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.
Climate change and oil and gas exploration; cutting methane emissions; African wild dog populations; freezing eggs and sperm
Rugby and the brain
Window to solve pandemic origins closing
Mammoth Journey
IPCC report - extreme weather events
Bees and multiple pesticide exposure
Covid 19 – reaching the unvaccinated
A life-changing database
Covid19 - should we test everybody ?
Covid and our ancient ancestors
Gene editing gets real
UK science policy shake-up; Ivermectin & Covid; black fungus in Indian Covid patients; many hominins in Siberian cave
Cov-Boost trial; SARS-Cov 2 infection in action; sapling guards; why tadpoles are dying
Covid vaccines in children; preventing dengue; algal blooms; supersonic flight
Lab origin theory of SARS-Cov2; gene for obesity; dark matter map; rock art in Scotland
Human use of plants beyond the limits of history.
Blood Clot Cure, Synthetic Fuels and Coal Mine Heat Pumps
Microplastics in UK river beds
Early burials, diversity in Tudor England, a malaria vaccine, and rogue brain waves
Dragonfly on Titan, Retreating Glaciers, Surge Testing, Acoustic lighthouses
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