The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry: Series 1-10
BBC Science Sleuths Solve Everyday Mysteries
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.33
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Adam Rutherford
-
Hannah Fry
About this listen
Science sleuths Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Hannah Fry investigate everyday mysteries.
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. Plus, they explain why the Earth spins, what's inside a black hole, why tunes get stuck in our heads and how bats echolocate - as well as solving the enigma of why sex exists and discovering whether science can help you win the lottery.
So whether you're curious about déjà vu, wondering if we could shoot lasers to the moon or simply desperate to identify the tiniest dinosaur, Fry and Rutherford have the answers you need. Helping them to find the solutions are a host of fellow scientists and special guests including Professors Alice Roberts, Marcus du Sautoy and Jim Al-Khalili, Jay Rayner, Shaun Keaveney, Rory Cellan-Jones and Duncan Wisbey.
Presented by Drs Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry
Producer: Michelle Martin
Includes archive from Outlook on BBC World Service, broadcast August 2016; 'Horizon: Playing God', first broadcast January 2012; and The One Show, BBC TV
Series 1 featuring: Kate Williams, Jonathan Rees, Neal Harwood, Jane Wakefield. Masdar City man, Nick Zakarov, Greg Jenner, Dr Nicholas Gall, Dr Adam Fitzpatrick, Shelley Dougherty, Lucie Green, Andrew Pontzen
Series 2 featuring: Professor Andrea Sella, Alex Probyn, Dr Nick Knight. Claudia Hammond, Dr Marek Kukula, Philip Ball, Dr Helen Czerski, Dr Susan Holmes, Professor Alice Roberts, Dr Claudia Uller, Professor Marcus du Sautoy
Series 3 featuring: Professor Linda Marchant, Professor Chris McManus, Professor Sophie Scott, Professor Dorothy Bishop, Professor Danielle George, Dr Louisa Preston, Tristan Bassingthwaighte, Professor Steve Bloom, Dr Aaron Cypess, Mark Miodownik, Dr Randy Lewis
Series 4 featuring: Michael Bonshor, Dr Vicky Williamson, Professor Frank Close, Andrew Pontzen, Alex Bellos, Jeff Heys, Eric Chudler, Claudia Hammond, Hugo Spiers, Catherine Loveday
Series 5 featuring: Professor Tim Spector, Ed Yong, Andrew Pontzen, John Hammond, Dr Jo Mountford, Dr Sheena Cruikshank, Dr Keri Nicholl, Dr Marek Kukula, Catherine Loveday, Martin Conway
Series 6 featuring: Dr John Bradshaw, Professor Matthew Cobb, Niamh Nic Daeid, Sheila Rowan, Andrew Pontzen, Professor Francis McGlone, Dr Brian Kim, Trevor Cox, Chris French
Series 7 featuring: Mark Miodownik, Jay Rayner, Lucie Green, Phil Livermore, Terry Virts, Shaun Keaveney, Dr Lauren Stewart, Rhys Phillips, Helen Czerski, Bill Domhoff, Mark Blagrove, Francesca Siclari
Series 8 featuring: Kate Jones, John Ratcliffe, Jackie Blisset, Linda Bartoshuk, Nick Robinson, Sarah Montague, Andrew Pontzen, Jim Al-Khalili, Rob Jenkins, Franziska Knolle, Rory Cellan-Jones, Ceri Brenner, Tom Murphy
Series 9 featuring: Carin Bondar, Lynne Boddy, Susie Maidment. Steve Brusatte, Mark Miodownik, Chris Lutz, Becky Wragg Sykes, Andrew Pontzen, Jo Dunkley, Jim Al-Khalili
Series 10 featuring: Rakhi Mahbubani, Sam Harper, Sean Carroll, Trevor Cox, Sophie Scott, Duncan Wisbey, Chris Moulin, Catherine Loveday, Jen Rogers, David Spiegelhalter, Lauryn Benedict, Miranda Krestovnikoff, Don Kroodsma
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 15th-19th February 2016 (Series 1), 30th May-3rd June 2016 (Series 2), 3rd-7th October 2016 (Series 3), 5th-9th December 2016 (Series 4), 13th-17th March 2017 (Series 5), 12th-16th June 2017 (Series 6), 25th-29th September 2017 (Series 7), 8th-12th January 2018 (Series 8), 26th February-2nd March 2018 (Series 9), 28th May-1st June 2018 (Series 10)
©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
-
-
Humour and understandability.
