logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2023
21m 40s

#185 CultureLab: Cosmo Sheldrake on capt...

NEW SCIENTIST
About this episode
Have you ever stopped to think about what life underwater sounds like?  Well, now is your chance to hear it first-hand as multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Cosmo Sheldrake, has released a collection of music composed entirely out of recordings from our oceans and the animals that inhabit them. 'Wild Wet World' has been a decade in the making and ... Show More
Up next
Nov 21
The origin and evolution of music: Steve Pretty plays the conch
Episode 333 It’s not often you get to see or hear someone playing music on a conch shell. So prepare yourself for a musical treat with musician and podcaster Steve Pretty, who brings into the studio a trumpet and a collection of his favourite conches, rigged up to some modern el ... Show More
30m 43s
Nov 14
New genome of ancient human; 95% of us have a dormant virus that causes disease; Formula E cars faster than F1; Bill Bryson joins the pod!
Episode 332 For only the second time, the genome of an ancient Denisovan has been sequenced - thanks to the discovery of a 200,000-year-old tooth found in a Siberian cave. This ancient member of the human family has long been a mystery, so this genome is being described as a bom ... Show More
45m 2s
Nov 13
Why the claims about Hitler’s genome are misleading
Episode 331 This week sees the broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK of a documentary called Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a dictator. Geneticists have managed to find a DNA sample from Adolf Hitler and have sequenced it and verified it, and now we have his genome. The big question is wh ... Show More
29 m
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
The science of sound
Scientists, conservationists and other researchers are using audio soundscapes in innovative ways to record the natural world in rich detail and help develop strategies to preserve it. Gaia Vince visits the Dear Earth exhibition at London’s Southbank Centre where she interacts wi ... Show More
35m 39s
Mar 2018
The Bathysphere: Life in the Deep
<p>In 1930, American naturalist William Beebe began his descent in a spherical, unpowered submarine known as a Bathysphere -- and in doing so visited a world previously unseen by human beings. In this two-part Stuff to Blow Your Mind exploration, Robert Lamb and Joe McCormick dis ... Show More
42m 37s
Nov 2021
Listening to coral reefs
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and also some of the noisiest. Up close, a healthy reef teems with trills, whoops, buzzes, hums and snaps made by the diverse lifeforms that inhabit it. But as many reefs are now degrading due to rising temperature ... Show More
27m 11s
Jul 2023
Shhhhhh! It’s the sound and silence episode
<p>Humans are noisy. The National Park Service estimates that all of our whirring, grinding, and revving machines are doubling or even <i>tripling </i>global noise pollution every 30 years. </p><p>A lot of that noise is negatively affecting wildlife and human health. Maybe that’s ... Show More
29m 57s
Mar 2021
What the deep ocean can teach us about life
We’re exploring the parts of our world that require us to look a little deeper. From the depths of our oceans to the canopies that grace our skylines, we’ll be venturing into unfamiliar pockets of nature with the people who have carved a life out of choosing to study the things t ... Show More
26m 6s
Mar 2022
BrainStuff Classics: How Do Nutrients Get into the World's Oceans?
Phytoplankton are responsible for a lot of the oxygen we breathe, and their wellbeing is made possible by... deserts. Yes. Learn how the Sahara Desert and other dusty debris feeds our oceans in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/l ... Show More
5m 12s
Dec 2023
A year in music science: wonder, volume and animals that groove
As 2023 comes to a close, Short Wave teamed up with our friends at All Things Considered to round up some of our favorite stories of the year — this time, about the science behind music. First, science correspondent Rob Stein talks to researchers (and Phish's Mike Gordon) about w ... Show More
10m 56s
Mar 2022
Music from our material world
From spiderweb harmonies to a viral hit inspired by the COVID-19 spike protein 
51m 6s
Jun 2019
Humpback Hit Factory
There's a humpback whale song sensation that's sweeping the South Pacific. We'll learn about the burgeoning study of "whale culture"-and why these super smart cetaceans may have a lot more in common with us than we'd ever imagined. For more information on this episode visit natio ... Show More
21m 5s