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In our fourth episode of What on Earth, we zoom way out - from rocks beneath our feet to the vast, dynamic system we call home: the Solar System.

We start with a deceptively simple question: what on Earth is the Solar System? From there, we unpack what actually defines it - not just planets orbiting the Sun, but a complex, evolving system shaped by gravity, heat, collisions, and time.

We talk about where our knowledge of the Solar System comes from: meteorites as time capsules of early planetary material, the Moon as a natural laboratory, telescopes on Earth and in space, and numerical models that let us replay cosmic chaos. It turns out we don’t need to travel everywhere to understand space -sometimes the clues fall right into our hands.

From there, we dive into how the Sun was born inside a stellar nursery, how protoplanetary disks form, and why the Solar System ended up so clearly divided into rocky inner planets and distant gas and ice giants. Temperature gradients, collisions, and violent early conditions play a much bigger role than peaceful orbits might suggest.

We also explore our Sun itself: what kind of star it is, how it produces energy, why it has layers like an onion (or an ogre), and how solar activity - from sunspots to solar wind - shapes the space far beyond the planets. Along the way, we follow the solar wind all the way to the edge of the Sun’s influence, where spacecraft like Voyager have shown us just how big our cosmic neighbourhood really is.

Fossils aren’t just dinosaur bones in museums; they’re one of the main ways we know what life on Earth looked like millions of years ago. In this episode, we dive into what fossils actually are, how they form, and why finding one is such a rare and special event.

We explore the different types of fossils, from bones and shells to footprints and burrows, and explain the processes that turn living organisms into stone. You’ll also learn why the fossil record is far from perfect: why some organisms fossilize more easily than others, why oceans leave behind more fossils than land, and why huge parts of Earth’s history are only patchily preserved.

This episode gives you the basics you need to understand how scientists use fossils to piece together Earth’s deep past, and why that puzzle will always have missing pieces.

Perfect for anyone curious about fossils, evolution, and the deep history of our planet.

In our second episode of What on Earth, we dive into the building blocks of our planet - minerals and rocks - and clear up some of the most common confusions right from the start.

We begin by asking a deceptively simple question: what exactly is a mineral? From there, we walk through the key criteria a substance needs to meet to earn that title - naturally occurring, solid, ordered, and chemical (yes, science does love its rules).

Once the minerals are sorted, we zoom out and talk about rocks: what makes them different, how minerals come together to form them, and why not every solid thing you find on the ground qualifies as either. We explore the three main rock families - igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic - and how each tells a different story about Earth’s history.

We also explain how geologists actually describe rocks: from texture and grain size to structure and composition, turning what looks like “just a stone” into a record of pressure, temperature, and time.

By the end of the episode, the ground beneath your feet feels a little less ordinary - and you might never look at a rock the same way again.

In our very first episode of What on Earth, we take you on a small journey through the language of science: from the days when Latin ruled academia to how English eventually became the global scientific language we use today. Along the way, we realise that science doesn’t exist in a vacuum - wars, politics, and historical turning points have shaped not only what we study, but also how we communicate it.

We also get honest about one of the biggest challenges we face as scientists: explaining complex ideas in a way that doesn’t feel intimidating or exclusive. We talk about why accessibility matters, and why science should feel like an invitation rather than a closed club.

To wrap things up, we look ahead and ask what the future of scientific communication might look like in an age of rapid technological change - and how we can keep curiosity at the centre of it all.

This episode is our starting point - and our invitation to you - to explore science with us and ask: what on Earth is really going on?

The inspiration for this episode was:

Scientific Babel: The Language of Science from the Fall of Latin to the Rise of English Book by Michael D. Gordin