Showing results by narrator "Adam Rutherford" in All Categories

In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.

Evolutionary theory has long established that humans are animals: Modern Homo sapiens are primates who share an ancestor with monkeys and other great apes. Our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee's. And yet we think of ourselves as exceptional. Are we? In this original and entertaining tour of life on Earth, Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the "human animal".

Racist pseudoscience is on the rise - fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science", because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp - and all too easy to distort. Paradoxically, misconceptions are multiplying amid today's unprecedented surge of research on human genetics. We've never had a clearer picture of who we are and where we come from, and the science, when accurately understood, is a powerful and definitive ally against racism.

Joining us at Audible Studios is scientist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford. Rutherford is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Inside Science, as well as author of a number of books, including How to Argue with a Racist. Adam Rutherford spoke to us about his latest publication, How to Argue with a Racist, and we discussed the history of genetics, race being a social construct, his thoughts on ancestry testing kits and more.

These 29 episodes encompass classic cosmic conundrums - including whether there is intelligent alien life out there, if infinity exists and how wormholes could allow us to time-travel - as well as probing more down-to-earth human quirks like our differing pain thresholds, our attraction to 'bad' foods like chips and chocolate and our varied regional accents. Plus, the duo embarks on a cheery evolutionary thought experiment as they wonder what would happen if humanity became extinct....

After working as a creator for the journal Nature for a decade, being a frequent contributor to The Guardian newspaper for years and a regular host on BBC Radio 4, Rutherford realised that at some point he had become a writer and broadcaster on science and genetics. A natural at making the deepest depths of science understandable, Rutherford has again taken up his pen (and microphone) and this time enlightened us on the story of eugenics and study of genetics.

Why did almost all life go extinct 250 million years ago? Why on five other occasions in the geological history has the living world experienced sudden episodes of global mega-death with the majority of species being annihilated? And are humans causing the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth's history? These are among the questions Adam Rutherford explores in this three-part series on extinction. Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.

Live standup comedy from SXSW 2014 featuring performances from Andy Peters, Nick Rutherford, Drennon Davis, Adam Cayton-Holland, Byron Bowers, and Iliza Shlesinger.

An editor of the journal Nature for a decade, genetics expert Adam Rutherford has also produced several science documentaries, is a frequent contributor to The Guardian and hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme Inside Science. His latest title is The Book of Humans, published in September 2018. Adam Rutherford talks to us about whether or not humans are still evolving, what it was like to work on blockbuster Ex Machina and why sea otters are not as cute and cuddly as you might think.

In this irreverent and illuminating popular science show, award-winning geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford teams up with mathematics guru Dr Hannah Fry to solve puzzling conundrums sent in by listeners. For the past five years, they've been scrutinising a cornucopia of cases using the power of science - from why people shout on their mobile phones to how much the bacteria in our body weighs. In these 50 episodes, they tackle topics including what makes gingers ginger, how to make the perfect cup of tea, whether being left-handed affects your brain and why we get static shocks.