World Questions

As Europe faces some of the greatest crises of modern time, Germany’s leadership in the Europe Union has been put under pressure. In Berlin, Jonathan Dimbleby invites an audience to put questions about Germany and Europe to a panel of opinion-formers and decision-makers.

We're at the National Library of Latvia in the capital, Riga, for the third of our series of debates across Europe. Questions on the challenges and opportunies ahead for this northern European Baltic state - which lies on the EU's border with northern Russia - are answered by a panel of Latvian politicians and thinkers: Nils Ušakovs, the ethnic-Russian mayor of Riga; Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in parliament; and Baiba Rubesa, chair of the new Rail Baltica project, intended to link the Baltic states to the European rail network. They are joined by Magnus Christiansson, a Swedish security strategist specialising in NATO and the Baltic states. Questions come from the audience in Riga, and also BBC World Service social media followers. (Photo: National Library of Latvia) (Credit: Indriķis Stūrmanis)

From his early work with Egyptian mummies to his breath taking achievement of sequencing the genome of our nearest ancient relatives - the Neanderthals - professor Svante Paabo has changed how we think about ourselves. He and his team have found a comparatively small number of changes in the genes between us and Neanderthals, including changes in the brain. Could these differences explain what makes us human?

How the Neanderthals live on in our genes. Robin Ince interviews Svante Paabo in Leipzig.

A once in 10,000 year event gave astrophysicist Thaisa Storchi Bergman her eureka moment

From Athens the BBC's Jonathan Dimbleby discusses Greece and its relationship with the EU with a panel of politicians and thinkers - The Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos; the former Mayor of Athens and former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis; underwater archaeologist and union official Despina Koutsoumba; and Josef Janning, Senior Policy Adviser at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Professor Sadaf Farooqi looks at why some people put on weight and others don’t

Queen of Pain, Prof Irene Tracey shows how the brain can be easily tricked to feel pain

As Europe faces some of the biggest crises of modern times - the mass movement of migrants across its borders, and now the attacks on Paris - Jonathan Dimbleby hosts a discussion on these and other important issues impacting Europe.

Gareth Mitchell and a local audience meet professors Nick White and Francois Nosten, who developed one of the most effective treatments against malaria. However, on the borders of Thailand and Myanmar resistance to the drug has developed and the challenge is to stop resistance spreading to the rest of the world and causing millions of deaths. Exchanges at the Frontier travels to where the resistance is emerging to discover the innovative but controversial plan to halt drug resistance.