In Praise of Flies

In this Christmas episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage, Brian Cox and Robin Ince head to the North Pole to explore the dazzling science behind the northern lights, the extreme adaptations that help animals - and even Santa Claus - survive the Arctic cold, and how the Earth’s magne ...  Show more

In perhaps the monkiest Infinite Monkey Cage episode there’s ever been, Brian Cox and Robin Ince attempt to uncover the secrets of love, lust and friendship in primates. Swinging by to offer a hand (or tail) are evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, anthropologist Jo Setchell, ...  Show more

DO NOT YOU SKIP THIS ONE. Listen. Give flies a chance. Everyone loves a bee, but meanwhile flies are out here with all kinds of bodies and adaptations, inhabiting the least inhabitable lands, pollinating your future lunch, shimmering in rainbows, having lifelong love affairs, ...

Flies: They're disgusting, disease-spreading flying machines. They're also really fascinating. Flies taste with their feet, smell with their antennae and use a pair of eyes as a compass oriented to sunlight. Listen in to learn more.

On today’s episode: Do opposites attract, or do birds of a feather flock together? Today we study our enemy… the fly… All that and more today on All Around Science...

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Dr Erica McAlister uncovers a treasure trove of remarkable insects from the humble flea whose jump enables them to fly without wings and the mystery of the hawkmoth’s tongue, whose varying length has offered the simplest and most effective proof of Charles Darwin's theory of natu ...  Show more