Scienceish

Science(ish) marks the 100-year anniversary of the devastating Spanish Flu outbreak by exploring the real threat behind the film Contagion: How vulnerable are we to the next deadly pandemic? Are we ready for it? And will you stop touching your face so bloody much after listening to this episode? Featuring: Dr Jonathan Quick See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inspired by Netflix series Altered Carbon, Rick and Michael tackle the science behind Silicon Valley’s ultimate wet dream: uploading our minds to a computer. Isn’t it time you moved beyond your pathetic human biology and treated yourself to an upgrade? Featuring: Dr Randal Koene See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could we reverse ageing and live forever? Science(ish) confronts our own mortality and explores the growing field of research which is bringing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button closer to reality. Might immortality be possible? And what would you be willing to do to get it... faecal transplant, anyone? Featuring: Dr Aubrey de Grey See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inspired by the 109-year-old novel ‘The Machine Stops’ which remarkably predicted the internet as we know it today, Rick and Michael explore whether someone could ever switch our machine off - and if the internet might someday ‘wake up’? Featuring: Prof Milton Mueller See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the Doomsday Clock now at two minutes to midnight, the boys go nuclear and explore the legendary political satire Dr. Strangelove. Could Trump fire off a nuke like he fires off a tweet? And how close are we to complete annihilation? The questions are big, the answers are bigger. Featuring: Prof Peter Feaver See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Through the sci-fi horror ‘The Cell’, Rick and Michael delve into the murky ‘grey zone of consciousness’ which separates life from death. Their quest: to discover if we could communicate with someone in a coma. Featuring: Prof Adrian Owen See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A treat for all the vegans out there. Rick and Michael tackle John Wyndham’s ‘The Day of the Triffids’, exploring whether plants can think, feel, and learn. And of course, the most fundamental question of all: who’s the real master of the earth - humans or wheat? Featuring: Prof. Monica Gagliano See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the help of a real-life hacker, Rick and Michael go worldwide(web) by asking 'how vulnerable are we to hackers?'. We're talking Stuxnet, the internet of things, and baby monitors that talk back. Featuring: Jake Davis (formerly; Topiary of Anonymous) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael decides it’s time to get cerebral and opts for Neil Burger’s ‘Limitless’. We’re talking brain myths, we’re talking nootropics, and of course, we’re talking/taking modafinil. Featuring: Professor Barbara Sahakian See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The boys go deadly serious with 1990 sci-fi classic ‘Flatliners’. Brain death, consciousness, and everything in between. Featuring: Professor Leslie Whetstine Produced By: Max Sanderson Sound Designer: Ivor Manley See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael continues the dystopia with Alfonso Cuarón’s fertility thriller ‘Children of Men’ by asking ‘could humans go infertile?’ (Includes hints of a mid-life crisis from a certain Rick Edwards - not to be missed). Featuring: Professor Shanna Swan See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After 3 years of asking, Rick finally gets his dream episode with Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ (apparently; also a film). Ghost hearts, chimeras, and sentient pigs - what more could you want? Featuring: Dr Jun Wu See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The boys start the new series with a bang. And a new format. One question, one scientist, plenty of relatively well-informed chat. To kick off, Rick and Michael go extra-terrestrial with 2016’s linguistic thriller ‘Arrival’. We’re talking a hundred words for snow, we’re talking babies on an island, and we’re talking (not so) Universal Grammar. Featuring: Dr Jessica Coon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Science(ish) is back! As of Thursday 15th February 2018, Rick Edwards and Dr Michael Brooks will be beaming into your ears every week and tackling the biggest scientific questions behind popular fiction. From holding conversations with aliens, to whether humans are going infertile - the new season of Science(ish) is about to arrive... and with a brand new format waiting for you all! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick and Michael decide to get nostalgic with a festive wrap of Season 2 by revisiting their favourite questions. We're talking fringe theories, we're talking spider goats, and we're talking simulated universes. Happy Christmas everyone! https://radiowolfgang.com/s/scienceish See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To celebrate the release of the Science(ish) book, Rick and Michael travel to the Wigtown Book Festival in Scotland to record a special live episode on dystopian classic 'Gattaca'. Are we more than our genes? Can they predict our future? And should we use genetic technology to create the perfect human? This episode features; Professor Steven Rose and Professor Peter Singer. https://radiowolfgang.com/s/scienceish See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick and Michael cast their eyes to space and go asteroid-hunting as per Michael Bay’s 1998 disaster classic ‘Armageddon’. How can we spot ‘em? How can we destroy ‘em? And how can an army of painter-decorators potentially save the day? https://radiowolfgang.com/s/scienceish See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick and Michael take a trip down memory lane, as told through the romantic science fiction comedy-drama (yes; that’s a thing) ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. What is a memory? How reliable are they? Can we selectively erase them? And, of course, when will Michael stop telling his Alan Alda story?! Featuring: Dr Catherine Loveday, Dr Julia Shaw, Dr Steve Ramirez, and Professor Joseph Le Doux. https://radiowolfgang.com/s/scienceish See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Brooks-Edwards hybrid delves into the world of chimeras, as seen in David Cronenberg’s classic ‘The Fly’. We’re talking teleportation. We’re talking spider-goats. We’re talking the “Brundlefly.” Be afraid, be very afraid. https://radiowolfgang.com/s/scienceish See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick and Michael delve into the world of olfaction, as seen through the lens of Patrick Süskind’s psychopathic thriller ‘Perfume’. How do we smell? How can it affect us? And is Lynx Africa the world’s most perfect scent? https://radiowolfgang.com/s/scienceish See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices