Author: BBC World Service

CrowdScience listener Azeddine from Algeria has had bad handwriting since he was a child. In fact, it was so untidy that, when he later became a chemistry lecturer, his university students complained that they could not read his lecture notes. That was when he decided he had to do something about it. And it got him wondering… why do some of us have very neat handwriting while other people’s is almost unreadable? Why do his sisters all write beautifully when his natural style is quite the opposite? Presenter Alex Lathbridge sets out to answer Azeddine’s question. He explores the different factors which determine how well we write. How much of it is inherited? What part does family and education play? And what is actually going on in our brains when we apply pen to paper? Alex talks to anthropologist Monika Saini of the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Delhi, who has analysed writing styles within families and in different regions across India. She tells him about the genetic and cultural factors which seem to influence our handwriting. We also hear from neuroscientist Marieke Longcamp of Aix Marseille Université, France, who uses MRI scanning to find out which parts of our brains are involved when we write by hand. She has looked at what is happening in the brains of people who write in more than one script – for example in French and Arabic, like Azeddine. Another neuroscientist, Karin Harman James, from Indiana University, USA ,has been looking at the link between learning something by writing it down compared to typing it on a tablet or laptop. And Alex meets handwriting tutor Cherrell Avery to find out if it’s possible to improve your writing – even as an adult. Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Jeremy Grange Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Emma Harth

Champagne has been discovered in a 100+ year old shipwreck. It's an amazing find. But can you drink it? Speaking of bubbly, we learn more about the physics of bubbles, and why understanding it is crucial for the climate. Also on the show, a 2,000 year-old mystery about a navigation device that persists up to the present day.

Nasa's Perseverance Rover has found a fascinating rock on Mars that may indicate it hosted microbial life billions of years ago. Abigail Allwood, exobiologist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab, is on the team scrutinising the new Martian data.

And a couple of newly discovered, approximately 500 year old fossils from the ‘Cambrian explosion’ of complexity caught presenter Roland Pease’s eye this week. First Martin Smith from Durham University tells us about a tiny grub that is ancestor to worms, insects, spiders and crustaceans. Then Ma Xiaoya, who has positions at both Yunnan University in China and Exeter University in the UK, tells us about a spiny slug that was also discovered in a famous fossil site in China.

And the first sightings of the landscapes on the underside of the ice shelves that fringe Antarctica. These float atop the ocean around the frozen continent but effectively hold back the glaciers and ice sheets on the vast landmass. Their physical condition therefore is pretty critical in this warming world, Anna Wåhlin of Gothenburg University tells us.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Photo: Nasa’s Perseverance Mars rover taking a selfie on Mars. Credit: Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)