5 Live Science Podcast

Dr Rhod and Dr Karl are joined by food specialist Professor Charles Spence to deal with such tricky questions as; where does the skin on the porridge pan come from?

Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientists explore..: why women have evolved out of having beards and hairy chests, and scientists have discovered how homing pigeons’ brains respond to the Earth’s magnetic field enabling them to navigate.

Dr Karl and Dr Rhod discuss the scarcity of helium, the peculiarities of marsupials and the physics of coffee cups.

Why there's so much water underground, a new way to work paralysed body parts by reading brain activity, and a way to heal injured heart tissue by converting scar tissue back into healthy cardiac muscle. They're issues occupying the Naked Scientists this week.

Why aren't humans more hairy? How does a diesel engine work and what exactly is Dr Karl's new planet. That's all on the agenda this week for Dr Karl and Dr Rhod.

On the weekend of the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we're taking a look at a NATO technology being delivered by Rolls-Royce to rescue people from an equally tragic situation - a sunken submarine.

Dr Karl answers listeners' questions about the weird and wonderful world of science, including; the similarity between bird and dinosaur eggs. How can we know the universe is seventy billion light years wide. And do humans burn carbon like coal?

Why it would take 42 minutes to fall down a hole through the centre of the Earth.....can we be harmed by fish excrement ......and is it possible that a man's headache goes away whenever he gets close to his wife?

This week we learn how some 2.7 billion year old fossilised raindrops have revealed what Earth's early atmosphere was like, and the reason why your body still wants that cheese sandwich despite the scales saying it shouldn't!

Dr Karl and Dr Rhod discuss aspirin for daily use, why some people don't seem to feel the cold and why do some people like some tastes and not others?