Curious Cases Folgen

"Why don't children like vegetables?" asks Penny Young from Croydon, and every parent ever.This week Rutherford and Fry dig into the science of taste and discover that there may be more to this question than meets the eye. Children and adults have a different taste experience when they eat the same foods. When you're young, foods can taste saltier and more bitter. What's more, as Jackie Blisset, Professor of Childhood Eating Behaviour explains, there are even evolutionary reasons why toddlers avoid vegetables.For most children it's a phase, but a minority of adults are also labelled as fussy eaters. According to food psychologist Linda Bartoshuk, they are probably what's known as 'supertasters'. Supertasters live in a neon taste world where vegetables are more bitter, and chillies are unbearably hot.Adam sets out on a quest to find potential supertasters in the Radio 4 offices. First stop, the Today programme where Nick Robinson and Sarah Montague become his experimental guinea pigs, with surprising results.Send your questions for consideration to: curiouscases@bbc.co.ukPresenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford Producer: Michelle Martin.

"Why don't thousands of bats in a cave get confused? How do they differentiate their own location echoes from those of other bats?" This puzzling problem was sent in to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk by Tim Beard from Hamburg in Germany.Since ecolocation was first discovered, this question has perplexed biologists. Hannah turns bat detective to try and track down these elusive creatures at The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London. This is where zoologist Kate Jones from University College London is using a network of smart sensors to find, identify and track wild bats.John Ratcliffe from Toronto University chats bats and sonar with Adam to try and locate the answer. It's an unlikely tale involving gruesome early experiments, cunning electric fish and some surprising bat maths.Send your Curious Cases for consideration to: curiouscases@bbc.co.ukPresenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry Producer: Michelle Martin.

"Why do we dream and why do we repeat dreams?" asks Mila O'Dea, aged 9, from Panama.Hannah and Adam delve into the science of sleep. From a pioneering experiment on rapid eye movement sleep, to a brand new 'dream signature' found in the brain, they discover how scientists are investigating our hidden dreamworld.Featuring sociologist Bill Domhoff from the University of California Santa Cruz, sleep psychologist Mark Blagrove from the University of Swansea, and neurologist Francesca Siclari from the University of Lausanne.Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry Producer: Michelle Martin.