Instant Genius BBC Science Focus

The chances are most of us will remember at least one dream we’ve had recently. But where do dreams come from, why is their content often universal across different cultures, and what can we learn from studying nightmares?

In this episode, the first of a series of two, I speak to neurosurgeon and bestselling author Rahul Jandial about his new book This is Why You Dream: What your sleeping brain reveals about your waking life.

We talk about what’s going on in the different areas of our brains when we dream, how the dreaming brain differs from the waking brain, and the intimate links that exist between our emotions, imagination and ability to dream.
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If most of us hear the word ‘egg’ it’s likely our minds will immediately turn to the hens’ eggs that we enjoy fried, poached or scrambled for our breakfast.

But on closer inspection it turns out that the natural world is filled with all manner of different kinds of eggs that are as varied and fascinating as the animals that produce them. And what’s more, eggs have helped to shape life on Earth as much as life has shaped them.

In this episode I speak to zoologist and award-winning science writer Jules Howard about his new book Infinite Life: A Revolutionary Story of Eggs, Evolution and Life on Earth.

He tells us about the fascinating evolution of eggs over hundreds of millions of years, the strange and varied forms they’ve taken over all of this time, and how the story all began with jellyfish.
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Do you brush your teeth before you shower in the morning, or do you shower first? Perhaps you like to give yourself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror before you’re about to give an important presentation at work. Or maybe you always cook a particular meal on special occasions.

These are all examples of the personal rituals that many of us perform in our daily lives. But where do they come from, why are we so attached to them, and can they really help us to have a better day or make a more successful presentation?

In this episode I speak to Prof Michael Norton, a behavioural scientist based at Harvard University. He tells me about the fascinating discoveries he made while writing his new book The Ritual Effect: The Transformative Power of Our Everyday Actions.
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From the time that we are first developing in the womb right through until we are in our old age, the food we eat has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing.

But exactly what should we be feeding our infants, how do the dietary choices we make as adolescents affect us later in life and how can we approach nutrition as we age to make sure we stay healthy for as long as possible?

In this episode I speak to Dr Federica Amati, a medical scientist and head nutritionist at the ZOE project.

We talk about the latest thinking on nutritional science she outlines in her book Every Body Should Know This: The Science of Eating for a Lifetime of Health.
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Whether they’re triggered by looking through old family photographs, hearing a piece of music you haven’t heard for years or eating a favourite childhood snack, feelings of nostalgia often come flooding into our hearts and minds.

But what is going on in our brains when we have these feelings?

In this episode I catch up with writer and historian Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster a writer, author of the new book Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion.

She tells us how this intriguing emotion has gone from being thought of as a deadly disease to being used as a therapy to treat degenerative cognitive conditions.
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We all forget things from time to time, it’s a normal part of everyday life. But according to the latest research in neuroscience, it is forgetting, not remembering that is the brain’s default action.

So why is this?

In this episode I speak to Prof Charan Ranganath, director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at UC Davis and author of the book Why We Remember: The Science of Memory and How it Shapes Us.

He tells us how memories form in our brains, how they are intimately linked to our emotions and imagination, and why we often walk into another room and forget why we went there in the first place.
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