4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Space: the final frontier, a deep dark realm full of questions and mysteries - many of which science can't yet satisfactorily answer. But that won't stop the Curious Cases team!
In a special edition recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre in London, Hannah Fry and Dara Ó Briain team up with a panel of guests who know their way around the universe: presenters from the world's longest running science TV show, The Sky At Night.
With the intergalactic expertise of George Dransfield, Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Hannah and Dara tackle a slew of space-related questions put forward by the listeners - exploring topics ranging from the sound of stars and the shape of the universe, to the search for alien life.
To submit your question to the Curious Cases team, please email: [email protected]
SPACE AUDIO CLIPS:
- Maggie's Choice: In 2005, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe descended to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Microphones aboard Huygens recorded the sounds of descent and landing, then The Planetary Society and scientists at the University of California helped ESA process the audio. CREDIT: European Space Agency (Huygens probe) / HASI-PWA Team (instrument and data) / The Planetary Society (processing)
- George's Choice: The black hole at the centre of the Perseus galaxy cluster has been associated with sound for years, since astronomers discovered that pressure waves sent out by the black hole caused ripples in the cluster's hot gas that could be translated into a note. This new sonification was released for NASA's Black Hole Week in 2022. CREDIT: NASA
- Chris's Choice: In 2023, the Planck space telescope picked up echoes left by soundwaves that travelled through the early Universe. This primordial hum was then translated into frequencies we can hear. CREDIT: NASA
Producer: Lucy Taylor Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem A BBC Studios Production
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hello, I'm Emma Barnett. For most of my career, I've been on live radio, and I love it. |
| 0:13.3 | But I've always wondered, what if we'd had more time? How much deeper does the story go? |
| 0:19.2 | I remember having this very sharp thought that what you do right now, this is it. |
| 0:24.3 | This defines your life. |
| 0:26.0 | I'm ready to talk and ready to listen. |
| 0:28.3 | I'm insulted by how little the medical community is ever bothered with this. |
| 0:33.9 | Ready to talk with me, Emma Barnard, is my new podcast. |
| 0:37.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. You're about to listen to a brand |
| 0:40.3 | new episode of Curious Cases. Shows are going to be released weekly, wherever you get your podcast. But if |
| 0:45.2 | you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episodes first on BBC Sounds. I'm Hannah Frye. And I'm Dara O'Brien. And this is Curious Cases. The show will we take your |
| 0:58.3 | quirkiest questions? Your crudious conundrums. And then we solve them. With the power of science. |
| 1:03.2 | I mean, do we always solve them? I mean, the hit rate's pretty low. But it is with science. |
| 1:07.8 | It is with science. |
| 1:12.2 | Hello and welcome to a special edition of Curious Cases |
| 1:15.8 | where we're going to do things a little bit differently |
| 1:17.3 | because Dara and I are currently in the BBC Radio Theatre |
| 1:20.8 | at London's Broadcasting House. |
| 1:22.3 | And as you can probably hear, we have an audience. |
| 1:27.1 | Thank you. Thank you. we have an audience. |
| 1:33.3 | And there's another thing we're doing differently as well. |
| 1:33.9 | There certainly is. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 20 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.