The Rest Is Science – Podcastlijstje

Join mathematician Professor Hannah Fry and science creator Michael Stevens (Vsauce) as they dig into the weird scientific questions that often go unexplored.
Welcome to The Rest Is Science, a show that sits in the fascinating space between what we think we know, and what we actually know. Why do we assume we understand things like time, randomness, or even gravity? Once you start questioning these familiar ideas, reality becomes astonishingly strange and completely fragile.
Whether you're a lifelong science fan or just naturally curious, The Rest Is Science will change your perception of reality, and prove that the biggest...

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Why Do We Like Staring Into Fire?

27 september 2026 · 59 min

What is fire, and why does watching it hold our attention in a different way from scrolling on your phone? Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens start with the science of a flame: why it glows, what its different colours reveal, and why fire is a series of chemical reactions rather than a single substance…
The Fluid Dynamics of Fountain Pens

24 september 2026 · 1 uur 5 min

The wait is finally over: Hannah Fry introduces Michael Stevens to her beloved fountain pen collection and the beautiful physics behind how fountain pens work. From a £20 Lamy Safari to vintage Waterman and Montblanc pens, Hannah explains how capillary action, surface tension, air pressure and care…
Dying In Space, Trapped Water, and What's Hidden In Pi?

20 september 2026 · 49 min

Almost every human who has ever lived has one thing in common: they were born and died on Earth. Except for three people. Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens uncover the extraordinary story of Soyuz 11, the Soviet cosmonauts who became the only humans ever to die in outer space, and what their deaths me…
How Codes Were Used To Hack The Telegram Business

17 september 2026 · 57 min

What if a single strange word could save you a fortune? In this episode Michael opens up a Victorian telegram code book and explores how users compressed long messages into brief coded words to outwit the per word charge of the telegraph system. Coded language turned everyday phrases about everyday…
Why Your Body Needs Gravity

13 september 2026 · 43 min

Does space travel make astronauts younger? Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore Einstein’s twin paradox, time dilation and NASA’s famous Twins Study with astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly. After Scott Kelly spent 340 days aboard the International Space Station, he returned milliseconds yo…
What Is Collagen All About?

10 september 2026 · 42 min

Do collagen pills live up to their promises for skin and joints and healthy ageing? In this episode, Hannah and Michael examine what collagen actually is and how the body makes and uses it, before looking closely at whether collagen supplements survive digestion and reach the skin in any meaningful…
The Threshold of Human Sensation

6 september 2026 · 55 min

⁠What is the smallest thing you can possibly feel? ⁠ ⁠ Michael Stevens and Professor Hannah Fry journey through varying levels of perception, from the faintest touch on skin to the faintest trace of flavour and odour, and on to the remarkable question of whether the eye can register a single partic…
The Scale of the Universe

3 september 2026 · 49 min

The scale of the universe stretches from the Planck length, the smallest scale physics can describe, to the observable universe, the largest thing we can see. Travel inward from one and outward from the other by powers of ten and they meet at something astonishingly familiar: the size of a human eg…
Why Loud Chewing Makes You Angry

30 augustus 2026 · 50 min

The mukbang phenomenon is comfort viewing for millions, yet for others the sound of chewing, slurping and everyday mouth noises is enough to trigger instant anger, disgust and distress. Why do the sounds soothe one person and enrage another? In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens…
How Does Language Change What You Smell?

27 augustus 2026 · 46 min

In this episode of Field Notes, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (Vsauce) begin with a Persian word for a smell Hannah cannot detect on a freshly washed plate. From the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Russian words for blue to emotions and identity, Hannah and Michael investigate how language ma…