Curious Cases Folgen

"How do accents start and where did they come from?” asks Sachin Bahal from Toronto in Canada.Hannah is schooled in speaking Geordie by top accent coach Marina Tyndall. And Adam talks to author and acoustics expert Trevor Cox about how accents evolved and why they persist.We meet Debie who has Foreign Accent Syndrome - an extremely rare condition in which your accent can change overnight. After a severe bout of flu, which got progressively worse, Debie's Brummie accent suddenly transformed into something distinctively more European. If you have any more Curious Cases for the team to solve, please send them in for consideration: curiouscases@bbc.co.ukPresenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah FryProducer: Michelle MartinFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018.

"Is it true all British people can trace their ancestry to Vikings and how do ancestry DNA tests work?" asks Chloe Mann from Worthing.Genetic ancestry tests promise to reveal your ancestral origins and map your global heritage, but do they? Rutherford and Fry are here to bust some myths.Adam takes a trip through Norse history with Viking historian Janina Ramirez, whilst flying over the Medieval town of Ludwig. Meanwhile Hannah discovers how DNA ancestry tests work with evolutionary geneticist Mark Thomas, including why most of us can rightly reclaim our royal lineage.If you have any more Curious Cases for the team to solve, please send them in for consideration: curiouscases@bbc.co.ukPresenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry Producer: Michelle MartinFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018.

"Why do people experience pain differently when they go through the same event?" asks Claire Jenkins from Cwmbran in Wales.Professor of Pain Research, Irene Tracey, welcomes Adam in to the room she calls her 'Torture Chamber'. Burning, electrocuting, lasering and piercing are all on the menu, but which will hurt the most?Hannah speaks to Steve Pete from Washington who has a rare genetic condition which means he doesn't feel pain. For chronic sufferers, this sounds like heaven, but a life without pain has brought untold suffering to him and his family, including the tragic story of his brother, Chris.We look at how the body creates pain, why some people feel it more than others, and how this knowledge could help scientists treat pain more effectively in the future.Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry Producer: Michelle Martin.