Author: BBC World Service

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CrowdScience - The Origin of Viruses

Where did the first viruses come from? They have the potential to wipe out life on Earth. But could life on Earth itself have evolved from the first viruses? Like the chicken and the egg, there are fierce arguments about which came first and rival scientists get quite cross about it all.

We take a dip into the primordial soup of creation and try to answer listener Ian's excellent question. Along the way, we revisit medieval plagues, travel to Texas to the largest urban bat colony in the world and take a walk through the dense mosquito-infested Ugandan forest that gave its name to the Zika virus.

Plus, we reveal how a virus is responsible for the placenta. No virus, no placenta; no placenta, no humans?

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk

This programme has been edited since broadcast to remove a brief reference to ‘bubonic plague’ being included in a list of viral diseases.

(Photo: HIV viruses attacking a Cell. Credit: ThinkStock)

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - Concrete

It's improved health, school attendance, agricultural productivity and farm worker wages, but concrete has a poor reputation. It takes a lot of energy to produce and releases a great deal of CO2 in the process. However, architects appreciate its versatility and there are few more important inventions. Tim Harford tells the remarkable hidden story of a ubiquitous, unloved material. (Image: Masons hands spread concrete, Credit: APGuide/Shutterstock)
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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - Shipping Container

The boom in global trade was caused by a simple steel box. Shipping goods around the world was – for many centuries – expensive, risky and time-consuming. But, as Tim Harford explains, 60 years ago the trucking entrepreneur Malcolm McLean changed all that by selling the idea of container shipping to the US military. Against huge odds he managed to turn 'containerisation' from a seemingly impractical idea into a massive industry – one that slashed the cost of transporting goods internationally and provoked a boom in global trade. Producer: Ben Crighton Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon (Photo: Container ship travelling along the Suez Canal, Credit: Science Photo Library)
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CrowdScience - Home Power Storage

How much electric energy storage would it take to run the average home for 24 hours? Also: When will it be economical to locally store several days of electric energy for our home? Listener Gus in Texas, USA, wants to know – especially because he’s one of many people around the world who sometimes face lengthy power cuts.

Presenter Marnie Chesterton takes Gus’s question to energy experts. She heads to two national research facilities: The National Grid Scale Energy Storage Lab at University College London, and the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago – which originated from the early stages of the Manhattan Project. On the way, Marnie finds out where the word ‘battery’ came from, discovers why our mobile phone batteries gradually die with age, and hears how the next generation of power storage could change the world.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Jen Whyntie

(Picture: Isolated cabin at night Credit: Ed Jones/AFP/GettyImages)

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - Haber-Bosch Process

Saving lives with thin air - by taking nitrogen from the air to make fertiliser, the Haber-Bosch Process has been called the greatest invention of the 20th Century – and without it almost half the world’s population would not be alive today. Tim Harford tells the story of two German chemists, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, figured out a way to use nitrogen from the air to make ammonia, which makes fertiliser. It was like alchemy; 'Brot aus Luft', as Germans put it, 'Bread from air'. Haber and Bosch both received a Nobel prize for their invention. But Haber’s place in history is controversial – he is also considered the 'father of chemical warfare' for his years of work developing and weaponising chlorine and other poisonous gases during World War One. Producer: Ben Crighton Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon (Photo: A farmer sprays fertiliser. Credit: Remy Gabalda/Getty Images)
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CrowdScience - The Edge of Space

What do scientists think is outside our universe? Asks Rebecca Standridge from San Francisco in the US.

It’s a question which goes right to the limits of human understanding.

We look for the answer using balloons, bubbles and the world’s oldest radio telescope.

If you have a question about science that you'd like us to investigate email crowdscience@bbc.co.uk.

Photo: Lovell telescope Jodrell Bank

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World Book Club - Crime and Punishment

Russian writer Dostoyevsky’s haunting classic thriller, Crime and Punishment, is celebrating its 150th birthday this year.

Consumed by the idea of his own special destiny, Rashkolnikov is drawn to commit a terrible crime. In the aftermath, he is dogged by madness, guilt and a calculating detective, and a feverish cat-and-mouse game unfolds.

Speaking on behalf of the novel are acclaimed Russian writer Boris Akunin and Russian scholar Dr Sarah Young who will be discussing this timeless Russian classic with the audience in the room at Pushkin House and around the world.

The three extracts of the book were taken from Oliver Ready’s translation by Penguin Books.

A special edition of World Book Club this month at London’s elegant Pushkin House, the UK capital’s Russian cultural hub.

This month, as part of the BBC’s Love to Read Campaign, presenter Harriett Gilbert is picking her favourite novel to discuss.

(Photo credit: Alexander Aksakov, Getty Images)

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CrowdScience - Electricity from Lightning

Is it possible to get power from lightning? This was the first CrowdScience question posed by listener John Emochu in Kampala, Uganda.

Presenter Marnie Chesterton goes hunting for the answer at a lightning lab in Cardiff, Wales. What is a lightning lab? And how was she able to make a tiny – but very loud – lightning bolt? Marnie also discovers humanity's early history with lightning, how aeroplanes are protected from lightning strikes, and where the greatest number of thunderstorms occur in the world.

With contributions from John Emochu, Rhys Phillips, Chris Stone, Rachel Albrecht, Shaaron Jimenez and Manu Haddad.

Picture: Photograph of lightning from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Credit: Eric Vance, EPA

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy - Diesel Engine

Rudolf Diesel died in mysterious circumstances before he was able to capitalise on his extraordinary invention: the eponymous engine that powers much of the world today. Before Diesel invented his engine in 1892, as Tim Harford explains, the industrial landscape was very different. Urban transport depended on horses and steam supplied power for trains and factories. Incredibly, Diesel’s first attempt at a working engine was more than twice as efficient as other engines which ran on petrol and gas, and he continued to improve it. Indeed, it wasn’t long before it became the backbone of the industrial revolution; used in trains, power stations, factories and container ships. Producer: Ben Crighton Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon (Image: Stamp depicting Rudolf Diesel, Credit: Boris15/Shutterstock)
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World Book Club - Anne Enright – The Gathering

This month World Book Club talks to the acclaimed Irish writer Anne Enright about her poignant Booker Prize-winning novel The Gathering.

In it Veronica, one of the nine surviving Hegarty siblings, is bringing her brother Liam home to Dublin to bury. He walked to his death in the sea in Brighton, his brain muddled by drink, his pockets filled with stones.

As the Hegarty clan gathers to mourn at Liam’s funeral Veronica retraces the troubled history and the murky family secrets that have festered over the years and brought tragedy in their wake. A novel about love, death and the darkness of thwarted desire The Gathering has won admirers the world over.