Some fish can deliver electric shocks that are four times more powerful than the electricity in your plug sockets at home. Crowdscience listener Mouhammed in Cameroon was stunned by this, so he charged us with finding out how they do it. Presenter Caroline Steel heads to Bayreuth ...Show more
Why am I warm blooded?
CrowdScience listener Matt wants to know why he's warm blooded. He started thinking about this when he was watching some ants during the recent heatwave in Europe and wondered why their blood didn't boil. What are the pros and cons of being warm-blooded like us or cold-blooded re ...Show more
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most abundant lifeform on Earth: the viruses that 'eat' bacteria. Early in the 20th century, scientists noticed that something in their Petri dishes was making bacteria disappear and they called these bacteriophages, things that eat bacteria. F ...Show more
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most abundant lifeform on Earth: the viruses that 'eat' bacteria. Early in the 20th century, scientists noticed that something in their Petri dishes was making bacteria disappear and they called these bacteriophages, things that eat bacteria. F ...Show more
With antibiotic resistance on the rise, some scientists are turning to viruses as a medical tool. But we barely know anything about the bacteria-eating viruses all around us. (First published in 2021) Guest: Nicola Twilley, host of Gastropod For show transcripts, go to vox.com/un ...Show more
Cold and flu season is well and truly upon us, and whilst most of us are busy bemoaning the pesky viruses behind our sniffles and chesty coughs – one of our listeners has other ideas. Elizabeth wants to know whether we’re too hard on these oft-maligned microbes? We’ve all heard t ...Show more