A Girl's First Time, Shark's Stomachs, Prime numbers
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
First sexual experience - checking the facts A short film for the Draw A Line campaign has made the claim that one in three girls first sexual experience is rape. This seems shockingly high, but what is the evidence? Is it just for the UK or a global figure? We go back to the reports that were used to source the claim, and find the research has been misinterpreted.
How long can a shark go for without eating? A recent episode of Blue Planet II stated that after a large meal a Sixgill shark might not have to eat for 'up to an entire year'. Tim Harford speaks to Dr David Ebert, a shark expert who has studied the stomach contents of Sixgills over the years. And to Professor Alex Roger, a zoologist who advised the Blue Planet team, to try and find out how accurate the claim is and why the deep sea is still a mystery.
The wonder of Prime Numbers Oxford mathematician Vicky Neale talks about her new book - Closing The Gap - and how mathematicians have striven to understand the patterns behind prime numbers.
Multiple grannies A Swiss mummy has recently been identified as a distant ancestor of Boris Johnson. But some people have been getting tangled up over just how many great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmothers the Foreign Secretary might have. We tackle an email from one listener - none other than the broadcaster Stephen Fry.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Hello and welcome to More or Less. We're your statistical guide to the numbers all around us in the news and in life and I'm Tim |
| 0:43.4 | Harford. This week I go head to head with Sir David Attenborough himself on the |
| 0:49.0 | subject of sharks and with the aid of Vicky, we'll be exploring why mathematicians find prime numbers so fascinating. |
| 0:57.0 | Also, Boris Johnson, Stephen Fry, and a mummy. |
| 1:02.0 | But first, a listener has got in Stephen Fry and a mummy. |
| 1:03.1 | But first, a listener has got in touch after a visit to the cinema |
| 1:07.1 | which screened a campaign video during the adverts and trailers. |
| 1:11.2 | The video is made by the UK branch of an organization called |
| 1:14.6 | UN Women as part of a campaign called Draw a Line. But our loyal listener wondered |
| 1:20.8 | Are the statistics in its otherwise admirable campaign accurate? |
| 1:27.0 | I draw a line. |
| 1:30.0 | The video features a number of celebrities. |
| 1:34.0 | For the two women who die from violence every week in the UK. |
| 1:39.0 | This fact has been widely repeated and reported over the past few years and we've looked into it before. |
| 1:45.6 | The claim is that around a hundred women die each year at the hands of their partner or |
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