CrowdScience
Episodes
Why Do We Follow the Crowd?
16 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Are you the master of your own decisions? Independent-minded? A free spirit? Like it or not, the answer is probably no - as we are profoundly influenc...
Is Nuclear Fusion Coming Anytime Soon?
09 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Unlike nuclear fission power stations, which leave harmful radioactive waste to be stored or disposed of for thousands of years, a nuclear fusion powe...
Could Bees Take Over From Sniffer Dogs?
02 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have used dogs' excellent sniffing talents ever since our ancestors figured out that canine companions could help them track down their next me...
Do Animals Have Accents?
23 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A cacophony of singing and screaming creatures’ accents are explored to answer: Can animals of the same species from different places communicate wi...
How does the Moon affect life on Earth?
16 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From worms who time their mating ritual with an inner lunar calendar, to how full moons could cause cows to give birth early. Listener Andreas sends C...
Why Does Dark Matter, Matter?
09 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have been searching for dark matter for 80 years, so CrowdScience wondered whether they could find it faster. Armed with a boiler suit, har...
Must Life be Carbon-Based?
02 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Carbon is special, but is it necessarily the unique building block of life in the universe? Science fiction has long speculated on non-carbon biochemi...
How Far Can I See?
26 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How far can you see? A few kilometres down the road? Or do you struggle to see past the end of your own nose? Well one listener thinks he might be abl...
Are Crunchy Caterpillars the Food of the Future?
19 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Meet the entrepreneurs turning bugs into food and get top tips on how to cook them. In this week’s episode we return to the topic of edible insects ...
When Does Speech Become Music?
12 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us instinctively know when someone’s singing and when they’re talking. But since music and speech are both just sounds, how do our brains ...
Why Does My Dog Love Me?
05 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Dogs have been living and working with humans for thousands of years. But they’re much more than just pets. As any dog owner will tell you, the bond...
Could our faces replace passports as ID?
29 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Crowdscience revisits the evidence on the best forms of biometric identification. Earlier in the year we explored digital fingerprints, gait (walking ...
Rudolph castrated: what you didn’t hear this year
22 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Reindeer castration, plants get chatty and more quirky science revealed in this Christmas special of CrowdScience where we will also be hearing from t...
What is dust?
19 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It lurks behind sofas and collects in corners, apparently appearing from nowhere. But what is household dust? And should we bother sweeping it away? T...
From Oldest to Strongest Living Thing
08 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Trees are old – they transcend human generations – but are they the oldest living things on Earth? This story began in June 2017 when we explored...
Can We Revive Extinct Species Like the Dodo?
01 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Dodos are dead, but are they gone forever? Reviving extinct species is a trope of science fiction, but real-life scientists are working on every st...
Does Technology Change How we Fall in Love?
27 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How does technology affect how we fall in love? Crowdscience travels to India to answer listener Erin’s questions about the impact of the internet o...
Why are There Morning People and Night People?
17 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Some of us want to be up with the larks, while others are more like night owls. But is our preference down to our genes, or more to do with habits and...
How Can I Remember More?
10 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes our memory fails us and we wish facts would just stick better. Listener Mothibi is a student and has spent three years trying to remember as...
How Did Life Get onto Land?
03 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
People often talk about being descended from apes. But go back a bit further and we have a more unlikely ancestor – fish. Improbable as it may sound...
How Can We Fight Unwanted Noise?
31 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Unpleasant man-made noise is something that disturbs many of us and even damages our health. But as millions more people move into crowded cities arou...
Is There Proof of Life After Death?
20 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Is there any scientific proof of an afterlife? Six months ago, CrowdScience tackled a question from a listener who wanted to know whether there was li...
Can We Worm Our Way Into Better Health?
13 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We test the science behind parasitic therapy to answer listener Michael’s question about whether intestinal worms can help us stay healthy, and visi...
Is Carbon Dioxide Higher Than Ever?
06 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere today are higher than at any point in human existence. But going back further into Earth’s history, when do ...
