Your science questions answered

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’ve been rummaging through the Inside Science mailbox to pick out a selection of the intriguing science questions you’ve been sending in, and assembled an expert panel to try to answer them.

Marnie Chesterton is joined by Penny Sarchet, managing editor of New Scientist, Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London, and Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, to get to the bottom of your scientific mysteries.

Why is the moon sterile when the earth is so full of life? Are new organisms going to evolve to eat microplastics? And did Nikola Tesla really find a way of creating free electricity?

Listen in as we try to uncover the answers.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Dan Welsh & Debbie Kilbride Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What is love?
0:03.0	Is it chemistry, fate or a disaster waiting to happen?
0:07.0	Sometimes you mistake other things for love.
0:10.0	Join me, Ryland, on my new podcast as I ask experts and a few familiar faces what love really means.
0:16.3	Because it turns out it's a bit more complicated than happily ever after.
0:20.7	You should think of it as the daily commitment you make to someone that you care about.
0:25.2	Ryland, how to be in love. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.2	This is the podcast of BBC Inside Science, first broadcast on the 29th of May 2025.
0:37.8	Hello, fellow Philomaths. I'm Marnie Chesterton, and that is my new word.
0:43.2	It means a lover of learning. Epistemophiles. There's another. There are millions of us out there,
0:49.4	and I know that, partly because I've seen Radio 4's listening figures, and what is Radio 4 but an audio
0:54.9	temple to knowledge? I also know because lots of you have been getting in touch with inside
1:00.5	science, wanting answers to various aspects of how the world around us works. Today, we've
1:06.8	assembled a panel with decades of dedicated study between them and will be tackling a selection
1:12.0	of your questions on everything from life on the moon to the death of plastic bags. Let's meet them.
1:18.0	Hello, I'm Catherine Haman's. I'm a professor at the University of Edinburgh and I'm also the
1:22.8	Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Hi, I'm Mark Mazen and I'm a professor of Earth System Science at University College London,
1:30.6	which people look at me and go, what does that mean?
1:33.6	So I sum it up by saying I study climate change and environmental change in the past,
1:38.6	the present and the future.
1:40.4	And I'm Dr Penny Sarshey.
1:42.0	I'm managing editor at New Scientist and originally a biologist by training.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 19 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

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.