Mysteries of Science

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, were put to death for what often turned out to be knowing a great deal about plants. National Trust archaeologist Nancy Grace describes the mummified cats and witch bottles still turning up in old chimneys, hidden there to keep witches out.

Storyteller Lari Don explains that werewolf stories are far older than Hollywood’s silver bullets, and that drinking rainwater from a wolf’s paw print will turn you just as surely. Author Alex Foulkes reveals why the earliest vampires were almost always rich men in castles, and which perfectly natural changes to a body after death convinced people the dead had come back.

Three monsters, one common thread: science nobody had worked out yet.

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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 dug out of a German quarry in 1856 to the Neanderthal DNA almost all of us still carry. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, author of Unstoppable Us, argues our real superpower is storytelling, and geneticist Aoife McLysaght explains why we share so much of our DNA with chimpanzees, and how humans are still evolving right now.

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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 University of Nottingham explains how Edwin Hubble worked out that the universe is expanding, and why that means everything must have started from one infinitely small, infinitely hot point. She also tells the story of the two scientists at Bell Labs who found the leftover glow of the Big Bang, but spent ages scrubbing pigeon poo off their antenna first because they were convinced the signal was just noise.

Then theoretical astrophysicist and science communicator Ethan Siegel explains why Fred Hoyle was so against the idea, how he turned out to be right about where carbon, nitrogen and oxygen come from, and what might happen at the other end of the story. Will the universe end in a big crunch, freeze forever, or do something nobody expected? 

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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?

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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...

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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? 

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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 Komodo dragon keeper, Matthew Cook help unpick which mysteries are real and which ones are rubbish. 

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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 (sort of)

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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 strange noises in the woods... 

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Can you believe everything you see and hear online?

Dan and Michael navigate the fascinating and unsettling world of deepfakes: images, videos, and audio so realistic you might not know they’re fake. With help from tech experts and researchers, they reveal how deepfakes are made, why they’re getting better and harder to spot and challenge you to outsmart the fakes yourself.

Along the way, find out how deepfake tech brings movie characters back to life and why we all need to sharpen our digital detective skills for the future. 

Test your skills, learn the science behind AI trickery, and discover how to stay savvy in a world where seeing (or hearing) isn’t always believing... 

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Dan and Michael don their detective hats and head into the Nevada desert to investigate one of the biggest mysteries on Earth: Area 51.

Some say it’s just a top-secret US military base for testing new aircraft. Others believe it’s the hiding place for crashed UFOs and even extraterrestrial visitors... 

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Hosts Dan and Michael investigate the curious lives of octopuses: a creature with three hearts, colour-changing skin, and arms that almost think for themselves... Why are octopuses such masters of disguise? Just how smart are they? And what secrets lurk within bodies?

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Over the past few decades, our ideas about what dinosaurs looked like have changed. Dinos were once thought of as scaly creatures, closely related to reptiles. Now, they are thought to have come in a beautiful array of colours, some with flashy feathers. The Science+Nature team, along with expert guests, unpack this mystery as we ask: what did dinosaurs look like?

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Clever machines have appeared in countless films and are making headlines all the time, but what exactly does it mean? How does it actually work? And could computers ever become so intelligent that they end up doing everything for us?

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Join Dan and Michael as they dive into Mysteries of Science, the children’s science podcast spotting the universe’s strangest phenomena.

In this episode they explore black holes—from how stars collapse to form them, to the event horizon where nothing escapes.

The episode also features a tour of how radio waves reveal black holes, what spaghettification means, and whether Earth is at risk. 

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Dun dun... Dun dun... Dun dun dun dun dun... Michael and Jenny dip their toes into a the water and go searching for sharks. Scary and sinister or seriously misunderstood?

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If you could transform into anything, what would you become? And could shapeshifting ever be possible? That's what we're asking in this archive episode of Mysteries of Science

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Sutton Hoo is one of Europe's most amazing discoveries.

This ancient burial site once held a ship packed with treasure – but no body. Who was buried there? And why have ghostly visions of helmeted warriors been reported on the site?

With the help of expert archaeologists, Dan and Stevie explore the story.

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Ciaran and Dan look at what makes a planet in this classic episode of Mysteries of Science, and whether there's a mysterious extra planet – Planet X – just beyond Neptune, lurking in our cosmic neighbourhood. 

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We’re diving into one of the greatest mysteries of all time – The Loch Ness Monster. From ancient legends to modern scientific investigations, we explore the history, sightings, and possible explanations for Nessie. Could she be a prehistoric creature, a giant eel, or just a trick of the imagination? 

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Michael and Stevie become interplanetary detectives as they investigate the solar system's hottest and most deadly murder mystery.

Venus is often referred to as Earth's twin because the two planets are so similar. But if that's the case, then why is Venus is so inhospitable to life? We take a trip into space and find out what killed Venus...

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To celebrate the release of Moana 2, coming soon to cinemas, Dan and Stevie go on a journey to Polynesia to find out how thousands of islands thousands of miles apart were settled without the use of typical instruments using a technique known as wayfinding...

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Stevie and Michael sit down and chat with some top experts to find out how animals experience the world. From dolphins to octopuses to pets and more, we ask the question: are animals smarter than us?

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Hosts Dan and Michael delve into the enigma of Oumuamua, a mysterious object that passed through our solar system in 2017.

Initially thought to be a comet or asteroid, Oumuamua's unusual characteristics led to speculation about its origins, including the possibility of it being an alien spacecraft...

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Michael and Stevie get answers to your burning questions in another episode of Mysteries of Science including a phenomena all about rainbows at night as well as what caused the extinction of the dinos.

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Inspired by the Harry Potter series, hosts Stevie and Michael explore magic potions!

They uncover the real-life inspiration behind Professor Snape, revealing that a real potions master named Henry Lloyd Snape existed in the late 19th century...

We also meet illustrator Johnny Duddle and ask you for your own ideas for magical potions!

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