Instant Genius

Over the last decade or so, it’s become abundantly clear that eating a diet based on ultra-processed food is damaging to our bodily health. Could it be that our information diets, the deluge of content we consume online every day, is having a similar detrimental effect on our mental health?

In this episode, we’re joined by technology lawyer and author Seb Butcher to talk about his latest book, Distorted: Ultra-Processed Feeds, Splintered Worlds and How the Internet Broke Reality.

He explains how junk online content can capture our attention, erode our powers of critical thinking, and reduce our empathy towards others, how the rise of AI is complicating matters even further, and shares some thoughts on how we can all make our information diets a little healthier.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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Sometimes, no matter how busy we are or how hard we work, when we look back on our day, it can seem like we didn’t really achieve very much. Why is this and what can we do to make more effective use of our time? Could the answer be simply tuning into our bodies’ and minds’ natural rhythms – more specifically the ultradian rhythm, the 90-minute cycles of attention and alertness that oscillate throughout the day?

In this episode we’re joined by executive coach and author Dr Christian Poensgen, to talk about his latest book, Ultraproductive – The 90-Minute Method for More Focus, Better Sleep and Less Stress.

He talks about the many factors within modern life that lead us to struggle to carry out our daily tasks, why concentrating on quality rather than quantity of focus, sleep, and relaxation is essential for our productivity, and shares some psychological tips that can help us all start making more effective use of our time.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30

To find out more about the topics discussed in this episode visit https://www.ultraproductive.com to receive nine infographics detailing the key methods from the book straight to your inbox.
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For many of us, maths is simply a subject we studied at school to help us learn how to count, add one thing to another, and carry out everyday tasks such as managing our personal finances. But if we look more deeply, maths has underpinned the way that humans understand and interpret the world for thousands of years. Without our knowledge of maths, we’d have no smartphones and no internet, our buildings wouldn’t stay standing up, and we’d know very little about the wider Universe we live in.

In this episode we’re joined by Prof Terrence Tao, a mathematician and author based at the University of California, Los Angeles to talk about his latest book, Six Maths Essentials – How to Model the World.

He tells us how starting to think about numbers more abstractly opened up a whole new way in which we can understand the world around us, how innovations in maths have often helped us to solve real-world scientific problems that arose long after their initial discovery, and encourages us all to see how paying more attention to maths just a little more can help us enrich our lives.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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For those of us who live in towns and cities, bogs may seem to be a rare environmental relic left over from times gone by, or perhaps something we’ve only encountered onscreen in spooky fantasy movies. The fact is that these peat-rich, often otherworldly landscapes are found in almost every corner of the globe, have had a deep influence on the development of human culture, and act as one of the planet’s unsung heroes in the fight against climate change.

In this episode we’re joined by ecologist, climate scientist and author Merritt Turetsky, to talk about her latest book, Boglands – The Hidden World of Earth’s Most Extraordinary Ecosystems.

She tells us how bogs form over thousands of years thanks to the gradual breaking down of plant matter, how, far from being pits of death and decay, bogs are teeming with a fascinating array of life, and explains how bogs act as one of the natural world’s greatest historical record keepers.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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From the neatly curated English country garden to the wild jungles of the Amazon, the Earth is host to a staggeringly diverse range of plant life. One of the key reasons for the great evolutionary success of plants is the wide-ranging versatility and utility of the leaves that grow on them.

In this episode we’re joined by Prof Jonathan Silvertown, an evolutionary ecologist based at the University of Edinburgh, to talk about his latest book, Nature’s Magicians – How Leaves Conjure Up Our World.

He tells us how plants act as one of the natural world’s master chemists, explains how they contain internal clocks that allow them to track the time of day and even the time of the year, and details how they detect and respond to light, sounds, and even predatory attacks.

Take your curiosity further with a subscription to BBC Science Focus magazine. Every issue is packed with fascinating insights into the science behind everyday life, the latest breakthroughs and expert analysis, delivered straight to your door. Receive an extra £5 when you subscribe using the code SF5OFF, (minimum spend £20, see full terms and conditions on our website).

https://www.ourmediashop.com/bbc-science-focus-magazine-pod30
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