forest. Where did they all come from? ...

Do Plants Talk about Sex?

28 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sex – for most organisms - is about meeting the right partner. But what if you and your mate are stuck far apart with no ability to travel? This dil...

Will We Run Out of Groundwater?

22 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the biggest reserves of freshwater are right under our feet and they're really important for farming as well as providing us with water to dri...

What Shapes Our Musical Taste?

15 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What sounds heavenly to one person might sound like boring noise to another - but why are our musical preferences so different? Is it all down to what...

Is Hypnosis a Real Thing?

08 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Hypnosis has a long and controversial history, with its roots in animal magnetism or mesmerism, the theory developed by 18th Century German doctor Fra...

How Green Are Electric Vehicles?

01 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Electric cars are labelled as ‘zero emissions’ vehicles – but what does that really mean? Jack Stewart puts your questions about EVs to the expe...

Is Fasting Healthy?

25 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

For some it's a way to get closer to God, for others a tried and tested way to lose weight - but listener Amine wants to know if fasting has any other...

How is Your Brain Better Than a Computer?

18 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Why is it that computers are so much faster than brains at some tasks? Or could human brains one day be used to better effect? Listener Praveen from I...

Why Do Humans Dance?

11 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Kenyan listener Docktor can’t help himself. When music is playing he must move to the beat and he wants to know why. What role does dance play in hu...

Why Don’t We All Like The Same Food?

04 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have the potential to eat pretty much anything – but the reality is we don’t. Wherever we live in the world, we eat just a small fraction o...

Can Sucking CO2 Out of the Air Solve Climate Change?

27 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carbon dioxide levels are far higher than at any other point in human history, thanks to our reliance on burning fossil fuels. But having pumped huge ...

Are Screens Bad For My Child’s Eyes?

20 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions around the world. The way things are progressing, one-third of the world’s population – 2.5 bil...

Why Do Insects Fly Towards Lights?

13 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Will gravity on earth ever change? Why do insects fly towards the light? Is the plasma in a TV the same as plasma in a fusion reactor? Why are mosquit...

Can We Find a Cure for Dementia?

06 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dementia affects nearly 50 million people worldwide – but doctors are still struggling to find a cure. CrowdScience investigates why this particular...

Is The Future of Food a Pill?

30 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Since the end of the 19th century, scientists have been predicting we would be eating a meal in a pill, but is it a serious answer to the world’s fo...

Does Anything Stand Still?

24 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Listener Nikolai sends CrowdScience hunting through space and time with his deceptively simple question. Can we find perfect stillness? You are probab...