Why do we find things beautiful?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2019
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Humans seem programmed to appreciate beauty - whether that’s an attractive face, a glorious sunset, or a stirring piece of music. Of course, our individual tastes are all different, and culture plays a huge part too - but why are we so struck by whatever it is we find beautiful? What is that pleasurable sensation we get when we see or hear something we like? And has the ability to appreciate beauty given us any evolutionary advantages?
In a special edition of CrowdScience from the International Science Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden, we are joined by a panel of experts to explore how far science can explain the mystery of beauty. We look to biology, the brain, art and mathematics, to see how patterns, rhythms and symmetry contribute to our experience of beauty. And we ask whether machines can recognise or ‘appreciate’ beauty – and to what extent artificial intelligence is starting to confuse or influence what we think of as beautiful.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Cathy Edwards
Photo: A peacock. Credit: Getty Images/bobbieo
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and maybe it's when I had a hand in. |
| 0:04.0 | I'm Tammy Walker and I produce podcasts for the BBC. |
| 0:08.0 | My role is to give new and diverse creators a voice with the opportunity to build a career. |
| 0:12.0 | That's the thing I love about podcasts. |
| 0:14.4 | You start with just a good idea, but then you have the space to see where it goes. |
| 0:18.4 | And doing that at the BBC means we can really run with the best stories |
| 0:21.9 | while developing the most unique audio talent. |
| 0:24.3 | So if you like what you hear, why not check out the huge range of podcast we've got on BBC |
| 0:29.1 | Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | Hello listeners and hello audience. |
| 0:33.0 | Welcome to Crowd Science from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:37.0 | As you can hear this week, we've come right into the crowd, |
| 0:41.0 | out of Science's ivory tower tower and into a shopping mall. We are at the |
| 0:45.9 | International Science Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. Thank you so much for coming. |
| 0:51.1 | Can I get you to say hello crowd science? Can you say it in Swedish? |
| 0:56.0 | Hey crowd science. |
| 0:58.0 | Fantastic. Crowd science is the show that takes listener questions and turns them into audio adventures. |
| 1:05.0 | I'm Marnie Chesterton and I'm delighted to be joined this week by Camilla Videbeck from Swedish radio's show |
| 1:12.0 | Vertenette Wald. Please tell me I go. from Swedish radio's show, Vertendetwald? |
| 1:14.0 | Please tell me I got that roughly right. |
| 1:16.0 | Not so bad. |
| 1:17.0 | Vietandets Vad. |
... |
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