CrowdScience

We know the Earth's atmosphere is warming and it's thanks to us and our taste for fossil fuels. But how quickly is this melting the ice sheets, ice caps, and glaciers that remain on our planet? That's what listener David wants to know. With the help of a team of climate scientists in Greenland, Marnie Chesterton goes to find the answer, in an icy landscape that's ground zero in the story of thawing. She discovers how Greenland’s ice sheet is sliding faster off land, and sees that the tiniest of creatures are darkening the ice surface and accelerating its melt. CrowdScience explores what we're in store for when it comes to melting ice. In the lead-up to yet another UN climate conference, we unpack what is contributing to sea level rise – from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, to melting mountain glaciers and warming oceans. There's a lot of ice at the poles. The question is: how much of it will still be there in the future? Research Professor and climate scientist Jason Box from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland shows us how much ice Greenland we've already committed ourselves to losing, even if we stopped burning all fossil fuels today. His team, including Jakob Jakobsen, show us how these scientists collect all this data that helps feed climate models and helps us all to understand how quickly the seas might rise.Professor Martyn Trantor from Aarhus University helps us understand why a darkening Greenland ice sheet would only add to the problem of melting. And climate scientist Ruth Mottram from the Danish Meteorological Institute breaks down how the ice is breaking down in Antarctica and other glaciers around the world.Presented by Marnie Chesterton and produced by Sam Baker for the BBC World ServiceImage: Greenland ice sheets. Credit: Getty Images

Record-breaking heatwaves swept across the Earth’s northern hemisphere this summer, while Australia experienced flooding and East Africa is enduring its worst drought in decades. Listener Geoff in Australia wants to know: Is climate change really responsible, or could it just be weather?Presenter Marnie Chesterton goes to Kenya, where the traditional Maasai way of life is at risk following a series of failed rainy seasons. She meets members of the Maasai community who have herded cattle for generations, who tell her how the unprecedented lack of rain is making it difficult to feed the animals, and themselves.She speaks to meteorologists and climate scientists to unpick the differences between weather and climate, discovering that not only is climate change affecting local weather systems, but it’s also affecting our ability to forecast it.She’ll also be learning about the IPCC report, and how there is no longer any doubt that climate change is a real and present threat to life on earth.Contributors: Esther Tinayo, Maasai villager Esther Kirayian, Maasai villager Patricia Nying’uro, Kenya Meteorological Department Abebe Tadege, IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre Professor Mark Maslin, University College LondonPresented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Ben Motley, with Christine Yohannes, for the BBC World Service[Image credit: Getty Images]

Why do some people pick up accents without even trying, while others can live in another country for decades without ever losing the sound of their mother tongue? It’s a question that's been bothering CrowdScience listener Monica who, despite 45 years of living in the US, is still answering questions about where her accent is from. Presenter Marnie Chesterton sets off to discover why learning a new language is possible but perfecting the accent is so much harder. Marnie speaks to a linguist about how we learn language and develop our first accent, and what we can - and can't change - about our accents. A phonetician explains to Marnie the difficulty of even hearing sounds that are not from our mother tongue, let alone replicating them. And Marnie enlists some expert help to learn some of the pitch sounds of Japanese – with mixed success.Finally Marnie asks why people so dearly want to change their accents when doing so is such hard work. She hears from a sociolinguist about stereotypes and the impact of accent bias, and Shalu Yadav reports from the front line of Delhi call centres where workers experience prejudice about their accents regularly. Presented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Lorna Stewart for the BBC World Service. Contributors: Yosiane White - Assistant Professor of Linguistics at University College Utrecht in the Netherlands Jane Setter - professor of phonetics at the University of Reading in the UK Akiko Furukawa - Reader in Japanese and Applied Linguistics at SOAS University of London in the UK Erez Levon - professor of sociolinguistics at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Shalu Yadav - BBC reporter in Delhi, India.[Image: woman with written words coming out of mouth. Credit: Getty images]

One in every eight people live with a mental health disorder, so if that’s not you, it’s likely to be a close friend or family member. Despite there being a variety of known treatments, globally the majority of people suffering do not receive any medical support.To see how the discussion around mental health is playing out across the African continent, CrowdScience visits Nairobi, Kenya. Presenter Marnie Chesterton is joined by a live audience and panel of experts - psychiatrist David Ndetei, psychotherapist Reson Sindiyo and mental health journalist Dannish Odongo - to get to the heart of what’s going on in our heads.They discuss issues from taboo and superstition around mental health, to the treatment methods being used in Kenya that the rest of the world should know about.

