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. The show sits in the fascinating space between what we think we know and what we actually know, questioning assumptions about time, randomness, and gravity. It aims to change your perception of reality and prove that the biggest questions are always the most fun.
Episodes
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 dig into the history of squatting and why the ability to squat differs so much between cultures.Plus, your questions: What happens to the air pressure inside a car when it goes round a bend? Why do some burps come out higher than ot
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 released more than 700 more mathematical manuscripts, including claims touching the Riemann hypothesis, faster than anyone can check them. Mathematicians are not happy, and the reason goes far beyond the money.
In this episode of
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 trick up her sleeve. Can a few taps really prevent an explosion?This week on The Rest Is Science, Hannah and Michael begin with the surprisingly complicated physics of carbonation before tackling a much bigger question: can we reall
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 getting better.
In one landmark study, the advantage of pain medication over placebo shrank from 27.3% in 1996 to just 8.9% in 2013.
Even stranger? This trend was found almost entirely in American trials.In this episode of The
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 lived there, what roamed it, and how did an entire landscape disappear under the waves?Then it's your questions: where did "cool" come from as a word for style, and how did it stick around for so long? What on earth is "skank face"
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 completely wrong?
Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the psychology of false accusations, witch hunts and mob mentality, starting with Richard Jewell, the security guard hailed as a hero after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing befo
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 explains why a heavier kendama is a completely different physics problem.
A kendama looks like a children's toy. It is really a pendulum, a lesson in angular momentum and a catching problem borrowed from spacecraft docking. Mi
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 flame: why it glows, what its different colours reveal, and why fire is a series of chemical reactions rather than a single substance.
Then they travel back to a time before wildfires could burn on Earth, and ask how early huma
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 £20 Lamy Safari to vintage Waterman and Montblanc pens, Hannah explains how capillary action, surface tension, air pressure and carefully engineered feeds control the flow of fountain pen ink. Michael tests the collection, chooses h
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 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 o
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 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
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 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,
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 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 resea
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 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
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 inward from one and outward from the other by powers of ten and they meet at something astonishingly familiar: the size of a human egg cell.
Michael Stevens (VSauce) takes Professor Hannah Fry on a journey through powers of ten
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, disgust and distress. Why do the sounds soothe one person and enrage another?
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (Vsauce) explore misophonia, the misunderstood sound sensitivity that can turn everyday mouth so
How Does Language Change What You Smell?
In this episode of Field Notes, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (Vsauce) begin with a Persian word for a smell Hannah cannot detect on a freshly washed plate.
From the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Russian words for blue to emotions and identity, Hannah and Michael investigate how language may shape our experience of the world.
Then, your questions. How fast would you need to throw a rock
Space Elevators, Skyhooks, and Space Fountains
What is the fastest, cheapest and possibly worst way to get into space?
Could a nuclear explosion launch a manhole cover beyond the Earth’s atmosphere?
And could space elevators, skyhooks or launch loops one day replace rockets?
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) explore where space really begins, why orbit means falling forever, and how Newton’s cannon e
Bizarre Watches and How They Work
Michael Stevens keeps a small museum of unusual timepieces on his desk: a clock that runs backwards, a watch built to be read in complete darkness, and one whose entire face simply says "now."
Each is a miniature experiment in the psychology of time, and each reveals something surprising about how our perception of time shapes the way we understand uncertainty and the world around us.
The c
Why Your Brain Thinks You're Full (Even When You're Not)
How did the Gila monster, a desert lizard that eats just five times a year, help unlock the science behind Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro?In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (Vsauce) trace the strange journey from a molecule found in lizard venom to medicines reshaping diabetes and weight-loss treatment, exploring how GLP-1 helps regulate blood sugar, app
The Lake At The North Pole That Stops Europe From Freezing
When you picture the North Pole, you probably imagine a vast, frozen expanse of floating sea ice. But hidden deep beneath the surface of the Arctic lies something incredible: a massive, churning reservoir of nearly freshwater, suspended right in the middle of a saltwater ocean.
In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) explore the hidden hydrodyna
The Science of Putting Sunglasses on The Sun
Why does the cartoon Sun always wear sunglasses? And how big would a real pair need to be?
Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens investigate space mirrors, Reflect Orbital and solar eclipses to find out.
Starting with a pencil held at arm’s length, they use the Sun’s angular diameter to calculate how big a pair of solar sunglasses would need to be for one eye, two eyes, everyone in London and event
Why Is It A Colour Wheel & Not A Line?
Colour wheel or colour line? Light itself runs in a straight line from red to violet, yet every colour theory chart bends that spectrum into a circle and the reason has nothing to do with physics.
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) dig into why human vision refuses to see colour the way light actually behaves, tracing the visible light spectrum from one end to the other and aski
Why Lithium Batteries SUCK
Can Hannah convince Michael that the lithium-ion battery is one of our most overrated inventions to ever happen?
Hannah makes her case using a surprising energy source hidden in your fridge, a bell in Oxford that's been ringing since 1840, and a metal that is useful… but prone to bursting into flame from the inside out.
Tracing the battery's strange history, from a twitching dead frog to the exe
What Happens Inside Earth's Forbidden Zones?
What grows in the spaces humans are forced to abandon?Hannah brings Michael an actual piece of barbed wire from the Korean Demilitarised Zone, one of the most heavily fortified and forbidden borders on Earth, and it sends them somewhere unexpected.
From deserted no man's land and radioactive exclusion zones to remote islands that most of humankind has quietly agreed to leave well alone, they expl
The 2012 Maya Apocalypse Myth & Confirmation Bias
Did the world really end in 2012?
Not with fire, meteors or an ancient Mayan prophecy, but Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens ask whether something just as profound took place instead.
Together they unravel how one of the biggest myths in history took hold and why the Maya were unable to accurately predict the apocalypse. But they also delve into why, according to Michael, 2012 was th
The Evolution of Colour Vision & Tetrachromacy
Can you hide your skeleton from a dog? Would you want to know the day you’ll die? Has evolution ever come close to producing a real fire breather?
Michael and Hannah test a T-shirt with a secret only humans can see, leading them into the strange world of colour vision, from colourblindness and tetrachromacy, to the remarkable eyes of the mantis shrimp.
They also ask whether DNA could become
The Hole In Your Brain That Makes You Doomscroll
Why can't you leave a sealed envelope unopened?
Professor Hannah Fry begins by refusing to allow Michael Stevens to open a mystery envelope addressed to him.
A small act of torture that turns out to be the perfect way in to today's subject: curiosity. What is it, why does it feel almost physical, and how far will people actually go just to resolve a nagging uncertainty?
From there Hannah and M
Forensic Science And The Champawat Tiger
It begins with a discovery in a loft: a full man eating tiger skin, brought back from a village in northern India where Professor Hannah Fry's ex-mother in law grew up.
That find sends Hannah and Michael Stevens into the strange world of man eating big cats: a tigress blamed for a staggering number of deaths, what can turn a tiger toward hunting humans in the first place, and how India now borrow
All The People You Don't Know
Do your friends actually like you? Does an acquaintance think you’re closer than you are?
This week, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the surprising psychology of friendship, from familiar strangers and para-social relationships to the unsettling discovery that nearly half of friendships may not be mutual.
Why are we so bad at judging who considers us a friend? Why do strangers often h
An Honest Dad Ranking (Out Of All 2 Billion)
The statistical reality of "The World's #1 Dad Mug" is nothing but a well meaning lie.
In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Michael brings another treasured artifact into the studio: a mug gifted by his daughter.
Rather than claiming the top spot, the mug features a specific, mathematically defensible ranking of his fatherly abilities.
If he's not the very best...surely he's in the top perc
Your Brain Invents Pain. Here's Why.
Stubbing your toe feels like the pain is entirely in your foot. But the reality is far stranger... the agonising sensation you experience is actually a highly complex, constructed illusion, invented in real-time by your brain.In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) explore the weird neuroscience of human pain and why pain is ultimately a brilliant
The Most Dangerous Rock In Hannah's Collection
When you think of dangerous geological specimens, does your mind jump straight to radioactive uranium, toxic heavy metals, or even asbestos? What if one of the most dangerous items sitting on a shelf is actually a polished, perfectly ordinary-looking piece of black obsidian?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens dive into the surprisingly treacherous geology and chemistry of obsidian.