- By Chris B on 09-08-24
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
-
Hello World
- Being Human in the Age of Algorithms
- By: Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hello World takes us on a tour through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us on a daily basis. Mathematician Hannah Fry reveals their inner workings, showing us how algorithms are written and implemented, and demonstrates the ways in which human bias can literally be written into the code. By weaving in relatable, real world stories with accessible explanations of the underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello World helps us to determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether they really are improvements.
-
-
Disappointing and meandering book
- By Sc on 02-10-20
By: Hannah Fry
-
The Mathematics of Love
- By: Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this must-have for anyone who wants to better understand their love life, a mathematician pulls back the curtain and reveals the hidden patterns—from dating sites to divorce, sex to marriage—behind the rituals of love. The roller coaster of romance is hard to quantify; defining how lovers might feel from a set of simple equations is impossible. But that doesn’t mean that mathematics isn’t a crucial tool for understanding love. Love, like most things in life, is full of patterns. And mathematics is ultimately the study of patterns—from predicting the weather to the fluctuations of the stock market, the movement of planets or the growth of cities. These patterns twist and turn and warp and evolve just as the rituals of love do.
-
-
Better in audio format
- By D'AGOSTINI SANDRO LUCIANO on 06-29-16
By: Hannah Fry
-
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
- The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
I wish this book was in American high schools.
- By melody sheldon on 03-31-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Control
- The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Greg Patmore
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Control is a book about what geneticist Adam Rutherford calls “a defining idea of the twentieth century.” Inspired by Darwin’s ideas about evolution, eugenics arose in Victorian England as a theory for improving the British population, and quickly spread to America. With disarming wit and scientific precision, Rutherford explains why eugenics still figures prominently in the twenty-first century, despite its genocidal past. And he confronts insidious recurring questions, revealing the intellectual bankruptcy of the idea, and the scientific impossibility of its realization.
-
-
Significantly outdated.
- By Bill Hawks on 02-15-24
By: Adam Rutherford
-
The Book of Humans
- A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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".
-
-
Scattered and anecdotal
- By Nemo71 on 09-29-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
-
-
Humour and understandability.
- By Chris B on 09-08-24
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
-
Hello World
- Being Human in the Age of Algorithms
- By: Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hello World takes us on a tour through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us on a daily basis. Mathematician Hannah Fry reveals their inner workings, showing us how algorithms are written and implemented, and demonstrates the ways in which human bias can literally be written into the code. By weaving in relatable, real world stories with accessible explanations of the underlying mathematics that power algorithms, Hello World helps us to determine their power, expose their limitations, and examine whether they really are improvements.
-
-
Disappointing and meandering book
- By Sc on 02-10-20
By: Hannah Fry
-
The Mathematics of Love
- By: Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this must-have for anyone who wants to better understand their love life, a mathematician pulls back the curtain and reveals the hidden patterns—from dating sites to divorce, sex to marriage—behind the rituals of love. The roller coaster of romance is hard to quantify; defining how lovers might feel from a set of simple equations is impossible. But that doesn’t mean that mathematics isn’t a crucial tool for understanding love. Love, like most things in life, is full of patterns. And mathematics is ultimately the study of patterns—from predicting the weather to the fluctuations of the stock market, the movement of planets or the growth of cities. These patterns twist and turn and warp and evolve just as the rituals of love do.
-
-
Better in audio format
- By D'AGOSTINI SANDRO LUCIANO on 06-29-16
By: Hannah Fry
-
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
- The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
I wish this book was in American high schools.
- By melody sheldon on 03-31-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Control
- The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Greg Patmore
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Control is a book about what geneticist Adam Rutherford calls “a defining idea of the twentieth century.” Inspired by Darwin’s ideas about evolution, eugenics arose in Victorian England as a theory for improving the British population, and quickly spread to America. With disarming wit and scientific precision, Rutherford explains why eugenics still figures prominently in the twenty-first century, despite its genocidal past. And he confronts insidious recurring questions, revealing the intellectual bankruptcy of the idea, and the scientific impossibility of its realization.
