What is friction?

Everything that moves involves frictional losses, but what actually is it?

• 36 mins

Why are my parents so annoying?

Blood is thicker than water but why are parents so annoying?

• 31 mins

Bullying Parrots and Glacial Cocktails

Work-place bullying between two parrots plus arctic cocktails with 5000 year old glacier

• 29 mins

How do you balance on a bicycle?

What’s going on when we ride a bicycle, how do we stay upright? CrowdScience investigates

• 27 mins

What happens to insects in the winter?

Marnie explores the many canny ways insects have adapted to survive extreme temperatures

• 27 mins

Why do we get jealous?

Crowdscience grapples with the green-eyed monster in close relationships.

• 29 mins

Where does the sand in a desert come from?

Lonely desert dunes have a romantic image, but how did they get there in the first place?

• 27 mins

How bad is our noise problem?

How does noise pollution impact wildlife and humans, and why do we hate certain sounds?

• 35 mins

Who’s afraid of public speaking?

Why does the thought of public speaking fill so many of us with terror?

• 28 mins

Are yoga claims bogus claims?

Which of the many claims about yoga are backed up by science?

• 28 mins

Where does our fat go when we exercise?

Where does our fat go when we exercise?

• 34 mins

Do climbing plants know where they’re going?

Marnie Chesterton finds out how clever climbing plants are.

• 29 mins

Can robots be soft?

CrowdScience uncovers how nature is weaving its way into robotic design

• 29 mins

Why do some people have panic attacks?

Sweating, nausea, chest pain: panic attacks affect 1 in 14 people but what is going on?

• 41 mins

How do my ears sense direction?

How do we hear a sound and immediately know where it’s coming from?

• 37 mins

What does flying do to my body?

We take to the skies to find out what effect working at 35,000 feet has on one's health.

• 37 mins

Is there anyone out there?

How many planets in the universe could be harbouring alien life?

• 27 mins

Do we have a sense of time?

Anand Jagatia finds out whether we have a sense of time, like our sense of taste or touch.

• 35 mins

What's living inside my gut?

Trillions of microbes live inside our gut. What impact do they have on our body?

• 32 mins

What are Ostriches for?

Flightless wings, flawless eggs, priceless feathers… meet the ostrich!

• 28 mins

Why am I so lazy?

Is laziness biological, psychological … or even a real thing?

• 37 mins

Can sea-swimming improve my health?

Can sea swimming improve my health?

• 33 mins

Why is the sun at the centre?

With astronomers and physicists, we unpack how we know the Earth revolves around the sun

• 27 mins

Is there a connection between memory and speech?

Caroline Steel finds out how dementia affects our ability to speak

• 28 mins

Can Artificial Intelligence teach itself?

What happens if artificial intelligence starts learning from its own material?

• 26 mins

Why can’t I see images in my head?

Anand Jagatia discovers what mental images are for and why some people don’t have them

• 38 mins

Human v machine

How efficient are humans?

• 27 mins

Why do I crave unhealthy foods?

What are food cravings and why do we crave unhealthy foods instead of healthy ones?

• 30 mins

Why do we experience vertigo?

Anand Jagatia finds out why we lose our sense of balance

• 33 mins

Why aren't we all ambidextrous?

With a panel of experts, we unpack why some people (and animals) are left or right-handed

• 34 mins

Why do we get bored?

Why boredom affects some people more than others and why it can lead to innovation

• 27 mins

Why does some music make us sad?

How music and emotion are intimately linked

• 35 mins

Is the ‘sunshine cure’ a real thing?

Does living somewhere sunny make us happier and healthier?

• 26 mins

Are dogs good for us?

Investigating whether our canine companions are good for our health and wellbeing

• 28 mins

What is the weight of the internet?

How do we go about trying to weigh the internet – what even counts as part of it?

• 35 mins

How do butterflies and moths fly?

Why do butterflies and moths fly so erratically, but land so precisely?

