Chhavi Sachdev

A small contribution from India for this CrowdScience episode on cultural influences on dexterity!
Why are some people left-handed? Why are some people right-footed? Why do some write with their right and throw a ball with their left? What does this all have to do with our brains? Why is it hard for some people to tell left from right? And what about animals? Can they be left-flippered, or finned, or southpawed? That's what a few CrowdScience listeners want to know, and we've got an expert panel on left, right and everything in between to help answer your questions.

India's successful moon landing has the Unexpected Elements team engaging in some serious lunacy. We look at where the moon even came from, how it helps us navigate, and whether it has a cultural and ecological heritage.

Also on the show, is Dr. TikTok leading to a raft of self-diagnoses, should we be eating banana peels and worms, and we go back to the moon to see if it has any effect on our sleep.

A catchy, toe-tapping tune about the difficulties of unrequited love and distance is making waves in Pakistan, India and across the globe.
Since its February release, the song “Pasoori,” which translates to “difficulty” or “conflict” in Punjabi, has racked up more than 250 million views on YouTube and on Instagram. And, the audio has been remixed at least 350,000 times by fans from all over the world.
In fact, 14 seconds of the track are audible in episode 4 of the new TV show, "Miss Marvel,"...

As Netflix cracks down on password sharing around the world - something it once encouraged - we wondered why people like to share passwords to other things, such as phones, email accounts and logins.

Passwords and encryption exist as ways of protecting us from hostile agents in most aspects of life. But climate change is upsetting some of the ecological match-ups of locks and keys, migration and feeding that have evolved over the millennia. Also, we hear how India's Chandrayaan-3 moon mission - due to land on 23 August this year - is exciting millions of people.

faith, with most of the world opting for cremation or burial. However, with new research now revealing the carbon impact of established funeral choices, more people are questioning their cost to the climate.

With alternatives such as ‘water cremation’ and ‘eco-burials’ becoming available, will people start to consider another way?

Featuring Mokshda, an organisation with a eco crematorium system in India.

Human migration is in the headlines again!

But what does science tell us about migration? With a team across three continents, including Chhavi in India, we’re looking at the origins of human migration and exploring some of the greatest migrations in the animal kingdom. We discover that migrating birds are more like migrating humans We discover that migrating birds are more like migrating humans than you might think, and learn how even the ground beneath our feet is trying to move somewhere else.

We’re also introduced to the people labelling images that inform the algorithms behind AI

Lazy. Unmotivated. Procrastinating. If those are words you’re used to hearing from your inner critic, you are not alone. Take CrowdScience listener Laurie. On her days off she loves to relax on the sofa, watch TV, put off chores and generally do as little as possible. Meanwhile she sees other family members and colleagues apparently buzzing with energy: going the extra mile at work, taking up hobbies, going to the gym. Why, she asks, is she so lazy?
CrowdScience turns to experts to find out whether or not so-called ‘laziness’ is a fundamental part of biology or psychology; Segment from India

This week, the team squints at the recent lavish ceremony and ritual of the British King’s coronation and asks: What does it all mean? Why is ritual so important to us humans, and why does it always seem to involve precious objects?
That’s where we start - but in this show, our global panel of science journalists -- Chhavi & Candice -- can take us to all sorts of places. We’ll be touring the ocean floors with the scientist who wants to map all of them, soaring in the skies of India to discover why one of the country’s biggest birds might be in trouble, and we’re even going off planet to find

Food waste from hotels and the heat from computers are being used to provide new sources of energy.

In the fight against climate change, it is of vital importance to find new ways of making our energy go further.

We visit Goa in India, to hear how food waste digesters - that turn waste into gas for cooking – are springing up everywhere.

Presenter: Myra Anubi

Reporters: Chhavi Sachdev and Craig Langran

Producer: Claire Bates

Series Producer: Tom Colls

Photo: Richard Dias of Flycatcher Technologies by Chhavi Sachdev

Heatwaves are already the most deadly of climate risks. If we don’t keep climate change in check, we’ll experience more of them, reaching even higher temperatures.
Already we need cooling to keep our homes, hospitals and workplaces comfortable, our vaccines stable and our food nutritious. As the planet warms up we’ll have even greater need.
Currently the cooling industry is incredibly polluting – it accounts for around 10% of global CO2 emissions. And the demand for it is only going to increase. I contributed from India (the biggest consumer with growing demand for ACs)

How hard is it for women to break into male-dominated jobs?
We look at two projects which are helping women to increase their earnings by training them in forms of work that have traditionally been done by men.
In Uganda, we meet the woman training girls in careers from mechanical engineering and welding to carpentry and construction

And in India, Chhavi visit the college that trains impoverished women from around the world in the nuts and bolts of solar technology.

As well as the economic benefits, by challenging the status quo these projects also aim to empower women and change society.

Road traffic injuries are the eighth biggest cause of death in the world, with about 1.3m people killed every year.

But 25 years ago, a movement started that changed the way policy-makers approach the issue. Vision Zero imagines a world in which no-one is killed or seriously injured on our roads

Myra Anubi also hears about an innovative project (HumSafer) to help truck drivers in India stay safe on the roads, and checks out the tech that now comes fitted in all new cars models in the EU - and which experts say could eliminate a fifth of road casualties.

We look at two new pieces of health technology which allow medics to treat people without touching them.

Breast cancer fatality rates in India are higher than in other countries because women are often reluctant to go for screening. A start up called Niramai wants to change this. They use thermal imaging and machine learning to screen for breast cancer without patients having to be seen or touched by a doctor.

The Song of the Summer series: A catchy, toe-tapping tune about the difficulties of unrequited love and distance is making waves in Pakistan, India and across the globe.
Since its February release, the song “Pasoori,” which translates to “difficulty” or “conflict” in Punjabi, has racked up more than 250 million views on YouTube and on Instagram. And, the audio has been remixed at least 350,000 times by fans from all over the world.
In fact, 14 seconds of the track are audible in episode 4 of the new TV show, "Miss Marvel,"...

In India, pandemic lockdowns caused most schools to shut for nearly two years. But many of India’s children are completely locked out of the schooling system, as their parents migrate from job to job. Reporter Chhavi Sachdev explores one program in Mumbai where children living on construction sites get care and support with their schooling.