314 - Fluke - Brian Klaas (rebroadcast)

<p>Philosopher, neuroscientist, and psychologist, Joshua Greene tells us how the brain generates morality and how his research may have solved the infamous trolley problem, and in so doing created a way to encourage people to contribute to charities that do the most good, and, in ... Show More

<p>We sit down with Dr. Madeleine Beekman, a professor emerita of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology at the University of Sydney, Australia, whose new book, The Origin of Language, presents a completely new and fascinating theory for how language emerged in homo sapiens, ... Show More

<p>In this episode we welcome Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, a political scientist who studies how cognitive dissonance affects all sorts of political behavior. She’s also the co-host of a podcast about activism called "What Do We Want?" and she wrote a book titled Don’t Talk About Pol ... Show More

Brian Cox and Robin Ince discuss some of the more unlikely and odd avenues of research travelled down in the name of science. For example, the British physicist who calculated the optimal way to dunk a biscuit into a cup of tea without it disintegrating too quickly. Or the brain ... Show More

In this captivating episode of Breaking Math, hosts Gabriel and Autumn dive deep into chaos theory—a fascinating branch of mathematics that explores the behavior of complex systems highly sensitive to initial conditions. They break down the butterfly effect, revealing how tiny va ... Show More

Doyne Farmer is something of a rebel. Back in the seventies, when he was a student, he walked into a casino in Las Vegas, sat down at a roulette table and beat the house. To anyone watching the wheel spin and the ball clatter to its final resting place, his choice of number would ... Show More

<p>Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Fooled by Randomness" argues that <strong>luck significantly impacts success</strong>, more than people realize. The book highlights cognitive biases like <strong>survivorship bias</strong>, where only successful outcomes are considered, and the <stron ... Show More

Have you ever pondered the fact that the universe is expanding? And not only that, it's expanding at an increasing speed - meaning everything around us is getting further and further away? If that isolating thought makes you feel slightly panicked, don't worry: this programme als ... Show More

The psychologist Chris French has spent decades studying paranormal claims and mysterious experiences, from seemingly impossible coincidences to paintings that purportedly predict the future. In this episode from April 2024, Ian Sample sits down with French to explore why so many ... Show More

Could understanding the mystery of the Big Bang and how the Universe came into creation mean that we can finally know for sure if there is a creator? Professor Brian Keating is a cosmologist and experimental physicist at the University of California San Diego. He is the host of ... Show More

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by mathematician Marcus Du Sautoy, science journalist Adam Rutherford and comic book legend Alan Moore to discuss why symmetry seems such a pervasive phenomenon throughout our universe, and possibly beyond. The world turns on symmetry -- from t ... Show More

<b>*Board of inquiry hands down its findings into the Vega C rocket failure</b> A European Space Agency board of inquiry has found a fault in a nozzle caused the failure of the European Vega C rocket's second flight. <b>*The most detailed study yet of a Gigantic Jet</b> A detaile ... Show More

You know, it's amazing how despite this current age of information, we sometimes get lost in what’s actually true and struggle to wade through the constant barrage of misinformation. It sometimes feels like everyone's got a theory for something, whether it’s the results of the 20 ... Show More