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The Infinite Monkey's Guide To… Tiny Things

Does Size Matter? Brian and Robin look at the littlest things alive, and search for a particle so small nobody even knows if it exists.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince shuffle through the archive to find the smallest things in the world of science, from a particle so tiny nobody has ever actually seen it, to the millions of microbes we’re all made up of. They ask the short-of-stature comedian Andy Hamilton how he’d feel about being three times bigger, which he admits could come in handy if he ever met a mammoth, leading to an unexpected discussion about a potential new TV gameshow format. Entomologist Erica McAlister is back to tell the team about her favourite fly, which can burrow into a human head to lay its eggs, and we learn about a project to make ants glow in the dark using nano-gold which went a little bit wrong.

New episodes will be released on Wednesdays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the full series on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF

Producer: Marijke Peters
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

Episodes featured:
Series 16: What particles remain to be discovered?
Series 19: Microbes: Secret rulers of the world?
Series 6: Does size matter?
Series 23: In praise of flies
Series 24: Astronauts

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Available now

22 minutes

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