Mysteries of Science

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1. Can we fix climate change?

   6 november 2026 · 27 min

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   From the archives, an urgent case. The planet is sending signals: melting ice, wilder storms and shifting seasons. Can we crack this one before it’s too late? Lees meer

   Dan and Michael start with the basics. Channel 4 News weather presenter Liam Dutton explains the difference between weather and climate, why greenhouse gases trap heat, and what almost twenty years of forecasting has shown him about records being broken.

   Then it’s on to the solutions, and some are stranger than you’d expect. Author Nicola Penfold makes the case for whale poo as a climate hero, Cindy Forde of Planetari describes solar panels printed onto windows and mangroves that lock away more carbon than rainforests, and young campaigners Amy and Ella Meek and Bella Lack explain where to start when a problem feels far too big.

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2. Science behind vampires

   15 oktober 2026 · 24 min

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   We’re back in the archives for a Halloween special, and this one comes with a warning: don’t listen on a full moon. Lees meer

   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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3. How did humans take over the world?

   11 september 2026 · 24 min

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   We’re back in the archives with one of the biggest mysteries this show has ever taken on: us. Lees meer

   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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4. How did everything begin?

   14 augustus 2026 · 24 min

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   Dan and Michael explore the biggest mystery of them all: how did everything begin? Lees meer

   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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5. Feeling lucky?

   17 juli 2026 · 23 min

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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? Lees meer

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6. Fairies and other amazing hoaxes

   19 juni 2026 · 28 min

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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... Lees meer

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7. The Ice Mummy

   22 mei 2026 · 20 min

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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. Lees meer

   Who was this person? How did they get there? And what can we learn from the body in the ice?

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8. The Truth About Dragons

   24 april 2026 · 24 min

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   Dan and Ciaran open an archive case: Are dragons real? Lees meer

   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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9. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

   27 maart 2026 · 21 min

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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? Lees meer

   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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10. Where's Bigfoot?

    27 februari 2026 · 30 min

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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. Lees meer

    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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