The Infinite Monkey's Guide To… Tiny Things

The Infinite Monkey Cage

BBC

Comedy, Science

4.7 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brian Cox and Robin Ince shuffle through the archive to find the smallest things in the world of science, from a particle so tiny nobody has ever actually seen it, to the millions of microbes we’re all made up of. They ask the short-of-stature comedian Andy Hamilton how he’d feel about being three times bigger, which he admits could come in handy if he ever met a mammoth, leading to an unexpected discussion about a potential new TV gameshow format. Entomologist Erica McAlister is back to tell the team about her favourite fly, which can burrow into a human head to lay its eggs, and we learn about a project to make ants glow in the dark using nano-gold which went a little bit wrong.

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Producer: Marijke Peters Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Episodes featured: Series 16: What particles remain to be discovered? Series 19: Microbes: Secret rulers of the world? Series 6: Does size matter? Series 23: In praise of flies Series 24: Astronauts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.5	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:37.9	Hello, I'm Brancox. I'm Robinint, and this is another infinite monkey's guide too.
0:42.0	Now, scientific jargon can be tricky. Well it can be
0:44.2	tricky for me it's not as tricky for Brian that's his kind of job you know
0:47.1	mewons and gluons and strange quarks or quarks. It's a jargon that is just a list of
0:52.2	nouns.
0:53.0	Yeah, I know, but it's jargon to a lot of us.
0:55.6	Why?
0:56.6	Because it's the name of it.
0:57.6	I know, but it's hard and it's strange.
0:59.8	Is it quarks or quarks?
1:01.0	We've discussed this before.
1:02.2	Well, that's a literary question.
1:04.3	Quark for Mr Mark is where it comes from, James Joyce.
1:07.6	But a lot of people say Quarks.
	...

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