The Rest Is Science

What happens to a body part once it’s been removed from your body? Can you take it home? Cremate it? Bury it? Even give it a funeral?

In the first episode of a new mini-series on ownership, Hannah and Michael explore a deceptively simple question: what parts of ourselves do we actually own?

From amputated limbs and stolen skulls to black markets for human organs, they uncover the strange, unsettling, and often lucrative world of body ownership. Why did grave robbing help advance modern medicine? When are flesh-eating beetles surprisingly useful? Who owns your organs after you die? And what does the bizarre fate of Einstein’s brain reveal about the blurry line between science, consent, and control after death?

This episode asks: do our bodies really belong to us?

-------------------

For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if the next pandemic could be predicted before it even begins?

Hannah and Michael step into the unsettling world of outbreak simulations, where scientists map invisible infections, model human behaviour, and try to stop global catastrophe before it starts.

Some warnings save millions. Others get ignored, until it’s too late.

After the break the conversation takes a turn into space stations, fizzy drinks in zero gravity, the first microscopes, and gravitational waves bending the fabric of spacetime itself.

Welcome to Field Notes!

-------------------

For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why are black cars more dangerous, white chess pieces more successful, and pandas apparently incapable of coping with minor inconvenience?

Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) unpack one deceptively simple question - which would win in a fight between black and white? - and end up exploring everything from colour psychology and radioactive frogs to quasars, fantasy literature, and whether the universe itself ultimately sides with darkness.

Along the way, Hannah invents a new category of “cool cult members,” Michael explains how light could theoretically form a black hole, and both attempt to avoid turning the entire episode into a Tolkien podcast.

-------------------

For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

-------------------

Advertise with us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if one of the most valuable objects on Earth has been sitting untouched at the bottom of the ocean for 100 million years?

In this Field Notes episode, Professor Hannah Fry brings Michael Stevens (VSauce) a strange metallic rock formed in the deepest parts of the Atlantic over millions of years.

What begins with a bizarre Cold War CIA cover story involving Howard Hughes and a sunken Soviet submarine quickly turns into a journey through deep sea geology, natural “electric” rocks, and the environmental dilemma of mining the ocean floor for the rare metals used in electric car batteries.

Plus: can you train yourself to become ambidextrous? are giraffes more vulnerable to lightning strikes than other animals? Does damp cold really feel colder than dry cold? And do humans actually sense wetness at all?

-------------------

For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producers: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

Animator: Sam Benson

Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

Producer: Simona Rata

Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

* This episode contains descriptions of warfare and use of chemical weapons *

How do you feed a world that’s running out of food?

In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens uncover one of the strangest and most unsettling stories in modern science: the tale of the man who learned how to pull fertiliser out of thin air.

This discovery transformed agriculture. It made modern civilisation possible. But it also powered explosives, prolonged the First World War, and helped to birth some of the most deadly chemical weapons in history.

From battles for bird poop and to the ethics of scientific progress, this is the story of the molecule that changed humanity forever.

------------------

For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠

Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

-------------------

Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

-------------------

Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack MeekAnimator: Sam BensonVideo & Social: Bex TyrrellAssistant Producer: Lucy LipscombeProducer: Simona RataSenior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-CarterHead Of Digital: Samuel OakleyExec Producer: Neil Fearn
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices