Instant Genius

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Welcome to Instant Genius May 31, 2021

Show notes

The podcast that gives you the chance to be an expert in everything.

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How AI and androids could shape the music of the future May 24, 2021

Show notes

While Daft Punk may have sadly split, machine-created music may be about to skyrocket in popularity. Not only are artificial intelligence neural networks now capable of creating original melodies, but scientists are also developing robots capable of playing – and improvising – live music.

So, will AI and androids soon top the charts? And could they even replace human musicians entirely?

On this week's episode of the Science Focus Podcast, Prof Nick Bryan-Kinns, director of the Media and Arts Technology Centre at Queen Mary University of London, joins staff writer Thomas Ling to explain groundbreaking new music technology.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Could 'counterfactuals' solve the biggest problems in physics? May 17, 2021

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Most laws of physics tell us what must happen. Throw a ball in the air and it will come back down. But physicist Chiara Marletto, a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, says that laws like this only tell us part of the story.

She believes that the rest lies in 'counterfactuals': things that could be.

In her new book, The Science of Can and Can’t (£20, Allen Lane), she explains how these counterfactual properties could solve many of science’s biggest outstanding problems.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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What happens to you after 40 days with no natural light? May 10, 2021

Show notes

Around two months ago, a group of 15 people – scientists, explorers and medics – travelled deep into a cave in the south of France. The expedition descended to a point so deep that natural light could not reach them, and there the team stayed for 40 days and 40 nights without clocks, phones or anyway of telling the time.

The project’s goal was to understand what happens to our brains and bodies when we’re deprived of an external measure of time and they hoped to discover how a group of people could adapt to such an extreme situation.

Just two weeks ago, that team emerged from the cave, and Christian Clot, the expedition’s leader and the designer of the DEEP TIME mission, joins editor Daniel Bennett on this week's episode of the Science Focus Podcast to talk about what the experiment discovered, how the expedition changed him and what ultimately happened when the team returned to the surface.

Let us know what you think of the Science Focus Podcast by filling out our survey. By submitting it, you enter the prize draw to win one of seven £100 Voucher Express Gift Cards. It should take no more than five minutes. UK residents only. Full T&Cs.

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Why do humans make music? May 03, 2021

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Our lives are full of music, from the songs we sing along to on the radio to the orchestral scores that bring a film to life. But why is it that humans love to make music, and how did it evolve in the first place?

Musicologist Prof Michael Spitzer, author of the new book The Musical Human (£30, Bloomsbury), joins BBC Science Focus online assistant Sara Rigby on this week’s episode to explain.

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The future of human flight, with real-life Iron Man Richard Browning Apr 26, 2021

Show notes

In this week's episode of the Science Focus Podcast, we talk to the "real-life Iron Man" – not Marvel's Tony Stark, but inventor Richard Browning.

He’s the creator of the ‘Jet Suit’, which can fly one person through the air at speeds of 135km/h. He’s also founder and chief test pilot of Gravity Industries and author of new book Taking on Gravity (£20, Bantam Press).

He explains his quite literal rise to success – and the future of human flight.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Why realistic humanoid robots need to learn to lip-sync Apr 19, 2021

Show notes

In this week's episode of the Science Focus Podcast, commissioning editor Jason Goodyer speaks to Dr Carl Strathearn, a research fellow at the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University.

He's currently conducting research on realistic humanoid robots, specifically on more realistically synchronising their speech and mouth movements.

He tells us about how to get robots out of the Uncanny Valley, why the way a robot looks is so important, and why Data from Star Trek is an inspiration for his work.

Read an edited excerpt from this interview

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How to understand statistics in the news and when to trust them Apr 12, 2021

Show notes

In this week's episode of the Science Focus Podcast, editor Daniel Bennett speaks to Tom Chivers and David Chivers.

Tom is a veteran science journalist and author and David is lecturer in economics at the University of Durham. As well as a surname, they share a passion for statistics, or more precisely for the way that numbers are used and presented in the media. Together they’ve written a new book: How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News and Knowing When to Trust Them.

They talk to Daniel about how to understand the sometimes confusing stats surrounding health and risk, how to spot a suspicious claim when you see one, and how to think about the current concerns surrounding the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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The bizarre biology of the mantis shrimp Apr 05, 2021

Show notes

What is your favourite animal? If you know anything about the mantis shrimp, it might well be your top pick. Dwelling in shallow tropical waters, these mysterious predators not only wield one of the strongest punches in nature, but also a one-of-a-kind visual system that scientists are only just making sense of.

One of these scientists is Dr Martin How from the University of Bristol. He joins us on this week's episode of the Science Focus Podcast to reveal more about mantis shrimp and their remarkable abilities.

Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Read the full transcription of this episode [this will open in a new window]

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The creator of Bellingcat on using the internet to investigate global affairs Mar 29, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast, we speak to Elliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat. If you haven’t heard that name before, then you might be surprised to know that Bellingcat is behind some of the biggest news revelations of the decade.

They use social media and information freely available online to carry out what they call open source investigation.

Their work has uncovered the use of chemical weapons in Syria, identified suspects in the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury and identified the people responsible for downing flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Eliot speaks to editor Dan Bennett about his new book, We Are Bellingcat (£20, Bloomsbury), which tells the story of how a group of amateur hobbyists ended up taking on Russian spies.