Can We Make Artificial Organs?
29 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Human Organs are in short supply. But what if you could grow new ones in the lab? And if you donate your body parts to help others, where might they e...
Should We Kill One Species to Save Another?
22 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Is it fair to kill invasive species which humans have introduced? When people move around the world, many of their favourite – and not so favourite ...
Could All Cars Be Electric?
15 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Just one per cent of vehicles are powered by electricity, but CrowdScience listener Randall from Lac du Bonnet in Canada wants to know how quickly tha...
How Could Humanity Become Extinct?
08 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Nuclear weapons and mega asteroids: what would the aftermath look like? CrowdScience explores past extinction events and future dystopias. In a past e...
Spider Silk and Super Fly Senses
01 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
CrowdScience is uncovering the super-powers of spiders, flies and the most irritating mosquitos. Anand Jagatia meets spider specialist Jamie Mitchells...
Trees v Air Pollution - the Rematch
25 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
CrowdScience dives back into a debate about trees and their ability to tackle air pollution. Growing trees take in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen, but...
Sydney Science Festival, Australia
18 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
CrowdScience heads to the Sydney Science Festival in Australia where, from a special event at The Powerhouse Museum, we reveal answers to questions li...
Lightning Strikes Again
11 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Is it possible to get power from lightning? This was the first CrowdScience question posed by listener John Emochu in Kampala, Uganda, in November 201...
Can Animals Commit Murder?
04 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
** Contains some upsetting scenes **As a species, we humans can be uniquely horrible to our own kind. But are we the only animal to commit murder? Lis...
What Do Our Accents Say About Us?
28 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How do we end up speaking the way we do? What's happening in our brains and mouths to make us sound so different from each other - even when we’re s...
Could a Computer Judge My Crime?
21 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
People said they’d never catch on. Mobile phones, the internet and even robot assembly lines all once seemed like niche technologies. But today they...
Why is it so Hard to Quit Smoking?
14 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A billion people across the world smoke cigarettes, and many would agree it’s the hardest habit to quit. One such smoker, listener Sharif, emailed C...
Does Time really Exist?
07 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year Crowdscience explored the question of time. Back then we were on a mission to uncover what the real time is and how we're able to me...
Do We Think in Words?
30 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We're always up for a challenge on CrowdScience but this week’s question, which comes from an artist, tests our limits as we investigate the nature ...
Can plants talk?
23 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
David in Bogota might have raised a few eyebrows in the CrowdScience office with his questions – can plants talk? And can they hear us talking to th...
Can Your Lifestyle Be Passed on to Future Generations?
16 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Back when Charles Darwin presented his theory of evolution by natural selection, French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck suggested something different ...
Why Does It Always Rain on Me?
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Listener Ros Allen wondered why it always seems to rain on her village but not the one a mile away. It’s all down to microclimates. CrowdScience exp...
What’s the Oldest Living Thing?
02 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Trees transcend human generations – but are they the oldest living things on Earth? CrowdScience listener William from London, UK, got in touch to a...
Why do Human Faces Look so Different?
26 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
You don’t have to be a “super-recogniser” to know that human facial features are extremely varied. Just look around you. Yet look at a most othe...
Why is Childbirth Painful?
19 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Childbirth is different for everyone. Depending on who you ask, it’s one of life’s greatest and worst experiences - and can be anything from traum...
Where’s my Ejector Seat?
12 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Even if you spent your entire life on a plane, the chances are you’d never crash – commercial air travel is remarkably safe. But after hearing abo...
Why Do We Have Males and Females?
05 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Sex is responsible for the large variety of life on earth. Without the two sexes there is no sexual reproduction which means no shuffling of the genet...
Are Fingerprints the Best Form of ID?
28 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Biometrics are being used everywhere to recognise us. On this edition of CrowdScience we try out the tech that tells us apart. We find out just how un...
How Many People Can Earth Support?
21 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Our planet is getting rather cosy. In just over 200 years, the global population has grown from 1 billion to almost 7.5 billion – and the best estim...
