Maybe you have a deep, booming voice. Or perhaps it’s light and mellifluous. Some people’s voices are honey-smooth while others are as rough as gravel. But why does your voice sound the way it does?
CrowdScience listener Hannah in Berlin is training as a teacher and will be using her voice a lot in the classroom in future. She wants to understand more about it: how can she improve the quality of her voice and protect it? And what factors - physical, genetic and environmental - determine the sound of your voice in the first place? Together with presenter Marnie Chesterton, Hannah pays a visit to speech tutor Prof Viola Schmidt at the Ernst Busch University for the Performing Arts in Berlin. Viola and actor Aurelius give us a masterclass in just what your voice can do, as they throw words and sounds to each other across the rehearsal room at a dizzying pace. And Viola gives Hannah a few top tips on using her voice clearly and authentically in the classroom. Hannah’s isn’t the only voice-related question in this episode. Peter from the Kingdom of Eswatini thinks people there speak more loudly than in other countries, and wonders why. To answer Peter’s question we turn to Prof Caleb Everett from the University of Miami. The jury’s out on whether people in some countries really do turn up the volume, but Caleb shares evidence of a link between the climate of a particular region and the sound of its native language.
And finally, listener Jonathan has an unusual question for Marnie. When listening to CrowdScience, he can’t tell whether he’s hearing Marnie or fellow presenter Caroline Steel. This got him wondering whether it’s common for two people to sound very similar. Marnie gives Caroline a call, and together they set out to discover if your voice really is unique to you. Caroline tracks down a forensic speech scientist - Dr Jess Wormald from the University of York in the UK – while Marnie speaks to Dr Melanie Weirich from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany. And both experts agree that Jonathan may be onto something!Presenter: Marnie Chesterton with Caroline Steel
Producer: Jeremy Grange
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald
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31:42
Why is my house getting sunnier?
CrowdScience listeners David and Tatiana have long been captivated by an unusual dinner table discussion: the peculiar change they’ve noticed over the past 16 years in the sunlight streaming through their bedroom window in Ostend, Belgium. They’re convinced that the room has not only become sunnier but that the actual angle of sunlight has shifted.Intrigued by their observations, we head to Ostend. Our mission: to investigate three of their theories, enlisting expert help along the way.Theory 1 – A celestial anomaly?
René Oudmaijer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium considers whether our shifting position in the solar system might explain the change.Theory 2 – Movement in the Earth’s crust?
Alejandra Tovar from the Geological Survey of Belgium examines tectonic data to see if the Earth’s crust is moving enough to alter the angle of sunlight.Theory 3 – Subsidence?
Structural engineer Kath Hannigan helps us inspect the building for signs that it may be sinking or twisting.And we explore one final theory of our own, enlisting memory expert Julia Shaw to examine whether it could all be a trick of the mind.
Will the team crack the case?Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Harrison Lewis
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Studio Manager: Sarah Hockley(Photo: CrowdScience listeners David and Tatiana standing in front of a window in their house)
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30:19
Why do some mushrooms glow?
Fungi are a mysterious and understudied life form. And to add to the intrigue, some of them actually glow in the dark. This phenomenon has sparked CrowdScience listener Derek's curiosity, and he's asked us to investigate.Presenter Caroline Steel gets on the case. This is just one example of the natural wonder that is bioluminescence – living organisms that glow. How do they produce their light, and is there any reason for it? Caroline visits a bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico, and Dr Brenda Soler-Figueroa explains what makes it sparkle.But it turns out there are many different explanations for why living things glow. Fungi, which listener Derek is particularly interested in, are neither plants nor animals, but an entirely different kingdom of life that we know much less about. Professor Katie Field takes on the task of trying to grow us some bioluminescent mushrooms, while Prof Cassius Stevani explains how – and importantly, why – they glow.And finally – could we ever harness the power of bioluminescence to our advantage in the future?Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Hannah Fisher
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Studio Manager: Neva Missirian(Photo: Omphalotus nidiformis, or ghost fungus, Penrose, NSW, Australia Credit: Louise Docker Sydney Australia via Getty Images)
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29:29
Why do languages fade from us?
Can learning new languages make us forget our mother tongue? CrowdScience listener Nakombe in Cameroon is concerned that his first language, Balue, is slipping from his grasp. He has learned multiple languages through his life, but Balue is the language of his family and home. It’s central to his identity and sense of belonging. So why does it seem to be fading from him, and what can he do to get it back?We search for answers, investigating what happens in our brains when we struggle to recall languages, as well as the social and economic factors that lead to language loss. Presenter Anand Jagatia asks Michael Anderson from the University of Cambridge, an expert on memory and forgetting, whether forgotten languages disappear from our brain, or just become difficult to access. Linguist Monika Schmid from the University of York takes us through the phenomenon of first language attrition, and has words of reassurance and advice for Nakombe and others in his situation.And we meet Larry Kimura from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, a pioneer of Hawaiian language revitalization, and Gabriela Pérez Báez, an expert in indigenous languages and language revitalization at the University of Oregon. They explain why languages around the world become threatened, and how to keep them alive.Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Margaret Sessa Hawkins
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Studio Managers: Sarah Hockley and Omera Ahamed(Photo: Diccionario, Argentina Credit: PonyWang via Getty Images)
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26:54
Why do my armpits smell?
While there is a myriad of deodorants, shower gels and perfumes helping us stay fresh and fragrant today, that hasn’t always been the case. How did humans stay clean in the past, or did they not care so much? And is there an evolutionary reason for human body odour in the first place? These are questions that CrowdScience listener Sarah has pondered on trips in her camper van, when she wants to keep clean, but washing isn’t always convenient. In search of answers, presenter Anand Jagatia delves into the sweaty details: where body odour comes from, why some people's armpits don't smell, and whether this heady stink serves any purpose. Could our natural odour really help to attract a partner, or is it just a smelly bacterial by-product? Anand explores the intriguing mystery of human pheromones, and hears how for hundreds of years, Europeans were terrified of washing. Contributors:
Dr Madalyn Nguyen, Dermatologist
Dr Kara Hoover, Biological Anthropologist, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Katherine Ashenburg, author, The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History
Dr Tristram Wyatt, Department of Biology, University of Oxford Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Sophie Eastaugh
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Sound engineer: Emma Harth(Photo: Girl sweating smelly armpit, Taiwan Credit: PonyWang via Getty Images)
South Africa