Do multiple choice questions make us biased? (00:29:01)
CrowdScience listener Griffith in Ghana, isn’t JUST a CrowdScience listener. He’s also a listener to our sister show on the World Service, Unexpected Elements. But he’s noticed something funny. In the...
Why do I tan more in the US? (00:26:28)
CrowdScience listener Namrata and presenter Chhavi Sachdev have something in common. They both get more tanned in the summer in the United States than back home in India. Namrata wants to know why she...
Do fish know what they look like? (00:26:28)
There’s something fishy going on in the Czech Republic, where CrowdScience listener Ian lives. He keeps tropical fish, and he’s noticed that when he adds new ones to his tank, they swim with others of...
Why do I find silence unbearable? (00:26:27)
Is silence blood-curdling or blissful? CrowdScience listener Ziqi finds it intolerable and thinks that there’s a good reason for it – silence is so rare in nature that it could be a signal for danger....
How do cicadas know what season it is? (00:26:29)
Crowdscience listener Ryosuke grew up in Japan, and spent his childhood summers catching cicadas in the park. For people in Japan, the sound of their chirping signals the first true summer day. But un...
Did I inherit my laugh? (00:26:28)
CrowdScience listener Limbikani in Zambia is always being told he has his Dad’s laugh, so he set us the challenge of trying to find out whether a laugh can be passed down in our genes or if it’s somet...
The CrowdScience quiz of the year (00:35:57)
In 2025, the crack team of intrepid presenters here on CrowdScience have been on some incredible adventures. They’ve wondered whether water is wet, and gone a hunt for a missing tangerine. They’ve won...
How do we adapt to the cold? (00:26:29)
When some people are wandering around in shorts and a t-shirt, others are wrapped up in warm coats and jumpers. How come our responses to cold weather are so different? People have been living in cold...
Can you play the guitar underwater? (00:26:29)
Smashing up guitars is a classic rock star activity, but how about drowning them? Seven-year-old listener Cornelius asked CrowdScience to find out what happens if you play a guitar underwater. Could t...
Can we turn deserts green? (00:33:04)
Can we turn the world’s deserts green? CrowdScience listener Youcef is captivated by the idea of bringing water back to Earth’s driest landscapes. With sea levels rising and huge stretches of land dry...
How big is a rainbow? (00:29:03)
When listener Sakura’s husband came home from his morning walk in Cambridgeshire, UK, he told her about a massive rainbow he’d seen. But when he showed her a picture, she didn’t think it was particula...
Why do we cry? (00:30:00)
Tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of frustration or tears of pain - humans are thought to be the only animals that cry tears of emotion. CrowdScience listener Lizzy wants to know: why do we cry fo...
Do tsunamis affect marine life? (00:26:54)
Tsunamis destroy buildings, habitats and danger to everything in its path on land. But how do they affect life under the water? That's what CrowdScience listener Alvyn wants to know, and presenter Ana...
Are near-death experiences real? (00:26:26)
In your final moments, they say, you may walk down a tunnel of light. You might rise above your body, watching the scene below before passing into another world. Perhaps you’ll be met by glowing figur...
Why do people love horror films? (00:31:26)
For some they’re the stuff of nightmares, but many of us can’t get enough of horror films. For Halloween, CrowdScience investigates the science of why we enjoy films that scare the living daylights ou...
Should we help maggots and caterpillars? (00:27:12)
We all know insects are important, but one CrowdScience listener worries that they don’t seem to have equal billing when it comes to human love and attention. In Scotland’s capital Edinburgh, listener...
Can we record our senses? (00:26:29)
How would you record a special moment? Maybe you could take a photograph, film a little video, or record some audio. We have lots of ways of recording what life LOOKS and SOUNDS like, but is the same ...
Are atoms immortal? (00:26:28)
Atoms are the building blocks of our world. Many have been around since right after the Big Bang created the universe nearly 14 billion years ago. And if life on Earth is made of atoms that are from a...
Why are some animals black and white? (00:27:02)
Listener Jude in Canada wants to know why some animals are black and white. Why do zebras risk being so stripy? Why do pandas have such distinct marking? And do they have something in common?
Prese...
Answers to even more questions (00:26:28)
Sometimes in science, when you try to answer one question it sparks even more questions. The CrowdScience inbox is a bulging example of that. We get tons of new questions every week and many of those...
Do birds understand us? (00:26:29)
CrowdScience listener David is a bird whisperer. On his family farm in Guinea, he would mimic the call of the black-headed weaver. He could replicate it so well that the birds would fly in close, cur...
Why am I so sentimental? (00:26:28)
CrowdScience listener Kerry started thinking about his sentimental attachment to his possessions when he began sorting through an old trunk, full of objects from his past. He wants to know why we get ...
Will drinking milk help me live longer? (00:26:29)
Milk: drink a lot of it and we’ll grow big and tall with strong bones. That’s what many people are told as children, but just how true is this accepted wisdom? CrowdScience listener JJ in Singapore is...
How long will traces of our civilisation last? (00:34:28)
What will remain of us hundreds of millions of years from now? And how can we be so certain that we are the first technologically advanced species on Earth?These unsettling questions have been hauntin...
How does camouflage work? (00:36:39)
Camouflage isn't just for chameleons! Military forces around the world deck their soldiers out in those distinctive green and brown uniforms, to give them the best chance of staying safe, and remainin...
