131- The Kardashev Scale of Civilisations
How do you quantify how big a civilisation is? In the 1960s, Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev came up with a scale based on how much energy hypothetical civilisations can exploit- which has been modified ...
20 Sep 10min
130- Photosynthesis
It's long overdue, but we're finally tackling photosynthesis on the podcast! In a process which divides into the light-dependent and light-independent reactions, autotrophs convert carbon dioxide and ...
30 Aug 11min
129- The Most Generations at Once
What is the record for the most generations that have been alive at the same time in a family? Let's introduce Augusta Pagel (1879-1989) to the stage. Before she died, she managed to become a great-gr...
16 Aug 5min
128- Can Dolphins Detect Pregnancy?
Following another request, today we examine whether it is possible for dolphins- using their ultrasonic communication- to detect human pregnancy. The answer might be more ambiguous than you think...So...
2 Aug 4min
Announcement- I've written a book!
Vince here- I've written a historical fiction book set in Constantinople in 1081! Well, kind of. The first draft of the manuscript is complete at about 59,000 words across 34 chapters. I am planning t...
31 Jul 5min
127- Life Expectancy of Hobbits
A bit of a silly topic today. What is the average life expectancy of hobbits in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium? Along the way, we will learn something about current and historic human life expectancy....
19 Jul 3min
126- Moles
As requested by listener GT, we are going to talk all about moles today! Join us for the evolutionary history of the Talpidae family, English prophecies about moles, how much a mole head is worth in 2...
5 Jul 10min
125- Pollinator Decline Debate Part II: A Dissenting Voice
Last week we introduced some discussion on bee/pollinator declines. This week, we will discuss a perspective by Jaboury Ghazoul- a professor at ETH Zurich- who argued in a 2005 paper that labelling a ...
10 Mai 3min
