Curious Minds Podcast

It's a Paleoanthropological mystery: Earth was once home to many different Human Species - from Homo Erectus to the Neanderthals. Yet today, they are all gone. When and how did the other humanoids disappear? The answer is hidden, of all places, in out DNA.

When Life Insurance was invented, poisoning became a plague in Victorian Britain. For many women, the poison of choice was Arsenic. What made the 'inheritance powder' the perfect murder weapon? (Note: This episode is not recommended for young children)

In the 1980's, the British BBC invested millions of pounds on what should have been a technological marvel: a modern version of the famous medieval Domesday Book. Less then 15 years later, it's system was unusable. What can we learn from the Domesday failure?

In 1941 the British and Canadian navies managed, with great effort, to turn the tide and curb the U-Boats threat in the North Atlantic – but Admiral Dönitz was about to introduce a new kind of U-Boat – one that would deal a deadly blow to the British, American and Canadian forces. Type 21, AKA - Elektroboote.

How did the small, outgunned German fleet manage to strike painful blows to the Great British Navy? The credit for this success belongs to the German flotilla of submarines: the Unterseeboots, or U-Boats.

In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was an honored and admired physics professor. But reputation aside, Röntgen was 50 years old - and at that age, it is rare for a scientist to make a significant contribution to his or her field.