Ri Science Podcast

You might have heard that vending machines are more likely to kill you than a shark, but they aren’t the only deadly object out there. You’re also more likely to be killed by falling coconuts, lightning strikes, bathtubs and your own bed. Swimming in shark-infested waters might actually be safer than hiding in your own house. In this episode, statistician Jennifer Rogers delves into the numbers to show you how statistics can help you to make better decisions about risky activities. Follow Jennifer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StatsJen Find out more on Jennifer's website: www.jenniferrogers.co.uk Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/OfVaOqLUbZA This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 11 March 2019. Please leave this episode a rating and a review to let us know what you think, and to help more people discover the podcast. Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: rigb.org/whats-on YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Produced by: Charlotte Collingwood Music by: Joseph Sandy Thumbnail image credit: Javaistan via Pixabay

On 4 July 2012, one of the longest-running mysteries in physics was finally clarified. The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider announced that they had produced and observed the elusive Higgs boson. This unstable elementary particle was theorised back in 1964 by 6 scientists – one of them was the particle’s namesake, Peter Higgs. In this episode, physicist and former Ri Christmas Lecturer, Frank Close, explores the life of Peter Higgs, a Nobel prize-winning scientist and the only person in history to have an existing single particle named after them. Get Frank Close's book 'Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass': https://geni.us/KI6As1C Watch Frank Close's CHRISTMAS LECTURES: rigb.org/explore-science/explore/video/cosmic-onion-atoms-1993 This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 7 July 2022. Please leave this episode a rating and a review to let us know what you think, and to help more people discover the podcast. Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: rigb.org/whats-on YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Produced by: Sarah Dick Music by: Joseph Sandy Thumbnail image credit: Garik Barseghyan via Pixabay

Do Diet Coke and salt cause heart disease? How do you transport a heart to be transplanted? How can you learn to live with angina? In this month's talk, we hear from world-renowned cardiac surgeon Samer Nashef. Samer discusses his book, ‘The Angina Monologues: Stories of Surgery for Broken Hearts’, with journalist Sathnam Sanghera. Together they explore a collection of Samer’s stories that are sure to get your heart racing – from driving a donor heart up the motorway to Samer's personal experience with angina. This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 8 May 2019. Please leave this episode a rating and a review to let us know what you think, and to help more people discover the podcast. Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: www.rigb.org/whats-on YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Produced by: Lia Hale Music by: Joseph Sandy Thumbnail image credit: Fran Malley via Scribe Publications

In this Christmas-special we go behind-the-scenes of our 2022 CHRISTMAS LECTURES, presented by Professor Dame Sue Black. Katherine Mathieson, Director of the Ri, managed to steal Sue away from rehearsals for a quick chat about her CHRISTMAS LECTURES memories, science communication and what we can expect to learn about forensic science. The CHRISTMAS LECTURES will be broadcast on BBC Four on 26, 27 and 28 December 2022. Find out more about the CHRISTMAS LECTURES: rigb.org/christmas-lectures Watch Prof Dame Sue Black's Discourse: youtu.be/9Jrd5kJ-vTU Listen to the podcast version: spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/I6iEvR14Nvb Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: rigb.org/whats-on Please leave this episode a rating and a review to let us know what you think, and to help more people discover the podcast. Produced by: Sarah Dick Music by: Joseph Sandy Thumbnail image credit: Paul Wilkinson Photography

An advanced form of radiotherapy, proton beam therapy enables tumours to be targeted with greater precision, reducing the collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Physicist Simon Jolly sheds light on this leading-edge technique and the technology needed to deliver it. This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 12 October 2018. Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8YnQkUWTS64 Please leave this episode a rating and a review to let us know what you think, and to help more people discover the podcast. Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: www.rigb.org/whats-on Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Music by: Joseph Sandy Thumbnail image credit: Howard Vindin via Wikimedia Commons | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Depth_Coded_Phalloidin_Stained_Actin_Filaments_Cancer_Cell.png

Did you know that zoologists have only found 5 species of mammals that go through the menopause? That's 4 species of toothed whale, plus us humans. The animal kingdom reveals a lot about female evolution and this month, Lucy Cooke explores evolutionary biology through an array of animal examples and research stemming from Darwin's time. Get Lucy Cooke's book 'Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal': www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/111196…80857524133.html This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 8 March 2022. Please leave this episode a rating and a review to let us know what you think, and to help more people discover the podcast. Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: www.rigb.org/whats-on Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Thumbnail image credit: Sebastian Pena Lambarri via Unsplash | unsplash.com/photos/poly_hmhwJs

If you're a fan of multiverse movies, this episode is for you. The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics says that an infinite number of universes exist in parallel to eachother, each having branched off in a moment of divergence before following its own unique timeline. Theoretical physicist Sean M Carroll guides us through the strange and sometimes daunting topic of quantum mechanics – from Einstein and Bohr to Schrödinger's cat and the many-worlds interpretation. This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 22 January 2020. Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: www.rigb.org/whats-on Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Thumbnail image credit: Israel Piña via Unsplash | unsplash.com/photos/3DzrAXPTp2c

Our exploration of the Earth’s fluctuating environment is an extraordinary story of human perception and scientific endeavour, which began much earlier than you might think. This month we hear from Alice Bell as she explores climate change science’s earliest steps in the 18th and 19th centuries, through the point when concern started to rise in the 1950s, right up to the modern day. You can learn more in Alice’s latest book 'Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis’. This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 22 July 2021. Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: www.rigb.org/whats-on Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Thumbnail image credit: Andrey Metelev via Unsplash | unsplash.com/photos/qpAOxji4dAo

Do you consider yourself a ‘thrill-seeker’? If so, you may have a variation in the DRD4 dopamine receptor gene which makes you less able to process dopamine, a neurotransmitter that's responsible for how we feel pleasure. This month we hear from thrill-engineer Brendan Walker as he explains how he designs rollercoasters to induce thrill, priming our bodies’ innate responses through sounds, visual cues, virtual reality and much more. This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 28 February, 2020. Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/edT9bUbKId4 Get tickets for upcoming talks: www.rigb.org Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Thumbnail image credit: Jonny Gios via Unsplash | unsplash.com/photos/ljN0zTXf7tQ

Does love at first sight exist? How does your attachment style influence how you love? This month we hear from lawyer-turned-poet and author, Laura Mucha, and artificial intelligence expert, Kate Devlin, about love and relationships. They share real love stories, explore what companies learn about you through online dating and discover what the future holds for sexual companion robots. This talk was recorded from our theatre at the Royal Institution on 14 February 2019. Website: www.rigb.org Twitter: twitter.com/Ri_Science YouTube: youtube.com/TheRoyalInstitution Patreon: patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution Thumbnail image credit: Alexandru Acea via Unsplash | unsplash.com/photos/RQgKM1h2agA