The Rest Is Science

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

* 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...