Curious Cases

Nov 09 2024 142 ep. 27 mins 15.1k

Curious Cases Podcast artwork

Hannah Fry and Dara Ó Briain tackle listeners' conundrums with the power of science!

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5. The Taste of Words

Nov 09 2024 29 mins

11 year old Esther visualises days of the week in a kind of 3D structure. It’s something called ‘synaesthesia’ and she wants to know why it happens - and why other people don’t experience things the way she does. Hannah Fry and Dara Ó Briain explore the vibrant and varied ways different people experience the world, from the man who tastes individual words - including all t

4. In the Groove

Nov 02 2024 30 mins

It’s sometimes said that timing is everything and this week the pair investigate the mystery of rhythm, discovering why some of us might be better at staying in tempo.From the daily cycle of dawn and dusk to sea tides and circadian clocks, rhythm governs many aspects of our lives, and cognitive psychologist Dr Maria Witek says it makes sense we also place great importance on its

3. Mirror, Mirror

Oct 26 2024 30 mins

9 year old listener Koby sends Hannah and Dara on a mission to find the shiniest thing in the world. And so they enter a world of mirrors… The journey takes them into the subatomic goings on of shiny metal surfaces, where electrons waggle and dance and send light waves back at *just* the right angle. Our curious duo play with an astonishingly reflective plastic film that can be f

2. The 5 Second Rule

Oct 19 2024 28 mins

Would you eat food that fell on the floor? That’s the question Hannah and Dara are getting their teeth into this week as they put the so-called ‘5 second rule’ through its paces. For some people it’s 3 seconds, and for others its 10 – especially if it involves a dropped ice cream and a screaming child. But microbiologist Don Schaffner says there’s no safe amount of time

1. Space Bubbles

Oct 12 2024 28 mins

While chatting at the back of class, best mates Abi and Sofia got curious about bubbles. How do you make really giant ones? Could you even get one around the entire planet?Hannah and Dara set out to investigate. They hear from a renowned 'bubbleologist', and learn how NASA helped him blow his way to a world record. They coax a physicist to reveal the secrets of his peer-reviewed bu

Introducing a brand new series of Curious Cases!

Oct 04 2024 2 mins

Curious Cases is returning! Superstar mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry teams up with legendary comedian and fellow science nerd Dara Ó Briain for an all-new series of the show which takes your quirkiest questions and solves them with the power of SCIENCE.In this short preview ep, our dynamic duo tease some of the upcoming episodes in which they enlist the world’s top exp

The Impossible Number

Feb 14 2023 41 mins

There is a bizarre number in maths referred to simply as ‘i’. It appears to break the rules of arithmetic - but turns out to be utterly essential for applications across engineering and physics. We’re talking about the square root of -1. WHICH MAKES NO SENSE.Professor Fry waxes lyrical about the beauty and power of this so-called ‘imaginary’ number to a sceptical Dr Ruthe

The Mind Numbing Medicine

Feb 07 2023 43 mins

This episode will render you oblivious, conked out and blissfully unaware. It’s about anaesthetics: those potent potions that send you into a deep, deathly sleep. Listener Alicia wants to know how they work, so our sleuths call on the expertise of consultant anaesthetist Dr Fiona Donald. Fiona shares her experience from the clinical frontline, and explains what we do and don’t

The Resurrection Quest

Jan 31 2023 38 mins

‘Can we bring back extinct species?’ wonders listener Mikko Campbell. Well, Professor Fry is pretty excited by the prospect of woolly mammoths roaming the Siberian tundra once more. And everyone is impressed with the science that might make it happen. But Dr Rutherford comes out STRONGLY against the whole thing. Can our expert guests win him over? Dr Helen Pilcher shares the ta

The Puzzle of the Pyramids

Jan 24 2023 36 mins

The Great Pyramids of Giza are awesome feats of engineering and precision. So who built them - and how? Was it a mysteriously super-advanced civilization now oddly extinct? Was it even aliens? Nah, course not! Rutherford and Fry investigate how these inspiring monuments were really constructed, and learn about the complex civilisation and efficient bureaucracy that made them possib