Instant Genius

From 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 great evolutionary success of plants is the wide-ranging versatility and utility of the leaves that grow on them.

In this episode we’re joined by Prof Jonathan Silvertown, an evolutionary ecologist based at the University of Edinburgh, to talk about his latest book, Nature’s Magicians – How Leaves Conjure Up Our World.

He tells us how plants act as one of the natural world’s master chemists, explains how they contain internal clocks that allow them to track the time of day and even the time of the year, and details how they detect and respond to light, sounds, and even predatory attacks.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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Every 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 function. Oftentimes, less consideration is given to the impact this has on the health of the planet.

In this episode, we’re joined by Will Arnold, an environmentalist, engineer, and author, to talk about his latest book, Future Build – How Construction Can Heal Our Planet.

He breaks down the huge environmental impact the five most common materials we use to construct the buildings we spend our lives in have on our planet, tells us some of the ways we could be producing these materials more efficiently and using them more thoughtfully, and looks to a future in which we can construct buildings that are more in tune with the environments they’re built in.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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A 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 this so, why do environments, art, music, and even ideas move us so emotionally?

In this episode, we’re joined by Prof Nicholas Humphrey, an evolutionary psychologist and author, to talk about his latest book, Why Is the World So Beautiful? Our Minds in Search of Nature’s Rhymes.

He tells us how our sense of beauty is likely linked to our evolutionary tendency to seek out the patterns found in nature, why the appreciation of beauty seems to be unique to humans, and explains how our sense of beauty is anchored in the way that we try to understand the world we live in.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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Whenever 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. However, behind the scenes, every piece of technology we use, be it a toaster, a lawnmower or even the aeroplane we travel in when we head off on our holidays, has gone through a rigorous series of tests to ensure its safety and efficacy. This often-overlooked aspect of our everyday existence is carried out by test engineers.

In this episode we’re joined by tech journalist and author Alex Davies to talk about his latest book, How to Keep a Plane in the Sky – Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test Engineering.

He tells us how engineers design the products we rely on to perform well beyond any expected limits of use, how they build in safeguards to account for almost every eventuality and the great lengths they go to to account for human unpredictability.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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Currently, 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 life-threatening. For the most part, we’ve relied on the same method of treatment to manage the condition for the last few decades. However, new research is showing great promise in helping those who suffer from this often-overlooked condition.

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Samantha Walker, director of research at Asthma + Lung UK.

She tells us how asthma occurs in several different forms, why we still have so much to learn about the root causes of asthma, and how new technology can help us to treat this often-misunderstood condition more effectively.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices