Science

The Secret Genius of Modern Life episode 6: Hannah Fry visits eBay’s authentication centre, where they are waging war against fake high-value trainers. She discovers how American breakfast waffles transformed our trainer soles and how an 18th-century tea set led to the use of celebrity endorsement.       Hannah Fry is a British mathematician, author, and radio and television presenter. She is Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. She studies the patterns of human behaviour, such as interpersonal relationships and dating, and how mathematics can apply to them. Fry delivered the

The Secret Genius of Modern Life episode 3: Hannah Fry delves into the inner workings of virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, which are now found in almost half of all UK homes. Hannah goes behind the scenes with Alexa’s chief scientist, reveals how secret technology invented to hunt U-boats led to their targeted hearing and discovers modern wireless networks’ debt to a 1940s Hollywood star.       Hannah Fry is a British mathematician, author, and radio and television presenter. She is Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis.

The Secret Genius of Modern Life episode 2: Hannah Fry tucks into the tech behind food delivery apps like Deliveroo and Just Eat, which are now used by 24 million people in the UK. Hannah meets the R&D team behind food delivery titan Deliveroo, finds out how pensioners ordering Greggs revolutionised food delivery, and discovers how pizza made us fall in love with the internet in the 1990s.       Hannah Fry is a British mathematician, author, and radio and television presenter. She is Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. She

The Secret Genius of Modern Life episode 1: Hannah Fry takes a look at the bank card. This humble piece of plastic is often taken for granted, but it’s the digital key to accessing cash and is packed full of extraordinary technological innovations – including some with surprising and sinister origins.       Hannah is granted the first ever TV access to Visa’s European bank card data centre, discovers why we have Russian spies to thank for contactless payments, and finds out how the CIA and a 1950s housewife helped kick-start the bank card revolution. Hannah Fry is a