• 26 mins

What does a sustainable life look like?

What would it take for all eight billion of us to share the planet sustainably?

• 28 mins

Why do my children stress me out?

Caroline Steel investigates how we respond to stress.

• 27 mins

Why am I scared of bridges?

What makes a fear become a phobia, and where do they come from?

• 28 mins

Can we grow a conscious brain?

With advances in stem cell research, could we grow a human brain? And would we want to?

• 26 mins

What is consciousness?

It's easy to observe that we ourselves are conscious but how do you study this phenomenon?

• 36 mins

Can humans be part of healthy ecosystems?

We depend on ecosystems for our survival, so can we play a more sustainable role in them?

• 30 mins

Why are spices delicious?

CrowdScience listener Kristine wants to know why herbs and spices taste so good?

• 27 mins

Which is healthier, farmed or wild salmon?

This week on CrowdScience: which is healthier, farmed salmon or wild?

• 36 mins

Green Man Festival: Why are some animals so ugly?

Why are some animals cute – and some downright weird?

• 26 mins

How does food affect our mood?

What we eat impacts our microbiome. How does that impact our mental health?

• 27 mins

What will 1.5° of warming look like?

Listener Julian wants to know what to expect on the other side of this climate threshold.

• 39 mins

Why do we lie?

Almost all of us lie. But how did it become so engrained in human behaviour?

• 26 mins

What’s the difference between reading and listening to books?

Why our brains respond differently if we listen to books instead of reading them

• 27 mins

What is brainwashing?

Is it possible to control someone’s mind?

• 36 mins

Where does our fat go when we exercise?

What happens to the fat in our bodies when we exercise?

• 26 mins

Are seeds alive?

How come a seed can do nothing for months, or even years, before bursting into life?

• 27 mins

2023 Year-End Extravaganza, Part 1

It’s Part 1 of CrowdScience’s year-end extravaganza! Say hello to some familiar faces.

• 35 mins

2023 Year End Extravaganza, Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our year-end extravaganza, full of bonus content and stories

• 26 mins

Will electric cars help solve noise pollution?

Will electric cars solve noise pollution?

• 28 mins

Can planting trees solve the climate crisis?

Can we plant enough trees to soak up all the extra carbon we put into the atmosphere?

• 26 mins

Were humans ever semi-aquatic?

Was there a semi-aquatic period for humans as we’ve evolved?

• 26 mins

How should we measure cleverness?

The CrowdScience team are tested to the limit to see how brainy they are.

• 26 mins

Why do we daydream?

Meandering into your wandering mind, why can’t we stay present?

• 30 mins

When will the next earthquake hit?

Will we ever be able to predict earthquakes?

• 27 mins

What time was the first clock set to?

From sundials to atomic clocks via Big Ben, a quest into the history of timekeeping.

• 27 mins

Why do we have wisdom teeth?

Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe

• 28 mins

How bad is our data for the planet?

What's the environmental impact of all the data we use?

• 27 mins

Do we all see the same colour?

Caroline Steel investigates what affects the way we see the colours of the world

• 29 mins

Is the BMI fatphobic?

How useful is the Body Mass Index?

• 29 mins

Do animals have anxious habits like us?

Why do we bite our nails - and do animals share similar habits?

• 27 mins

Could climate change lead to more volcanic eruptions?

We head to New Zealand to ask how a hotter planet will affect volcanoes.

• 27 mins

How many people have ever existed?

Listener Alpha in Sierra Leone asks us to count all the humans who have ever lived

• 26 mins

How do my ears sense direction?

How can we hear a sound and immediately know where it’s coming from?

• 32 mins

Are our coastlines being washed away?

What is coastal erosion and why is it a problem?

• 26 mins

How should we protect our coastlines?

What’s the best way to combat coastal erosion?

• 26 mins

Why am I bad at maths?

Why are some people better at mathematics than others?

• 30 mins