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BBC Radio 4

Hannah Fry and Dara Ó Briain tackle listeners' conundrums with the power of science!

The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry

Fruit-powered batteries are the ultimate school science experiment, but they’re normally used to power a pocket calculator. This week’s listener wants to know if they could do more, and sends the team on a quest to discover whether they could used to send a rocket into space?

Professor Saiful Islam is the Guinness World Record holder for the highest voltage from a fruit-based battery, but disappoints the team when he reveals they produce very little power. He used 3,000 of them and only managed a measly 2 Watts. Given that spaceships are famously difficult to get off the ground, it seems a lemon battery might just fail the acid test. 

Author Randall Munroe is undeterred and suggests alternative ways to get energy from citrus, including burying them to make oil. Then the team discuss the pros and cons of switching to a lemon-based diet. 

For battery expert Paul Shearing, all this raises a serious question, about how we will power the planes of the future. He suggests solar power could play a part in short-haul flights and discusses some of the exciting battery materials being tested today.

Contributors:

Randall Munroe, author
Professor Paul Shearing, Oxford University
Professor Saiful Islam, Oxford University 

Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Audio Production

9. A lemon-powered spaceship

Wake up! It’s time for a dreamy new episode of Curious Cases all about the science of sleepwalking. 

Listener Abigail has done some strange things in her sleep, from taking all the pictures off the wall, to searching for Turkish language courses. And she wants to know: WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

It turns out Abigail is not alone. Hannah and Dara hear weird and wonderful stories of extreme sleepwalkers - from the lady who went on midnight motorbike excursions, to the artist who does all his best work while asleep. They delve into the neuroscience to find out how you can remain in deep sleep while walking, talking or even peeing in your mum's shopping basket. They learn about some cutting edge research where the participants were sleep deprived and then half-woken with scary sounds, and they zero in on the key triggers, from a boozy night out to a squeaky bed.

Contributors
Professor Russell Foster: University of Oxford.
Professor Guy Leschziner: King’s College London and Guys’ and St Thomas’ hospital 
Lee Hadwin: the sleep artist
Professor Francesca Siclari: The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Producer: Ilan Goodman
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Audio Production

10. Night Walkers

When you die, would you want to be frozen so that one day you might be brought back to life? Listener Elspeth wants to know if that’s even possible. So Hannah and Dara embark on a quest to explore the chiling science of ‘cryobiology’: preserving living things at really low temperatures.

It turns out there are already thousands of people alive who were once suspended in antifreeze and stored in liquid nitrogen - when they were just a small clump of cells! There’s even a frog which can turn into a ‘frogsicle’ for months on end. But re-animating full size humans is a challenge no one has solved…yet. Will some miraculous nanotechnology of a distant future solve the problem? 

Contributors:

Professor João Pedro de Magalhães: University of Birmingham 
Hayley Campbell: Author and broadcaster
Professor Joyce Harper: UCL 
Dr Hanane Hadj-Moussa: The Babraham Institute, Cambridge 
Garrett Smyth: Cryonics UK

Producer: Ilan Goodman
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Audio Production

11. Freeze Me When I Die

Drs Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry are on hand to solve everyday mysteries sent in by listeners. For the last few weeks they've been collecting cases to investigate using the power of science - from why people shout on their mobile phones to what causes traffic jams. 

In the first episode, called 'The Scarlet Mark', they get to the root of the following conundrum, posed by Sheena Cruickshank in Manchester: 

'My eldest son is ginger but I am blonde and my husband brunette so we are constantly asked where the red came from. Further, people do say the "ginger gene" is dying out, but how good is that maths or is it just anecdotal?' 

Our science sleuths set out to discover what makes gingers ginger with a tale of fancy mice, Tudor queens and ginger beards. 

Featuring historian and author Kate Williams and Jonathan Rees from the University of Edinburgh, one of the team who discovered the ginger gene. 

If you have any scientific cases for the team to investigate please email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk 

Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford 
Producer: Michelle Martin.

The Scarlet Mark

Drs Rutherford and Fry set out to discover what makes traffic jam. Adam ventures on to the M25 in search of a tailback, and Hannah looks at projects around the world that have attempted to solve the scourge of the traffic jam.

