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Is there time on Mars?
A Japanese spacecraft could become the first ever to bring Martian samples back to Earth.
22 Oct 2026,·28 mins
Series 25
Tessellation Proliferation
Hannah and Dara find that tessellation gets everywhere, from nature to space materials.
24 Oct 2026,·28 mins
Will AI really kill us all?
Headlines are full of apocalyptic predictions about AI, Aleks & Kevin ask if they're true.
21 Oct 2026,·28 mins
Trouble with Hubble
4. Once in human history
Nasa risks everything on a daring rescue mission to restore Hubble’s vision
19 Oct 2026,·40 mins
Tom Hart on Antarctic wildlife and the power of penguin poo
Ecologist Tom Hart on monitoring wildlife populations remotely to track key patterns.
20 Oct 2026,·28 mins
Solving the mystery of allergies
Why do people with one allergy often go on to develop more?
21 Oct 2026,·26 mins
Beyond silicon chips
The next generation of chip is thinner and flexible when compared to traditional silicon.
20 Oct 2026,·26 mins
Why don't we lay eggs?
Why give birth to live young when eggs seem so much simpler?
16 Oct 2026,·29 mins
Mining: Can we learn lessons from the past?
Lithium and copper are crucial to the energy transition, but at what environmental cost?
18 Oct 2026,·30 mins
The battle to delete your embarrassing online history
How a kidfluencer law could reshape privacy for everyone, plus the bot purge delusion.
21 Oct 2026,·25 mins
Building bridges
A new bridge between China and North Korea has us seeking science-based connections.
23 Oct 2026,·49 mins
Series 2
Episode 2
Funny, factually-accurate look at space travel and explosive nuclear propulsion.
23 May 2012,·15 mins
The Life Scientific: David Canter
David Canter on how he came to found the field of 'investigative psychology'.
19 Oct 2026,·26 mins
Everything Is Fake and Nobody Cares
6. F For Fake
Jamie and Jimmy explore where fakery goes next – but can you tell which is which?
15 Apr 2026,·28 mins
Rossett's Roman Villa
Adam Walton investigates an archaeological dig in Rossett.
20 Oct 2026,·29 mins
Rutger Bregman - Moral Revolution
4. Fighting for Humanity in the Age of the Machine
Dutch historian Rutger Bregman gives his fourth and final Reith Lecture.
16 Dec 2025,·57 mins
Recluses
Naomi Alderman examines whether being a recluse has an impact on how we do our thinking.
03 Oct 2026,·57 mins
The World's Climate
Our planet is warming up, the ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising
05 Jul 1999,·13 mins
Series 1
Sleep Deprivation and Insomnia
If we don't snooze, we lose. How badly does lack of sleep affect our mind and our body?
19 Dec 2017,·28 mins
How science got here, and where next
As anti-science leaves research reeling, does evidence-based policy have a future?
30 Oct 2025,·31 mins
AI: A Future for Humans?
The science sleuths unwrap some of the biggest ideas in this year's BBC Reith Lectures.
22 Dec 2021,·28 mins
Doing the Maths
First broadcast in 2006. The mathematics of infinity are discussed
27 Sep 2006,·22 mins
8. The Terminator
Musk fears a 'Terminator future', where robots destroy humans. So why is he creating AI?
08 Apr 2025,·28 mins
Are microplastics affecting our health?
Claudia Hammond puts your questions on microplastics to a panel of experts
29 Aug 2026,·49 mins
Memory
Examination into the condition of Alzheimer's disease
15 May 2000,·24 mins
Life after Life
First broadcast in 1999. Do you believe in life after death?
15 Jun 1999,·12 mins
Omnibus: 1980s onwards
From the ZX Spectrum to the dot com bubble, Hannah Fry looks at our computing history.
17 Mar 2017,·58 mins
Series 4
Strontium
Chemist Andrea Sella ends his festive series with fireworks and the element strontium.
27 Dec 2019,·14 mins
Nicolas Bourbaki
Professor Marcus du Sautoy argues that mathematics drives science.
25 Jun 2010,·15 mins
How Music Can Hold and Heal Us
We explore how music—especially lullabies—heals like medicine.
13 Mar 2025,·25 mins