Sleek Geeks

What are superfoods, how many tastebuds do we have on our tongue and how antioxidants can help add muscle after exercise. This and more about gold in your body and poisonous levels of banana consumption.

They love it, answering questions that is. In this episode Dr Karl and Adam Spencer zip their way through the latest batch of audience quesitons via Twitter. They also manage to head off on a shameless book promotion tangent to chat about their new releases. Dr Karl’s new book, is Short Back and Science, and Adam Spencer’s World of Numbers is modestly titled.

Dr Karl and Adam Spencer are back together in a new series of podcasts. They catch up for a chat, and exchange early xmas gifts, a copy of each others latest book. Funny that. Dr Karl’s new book, Short Back and Science is a grab bag of science topics that have caught his eye over the last year. Adam Spencer’s World of Numbers, is a book of numerical trivia a sort of excursion into the beautiful world of mathematics.

With Dr Karl and Adam both out of town, we asked geek by association, Dan Ilic, to interview Derek Veritasium Muller on behalf of leek Geeks. Derek speaks about his PhD, his YouTube success, and his most recent documentary series Uranium.

With Dr Karl and Adam both out of town, we asked geek by association, Dan Ilic, to interview Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson on behalf of Sleek Geeks. Via Twitter Time, Adam asks what Dr Tyson’s favourite prime number is, whilst Dr Karl wants to know what effect his yellow jeans and loud shirts are having on the universe.

Commander Chris Hadfield has flown test fighters, run the International Space Station and recorded a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity that has received over 1.5 million YouTube views. But what will he make of Adam's attempt to speak Russian based on a translation he's reading off his iPhone. All of this and more in the special Sleek Geeks chat with one of the world's most in demand scientists.

A MicroMort is a unit of measurement related to risk. If an activity exposes you to one MicroMort, then you have a one-in-a-million chance of sudden death while engaged in that activity. The very earliest customer-complaint letter goes back some 3,750 years and, why does raisin toast always burn when regular toast doesn’t?

Does sunlight kill odours? Will the dog’s bed smell fresher by leaving it in the sun? Do mobile phones cause cancer? In what order did human senses evolve, and are there more senses on the way? And, Dr Karl and Adam’s ManWashing tips are back

Dr Karl's iPhone 6+ has caused him to carry a man bag because it won’t fit in bright blue stretch jeans. Adam on the other hand will happily accept any colour iPhone 6 that Apple send his way. Also, just how can a computer hacker access your tyres to kill you?

Dr Karl and Adam try to get through a series of Twitter questions from their listeners, but what unfolds is everything but that. Topics they blast through include … Galois, Fermat Primes, fear of numbers, Pat Rafter, Big Data and space elevators.

In this episode, Dr Karl and Adam ditch the stories in favour of answering questions from Twitter, like this corker … If you feed cows strawberries, will they produce strawberry milk? To find out, download their latest podcast

When running wheels are set up in the wild, random wild mice will come and run on them. 10,000 year old ancient sea rise stories have been accurately passed down by the Australian Aborigines. Breaking the Seal, why is it after that third beer, that you have to keep visiting the bathroom every 20 minutes.

The First World War combined modern science and technology in an effort to kill people more efficiently. It saw the advancement of many existing technologies, many of which had a beneficial flow on effect, both during and after the war.

Sexual interest and arousal can lead to sneezing, but only in a very small subset of people. We have found the surprising link between the common cold and cold weather ... and the ACHOO Syndrome, and why sunlight makes some people sneeze.

Why do we count in base 10? Why are there 60 minutes in an hour? Why do kids need more anesthetics than adults, and how do contactless smart cards work?

Can a plant be intelligent. Some plant scientists insist they are — since they can sense, learn, remember and even react in ways that would be familiar to humans. Does drinking cows milk cause cancer. Is it possible to harness the energy from lightning

In this ep, special guest Prof Susan Clarke walks Dr Karl and Adam through her breakthrough research looking at the methylome of breast cancer, finding distinct patterns associated with different types of breast cancer. Working out how to distinguish between aggressive and benign forms of cancer will have far reaching implications for treatment

This is a hot geeky special .. the science of heatwaves. What causes them and what defines a heatwave? Will heatwaves increase with climate change? While we’re on hot things, did you know it rains on the Sun, and why do yellow rubber ducks fade in the sun?

Brought to you by the No. 31, but why? What’s so special about the phrase “the five boxing wizards jump quickly” Why are veins are blue, and where does the phrase blue blood come from? In Twitter Time this week ... “If we quantum teleported a camera 150 million lightyears away, took snaps of earth, then teleported it back. Would we see dinosaurs?”

Apparently both coconut oil and coconut water will do everything from beautifying your skin to boosting your immunity. What exactly is a Paleo-diet? Fruit, green vegetables, eggs, poultry, meat and seafood — but no dairy, grains, legumes or processed oils. There are a few problems with this