Do Plants Talk about Sex?

CrowdScience listeners Dougie and Molly have been wondering what happens to animals when they die, and whether there are animals that hold rituals to mark the passing of one of their kin. Presenter Caroline Steel is on the case, trying to work out what happens to the bodies of an ...  Show more

Salt can be found in almost every kitchen in the world. But how did this seemingly simple ingredient become the world's favourite flavour enhancer? This week, Crowdscience sets out to uncover why these tiny crystals have such a powerful effect on us. We explore the magic behind t ...  Show more

En mars 2023, des chercheurs de l’université de Tel Aviv ont pu enregistrer des sons émis par des plantes. En effet, cela fait 10 ans que des études montrent que les végétaux dégagent des vibrations mais c’est la première fois que des audios sont captés. Bien que les sons n’aien ...  Show more

Qui n’a pas été interpellé en rayon par la couverture du best-seller «La vie secrète des arbres» ou de son rival «La révolution des plantes»? Leurs auteurs Peter Wohlleben et Stefano Mancuso appellent à la reconnaissance d’une troisième forme d’intelligence, après celle du règne ...  Show more

Vision without eyes? Intelligence without a brain? Are plants more akin to us than we have been prepared to acknowledge? Or are they different in ways we will forever strain to imagine? One way or another, a vine with some unusual abilities is shaking the field of botany to its f ...  Show more

The second instalment in our double bill on the science of sex, answering this question from Robert Turner, a Curio from Leeds: "Why do we only have two sexes?"Drs Rutherford and Fry look for anomalies in the animal kingdom that go beyond the traditional mechanics of human reprod ...  Show more