Instant Genius
by Our Media
Latest episode
The deep connection between science and art
The deep connection between science and art
About this podcast
Whether you’re curious about getting healthy, the Big Bang or the science of cooking, find out everything you need to know with Instant Genius. The team behind BBC Science Focus Magazine talk to world-leading experts to bring you two bite-sized masterclasses on a new subject each week.
New episodes are released every Monday and Friday and you can subscribe to Instant Genius on Apple Podcasts to access all new episodes ad-free and all old episodes of Instant Genius Extra.
Watch full episodes of Instant Genius on BBC Science Focus Magazine's YouTube channel.
Follow us on X: @SFIGPod
Episodes
The newest 50 of 694 episodes
- The deep connection between science and art · 24 min · Season 20 Episode 9In the late 1950s the scientist and novelist C.P. Snow declared that there’s a deep divide between the world of the arts and the world of science, as he famously said they are…
- What really happens in our brains when we sleep · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 497Every night when we fall asleep, our brains and bodies switch into a mode of functioning that’s entirely different from that of our waking lives. During sleep, our bodies become…
- How evolution made the strangest creatures on Earth · 33 min · Season 1 Episode 496Evolution by natural selection has given rise to a fascinating tapestry of living organisms, each occupying their own individual niche. The result is a world filled with a…
- The often-bizarre history of mind-machine interfaces · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 495Since the discovery of electricity, scientists, inventors and engineers have attempted to figure out ways in which this often-mysterious force could influence our brains and…
- Why our brains crave answers and the psychology of explanation · 32 min · Season 1 Episode 494Almost as soon as we are able to speak, we start asking our parents, relatives, and teachers an almost frustratingly large number of ‘why questions’. It’s an essential part of…
- Why our online lives are making us sick and how to fix it · 38 min · Season 1 Episode 493Over the last decade or so, it’s become abundantly clear that eating a diet based on ultra-processed food is damaging to our bodily health. Could it be that our information…
- Why tuning into your body’s natural rhythms is the key to productivity · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 492Sometimes, no matter how busy we are or how hard we work, when we look back on our day, it can seem like we didn’t really achieve very much. Why is this and what can we do to…
- How maths underpins almost every aspect of our lives · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 491For many of us, maths is simply a subject we studied at school to help us learn how to count, add one thing to another, and carry out everyday tasks such as managing our personal…
- Why bogs are one of the planet’s most undervalued ecosystems · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 490For those of us who live in towns and cities, bogs may seem to be a rare environmental relic left over from times gone by, or perhaps something we’ve only encountered onscreen in…
- Why leaves are one of nature’s most versatile creations · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 489From the neatly curated English country garden to the wild jungles of the Amazon, the Earth is host to a staggeringly diverse range of plant life. One of the key reasons for the…
- How to make buildings without harming the Earth · 33 min · Season 1 Episode 488Every built environment we spend our time in, our homes, offices, music venues or sports stadiums – is designed and constructed after hours of consideration about form and…
- Why humans are wired to appreciate beauty · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 487A late summer sunset, a peaceful, verdant forest, or a Shakespearean sonnet – these are all things that move us emotionally thanks to what we perceive as their beauty. But why is…
- How safety engineers test everyday products to destruction · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 486Whenever we buy a new product or use a service, we simply expect it to work as advertised, usually without giving much thought to how it came to being in the first place…
- Why we need to be taking asthma more seriously · 26 min · Season 1 Episode 485Currently, around one in ten of us are living with asthma. For many, the symptoms can be relatively mild, but for others, attacks can be severe, debilitating, and even…
- What our evolutionary history can teach us about eating well · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 484These days, supermarket shelves are filled with thousands of different products all vying for our attention; the options are almost endless. However, if we look back in time, we…
- Why Smell is Our Most Overlooked Sense · 27 min · Season 1 Episode 483Though often thought of as the poor cousin to our other senses, our sense of smell has played a key role in human life since its very beginnings. It helps us to determine whether…
- Are We Living in a Simulation? How to Tell If Reality Is Fake · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 482The possibility that we may be living in a simulation created by a more technologically advanced civilisation has occupied the minds of scientists, philosophers and fiction…
- Why we need to rethink our ideas about laziness · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 481Often in life, we find ourselves being accused of being lazy or accusing others of acting lazily, or maybe even becoming frustrated by what we see as laziness in our own actions…
- Why interpersonal conflict is a natural, healthy part of life · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 480No matter how gently or politely we live our lives, at one point or another, it’s inevitable that we’ll find ourselves in a situation in which we disagree with another person and…
- The hidden reasons common knowledge shapes our lives · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 479When we know a certain fact about the world or hold a certain belief how do we know that others also know this, how do we base our thoughts and actions on our knowledge of what…
- Why understanding how time works is the biggest mystery in science · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 478When most of us think about time our minds likely turn to thoughts of the second hand that ticks around a clock, or maybe the occasions we’ve been late to catch a bus. But if we…
- How forensic scientists gather vital evidence to solve crimes · 26 min · Season 1 Episode 477Whenever a crime is committed, tiny traces of evidence are left behind at the scene, which, if pieced together correctly, can tell us exactly what happened, when it happened and…
- Why the most extreme El Niño event for a century is on its way · 27 min · Season 1 Episode 476Every several years, the surface temperatures of the Pacific Ocean rise, triggering a climate event that has a domino effect on weather patterns across the globe. This is known…