Hannah
The Audio Illusion That Proves We Don't Experience Reality
Your ears are lying to you right now. In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (Vsauce) dive into the bizarre world of audio illusions where your brain hears sounds that don't exist, fills in frequencies that were never there, and constructs a version of reality that simply isn't real.
From the impossible endless ascending tone to the battle between your
The Engineering Of A NASA Space Pen
A pen designed to write in space sits unopened for 25 years. Does it still work?In this episode of Field Notes, Michael Stevens finally opens a treasured souvenir from his time at Space Camp: a genuine Fisher Space Pen that has been waiting decades for its first scribble. From there, the conversation launches into the challenges of living in space, why astronauts abandoned pencils, and what happen
A Paleontology Of The Future: What We Will Leave Behind
What will humanity leave behind?
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce's Michael Stevens explore the traces humans leave behind and what those traces reveal about how we think.
From Tranquility Base, where humanity's first footprints on another world still sit undisturbed in lunar dust, to a three million year old pebble that may represent one of the earliest signs of symbolic th
What Are The Odds You'll Become A Fossil?
Most living things vanish without a trace. A select few become fossils. But how?
In this episode of Field Notes Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce's Michael Stevens dig into the unlikely process that turns bone into stone.
From prehistoric seas hidden beneath Kansas to fossils mistaken for mythical creatures, they follow the clues that reveal Earth's deep past.
Along the way they uncover t
Why Feet Are Weirder Than You Think
Compared with almost every other animal on Earth, our feet seem strangely specialised. They can't grip branches, they're full of arches and joints, and for some reason we're the only species that regularly puts shoes on them.
Hannah and Michael explore how millions of years of evolution transformed ape like feet into powerful biological springboards, uncovering a surprising connection between h
How Many Words Do You ACTUALLY Know?
Most people use just a fraction of the words they understand. But how big is your vocabulary, really?
When a listener builds a tool that claims to measure it, Hannah and Michael put themselves to the test.
If you'd like to try for yourself, follow the link and tell us what score you get in the comments: https://vocabowl-870366514258.us-west1.run.app/
Along the way they uncover forgotten
Why You Should Stop Using Face ID
Do you think your thoughts belong to you? How would feel if you found out they don't?
In this episode Hannah and Michael discuss a tangible future where the last bastion of privacy is breached and the thoughts that run through out heads no longer belong to us.
Why is it that in 2026 police can open your phone using face ID any time they want, but they can't do the same with your password? When
Nikola Tesla Fell In Love with a Pigeon
What do lightning, wireless electricity, Cambridge dining etiquette, hypnosis, and a lovestruck pigeon have in common?
The answer is (of course) Nikola Tesla.
In this episode of The Rest Is Science: Field Notes, Michael and Hannah experience a real Tesla coil, exploring the spectacular physics behind one of Tesla's most famous inventions.
Why do these devices create miniature lightning
Michael Discovered A New Way To Make Twins
Is there a new way to make twins? If there is, Michael's might just have discovered it. And hint: it's going to hard work.
From Hannah’s twin-like sister to the most famous cells in human history, in this episode Hannah and Michael continue to explore whether we truly own of ourselves, this time at a microscopic level.
From our genome, to our cells and even our personalities, what happens
Why Michael Abandoned Ink For Mechanical Pencils
What can be revealed about a person by their choice of…lead?
In this gloriously nerdy episode of Field Notes, Michael Stevens arrives armed with an entire collection of mechanical pencils, sparking a series of passionate debates about graphite, the merits of ink, and whether the perfect pencil will ever really exist.
Plus: what happens to fizzy drink bubbles in zero gravity? Why did early sc
Do Our Bodies Really Belong To Us?
What happens to a body part once it’s been removed from your body? Can you take it home? Cremate it? Bury it? Even give it a funeral?
In the first episode of a new mini-series on ownership, Hannah and Michael explore a deceptively simple question: what parts of ourselves do we actually own?
From amputated limbs and stolen skulls to black markets for human organs, they uncover the strange, unsett
Hannah Predicted a Pandemic
What if the next pandemic could be predicted before it even begins?
Hannah and Michael step into the unsettling world of outbreak simulations, where scientists map invisible infections, model human behaviour, and try to stop global catastrophe before it starts.
Some warnings save millions. Others get ignored, until it’s too late.
After the break the conversation takes a turn into space
DARK vs LIGHT
Why are black cars more dangerous, white chess pieces more successful, and pandas apparently incapable of coping with minor inconvenience?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) unpack one deceptively simple question - which would win in a fight between black and white? - and end up exploring everything from colour psychology and radioactive frogs to quasars, fantasy literature, and
Polymetalic Nodules Are Weird
What if one of the most valuable objects on Earth has been sitting untouched at the bottom of the ocean for 100 million years?
In this Field Notes episode, Professor Hannah Fry brings Michael Stevens (VSauce) a strange metallic rock formed in the deepest parts of the Atlantic over millions of years.
What begins with a bizarre Cold War CIA cover story involving Howard Hughes and a sunken Sov
"A Grim Enemy For Reasons We Do Not Yet Comprehend"
* This episode contains descriptions of warfare and use of chemical weapons *
How do you feed a world that’s running out of food?
In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens uncover one of the strangest and most unsettling stories in modern science: the tale of the man who learned how to pull fertiliser out of thin air.
This discovery transformed agriculture. It mad
When 0 = 1000
Why does one of the most familiar numbers on a nutrition label turn out to be far more complicated than it looks?
What can a can of fizzy drink teach us about thermodynamics, human metabolism, and the strange ways scientists measure energy?
Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce’s Michael Stevens dive into the weird science of calories. From century-old experiments involving fire, body heat, and hu
How To Use a Black Hole To See Your Past
What if the universe is recording everything you’ve ever seen and done?
In this episode, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the idea that light itself might carry a record of the past. And if it did, how could we watch history unfold by capturing it.
Could a perfectly placed mirror or even a black hole bend that ancient light back to us? Could we watch the pyramids being built, or hear
The Science Of Motion Sickness
What can a humble airplane sick bag teach us about physics, engineering, and the limits of the human stomach; And why are there people out there collecting thousands of them?
Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce’s Michael Stevens turn an unlikely holiday prompt into a surprisingly rich exploration of flight. From the biology of motion sickness to the physics of turbulence, and from exploding crisp p
Alan Turing’s Final Theory Was About Leopards
How does a perfectly symmetrical ball of cells become an animal, with a head, a tail, and complex zebra or leopard like patterns?
In this episode, we dive into the mind bending science of how order emerges from chaos, guided by an unexpected genius: Alan Turing.
From leopard spots and human embryos to crime hotbeds, Hannah and Michael discover the hidden mathematical rules shaping life itse
How To Prove You're A Time Traveller
How do you convince people you aren't a witch if you travel back in time, and where can you actually find something decent to eat when you're there?
Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce, Michael Stevens, tackle the most practical and delicious logistics of surviving a trip through history.
Check out one of Hannah's favourite chemistry YouTube channels - https://www.youtube.com/@cnliziqi
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The Reasoning Test Psychologists Still Can't Explain
Why do almost all of us struggle with a simple reasoning test, yet get it right the moment it’s about a pint in a pub? This week, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens take on the Wason Selection Task, one of the most intensely studied problems in the history of psychology.
They unpack why a rule involving letters and numbers can feel strangely difficult, while the exact same logic becomes im
The Elegant Laminar Flow Of Moroccan Tea
Does a teapot secretly hold the laws of physics? And what do soap, sugar and mint have to do with the perfect cup of tea?
Whilst in Morocco, Professor Hannah Fry takes Michael Stevens (VSauce) into the surprising science of mint tea, from foamy bubbles that trap desert sand to the elegant S-shaped spout that appears to solve some of the hardest problems in fluid dynamics.
Plus, your questions,
The Physics Of Thermodynamics
Is the kitchen home to some of the most extraordinary technology humans have ever invented?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the science of everyday appliances, from the strange physics of coldness to the wartime origins of the microwave. They explore how humanity learned to trap 'coolth', beam heat into leftovers, and turn the most ordinary room in the house into a high perfor
Are There More Raindrops In Clouds Or Data In THE Cloud?
Does "the cloud" hold more data than a clouds hold raindrops? Can a new organ literally rewrite your personality?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens, VSauce, weigh our massive digital servers against a standard downpour, before unpicking the biology of transplant patients suddenly waking up with entirely new cravings.
Michael also has a new Curiosity Box coming featuring an altertativ
Data & The Universe (Understanding Infinity Part 3)
What happens when you finally reach the end of forever? And what exactly is the difference between Omega and Aleph-null?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) return for the final (possibly not) chapter of our infinity series, unpicking the frankly absurd mechanics of multiple infinities. They reveal how mathematicians don't just measure the endless void, but actively organise it,
Why We Need Zip Lines On The Moon
Why would a zip line be the best form of transport on the Moon? Why exactly can your feet still feel other textures right through your socks? Hannah and Michael tackle the spectacular physics of extreme commutes and everyday biomechanics.
They unpick the orbital chaos and terrifying vacuum of space, proving why a lunar theme park ride is essentially a brilliant, fiery death trap. Back down on
Multiple Infinities (Understanding Infinity Part 2)
Why were the ancient Greeks absolutely terrified of the infinite? How did a boundless mathematical concept start bitter historical feuds? And what happens to reality when you realise that some infinities are actually bigger than others?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) plunge back into the mind-bending history of infinity, tracking the spectacular panic it caused across the ce
How Evolution Is Shaping Cancer Research
In this very special episode Michael and Hannah look at some of the groundbreaking, jaw-dropping and hope inspiring projects that Cancer Research UK are supporting right now.
From identifying tiny "flags" cancer cells show to using cancer's own evolution against it, they show why current research today will hopefully mean a better tomorrow for many.
Cancer Research UK are the world's leading can
Mathematical Paradoxes (Understanding Infinity Part 1)
Is infinity actually a real number, or just a brilliant mathematical hallucination? Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens (VSauce) tumble down the numerical rabbit hole to explore the mind-bending origins of infinity. They unpick exactly how humanity managed to trap the endless void. From ancient paradoxes to endless hotel rooms, they dive into the bizarre history of our universe's most impossi
Michael's Favourite Science Books
What do Bill Bryson, Daniel Wegner and J.R.R. Tolkien have in common? They are all part of Michael's reading recommendations. On this episode of Field Notes we answer one of our most frequent inbox questions... "What do you both read?"
Alongside that Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens delve into whether some numbers give off "vibes" and the optimal way to use airflow to rid your car of
The Science of Hallucinations and Perception
Ever wanted to squish a puppy just because it’s impossibly cute? Or felt absolutely certain you’ve lived this exact moment before?
Hannah and Michael explore the bizarre, everyday glitches of the human mind, unpacking why our brains occasionally seem to short-circuit. They dive into the weird neurology of "cute aggression", or urges like thinking of throwing your phone off a bridge, to the jar
Introducing: The Book Club - Never Let Me Go
What inspired Kazuo Ishiguro’s timeless story about mortality, growing up, and the human condition? How are its characters so relatable, and yet entirely unique? And, why does the dark secret at its heart challenge scientific innovation?
Dominic Sanbrook joins Hannah and Michael to discuss all this and Dominic's new show, The Book Club, available now.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit p
Why We Cry Out In Pain
Have you stubbed your toe and shouted an unrepeatable word? Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle were two of the greatest minds in humanity. Did their egos and competition with one another hold them back or drive them onto huge breakthroughs?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the bizarre neurology of vocalised pain, revealing how a good yelp actually acts as a biological off-switch for
What's The Most "Vegetable" Vegetable?
Botanically speaking, there is no such thing as a vegetable, so what exactly is sitting on your dinner plate? And if our culinary world is built on biological lies, which plant is actually the most vegetable like?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens tackle a chaotic intersection of linguistics, plant taxonomy, and nutrition, dismantling the arbitrary categories we use to organise our food, r
How Words Shape Your Body
Does your native language physically sculpt your face? And could a swarm of bees be trained to run computer code?
Two of your questions answer in this Field Notes with Professor Hannah Fry and YouTube's Michael Stevens, plus Michael’s object of the week is a visualization of the Holocene Calendar. By simply adding ten thousand years to our current year, it transforms our perception of history
The Neuroscience and Purpose of Sleep
Humans have split the atom, we can stream movies from space and are working towards everlasting life.
So why in the world are we still spending a third of our lives unconscious?
In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens ask a deceptively simple question: Can human beings cure sleep? Why do evolutionary forces cause us to lie helpless for eight hours a night wh
Aerospace Engineering: How To Fall To Earth (Without Burning Up)
Rockets are built to slice cleanly through the atmosphere on the way up. Coming home, it turns out, requires... not turning into a fireball before a bellyflop
When Space Shuttles reenter Earth’s atmosphere at 17,000 miles per hour, they don’t dive nose first. Instead they turn broadside to the atmosphere, deliberately creating more drag, more friction, more heat. At those speeds, oncoming air
You (Don't) Know Where You Are
If someone asked you to point to yourself, where would you point? Your chest? Your head? Somewhere just behind your eyes?
Where are you?
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce’s Michael Stevens explore how the brain maps and understands out location, from the inner ear fluid that tells us which way is up, to the grid and place cells that build a kind of internal GPS.
But how d
How Big Is A Piece Of Chocolate?
At what exact chemical ratio does our beloved chocolate devolve into a mere structure of fats and sugars? How far can you dilute chocolate before its fundamental identity vanishes?
And what could a comically tiny novelty stool possibly reveal about Michael Stevens?
Unlike a block of pure iron or a vial of chlorine, chocolate is not one single substance but a complex and heterogeneous mixture we
There Are Four Ways To Lie
Is deception a uniquely human trait, or is the natural world built on a foundation of fraud? When a cuttlefish shifts its skin to mimic a female and sneak past a rival male, this may be deceptive but is it telling a lie?
Professor Hannah Fry and VSauce's Michael Stevens explore the evolutionary biology of dishonesty across the animal kingdom. What is the neurological difference between a biolo
The Evolution Of The Butthole
Topologically speaking, a human is just a donut with seven holes. It sounds like a joke, but it is a fundamental biological reality. Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the strange geometry of the human body, tracing how we evolved from simple tubes into complex toruses. They investigate the "design flaw" at the boundary of our existence, the fragile transition where skin meets intern
(Finite) Numbers So Large They'd Destroy You
It starts as a friendly challenge: who can name the biggest number?
The only rule? Infinity doesn’t count.
What follows is a journey through the biggest finite numbers ever imagined.
From Archimedes’ grains of sand to Graham’s Number, a sequence so vast it stretches the limits of human comprehension, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens tumble through this strange landscape of scale,
Michael Wrote Some Math Poetry
Can mathematics ever truly be proven? And can Michael's poetry help you remember some tricky equations?
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens answer your questions and take a look at what it means for something to be true in mathematics. Starting with a grand attempt to prove that one plus one equals two, and into Gödel’s theorem that no system of maths can ever fully prov
Can We 'Solve' Sports?
Is it possible to make a sport too good?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore how science, data, and optimisation are transforming modern sports improving athletes and teams, while quietly changing how games are played, watched, and understood.
From the Tush Push in the NFL and defensive shifts in Major League Baseball, to dirty air in Formula 1, expected goals in Premier League
This Glass Was Made By Lightning
Could a bolt of lightning become a permanent geological relic? How small would you have to squash a hamster to turn it into a black hole?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens dismantle our perceptions of scale and texture, moving from the glassy "fulgurites" forged in sandy soil to the mathematical threshold of the Schwarzschild radius. They explore the counter-intuitive geometry of the Earth
Can You Die Of Boredom?
What is boredom really, and why does it feel so unbearable?
Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the science of boredom, revealing it not as laziness or a lack of stimulation, but as a signal from the brain when prediction and learning grind to a halt. When nothing changes and everything is expected, the mind begins to push back.
From dopamine experiments and waiting rooms to sen
Would You Kill One To Save Five? Your Brain Already Decided
Can we store summer’s heat to warm our homes in winter? Could humans perceive a fourth dimension? And why does light bend around gravity even though it has no mass?
Small questions from YOU which open doors to enormous worlds.
In this episode of Field Notes, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens discuss underground heat batteries in Canada and Einstein’s thought experiments, from how the universe
