IFLScience - The Big Questions IFLScience

Everything we see, from galaxies to capybaras, is made of matter. But matter has a mirrored version of itself known as antimatter. If the two come into contact they annihilate one another, turning into pure energy. Why does the universe prefer one over the other? This is a fundamental mystery of the universe, and at the forefront of the search for an answer is the Alpha Experiment at CERN. In this episode, host Dr Alfredo Carpineti is joined by experimental physicist and Alpha spokesperson Professor Jeffrey Hangst to understand the nature of mysterious antimatter.

It’s no secret that species extinction and biodiversity loss are making our environment increasingly less stable. As it feels like we inch closer to waving goodbye to threatened animals like the Javan rhino, a question springs to mind: How do we know when a species is extinct? How, for instance, do we know there aren’t some animals left just hiding in a bush somewhere? In this episode, host Rachael Funnell puts the question to Dr Barney Long of Re:wild, whose mission is the conservation of endangered mammal species and ways of recovering their populations.

We live in a society that idolizes youth for sure, but also with age comes wisdom. However, aging is not all it’s cracked up to be. Could we keep getting older without the drawbacks of being old? Other animals do it, so maybe one day it could apply to humans too. In this episode, host Dr Alfredo Carpineti is joined by Dr Andrew Steele, author of Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old, to talk about the medical fight against old age at a cellular level and whether humans could ever live forever. 

As the human population increases so too does our demand for food, but in the face of the climate crisis scientists are seeking alternative and sustainable solutions to traditional agricultural practices. In this episode of IFLScience, The Big Questions, we teamed up with BBC Earth to speak with Luca Gamberini of Nemo’s Garden to ask: Is the future of farming underwater?

Nemo’s Garden is working to create an alternative system of agriculture that uses the oceans and other bodies of water to establish a more sustainable way of farming. In this episode, host Rachael Funnell speaks to Gamberini about the complexities of farming underwater and how their innovative agricultural practices could help to protect and conserve the planet.

This episode is presented in partnership with BBC Earth as part of #OurGreenPlanet – an impact initiative that aims to protect our green spaces by sharing the extraordinary stories of people around the globe dedicating their lives to positive change. In association with Moondance Foundation.

Studying the Universe told us the cosmos began with the Big Bang. But how will everything end? In a cold and desolate nothingness? Or will everything collapse back into itself in a Big Crunch? In this episode, host Dr Alfredo Carpineti is joined by theoretical astrophysicist Dr Katie Mack, the Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the Perimeter Institute, who has written extensively about the subject. Together they discuss what the curtain call of the Universe might look like. 

Everything we see and interact with, regular matter, is only a small fraction of what the universe contains. In fact, the vast majority of the universe is invisible to us. We've named these mysterious components dark matter and dark energy, but our understanding of them – and if they even exist – remains lacking. To unravel more of this mystery, Dr Alfredo Carpineti sat down with Dr Mandeep Gill from the Dark Energy Survey collaboration to ask: Will the new generation of upcoming observatories help us understand what the universe is really made of?