Ri Science Podcast

Did you know that zoologists have only found 5 species of mammals that go through the menopause? That's 4 species of toothed whale, plus us humans. The animal kingdom reveals a lot about female evolution and this month, Lucy Cooke explores evolutionary biology through an array of animal examples and research stemming from Darwin's time.Get Lucy Cooke's book 'Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal': www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/111196…80857524133.htmlThis talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 8 March 2022. Please leave this episode a rating and a review to let us know what you think, and to help more people discover the podcast.Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're a fan of multiverse movies, this episode is for you. The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics says that an infinite number of universes exist in parallel to eachother, each having branched off in a moment of divergence before following its own unique timeline.Theoretical physicist Sean M Carroll guides us through the strange and sometimes daunting topic of quantum mechanics – from Einstein and Bohr to Schrödinger's cat and the many-worlds interpretation.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 22 January 2020.Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our exploration of the Earth’s fluctuating environment is an extraordinary story of human perception and scientific endeavour, which began much earlier than you might think.This month we hear from Alice Bell as she explores climate change science’s earliest steps in the 18th and 19th centuries, through the point when concern started to rise in the 1950s, right up to the modern day. You can learn more in Alice’s latest book 'Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis’.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 22 July 2021.Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you consider yourself a ‘thrill-seeker’? If so, you may have a variation in the DRD4 dopamine receptor gene which makes you less able to process dopamine, a neurotransmitter that's responsible for how we feel pleasure.This month we hear from thrill-engineer Brendan Walker as he explains how he designs rollercoasters to induce thrill, priming our bodies’ innate responses through sounds, visual cues, virtual reality and much more.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 28 February, 2020. Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/edT9bUbKId4Get tickets for upcoming talks: www.rigb.orgTwitter: twitter.com/Ri_ScienceYouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitutionPatreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitutionThumbnail image credit: Jonny Gios via Unsplash | unsplash.com/photos/ljN0zTXf7tQ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does love at first sight exist? How does your attachment style influence how you love? This month we hear from lawyer-turned-poet and author, Laura Mucha, and artificial intelligence expert, Kate Devlin, about love and relationships. They share real love stories, explore what companies learn about you through online dating and discover what the future holds for sexual companion robots.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 14 February 2019.Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Physicist Harry Cliff explains how the Universe is made, drawing on experimental data from the Large Hadron Collider and labs around the world. We hear how the basic building blocks of matter and four fundamental forces of nature make up The Standard Model of particle physics.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on the 10 August 2021. Watch the video version on YouTube: youtu.be/bzV4O85n2y8Learn more in Harry Cliff’s book, ‘How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch’: geni.us/harrycliffWebsite: www.rigb.orgTwitter: twitter.com/Ri_ScienceYouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitutionPatreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitutionThumbnail image credit: Lucas Taylor/CERN via Wikimedia Commons | cdsweb.cern.ch/record/628469 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is about forensic anthropology. Please be aware that due to the nature of the topic, this talk includes discussions of violence, child sexual abuse, death by suicide and mass-fatality events, which some listeners may find disturbing.This month, we hear from Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist who has led teams across the world to identify the victims and perpetrators of various conflicts and cases. Sue shares examples of her breakthrough work on real-life events, and examines how our life’s history is written into our anatomy.The talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 22 February, 2019. Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9Jrd5kJ-vTURi Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Hubble Telescope has revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. It has, among many other achievements, revealed thousands of galaxies in what seemed to be empty patches of sky and measured precisely how fast the universe is expanding.In this talk, the first American woman to walk in space, Kathryn D Sullivan, recounts how the team of astronauts, engineers and flight controllers helped launch, rescue and maintain Hubble, the most productive observatory ever built. Her book, 'Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention' is available now.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on the 6th of March, 2020.Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does advertising influence us? This month, we hear from advertiser and behaviour expert Rory Sutherland, as he uses case studies from the world’s biggest brands to show how advertising makes us act against reason.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 10 May 2019.Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What makes up a cannabis medicinal product? How do the active ingredients work in our bodies? What conditions can it treat, and how can doctors prescribe it? We’re joined by neurologist and medical cannabis expert Mike Barnes, and ‘End our Pain’ campaigners, Peter Carroll and Hannah Deacon. Hannah fought to obtain cannabis oil to treat her son Alfie’s epileptic seizures, and the campaign succeeded in changing UK law – as of November 2018, NHS doctors can legally prescribe cannabis. So why is it still hard for doctors to do so? Mike, Peter and Hannah discuss these issues with journalist, Susie Mesure.This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 21 January 2019Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every month, and our new ‘From the Theatre’ episodes are released on the second Wednesday of the month. Subscribe to be notified as soon as the next episode is released! Book tickets to upcoming talks on our website Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us: @ri_science on Instagram and TikTok  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.