This week, we're taking on your science questions. We find out how cockroaches and ants avoid the heat in a microwave oven, how best to protect yourself from lightning and why a light box can save you from a SAD winter. Also, a table decoration inspired, radiation-resistant spaceship design to keep astronauts healthy, how the contraceptive pill hurts A lapdancers' looks and why penguins prefer to go fishing with their pals. Plus, in Kitchen Science, Dave explains how to make a detector for the Earth's magnetic field - a home made compass! But will it work in space? And what will happen when the Earth's magnetic field swaps round? We answer all these questions and more.
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I’ve been hearing recently that a study’s been done that shows ants survive in a microwave but I was wondering if it’s another urban myth like cockroaches surviving nuclear explosions?
I was cycling on Frodsham marshes listening to your show on my ipod. The weather was disturbed - some clear sky and sunset, some rain and an intense thunder cloud. Having remembered your item on the chap who was struck by lightening wearing his ipod and realising I was in a ver...
Why do cooked plums taste so bitter?
When you're buying training shoes, do you really get what you pay for? Professor Rami Abboud doesn't think you do...
Some people think I am weird (which is partly true of course) when I tell them that keeping my cell phone on vibrate if it rings I feel it in the opposite leg than the pocket that it is in. Whenever I get a call and feel a vibration in my left leg I have learned to reach in my ...
My compass points to North wherever I am on Earth, so what will happen when I go into space?
In my garden, which is quite exposed, I find spiders webs where there’s no access between point A and point B where they’ve made their web. I’ve even put cameras up to see how they do it and I just can’t catch them in the act. So how do they get across these big gaps to make the...
After a week of lethargy as the daylight gets dimmer and shorter (which seems worse this year because we hardly had a summer worth speaking of) I've been contemplating getting a light box. Is there any research on this and do they actually work?
For this, the first of our monthly Technology segments, we look into the world of Machinima - Machine Cinema where characters from computer games perform as actors in home made movies...
My dad used to keep chickens and I’ve always wondered why the same chickens lay eggs all the year round when most birds are seasonal? Also, why they haven’t got bloodspots in them like most eggs have?
How much would the level of the oceans rise if we emptied every car heating system, swimming pool, drinks container etcetera and all the places where we store liquids globally?
Would having a light in your bedroom that’s triggered by a timer so the light then comes on and gently wakes you up help beat SAD?
I know that all mammals (except humans) live the same number of heartbeats (about 1.5 Trillion). However, my Blue and Gold macaw has a resting heartbeat 10X mine and a life expectancy of 80 years, in other words roughly equivalent to an elephant or large whale. Why is that? What ...
Why do Jack Russell dogs sometimes run on three legs with a hind leg lifted?
Where is the safest place in a wood or a forest to run in a thunderstorm?
Build your own navigational aid from stuff you could find in your kitchen.
I have a question about the reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field. I hear that the field polarity occasionally switches round periodically so the north turns to be somewhere south. I’ve also heard that between the switch there’s a period of time when there isn’t a substantial ma...
Are humans the only animals on Earth the only animals on Earth that secrete mucous from their noses?
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