Why can’t we remember being a baby?

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Astronomical Balloon "How far up can a helium balloon go? Could it go out to space?" asks Juliet Gok, aged 9. This calls for an experiment! Dr Keri Nicholl helps Adam launch a party balloon and track its ascent. But their test doesn't quite go to plan. Meanwhile, Hannah discovers where space begins by asking Public Astronomer Dr Marek Kukula, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Send your Curious Cases to the team: [email protected]

The Forgetful Child "Why don't we remember the first few years of our lives?" asks David Foulger from Cheltenham. The team investigate the phenomenon of 'infant amnesia' with Catherine Loveday from the University of Westminster. 40% of us claim to remember being under two years old and 18% recall being babies. But can we really trust these early memories? Martin Conway from City University thinks not.

Picture: Baby Foot, Credit H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Producer: Michelle Martin.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC 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, welcome to episode 3 of the curious cases of Rutherford and Fry.
0:40.0	I'm Dr. Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr. Hannah Fry.
0:42.0	And we investigate your everyday science can now. I'm Dr. Adam Rutherford and I'm Dr. Hannah Fry.
0:42.7	And we investigate your everyday science conundrums, your questions that have been burning.
0:47.7	We use the power of science to answer them.
0:49.8	Indeed so if there is anything that you have been wondering for a while, then please do send
0:55.2	it into us curious cases at BBC.kk.k.
0:58.1	And we shall investigate.
0:59.8	Now this one is, this is coming from a young listener, a nine-year-old Juliet Gok, and it seems like a very simple question, but in fact turned out to be quite complex and enormously good fun.
1:10.0	Indeed, the question is, if you let go of a helium balloon, just how high does it go?
1:16.5	And always in this programme we try to do experiments as often as we can.
1:19.9	Lots of experiments in this one.
1:21.1	Real science.
1:22.3	And in this programme we get to investigate how big balloons go,
1:26.0	set them off, explode them, do all sorts of fun stuff.
1:29.0	Plus bring some helium into the studio.
	...

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