- The secret world hidden in the ground below us · 37 min · Season 1 Episode 475Though we’re often not aware of it, the ground beneath our feet is teeming with an abundance of life and activity – from the complex networks of fungi and tangled roots put down…
- The truth about the Nazi fascination with alternative medicine · 25 min · Season 1 Episode 474It’s widely documented that during the time of the Third Reich, the Nazi Party employed a legion of scientists to aid them in their goals of military superiority and ethnic…
- What we’re getting wrong about narcissists · 28 min · Season 1 Episode 473Oftentimes in popular culture we’ll hear the term narcissist used to describe a person who has an inflated opinion of themselves, a big ego or someone who tends to overestimate…
- The latest breakthroughs in Parkinson’s research · 29 min · Season 1 Episode 472Parkinson’s disease currently affects more than 160,000 people in the UK. It’s a complex, progressive condition that typically develops slowly over many years and causes issues…
- How to harness your brain’s underused superpowers · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 471For a large proportion of our lives, our brains seemingly work on autopilot – the many processes the brain controls hum away behind the scenes, helping us to carry out our daily…
- How we define intelligent life · 29 min · Season 1 Episode 470What does it mean to be a living organism? What are the driving forces that motivate our thoughts and actions? Are we all simply acting the way we do thanks to the instructions…
- Exploring Darwin’s ideas through a queer lens · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 469When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in the mid-nineteenth century, his theory of evolution by natural selection turned many of the scientific ideas of the day…
- On the frontlines of our fight against dementia · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 468Currently there are around one million people in the UK living with dementia. Despite significant advances in our understanding of the disease over the past several decades an…
- Why the search for life on Mars is far from over · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 467Way back in 1976, NASA’s Viking landers touched down on Mars to search for potential signs of microbial life that could currently exist on the planet’s surface. Despite the…
- Why rediscovering simple pleasures may be the key to happiness · 33 min · Season 1 Episode 466Every single day of our lives, we’re exposed to a vast multitude of experiences and interactions with the various people, objects and technologies in the wider world that…
- Why human urine may be our most untapped natural resource · 27 min · Season 1 Episode 465While largely viewed as a toxic waste product with no practical use, our urine is actually rich in all manner of valuable nutrients that, with a little effort, can be extracted…
- How new technology can change our emotional lives for the better · 29 min · Season 1 Episode 464It’s clear to all of us that the rapid progress that technology has made over the last century or so has had profound impacts on almost every aspect of our lives. But often, the…
- The birth, evolution and future of microchips · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 463It’s a good bet that if most of us were to glance around our living rooms or offices, we’d quickly spot all manner of electronic devices that are powered by microchips. Since…
- What we can learn from music’s ability to evoke images in our minds · 26 min · Season 1 Episode 462For most of us, music has a unique, almost supernatural, ability to trigger our emotions and memories and conjure up evocative images or even fantasies in our minds in a way that…
- Why the liver is the body’s most misunderstood organ · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 461Most of us think about the liver as simply being the body’s filtration system that acts as a sponge that removes toxins from our bloodstreams. But the truth is it performs many…
- Why this common women’s health condition is so misunderstood · 42 min · Season 1 Episode 460Despite affecting as many as 80 per cent of women by the age of 50, fibroids, lumps of tissue that grow in or around the womb, are not commonly discussed outside of specialist…
- The miraculous healing ability of our brains · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 459It was previously thought that once our brains suffer an injury due to stroke or trauma, the potential for recovery was severely limited. But recent developments in medicine have…
- How parasites play a vital role as caretakers of Earth’s ecosystems · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 458When most of us think of parasites, our minds will likely turn to thoughts of the various icky creatures that can invade our bodies, make their homes there and end up making us…
- How to keep your body younger for longer · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 457When it comes to the effects of ageing on our bodies, there are many more factors at play than simply the number of years we’ve been alive. It turns out, that for some people…
- Why wasps are one of the planet’s most misunderstood insects · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 456The truth is, when most of us think of wasps, our minds will likely go to memories of irritating winged pests landing in our drinks when we’re trying to have a nice summer picnic…
- Why you probably don’t need to be taking dietary supplements · 32 min · Season 1 Episode 455These days the supplement industry is booming – supermarket shelves are stacked high with all manner of pills and powders claiming to do everything from helping us to live longer…
- Why this tiny organism is essential for the health of the planet · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 454Although it often goes unnoticed, plankton is the most abundant form of life in Earth’s oceans, making up 95 per cent of all oceanic biomass. These tiny organisms are responsible…
- What happens in our bodies when our hormones misfire · 32 min · Season 1 Episode 453Every minute of every day, our bodies are flooded with a complex web of hormones – chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream, coordinating everything from our blood…
- What we can learn about parenting from the animal kingdom · 28 min · Season 1 Episode 452Becoming a parent is undoubtedly one of the biggest events that can occur in any of our lifetimes – suddenly we have a tiny living being to take care of that demands the majority…
- Don’t miss the upcoming Nature’s Unsung Heroes miniseries! · 1 minWhile the larger, more impressive or charismatic animal and plant species often receive the most attention, the natural world is filled with lesser-known or even misunderstood…
- Why bisexuality is everywhere · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 451In June of every year, the LGBTQ+ community across the world comes together to celebrate Pride Month – an annual event that began in 1970 to promote awareness, visibility and…
- The past, present and future of DNA science · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 450Whether it’s the swab tests many of us use to help us piece together our family trees, the painstaking detective work carried out by forensic scientists, or its use in medical…
