Circles, circumferences and Covid

After a Chinese fitness influencer was caught hitching a lift on a bicycle during the Berlin Marathon, the Unexpected Elements team find themselves contemplating a range of scientific shortcuts. First up, we hear about how Earthlings may have been hitching a lift on the back of a ...  Show more

Estonian athlete Jaan Roose recently completed a jaw-dropping slackline display, performing daredevil tricks 120 metres above the streets of central Seoul, South Korea.This exciting event by a world champion slackliner got the Unexpected Elements team thinking about risk-taking, ...  Show more

On today’s episode: How have COVID vaccines had lasting impact on menstrual cycles? Video games; do they rot your brain, or enhance it? What is the biological reason that women live longer than men? And how can sound help us understand protein folding? All that and more today ...

What happens if you overwater a plant? How does gravity actually work? And should we be cancelling mass events to contain the coronavirus? It's Q&A time on the show, and this week Phil Sansom is joined by a brainy panel of experts: plant biologist Nadia Radzman, particle physicis ...  Show more

Since the onset of the pandemic, we exist in a constant state of calculation, trying to define our own personal bubble. We’ve all been given a simple rule: maintain six feet of distance between yourself and others. But why six? Producer Sarah Qari uncovers the answer, and talk ...

Is your compass actually wrong? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice explore magnetic fields, why clocks go clockwise, and how phone numbers got their area codes.

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