300 episodes

We take your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.

CrowdScience BBC World Service

    • Science
    • 4.8 • 560 Ratings

We take your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.

    Is the BMI fatphobic?

    Is the BMI fatphobic?

    Crowd Science listener Maik wants to know what the BMI is and what his BMI score says about his body. He trains dogs for a living and wonders if, like different breeds of dog, we simply have different body types?

    Marnie Chesterton comes up with some answers, talking to doctors about how the BMI is used and misused in clinical practice, and looks at some alternative methods for measuring our body composition. She also sits down with philosopher Kate Manne to discuss the realities of living in a fat-phobic world.

    We hear from Tonga in the South Pacific, where high BMI scores have labelled the country highly obese. But this is not necessarily how Tongans see themselves.

    And Marnie finds out if the BMI will continue to be used across the world as an important health marker or whether it is destined for the scrap heap of medical history.

    Contributors:
    Professor Kate Manne
    Dr Francesco Rubino
    Dr Naveed Sattar
    Professor Brendon Noble
    Technician Leah Siegel
    Fononga Pulu
    Sela Latailakepa

    Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
    Producer: Richard Walker
    Editor: Cathy Edwards
    Production co-ordinator: Connor Morgans
    Studio manager: Emma Harth

    • 30 min
    Do we all see the same colour?

    Do we all see the same colour?

    CrowdScience listener Gregory wants to know what affects the way we see the colours of the world. He was looking at a blue summer sky with a friend and they got to wondering whether they both see the same colour blue. So what does influence our vision of the colours that surround us? Could eye colour have anything to do with it? And can we ever really know if your blue sky is the same as mine?
    Caroline Steel comes up with some answers, talking to colour scientists about their research into the multiple factors that enable us to see in multi colours, from the intricate biology of our eye to the changing environment around us.
    She also investigates her own colour vision and solves a personal mystery, discovering why the world has always looked a slightly different colour from each eye.
    Contributors:
    Professor Jay Neitz, Department of Opthalmology, University of Washington, US
    Professor Hannah Smithson, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
    Dr Juan Perea García, researcher, Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of Leiden
    Dr Lauren Welbourne, researcher, Department of Psychology, University of York
    Dr Adam Bibbey, lecturer in sport, Department of Sport, Oxford Brookes University
    Presenter: Caroline Steel
    Producer: Jo Glanville
    Editor: Cathy Edwards
    Production co-ordinator: Connor Morgans
    Studio manager: Jackie Margerum
    (Photo: LWA)

    • 29 min
    How bad is our data for the planet?

    How bad is our data for the planet?

    Storing your data in ‘the cloud’ might sound like an ethereal, intangible place, but it’s actually a physical location - a data centre. CrowdScience listener Art is worried about how much energy and water data centres are consuming. He’s from Ireland, where data centres are gobbling up almost 20% of the national electricity supply and that’s growing, fast.
    So how much energy and water are data centres using globally? And how can they become more sustainable? To answer Art’s question CrowdScience heads to chilly western Norway to visit a data centre hidden deep within a mountain, that’s said to be one of the most efficient in the world. And we hear how a data centre in South Africa is saving water and dealing with crippling power cuts by generating its own renewable energy.
    Do we just need to stream less TV and reduce our email inbox? With the help of carbon footprint expert Mike Berners-Lee, we crunch the numbers to find out.
    Featuring:
    Svein Atle Hagaseth, CEO of Green Mountain data centres in Norway
    Mike Berners-Lee, Professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre and consultant at Small World Consulting
    Thulani Ncube, Group Energy Lead at Africa Data Centres
    Presenter: Anand Jagatia
    Producer: Sophie Eastaugh
    Editor: Cathy Edwards
    Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald
    Production: Jonathan Harris & Connor Morgans
    Additional Recording by: Kobus van Niekerk

    • 27 min
    Why do we have wisdom teeth?

    Why do we have wisdom teeth?

