Instant Genius

Latest Episodes:

What we got wrong about pandas and teenagers Sep 26, 2018

Show notes

Scientists Lucy Cooke and Sarah-Jayne Blakemore’s books have been shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize. They tell us the unexpected truth about animals and the secret life of the teenage brain.

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How to invent everything - Ryan North Sep 19, 2018

Show notes

How helpful would you be if you were stranded in the past? Ryan North imagined telling people how cool computers are, but if they asked him how to make one, he’d be stumped. So he did some research, and in his hilarious new book he’s teaching us how to invent everything.

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Why aren't there more women in science? Sep 12, 2018

Show notes

Girls are not picking as many STEM A-levels as boys, while professional female scientists are dropping out of the field. Is it time for change? In this episode we talk to four women currently working in STEM about their experiences, the problems faced by women and girls, and how we can fix the issues.

The panel:

Dr Suzie Imber - Associate professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester. Last year she won the BBC Two series Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?
Angela Saini - Award-winning science journalist who wrote Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong.
Dr Aoife Hunt - Associate director and mathematician at Movement Strategies, which is a company that specialises in crowd flow planning.
Dr Jess Wade - Physicist at Imperial College London. This year she won the Daphne Jackson prize from the Institute of Physics.

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Identifying Jack the Ripper - David Wilson Sep 05, 2018

Show notes

Five violent murders were committed by a man dubbed ‘Jack the Ripper’ between August and November 1888 in Whitechapel. Criminologist David Wilson and actor Emilia Fox, with the help of the country’s leading criminal investigators, apply the latest scientific techniques to the case in a new BBC Science documentary. We asked Wilson if they identified the killer.

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Why AI is not the enemy - Jim Al-Khalili Aug 30, 2018

Show notes

Jim Al-Khalili explains how artificial intelligence has changed the world, who benefits from it, and why we probably shouldn’t be afraid of it destroying humanity.

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Could these gloves be the future of music? Aug 22, 2018

Show notes

Imogen Heap has pushed the creative boundaries in the creation of electronic music, but now she is using technology a different way that she hopes will create a fairer and more inclusive future for musicians. She talks to us about how blockchain could revolutionise the music industry, and how her innovative mi.mu gloves are changing the way we create and perform electronic music.

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What's going on with the weather? - Dann Mitchell Aug 16, 2018

Show notes

This summer has been one of the hottest on record, so we asked climate change researcher Dann Mitchell what has caused the summer heatwave, can we expect more, and is there anything we can do about it?

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What asteroids can tell us about our Solar System Aug 08, 2018

Show notes

What asteroids can tell us about our Solar System

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Wildfires: past, present and future Aug 01, 2018

Show notes

Geologist Prof Andrew Scott on our complex relationship with wildfires

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Inequality in Science Jul 25, 2018

Show notes

Women are underrepresented in science, and some experts are asking whether there are biological reasons why. Meanwhile, racial studies are creeping back into mainstream science. We talk to Angela Saini about the science of gender and race, and about how to even the playing field.

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