A recent study on how to get rid of microplastics in water sparked presenter Marnie Chesterton’s curiosity. When she turns on the tap in her kitchen each day, what comes out is drinkable, clean water. But where did it come from, and what’s in it? Dr Stewart Husband from Sheffield University answers this and more, including listener questions from around the UK. Is water sterile? Should I use a filter? And why does my water smell like chlorine?
Also, new research indicates that bumblebees can show each other how to solve puzzles too complex for them to learn on their own. Professor Lars Chittka put these clever insects to the test and found that they could learn through social interaction. How exactly did the experiment work, and what does this mean for our understanding of social insects? Reporter Hannah Fisher visits the bee lab at Queen Mary University in London.
And finally, more than 20 million years ago, our branch of the tree of life lost its tail. At that point in time, apes split from another animal group, monkeys. Now, geneticist Dr Bo Xia at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard thinks he may have found the specific mutation that took our tails. Marnie speaks with evolutionary biologist Dr Tom Stubbs from the Open University about why being tail-less could be beneficial. What would a hypothetical parallel universe look like where humans roam the earth, tails intact? And what would these tails look like?
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Louise Orchard, Florian Bohr, Jonathan Blackwell, Imaan Moin Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
Extinction Rebellion, UK net zero emissions and climate change; Nobel Prizes
HIV protective gene paper retraction, Imaging ancient Herculaneum scrolls, Bill Bryson's The Body
Oceans, ice and climate change; Neolithic baby bottles; Caroline Criado-Perez wins RS Book Prize
MOSAiC Arctic super-expedition, Likely extinction of the Bahama nuthatch, Tim Smedley's book on air pollution
Model embryos from stem cells, Paul Steinhardt's book on impossible crystals, Mother Thames
Inventing GPS, Carbon nanotube computer, Steven Strogatz and Monty Lyman discuss calculus and skin
Amazon fires, Royal Society Book Prize shortlist announced, John Gribben on quantum physics
UK's black squirrels' genetic heritage; nuclear fusion in the UK and the Royal Society's science book prize
UK power cut, Huge dinosaur find in Wyoming, Micro-plastics in Arctic snow
Making the UK's dams safe, AI spots fake smiles, How many trees should we be planting?
Lovelock at 100; Hydrothermal vents and antibiotic resistance in the environment
False positives in genetic test kits, Impact of fishing on ocean sharks, Sex-change fish
Turing on the new £50 note, Moon landing on the radio, 25 years since Shoemaker-Levy comet
Earliest modern human skull, Analysing moon rocks, Viruses lurking in our genomes
X-Rays on Mercury, Monkey Tools, Music of Molecules, AI Drivers
Global Food Security, Reactive Use-By Labels, Origins of the Potato
Rinderpest destruction, Noise and birdsong, Science as entertainment
Net-Zero carbon target, Science Policy Under Thatcher, Screen time measures
CCR5 Mutation Effects, The Surrey Earthquake Swarm, Animal Emotions
How maths underpins science
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