    Why do humans have wisdom teeth if so many of them get removed soon after they appear?
    Wisdom teeth, the third molars in the back of our mouths, are so called because they normally appear in late teenage, early adulthood – the time in life we supposedly have learned some wisdom. But around 25% of people don’t develop all four. Of those that do emerge, it is not uncommon for them to appear at nasty angles, jutting into the tooth next door causing potentially dangerous infections and pain. Because of this, for decades many people have them surgically removed.
    Listener Khaleel was preparing to have his remaining wisdom teeth removed when he wrote to CrowdScience to ask about them. Given that they can seem to cause more harm than good, why has evolution resulted in these troublesome teeth? But many people have perfectly uneventful relationships with their wisdom teeth, so have we perhaps removed more than we needed to over the years?
    Anand Jagatia chews it over with the help of surgeons and dentists to try to extract the truth – why DO we have wisdom teeth?
    Featuring:
    Tanya M Smith, Professor in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University, Australia
    Patrick Magennis, Consultant Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon at University Hospitals Aintree, Liverpool UK
    Verena Toedtling, Dentist and Specialist Oral Surgeon, UK
    Presented by Anand Jagatia
    Produced by Alex Mansfield

    • 28 min
    What time was the first clock set to?

    What time was the first clock set to?

    When the first person set the very first clock, how did they know what time to set it to? This question, from listener Chris in the UK, sends CrowdScience off on a quest into the history of timekeeping.
    From sundials to water clocks, from uneven hours to precision seconds determined by the vibration of an atom, we examine how we came to measure time. We visit possibly the oldest working mechanical clock in the world to discover how its time was originally set; and hear how the time we go by today is not quite the same as it was in the past.
    Will all this be enough to solve Chris' question, or has he stumped the team?
    Featuring:
    Ian Westworth, Clock Mechanic
    Dr. Chad Orzel, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Union College
    Anna Rolls, Curator of Clocks, Clockmakers’ Museum
    Peter, Guide, Salisbury Cathedral
    Dr. Jun Ye, Physicist at NIST (National Institutes of Standards and Technology) and The University of Colorado, Boulder.
    Presenter: Caroline Steel
    Producer: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins
    Editor: Cathy Edwards
    Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
    Studio Manager: Jackie Margerum
    (Photo:Stopwatch on red background. Credit: Martin Poole / Getty Images).

    • 27 min
    When will the next earthquake hit?

    When will the next earthquake hit?

    In 2011, CrowdScience listener Amanda survived the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
    It arrived unannounced - as all earthquakes do - leaving her with no time to prepare a response. So Amanda wants to know whether science will ever be able to give us advance warning of quakes.
    To explore her question CrowdScience heads to New Zealand to meet listener Amanda, as well as the brains behind the country’s earthquake forecasting models. We dig in a field for thousand-year-old tectonic clues that could help us understand when the next earthquake might strike. But even if we could get a head start against a quake, would we respond in the right way?
    Please note: earthquake response advice varies by location. Please check local guidance and individual building procedures.
    Featuring:
    Nicola Litchfield, Principal Scientist in Paleoseismology at GNS, Wellington, New Zealand
    Matt Gerstenberger, Seismologist and leader of the National Seismic Hazard Model, GNS, Wellington, New Zealand
    Andy Howell, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
    Lauren Vinnell, Lecturer in Emergency Management at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University
    Presenter: Caroline Steel
    Producer: Emily Bird
    Editor: Cathy Edwards
    Production: Jonathan Harris, Jana Holesworth
    Sound Engineer: Steve Greenwood
    (Photo: Earthquake damage in Christchurch. Credit: John Crux Photography)

    • 27 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
560 Ratings

560 Ratings

lizw999 ,

Fantastic podcast

A perfect mix of educational and entertaining content from a really likeable team

delete/open ,

Monkey farts

It’s smells like bananas

RB1001 ,

Interesting and enjoyable

Interesting subjects, well explained. A good podcast.

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