The Rest Is Science

Why Sharks Attack The Internet

Every week, around three undersea internet cables get damaged badly enough to need urgent repair... and the culprit usually isn’t sabotage. Submarine cables carry more t

Is 100 Better Than 101?

Is 100 really such a special number? Or have we spent thousands of years getting excited about something completely arbitrary? To celebrate the 100th episode of The Rest

What Are These Unsettling Sounds?

Some of the most creepy sounds ever recorded aren't from horror films. They're real. From mysterious noises from the deepest parts of the ocean to the eerie voices of p

Earth’s Tilt Makes Time Slippery

A sundial can be almost 16 minutes fast in November and 14 minutes slow in February, yet there's nothing wrong with it. So why does the Sun, our oldest timekeeper, disagr

What Happened When We Stopped Squatting?

In many parts of the world, people rest in a deep squat every day. In others, most adults can barely get down there. So what’s going on? Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens di

Mathematicians Are The Canary Down The AI Coal Mine

OpenAI claims a swarm of AI agents has solved the Navier-Stokes problem, one of the hardest unsolved questions in mathematics, with a $1 million prize attached. Then it r

The Right Way To Open A Shaken Soda Can

A can of fizzy drink has been violently shaken. The pressure is building, the bubbles are ready to erupt, and Michael Stevens is about to open it. But Hannah Fry has a tr

Something Weird Is Going On With Placebos

For the past few decades, something strange has been happening in clinical trials. Painkillers aren't getting worse, but the placebos they're tested against appear to be

What Was A Mammoth Doing At The Bottom Of The Sea?

Hannah surprises Michael with a mammoth bone from Doggerland, the lost Ice Age land that once joined Britain to mainland Europe, and now lies beneath the North Sea. Who l

Why Do We Turn on Innocent People?

Why do we turn on innocent people? A convincing story, a suspicious glance and suddenly everyone’s an armchair detective. But what happens when the crowd gets it complete

Hacking The Kendama With Physics

Michael hands Hannah a kendama, the Japanese cup-and-ball toy, and asks her to land a single catch. Then he brings out one built for him by Adam Savage of MythBusters and

Why Do We Like Staring Into Fire?

What is fire, and why does watching it hold our attention in a different way from scrolling on your phone? Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens start with the science of a fla

The Fluid Dynamics of Fountain Pens

The wait is finally over: Hannah Fry introduces Michael Stevens to her beloved fountain pen collection and the beautiful physics behind how fountain pens work. From a £2

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

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 extr

How Codes Were Used To Hack The Telegram Business

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

Why Your Body Needs Gravity

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 as

What Is Collagen All About?

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 bo

The Threshold of Human Sensation

⁠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

The Scale of the Universe

The scale of the universe stretches from the Planck length, the smallest scale physics can describe, to the observable universe, the largest thing we can see. Travel in

Why Loud Chewing Makes You Angry

The mukbang phenomenon is comfort viewing for millions, yet for others the sound of chewing, slurping and everyday mouth noises is enough to trigger instant anger, disgus