Featuring Neal Harwood from the Transport Research Laboratory and BBC technology reporter, Jane Wakefield. And Masdar City man.

If you have any scientific cases for the team to investigate please email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin.

The Phantom Jam

Drs Rutherford and Fry tackle a vexing case sent in by Daniel Sarano from New Jersey, who asks why people shout on their mobile phones in public.

Our science sleuths find the answer by delving into the inner workings of telephony with a tale of engineering rivalry, Victorian etiquette and early otolaryngology.

Featuring acoustic technologist Nick Zakarov and historian Greg Jenner, author of 'A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Daily Life.'

If you have any scientific cases for the team to investigate please email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin.

The Aural Voyeur

Science sleuths Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford investigate the following question sent in by Philip Le Riche:

'Why do some people faint at the sight of blood, or a hypodermic needle, or even if they bash their funny bone? Does it serve any useful evolutionary purpose, or is just some kind of cerebral error condition?'

Adam is strapped onto a hospital tilt table in an attempt to make him blackout and Hannah receives an aromatic surprise.

Featuring consultant cardiologists Dr Nicholas Gall and Dr Adam Fitzpatrick and cardiac physiologist Shelley Dougherty.

If you have any scientific cases for the team to investigate please email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin.

The Squeamish Swoon

An unusual case today for science sleuths Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford sent by Elisabeth Hill:

'Can we shoot garbage into the sun?'

The duo embark on an astronomical thought experiment to see how much it would cost to throw Hannah's daily rubbish into our stellar dustbin. From space elevators to solar sails, they explore the various options that could be used to send litter to the Sun. 

Featuring space scientist Lucie Green and astrophysicist Andrew Pontzen.

If you have any everyday mysteries for the team to investigate using the power of science, please email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin.

The Stellar Dustbin

Today the team examine the chemistry of tea, in answer to the following question sent in by Fred Rickaby from North Carolina:

"When we are preparing a cup of tea and the cup contains nothing but hot, brewed tea we need to add milk and sugar. My wife always adds the sugar first, stirs the cup to make sure it is dissolved and then add the milk. So, is that an optimum strategy for adding milk and sugar to a cup of tea?” 

Adam consults Prof Andrea Sella from University College London about the perfect formula for a cup of tea. Inside his tea factory in Kent, Master Blender Alex Probyn teaches Hannah an unusual method for tasting tea.

Most importantly, the duo discovers whether you should add milk first or last. But can tea professionals really tell the difference?

If you have any questions for Drs Rutherford & Fry to investigate send them to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin

The Tea Leaf Mystery

Listener Edith Calman challenges our scientific sleuths to investigate the following conundrum:

'What is it about extreme pain, emotional shock or the sight of a three year old stumbling their way through an off-key rendition of 'Away in a Manger' that makes the brain send messages to the lacrimal glands to chuck out water?"

Hannah discovers how the eye produces tears, with the help of Dr Nick Knight. 

Broadcaster Claudia Hammond, author of 'Emotional Rollercoaster', explains why Darwin experimented on his children until they cried.

Adam watches a tearjerker to take part in a psychological study, but ends up getting quite angry instead.

If you have any everyday mysteries you'd like the team to solve email: curiouscases@bbc.co.uk

Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin.

The Psychic Tear

While chatting at the back of class, best mates Abi and Sofia got curious about bubbles. How do you make really giant ones? Could you even get one around the entire planet?

Hannah and Dara set out to investigate. They hear from a renowned 'bubbleologist', and learn how NASA helped him blow his way to a world record. They coax a physicist to reveal the secrets of his peer-reviewed bubble-juice formula, and investigate how bubbles work in space and in the ocean. 

Our curious duo also discover an audacious project aiming to build a Brazil-sized raft of bubbles... in space! 

Contributors:

Dr Helen Czerski, UCL
Dr Justin Burton, Emory University
Dr Awesome, Bubbleologist
Professor Carlo Ratti, MIT 

Producer: Ilan Goodman
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Audio Production

1. Space Bubbles

1. Space Bubbles

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