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Mitigation or Suppression: What’s best to tackle Coronavirus? Mar 21, 2020

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Last week, while schools and businesses across Europe closed in an attempt to halt the spread of Coronavirus the UK stood alone in a more relaxed approach to the pandemic; letting people choose whether they wanted to go to work, or socially distance themselves. This week, things have changed. Schools are closing for the foreseeable future and exams have been cancelled. The British government says their change of heart was based on the work scientists like Christl Donnelly from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford. So what has Christl found that has caused such concern? (Image: A lollipop lady helps children cross the road in Glasgow. Credit: EPA/Robert Perry)

The mystery of Iran’s coronavirus numbers Mar 14, 2020

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Does Iran have a lot more covid-19 cases that its figures suggest?

How much heat do you lose from your head? Mar 09, 2020

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Every winter its the same, someone will tell you to put a hat on to save your body from losing all of its heat. But how much heat do you actually lose from your head? We take you on a journey from arctic conditions to a hot tub in Canada to explain why there might actually be more than one answer... Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Leoni Robertson and Lizzy McNeill

How much heat do you lose from your head? Mar 07, 2020

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(friends sitting in a hot tub in winter surrounded by snow. Photo Credit: Oleh Slobodeniuk/Getty images)

Netflix vs the environment Feb 29, 2020

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Does watching 30 minutes of Netflix have the same carbon footprint as driving four miles?

More or Less: Superforecasting, wood burning stoves and the real story of Hidden Figures Feb 28, 2020

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Dipping into the archive for stories on the art of prediction and wood burner pollution

Artificial (not so) Intelligence Feb 22, 2020

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Artificial Intelligence – or AI for short – is often depicted in films in the shape of helpful droids, all-knowing computers or even malevolent ‘death bots’. In real life, we’re making leaps and bounds in this technology’s capabilities with satnavs, and voice assistants like Alexa and Siri making frequent appearances in our daily lives. So, should we look forward to a future of AI best friends or fear the technology becoming too intelligent. Tim Harford talks to Janelle Shane, author of the book ‘You Look Like a Thing and I Love you’ about her experiments with AI and why the technology is really more akin to an earthworm than a high-functioning ‘death bot’.

WS More or Less: Coronavirus - The Numbers Feb 15, 2020

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A lot has changed since our last episode covering the numbers behind the coronavirus - for a start it now has a name, Covid-19. This week news has broken that deaths are 20 per cent higher than thought, and the number of cases has increased by a third. Tim Harford talks to Dr Nathalie MacDermott, a clinical lecturer at King’s College London about what we know – and what we still don’t.

Coronavirus, jam, AI and tomatoes Feb 14, 2020

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Covid-19 stats, spreading jam far and wide, cooking with AI, and James Wong on vegetables

WS More or Less: How fast are Alligators and Hippos? Feb 08, 2020

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We all know that you should never smile at a crocodile, but rumour has it that alligators are great perambulators – at least that’s what a booklet about Florida’s wildlife claimed. Tim Harford speaks to John Hutchinson, Professor of evolutionary bio-mechanics to see whether he could outrun one of these reportedly rapid retiles. Also – our editor thinks he could outrun a hippo, is he right? (…probably not).

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