The only one

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

Brian Cox and Robin Ince discuss some of the more unlikely and odd avenues of research travelled down in the name of science. For example, the British physicist who calculated the optimal way to dunk a biscuit into a cup of tea without it disintegrating too quickly. Or the brain ...  Show more

Today, you’ll hear the truth about the chromosome that determines the male sex, new secrets from an old iceman, and an exoplanet denser than steel. Y Chromosome Puzzle “The Y Chromosome’s genetic puzzle is finally complete.” by Tina Hesman Saey. 2023. “Chromosomal Sex Determinati ...  Show more

The Infinite Monkeys, Brian Cox and Robin Ince, are joined on stage by special guest Stephen Fry and science writer Simon Singh to find out whether we really are only 6 degrees of separation from anyone else? What started as an interesting psychology experiment in connectedness, ...  Show more

Get ready for another adventure through space, nature, and the strangest corners of science on the BIGGER and BETTER Science Weekly! This week, we’re answering YOUR questions, have scientists battle it out to decide which science is the best, and uncovering why plastic is such a ...  Show more