Fashion to dye for

The Hindu festival of Holi has the Unexpected Elements team delving into the science of colour. First up, forget chicken and egg, we bring you a whole new controversy of which came first: colour or colour vision? Then, we learn how a new development in infrared contact lenses cou ...  Show more

A dip in global cocoa prices got the Unexpected Elements team wondering about chocolate science. First, we look at how the microbial communities in cocoa beans fine tune the taste of chocolate. Also, could table sugar help us detect the missing bits of the universe? We look at ho ...  Show more

What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill—the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty‑ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak—asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication. “When a whale is in t ...  Show more

Scientists, conservationists and other researchers are using audio soundscapes in innovative ways to record the natural world in rich detail and help develop strategies to preserve it. Gaia Vince visits the Dear Earth exhibition at London’s Southbank Centre where she interacts wi ...  Show more

Most of us love a bargain, but when it comes to our wardrobe, there’s a high cost for those cheap clothes. Fast fashion has taken the world by storm, with brands having tens of thousands — if not over a million — designs available at any moment. The consumption comes at a cost: t ...  Show more

Tweed suits, penny loafers: who said philosophers were out of touch? In episode 81 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk everything from Shein to Ferragamo, from high school lunchbox trends to Machiavelli’s nightgowns. As they chart the history of clothing, and the shift from fun ...