-
-
Significantly outdated.
- By Bill Hawks on 02-15-24
By: Adam Rutherford
-
The Book of Humans
- A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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".
-
-
Scattered and anecdotal
- By Nemo71 on 09-29-19
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Creation
- How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
-
-
The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
-
Liquid Rules
- The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives
- By: Mark Miodownik
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all know that without water we couldn't survive, and that sometimes a cup of coffee or a glass of wine feels just as vital. But do we really understand how much we rely on liquids, or the destructive power they hold? Set over the course of a flight from London to San Francisco, Liquid Rules offers listeners a fascinating tour of these formless substances, told through the language of molecules, droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves.
-
-
Interesting book!
- By Wayne on 08-04-19
By: Mark Miodownik
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
-
Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!
- By PW on 04-12-17
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Humble Pi
- When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
- By: Matt Parker
- Narrated by: Matt Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.
-
-
Fascinating & enlightening even for da mathphobic✏️
- By C. White on 01-23-20
By: Matt Parker
-
Underland
- A Deep Time Journey
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as "the great nature writer of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. In Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.
-
-
Wonderful book, disappointing narrator
- By Clare Woods on 07-05-19
-
Unruly
- The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: David Mitchell
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Unruly, David Mitchell explores how early England’s monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects’ destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky bastards who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.
-
-
Hugely Entertaining (If You Like English History)
- By Jean Ogg on 10-09-23
By: David Mitchell
-
The Icepick Surgeon
- Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost. Bestselling author Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process.
-
-
FANTASTIC! & What’s up with all these naysayers (negative reviewers)?!
- By Zophie Leslea on 08-19-21
By: Sam Kean
-
Infinite Powers
- How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
-
-
Not written to be read aloud
- By A Reader in Maine on 02-21-20
By: Steven Strogatz
-
Lost in Math
- How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
- By: Sabine Hossenfelder
- Narrated by: Laura Jennings
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: Observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria.
-
-
A rare glimpse into the inner world of physics
- By Joe on 12-08-18
-
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe
- Space, Time, and Motion
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blocks of modern science. Sean Carroll, with his genius for making complex notions entertaining, presents in his uniquely lucid voice the fundamental ideas informing the modern physics of reality. In the tradition of the legendary Richard Feynman lectures presented sixty years ago, this book is an inspiring, dazzling introduction to a way of seeing that will resonate across cultural and generational boundaries for many years to come.
-
-
Accompanying PDF is Included
- By Barton on 11-21-22
By: Sean Carroll
-
Existential Physics
- A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions
- By: Sabine Hossenfelder
- Narrated by: Gina Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely.
-
-
Unscientific and unengaging
- By Jase G on 03-29-23
-
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
- A Miss Marple Collection
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miss Marple: The Complete Story Collection gathers together in one magnificent volume all of Agatha Christie’s short stories featuring her beloved intrepid investigator, Miss Marple. It’s an unparalleled compendium of murder, mayhem, mystery, and detection that represents some of the finest short form fiction in the crime fiction field, and is an essential omnibus for Christie fans.
-
-
Classic Miss Marple - uneven narration
- By Lyric G. Eads on 11-09-22
By: Agatha Christie
What listeners say about The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry: Series 1-10
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elena
- 04-18-21
Love it!
Very Interesting and funny series.
I really enjoyed listening and bought the second book too
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 08-09-22
great tidbits of science
easily answers science questions that one ponders. very fun show! the 2 scientists are funny and lighthearted.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Zach Brunson
- 06-18-21
Extremely Fun, Quite Entertaining, Some Education
This was extremely fun and quite entertaining. It makes STEM concepts very approachable to a wide audience. Personally there was only some educational benefit since I was already familiar with many of the topics, but I did still occasionally learn something new. I would definitely recommend this radio-podcast to anyone interested in STEM, and especially to parents looking for something to enjoy with their kids.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer
- 03-22-22
Loved it
I really enjoyed listening to this. It kept me company during my exercise. Looking forward to the next one.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!