Mysteries of Science

From the archives, an urgent case. The planet is sending signals: melting ice, wilder storms and shifting seasons. Can we crack this one before it’s too late? Dan and Michael start with the basics. Channel 4 News weather presenter Liam Dutton explains the difference between weather and climate, why greenhouse gases trap heat, and what almost twenty years of forecasting has shown him about records...

We’re back in the archives for a Halloween special, and this one comes with a warning: don’t listen on a full moon. Dan, Ciaran and Stevie each pick a favourite Halloween monster and hold it up to the light. Wicked’s Laura Pick and Professor Marion Gibson of the University of Exeter trace the witch back to the trials of the 1560s, when around 500 people in England alone, almost all of them women,...

We’re back in the archives with one of the biggest mysteries this show has ever taken on: us. Modern humans have only been around for about 200,000 years, a blink of an eye next to the three billion years life has existed on Earth. We’re not the biggest, the fastest or the strongest animal out there, so how did we end up running the planet? Dan and Michael follow the clues from a strange skull...

Dan and Michael explore the biggest mystery of them all: how did everything begin? Around 75 years ago, British astronomer Fred Hoyle went on the radio and used the term "Big Bang" for the very first time. The odd thing is, he was making fun of it. He didn't believe a word of it, and he never changed his mind. So how do we know the Big Bang really happened? Astrophysicist Dr Maggie Lieu from the...

Are you a lucky person? Do you have a lucky number, a lucky shirt, or a favourite pair of lucky pants? In this episode of Mysteries of Science, hosts Dan and Michael investigate one of life's slipperiest puzzles: is luck actually real, or is it just a story we tell ourselves?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're in the archives for another episode of Mysteries of Science. In our first of season three, released on April Fool's Day, hosts Dan, Stevie, and Michael take a deep dive into three of the most famous scientific hoaxes. We're looking at the Cottingley Fairy photographs, crop circles, and zero gravity day...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two hikers stumble upon something in the ice: a mummy. Called, Ötzi, over the next few days, the mummy's extracted and examined by experts. It turns out to be 5,000 years old. Who was this person? How did they get there? And what can we learn from the body in the ice? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan and Ciaran open an archive case: Are dragons real? Why do stories of fire-breathing, winged beasts appear in cultures across the world – and can science explain their origins? We're on the quest for answers; from Viking myths to Chinese legends, dinosaur fossils, and even the lair of real-life Komodo dragons. Legendary author Cressida Cowell, dino-expert Nick Crumpton, and Chester Zoo’s own...

This special episode is packed with real experts answering the burning questions sent in by you, our curious listeners! Get ready as we finally crack the age-old debate: what came first, the chicken or the egg? Along the way, we explore mind-bending concepts like wormholes, discover the surprising origins and purpose of your fingerprints, and even uncover how koalas could be master criminals...

In this monster-sized episode, Dan and Ciaran lace up their hiking boots to probe one of North America’s most legendary mysteries: Bigfoot. Is this giant, hairy, mysterious figure a real creature stomping through the forests, or is it just a brilliant tale best told around the campfire? We begin by tracking the legend back a thousand years to Indigenous cave art to modern-day giant footprints and...