Space Mining
14 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mining asteroids, moons or even other planets has remained firmly within the realm of science fiction. But as certain elements become increasingly sca...
Should we eat Insects?
07 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
For most people the idea of chewing on a caterpillar or tucking into a tarantula is pretty unpalatable. Yet according to the United Nations, some two ...
Why Do We Have So Many Accents?
31 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we have so many accents - even when we’re speaking the same language? What's happening in our brains and mouths to make us sound so different...
Does Weather Affect our Health?
25 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Do your joints ache when it's raining? Are you blighted with headaches when the wind picks up? If the answer’s yes then you're definitely not alone....
Science at the Movies
18 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Can we really live on Mars? Or exist in a virtual world? And why does movie science sometimes have us shouting at the screen? Our panel of scientists ...
Is Being Fat a Choice?
14 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The human race is getting fatter. But is it our fault? There are a whole host of factors influencing our weight - how many of them can we control?Crow...
Can Trees Help us Fight Air Pollution?
04 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Trees take in carbon dioxide but they also convert some of the toxic gases in our air. How much help can trees give us in fighting air pollution and c...
Could a Robot be your Doctor?
25 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Our listener Joseph’s question might sound more sci-fi than science show. But as Marnie Chesterton discovers, robots have already entered the realm ...
Why are Cats Loners?
18 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago, CrowdScience asked if it pays to be nice. We found that the answer is yes – if you’re a human. But if being social is so great, ...
Is There Life After Death?
11 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Death is one of life’s few certainties – or is it? To answer listener Pratibha’s question from New Delhi, India, presenter Marnie Chesterton ask...
Should we Use Ships to Transport Fresh Water?
04 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Earth’s surface may be 70 percent water but many places are struggling to access it. We look at a range of water supply options including delivering...
What is the Real Time?
29 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It sounds like a simple question – what is the time? But look closer and you realise time is a slippery concept that scientists still do not fully u...
Why are Dogs so Different?
21 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From Chihuahuas to Great Danes, Mexican Hairless to Afghan Hounds, dogs are the most diverse mammal on the planet. There are currently over 500 recogn...
Is there micro-life on Mars?
14 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Modern Martian hunting involves looking for the tiniest evidence of life. But when presenter Marnie Chesterton found out that a scientist she was mean...
Can we be too clean?
07 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
To be healthy you need to be clean – or so we’ve thought throughout human history.The dazzling array of antibacterial products that exploded onto ...
Could Humanity be Wiped out Like the Dinosaurs?
31 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Is there a killer asteroid with Earth’s name on it? The dinosaurs ruled for many millions of years before coming to their violent end. Will humanity...
Wave Power
24 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Why can't we use energy from the waves of the sea to create all the electricity that we need? Listener Michael in Kingston, Jamaica wants to know. Liv...
Does it Pay to be Nice?
17 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us want to be nice. But is it all it's cracked up to be? It's a question that's been nagging at listener Tony in Illinois, USA, for over 25 ye...
The Fourth Dimension
10 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How would a fourth dimensional being appear to humans?"It would look just weird" is one way to answer the question 'How would a fourth dimensional bei...
How Bad is Flying for the Planet?
05 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What effect does air travel have on the climate? That is the question listener Neil sent CrowdScience from New Zealand. If you have ever looked up at...
The Origin of Viruses
28 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Where did the first viruses come from? They have the potential to wipe out life on Earth. But could life on Earth itself have evolved from the first v...
Home Power Storage
19 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How much electric energy storage would it take to run the average home for 24 hours? Also: When will it be economical to locally store several days of...
The Edge of Space
12 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What do scientists think is outside our universe? Asks Rebecca Standridge from San Francisco in the US. It’s a question which goes right to the limi...
Electricity from Lightning
07 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Is it possible to get power from lightning? This was the first CrowdScience question posed by listener John Emochu in Kampala, Uganda.Presenter Marnie...