Human sexuality comes in many forms, from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. But seeing as homosexuality creates apparent reproductive and evolutionary disadvantages, listener Ahmed from Oslo wants to know: why are some people gay?CrowdScience presenter Caroline Steel examines what science can - and can't - tell us about the role of nature, nurture and evolution in human sexual attraction. She asks a geneticist what we know of the oft-debated 'gay gene', as well as looking into why homosexual men on average have more older brothers than heterosexual men.Caroline looks into the role of nurture with a developmental psychologist to answer a question from a CrowdScience listener from Myanmar. He wonders if the distant relationship he has with his own father has impacted his own feelings of attraction.She also learns about research into a group of people in Samoa who may shed light on the benefits of traditionally non-reproductive relationships for communities as a whole.Presented by Caroline Steel Produced by Jonathan Blackwell for BBC World ServiceContributors: Dr. Kevin Mitchell - Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin Dr. Malvina Skorska - Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto Prof. Lisa Diamond - Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies, University of Utah Prof. Paul Vasey - Professor and Research Chair, Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge Vaitulia Alatina Ioelu - Chief Executive Officer, Samoa Business Hub(Photo credit: Ahmed Umar)

There are over 30,000 species of fish – that’s more than all the species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined. But despite the sheer diversity of life on Earth, we still tend to think of all fish in roughly the same way: with an oblong scaley body, a tail and pairs of fins. Why? And is that really the case? Crowdscience listener and pet fish-owner Lauria asked us to dive into the depths of this aquatic world to investigate why fish are shaped the way they are. Do we just think that fish are all the same because we are land-dwelling? Presenter Anand Jagatia makes a splash exploring the fascinating story of fish evolution, how they came to be such a different shape from mammals and even how some mammals have evolved to be more like fish.Produced by Hannah Fisher and presented by Anand Jagatia for the BBC World Service. Contributors: Professor Frank Fish – Professor of Biology, West Chester University Dr Carla McCabe - Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Biomechanics Dr Andrew Knapp – postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum, London Image: School of fish in shape of fish. Credit: Getty Images

CrowdScience listener Alix has a burning question - what’s actually happening inside the flames of a campfire to make it glow? And why do some materials burn easily, while others refuse to light at all?To find out, Alex Lathbridge travels to the Fire Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh to (safely) set various things ablaze. He learns about the fundamentals of fire and why things react differently to heat. He then heads to archives of the Royal Institution of London, to see an invention from the 19th century that can stop a fireball in its tracks: the miner’s safety lamp, which saved countless lives. And he speaks to a chemist about the science of flame retardants, and how even though they can make products less flammable, they may also have unintended consequences.Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Anand JagatiaContributors: Dr Rory Hadden, University of Edinburgh Charlotte New, Royal Institution Dan Plane, Royal Institution Professor Richard Hull, University of Central Lancashire

Laugh and the world laughs with you, or so you might think. But watch any good comedian on TV by yourself and chances are you’ll laugh a lot less than if you were sat in a lively comedy crowd watching the same comedian in the flesh. But why is that? Do people from different cultures and corners of the world all laugh at the same things? These are questions raised by CrowdScience listener Samuel in Ghana who wonders why he’s always cracking up more easily than those around him. Presenter Caroline Steel digs into whether it’s our personality, the people around us, or the atmosphere of the room that determines how much we giggle, following neuroscience and psychology on a global trail in search of a good laugh. Producer: Richard Walker Presenter: Caroline Steel [Image: Two Women laughing. Credit: Getty Images]

Mathematics and our ability to describe the world in terms of number, shape and measurement may feel like a uniquely human ability. But is it really? Listener Mamadu from Sierra Leone wants to know: can animals count too? CrowdScience presenter Marnie Chesterton goes on a hunt to uncover the numerical abilities of the animal kingdom. Can wild lions compare different numbers? Can you teach bees to recognise and choose specific amounts? And if the answer is yes, how do they do it? Marnie tries to find out just how deep the numerical rabbit hole goes… and comes across a parrot named Alex who is perhaps the most impressive example of animal counting of them all.Contributors: Brian Butterworth - emeritus professor of cognitive neuropsychology at University College London Mai Morimoto - researcher at Queen Mary University of London Lars Chittka - professor of sensory and behavioural ecology at Queen Mary University of London Irene Pepperberg - comparative psychologist, and research associate at Harvard UniversitySounds: Lions from Karen McComb, emeritus professor at University of Sussex Túngara frogs from Michael Ryan, professor of zoology at University of Texa at AustinPresenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Florian Bohr

When CrowdScience listener Eric spotted a few gnats flying around on a milder day in mid-winter it really surprised him - Eric had assumed they just died out with the colder weather. It got him wondering where the insects had come from, how they had survived the previous cold snap and what the implications of climate change might be for insect over-wintering behaviour? So he asked CrowdScience to do some bug investigation. CrowdScience presenter Marnie Chesterton takes up the challenge and heads out into the British countryside – currently teeming with buzzes and eight legged tiny beasties - to learn about the quite amazing array of tactics these small creatures use to survive the arduous days of cold. She hears how some insects change their chemical structure to enhance their frost resistance whist others hanker down in warmer microclimates or rely on their community and food stocks to keep them warm. But cold isn’t the only climatic change insects have to endure, in the tropics the seasons tend to fluctuate more around wet and dry so what happens then? Marnie talks with a Kenyan aquatic insect expert who describes how mosquitoes utilise the rains and shares his worry climate change could have a big impact on insect populations.Contributors: Dr Erica McAlister – Entomologist and Senior Curator, Natural History Museum, Dr Adam Hart – Entomologist and Professor of Science Communication - University of Gloucestershire Fran Haidon – Beekeeper Laban Njoroge – Entomologist, head of the Invertebrate Zoology – Museum of Kenya Dr Natalia Li – Biochemist Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Melanie Brown[Image: Butterfly in winter resting on snow covered branch. Credit: Getty Images]