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The Rest Is Science

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The Rest Is Science
Latest episode

90 episodes

  • The Rest Is Science

    Dying In Space, Trapped Water, and What's Hidden In Pi?

    20/09/2026 | 49 mins.
    Almost every human who has ever lived has one thing in common: they were born and died on Earth. Except for three people.

    Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens uncover the extraordinary story of Soyuz 11, the Soviet cosmonauts who became the only humans ever to die in outer space, and what their deaths meant for the future of human spaceflight.But that raises a bigger question: what exactly is trapped on Earth, and what can escape?

    Is the water left inside discarded plastic bottles being locked away forever? Is Earth itself slowly leaking water into space? Can you really trap a monkey simply because it refuses to let go of something shiny? And are your phone number, your name and every other possible sequence of numbers really hidden somewhere inside the digits of pi?

    From space exploration and the Soyuz 11 disaster to Earth's water, animal behaviour and one of mathematics' biggest unanswered questions, Hannah and Michael investigate what gets trapped, what escapes, and what might have been hiding in plain sight all along.

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    For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience

    Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

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    Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

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    Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack MeekAnimator: Sam BensonVideo & Social: Bex TyrrellAssistant Producer: Lucy LipscombeProducer: Simona RataSenior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-CarterChief Digital Officer: Samuel OakleyExec Producer: Neil Fearn
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
  • The Rest Is Science

    How Codes Were Used To Hack The Telegram Business

    16/09/2026 | 56 mins.
    What if a single strange word could save you a fortune?

    In this episode Michael opens up a Victorian telegram code book and explores how users compressed long messages into brief coded words to outwit the per word charge of the telegraph system.

    Coded language turned everyday phrases about everyday events into something that looked like nonsense to outsiders, and why that secrecy was often a side effect of economy rather than espionage, and how operators learned to live inside this clipped new dialect of distance and delay.

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    For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience

    Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

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    Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

    -------------------

    Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

    Animator: Sam Benson

    Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

    Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

    Producer: Simona Rata

    Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

    Chief Digital Officer: Samuel Oakley

    Exec Producer: Neil Fearn
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
  • The Rest Is Science

    Why Your Body Needs Gravity

    13/09/2026 | 43 mins.
    Does space travel make astronauts younger?

    Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore Einstein’s twin paradox, time dilation and NASA’s famous Twins Study with astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly.

    After Scott Kelly spent 340 days aboard the International Space Station, he returned milliseconds younger than his identical twin. But microgravity had also affected his eyesight, bones, blood, gut microbiome, body temperature, genes and telomeres.

    So what exactly happens to the human body in space, and which changes remain after astronauts return to Earth?

    In this episode, Hannah and Michael discover how deeply the human body depends on gravity. Along the way, they uncover why your head ages faster than your feet, what a 63 day cave experiment reveals about our sense of time, and whether future humans could ever truly adapt to life beyond Earth.

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    For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science

    Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

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    Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

    -------------------

    Video Producer: Teo Ayodeji-Ansell

    Animator: Sam Benson

    Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

    Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

    Producer: Simona Rata

    Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

    Chief Digital Officer: Samuel Oakley

    Exec Producer: Neil Fearn
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
  • The Rest Is Science

    What Is Collagen All About?

    09/09/2026 | 41 mins.
    Do collagen pills live up to their promises for skin and joints and healthy ageing?

    In this episode, Hannah and Michael examine what collagen actually is and how the body makes and uses it, before looking closely at whether collagen supplements survive digestion and reach the skin in any meaningful form.

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    For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science

    Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

    -------------------

    Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

    -------------------

    Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek

    Animator: Sam Benson

    Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell

    Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe

    Producer: Simona Rata

    Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter

    Chief Digital Officer: Samuel Oakley

    Exec Producer: Neil Fearn
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
  • The Rest Is Science

    The Threshold of Human Sensation

    06/09/2026 | 55 mins.
    ⁠What is the smallest thing you can possibly feel? ⁠



    Michael Stevens and Professor Hannah Fry journey through varying levels of perception, from the faintest touch on skin to the faintest trace of flavour and odour, and on to the remarkable question of whether the eye can register a single particle of light. ⁠



    This is an exploration of human senses at their most sensitive, blending physics and neuroscience with everyday experience to reveal where our biology draws the line between nothing and something, and what about emotion... how do we feel those?⁠

    ⁠What is the smallest thing you can possibly feel? ⁠



    Michael Stevens and Professor Hannah Fry journey through varying levels of perception, from the faintest touch on skin to the faintest trace of flavour and odour, and on to the remarkable question of whether the eye can register a single particle of light. ⁠

    This is an exploration of human senses at their most sensitive, blending physics and neuroscience with everyday experience to reveal where our biology draws the line between nothing and something, and what about emotion... how do we feel those?⁠

    Darwin's The Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals.

    Lisa Feldman Barrett - How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.

    -------------------

    For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience

    Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

    -------------------

    Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠

    -------------------

    Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack MeekAnimator: Sam BensonVideo & Social: Bex TyrrellAssistant Producer: Lucy LipscombeProducer: Simona RataSenior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-CarterChief Digital Officer: Samuel OakleyExec Producer: Neil Fearn
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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About The Rest Is Science
Join mathematician Professor Hannah Fry and science creator Michael Stevens (Vsauce) as they dig into the weird scientific questions that often go unexplored. Welcome to The Rest Is Science, a show that sits in the fascinating space between what we think we know, and what we actually know. Why do we assume we understand things like time, randomness, or even gravity? Once you start questioning these familiar ideas, reality becomes astonishingly strange and completely fragile. Whether you're a lifelong science fan or just naturally curious, The Rest Is Science will change your perception of reality, and prove that the biggest questions are always the most fun.
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