The Science of Sound

Robin Ince and Brian Cox head north for the second time this series, and take residence for one episode in the BBC Philharmonic's headquarters to talk about the science of sound. They are joined by the University of Salford's acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox, neuroscientist Professor Chris Plack and comedian and former acoustics student Tom Wrigglesworth to talk about all things noise related. With some musical accompaniment, they'll be discussing why some sounds sound nice and some sound horrible. Why certain sounds are noise and others are literally music to our ears, and whether specific sounds can trigger specific emotions. But perhaps the biggest question of all is, are there any clues in the chord sequences to D:Ream's hit "Things can only get better" that made it the perfect soundscape for to a political leadership campaign?..maybe that's something that even science can't answer!

Producer: Alexandra Feachem
Presenters: Robin Ince and Brian Cox.