Reporter Dick Oliver tries out the Sinclair C5 at its launch event in January, 1985. Taken from the BBC World Service's Science in Action archive.

The Sinclair C5 launch from 1985 - Science in Action

Each spring the biggest known population of bowhead whales migrates along the west coast of Alaska to warmer ice-free waters and while doing so they sing elaborate songs.

Scientists have now recorded more unique songs during this period of migration than has ever been observed before.
here's one example.

As featured on: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150108-unique-whale-songs-discovered

Bowhead whale migration - song example two

Bowhead whale migration - song example one

The calls of adult and juvenile beluga whales, recorded in Cunningham Inlet by Valeria Vergara of Vancouver Aquarium.

As featured on BBC Earth story: The mystery squeaks of beliuga whales: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150120-mystery-squeaks-of-beluga-whales

Beluga whale calls

Courtesy of Sam Ridgway et al, Current Biology

Noc, a beluga whale, mimics human speech

Courtesy of Adriano R. Lameira and Madeleine Hardus

Tilda the orang-utan mimics human speech

Doctors' words can make you feel better, or worse, as Geoff Watts finds for the BBC World Service's Discovery programme.

The placebo problem

Sophie laughing - version one

Sophie laughing - version two

You could listen to these sounds for a hundred years and they’d still seem to be rising. In this way, they are a bit like the barbershop pole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barberpole_illusion) or infinite staircases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascending_and_Descending) Along these lines, Mario 64 uses the effect in the endless staircase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-udfiFZcko and in The Dark Knight for the Batpod’s engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA7145CNK_I

Clips courtesy of Diana Deutsch at the University of California, San Diego. For more audio illusions, visit http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology

(Image credit: Michael Maurer Smith / Alamy)

BBC Future: Eternally rising sound

Right handers tend to hear the higher sounds coming from the right, left-handers from the left – yet they are both hearing the same thing!It shows basic structural differences in the brain mean we are all hearing different sounds.

Clips courtesy of Diana Deutsch at the University of California, San Diego. For more audio illusions, visit http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology

(Image credit: jvphoto / Alamy)

BBC Future: Scale illusion – how your hands change your hearing

Listeners have reported hearing “window, welcome, love me, run away, no brain, rainbow, raincoat, bueno, nombre, when oh when, mango, window pane, Broadway, Reno, melting, Rogaine”. In reality, there are no words. Spooky! Its visual analogy would be face pareidolia.

Clips courtesy of Diana Deutsch at the University of California, San Diego. For more audio illusions, visit http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology

(Image credit: PhotoAlto / Alamy)

BBC Future: Phantom words

This consists of ambiguous sounds that either seem to be going up, or down, in pitch. People are convinced by their judgement – yet they can’t agree, a bit like TheDress. It’s also a bit like this illusion that was trending last week: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-32251712

Surprisingly, the way you hear it probably depends on your accent – whether you are American or English, for instance. 

Clips courtesy of Diana Deutsch at the University of California, San Diego. For more audio illusions, visit http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology

(Image credit: Image Source / Alamy)

BBC Future: Tritone paradox

Courtesy of the NOAA PMEL Acoustics Program

The 52Hz whale, recorded by Bill Watkins

A blue whale calling

The pulsed call of a fin whale

The 52 Hz whale recorded off Point Conception, California in 2010

Horse race on TV? It's the sound of buffalo

This is the call we believe functions as an individual identifier. These particular calls are produced before separating and starting to echolocate while foraging.

Sperm whale call: 5R exchange at the onset of a dive

In this recording, Dion McGregor seems to be musing on the petty secrets and gossips of small town America (As featured on The Dream World of Dion McGregor, Decca Records.)

Our Town

A sinister tale in which Dion McGregor offers his guests snacks on a Lazy Susan – but one of the dishes is poisoned. (As featured on The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor, Torpor Vigil Records)

Food Roulette

Former BBC producer, Bernie Andrews, is interviewed by producer John Walters for a BBC Radio 1 programme called 'Look Out - It's Alive' in 1991.

John Peel talks about the BBC Sessions

Former BBC producer, Bernie Andrews, is interviewed by producer John Walters for a BBC Radio 1 programme called 'Look Out - It's Alive' in 1991. (Credit: BBC)

Bernie Andrews: Looking back on his career (interviewed by John Walters in 1991)

Bernie Andrews: The new attitude to sessions in the 1960s (interviewed by John Walters in 1991)

Bernie Andrews: Working with bands (interviewed by John Walters in 1991)

Producer Bernie Andrews talks to John Walters in 1991 about sessions before Top Gear

Melissa LaScaleia reads Hafiz: “I am a hole in a flute”

Melissa LaScaleia reads Hafiz: “Look at the smile on the Earth’s lips”

Melissa LaScaleia reads Hafiz: “The mountain’s face lifted me”

Melissa LaScaleia reads Hafiz: “If your knees have not buckled”

Melissa LaScaleia reads Hafiz: “A rather serious – maybe too serious – university student”

Melissa LaScaleia reads Hafiz: “One regret, I am determined not to have”

When you visit the rooftops of Paris' famous landmarks, the last thing you might expect is a handful of buzzing beehives. These hives belong to Audric de Campeau, who quit his job to make honey. The honey is then used to brew mead in the unlikeliest of places - the dark, damp Parisian catacombs. 

Credit: Outlook, BBC World Service, as reported by Saskia Edwards
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04s8wwm

Paris' rooftop beekeeper

“EnTodoElMundo” translates as “'Around the World, there are humans who whistle their language” in Spanish. Clip courtesy of Julien Meyer/ Laure Dentel.

“EnTodoElMundo”

“islik dili konusuyoruz” translates as “We speak this whistle language” in Turkish. Clip courtesy of Onur Güntürkün.

“islik dili konusuyoruz”

The ETAF siren, coupled with a voice announcement

Anti - Siren 4 ETAF Audio

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