Could we turn poisonous plants into edible cr...

Is silence blood-curdling or blissful? CrowdScience listener Ziqi finds it intolerable and thinks that there’s a good reason for it – silence is so rare in nature that it could be a signal for danger. Presenter Marnie Chesterton is on a mission to test Ziqi’s theory, starting wit ...  Show more

Crowdscience listener Ryosuke grew up in Japan, and spent his childhood summers catching cicadas in the park. For people in Japan, the sound of their chirping signals the first true summer day. But until they emerge, these enigmatic insects live underground - often for many years ...  Show more

The development of agriculture some 12,000 years ago changed the way humans live.

As technologies have developed we’ve become more and more efficient at producing large amounts of food and feeding an ever growing population, often with the help of synthetically produced ...

Since they first appeared in the nineties, GMOs have remained wildly unpopular with consumers, who see them as potentially sinister tools of big agricultural companies. Ivana Davidovic explores if the new scientific developments might make them shed their bad image. She visits No ...  Show more

Professor Dale Sanders has spent much of his life studying plants, seeking to understand why some thrive in a particular environment while others struggle. His ground breaking research on their molecular machinery showed how plants extract nutrients from the soil and store essent ...  Show more

Gene editing could revolutionise agriculture, with some scientists promising healthier and more productive crops and animals, but will consumers want to eat them? With the first gene edited crops recently approved for sale, Emily Thomas hears why this technology might be quicker, ...  Show more