The Rest Is Science - Goalhanger

Latest Episodes:

Michael Discovered A New Way To Make Twins May 31, 2026

Show notes

Is there a new way to make twins? If there is, Michael's might just have discovered it. And hint: it's going to hard work.

From Hannah’s twin-like sister to the most famous cells in human history, in this episode Hannah and Michael continue to explore whether we truly own of ourselves, this time at a microscopic level.

From our genome, to our cells and even our personalities, what happens in a future where cloning is the norm? Where Zygotes might be used to create mini-Michaels? And where reproduction as we know it now is...optional.

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

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Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

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Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Michael Abandoned Ink For Mechanical Pencils May 27, 2026

Show notes

What can be revealed about a person by their choice of…lead?

In this gloriously nerdy episode of Field Notes, Michael Stevens arrives armed with an entire collection of mechanical pencils, sparking a series of passionate debates about graphite, the merits of ink, and whether the perfect pencil will ever really exist.

Plus: what happens to fizzy drink bubbles in zero gravity? Why did early scientists believe sperm contained tiny pre-formed humans? Are gravitational waves the most beautiful thing in the cosmos? And are modern scientific discoveries becoming too complicated for any one person to fully understand?

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science

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Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

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Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do Our Bodies Really Belong To Us? May 24, 2026

Show notes

What happens to a body part once it’s been removed from your body? Can you take it home? Cremate it? Bury it? Even give it a funeral?

In the first episode of a new mini-series on ownership, Hannah and Michael explore a deceptively simple question: what parts of ourselves do we actually own?

From amputated limbs and stolen skulls to black markets for human organs, they uncover the strange, unsettling, and often lucrative world of body ownership. Why did grave robbing help advance modern medicine? When are flesh-eating beetles surprisingly useful? Who owns your organs after you die? And what does the bizarre fate of Einstein’s brain reveal about the blurry line between science, consent, and control after death?

This episode asks: do our bodies really belong to us?

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science

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Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hannah Predicted a Pandemic May 20, 2026

Show notes

What if the next pandemic could be predicted before it even begins?

Hannah and Michael step into the unsettling world of outbreak simulations, where scientists map invisible infections, model human behaviour, and try to stop global catastrophe before it starts.

Some warnings save millions. Others get ignored, until it’s too late.

After the break the conversation takes a turn into space stations, fizzy drinks in zero gravity, the first microscopes, and gravitational waves bending the fabric of spacetime itself.

Welcome to Field Notes!

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DARK vs LIGHT May 17, 2026

Show notes

Why are black cars more dangerous, white chess pieces more successful, and pandas apparently incapable of coping with minor inconvenience?

Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) unpack one deceptively simple question - which would win in a fight between black and white? - and end up exploring everything from colour psychology and radioactive frogs to quasars, fantasy literature, and whether the universe itself ultimately sides with darkness.

Along the way, Hannah invents a new category of “cool cult members,” Michael explains how light could theoretically form a black hole, and both attempt to avoid turning the entire episode into a Tolkien podcast.

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠partnerships@goalhanger.com⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polymetalic Nodules Are Weird May 13, 2026

Show notes

What if one of the most valuable objects on Earth has been sitting untouched at the bottom of the ocean for 100 million years?

In this Field Notes episode, Professor Hannah Fry brings Michael Stevens (VSauce) a strange metallic rock formed in the deepest parts of the Atlantic over millions of years.

What begins with a bizarre Cold War CIA cover story involving Howard Hughes and a sunken Soviet submarine quickly turns into a journey through deep sea geology, natural “electric” rocks, and the environmental dilemma of mining the ocean floor for the rare metals used in electric car batteries.

Plus: can you train yourself to become ambidextrous? are giraffes more vulnerable to lightning strikes than other animals? Does damp cold really feel colder than dry cold? And do humans actually sense wetness at all?

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producers: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"A Grim Enemy For Reasons We Do Not Yet Comprehend" May 11, 2026

Show notes

* This episode contains descriptions of warfare and use of chemical weapons *

How do you feed a world that’s running out of food?

In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens uncover one of the strangest and most unsettling stories in modern science: the tale of the man who learned how to pull fertiliser out of thin air.

This discovery transformed agriculture. It made modern civilisation possible. But it also powered explosives, prolonged the First World War, and helped to birth some of the most deadly chemical weapons in history.

From battles for bird poop and to the ethics of scientific progress, this is the story of the molecule that changed humanity forever.

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek
Animator: Sam Benson
Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell
Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe
Producer: Simona Rata
Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter
Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley
Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When 0 = 1000 May 06, 2026

Show notes

Why does one of the most familiar numbers on a nutrition label turn out to be far more complicated than it looks?

What can a can of fizzy drink teach us about thermodynamics, human metabolism, and the strange ways scientists measure energy?

Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce’s Michael Stevens dive into the weird science of calories. From century-old experiments involving fire, body heat, and human digestion to the hidden quirks of modern food labelling.

Do “negative calorie” foods really exist? Where does burned fat actually go? Why chewing matters more than you’d think, and how your body is constantly leaking energy out into the universe.

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science⁠⁠

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How To Use a Black Hole To See Your Past May 04, 2026

Show notes

What if the universe is recording everything you’ve ever seen and done?

In this episode, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the idea that light itself might carry a record of the past. And if it did, how could we watch history unfold by capturing it.

Could a perfectly placed mirror or even a black hole bend that ancient light back to us? Could we watch the pyramids being built, or hear Einstein’s final words?

From a nano-second old reflection in a mirror to the photons drifting through billions of miles of space, they reveal how everything we see is already gone, and uncover surprising truths about time, perception, and our own DNA.

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Science Of Motion Sickness Apr 29, 2026

Show notes

What can a humble airplane sick bag teach us about physics, engineering, and the limits of the human stomach; And why are there people out there collecting thousands of them?

Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce’s Michael Stevens turn an unlikely holiday prompt into a surprisingly rich exploration of flight. From the biology of motion sickness to the physics of turbulence, and from exploding crisp packets to next-generation aircraft design, they unpack how flying messes with your body and how science has made it (mostly) better.

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For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices