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Taming Nature
What lies behind our desire to improve and perfect nature
Living at the Edge: Life in Extreme Environments
Extreme life on earth and in space.
A Single World, Many Identities?
Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, Nick Bostrom and Ann Phoenix from UCL discuss identity
Lost and Found
Can loss be a force for renewal, forcing us to adjust and experience things differently?
Balance: How we Find Equilibrium
Why balance in humans, machines and music are needed for effectiveness and safety
Rules and how they govern us
Rules and how they govern us.
Wheel Revolutions
The technology and art of wheeled transport
Brain Drain: Can We Stem the Flow?
How can we stem the brain drain from countries who need their talented people?
After Dark: How we Respond to Darkness
Exploring how we operate at night and our attitude to the dark
When Does Healthy Competition Become Destructive?
What is the place of rivalry in human behaviour?
Resilience: A Survivor's Guide to Adversity
Why some people and animals adapt to hardship
Talking Rubbish: Clever Ways with Waste
Advice from a garbologist, a waste expert and a taxidermist about re-using waste
Unfinished: The Art of the Incomplete
How do we respond to things that are unfinished or incomplete?
Microbes and Humans: The Science of Living Together
New insights into the human microbiome, the tiny organisms living in and on our bodies
Defiance: Why Are Some People More Defiant than Others?
When is defiance a resistance to authority, and when is it a sign of disregard to others?
Radioactivity: Friend or Foe?
Separating the benefits of radioactivity from its dangers
Do You Know What You’re Eating?
How to ensure better food transparency: to track what we eat from farm to fork.
The Unpredictable Planet: Understanding Volcanoes and Earthquakes
New ideas about volcanoes, earthquakes and other geological processes
Sharing and Why it is Essential for the Human Race
Why do we share and how important is it for our survival?
Balloons and How they Changed the World
The extraordinary impact of balloons on the human race.
Image overload: Coping with the modern world's visual clutter
How do our brains cope with the visual clutter of the modern world?
What is the Best Way to Deal with Anxiety?
How anxiety is created in the brain and how we can best help the anxious
Fire: How Climate Change is Altering our Attitudes to Wildfires
How do we deal with fire to protect health without compromising the environment?
Underground: How Deep Can Life Survive?
Exploring the mysteries of the biosphere below the earth’s surface.
Turmoil Around the World and in Ourselves
Exploring turmoil in politics and society
How Shyness and Introversion can be a Strength
Are shyness and introversion cultural or innate; do they help us negotiate today’s world?
Using Other People’s Water
Are we sucking our worldwide supply dry?
Reducing Urban Poverty
How to ensure people in deprived areas get secondary education and adequate nutrition
Why Are We Generous?
Are we generous out of kindness or self-interest?
Concrete: Foundation of the modern world
How concrete underpins the modern world
Do we Need Artificial Intelligence?
How the relentless advance of computer logic is changing our world and the way we think