大象传媒

How our world measures up

From ancient tally bones to a jar of peanut butter, a look at the history of measurement

• 9 mins

Debunking the Liverpool FC conspiracy theory

We debunk spurious rumours that Liverpool FC use asthma medication to enhance performance

• 9 mins

Is opinion polling broken?

Following some high profile slip-ups in recent US elections, is opinion polling broken?

• 9 mins

The numbers behind 'natural' birth control

We examine online claims about the effectiveness of 鈥渘atural鈥� birth control methods

• 9 mins

Kenya鈥檚 Election Rounding Error

Official figures didn鈥檛 add up - but due to rounding, not fraud

• 9 mins

Can we use maths to beat the robots?

Why improving how we teach and think about maths could help us keep an edge over machines

• 9 mins

Is a third of Pakistan really under water?

We investigate a widely reported claim as Pakistan deals with devastating flooding

• 9 mins

How bad is fashion for the environment?

Does fashion really account for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions?

• 9 mins

Ukraine鈥檚 progress in numbers

We ask how much progress Ukraine has really made in recapturing territory from Russia.

• 9 mins

Nasa鈥檚 asteroid collision: How many asteroids are really out there?

As Nasa rams an asteroid to try and alter its course, how many are yet to be discovered?

• 9 mins

Catching chess cheats with data

A cheating scandal is rocking the world of chess - and data is at its heart

• 9 mins

Ben Bernanke and the magic of banking

Tim Harford explains the work of this year鈥檚 Nobel Economics Prize winners

• 9 mins

Do half of new books really sell fewer than twelve copies?

We look into a claim that 50% of new books in the US sell just a handful of copies.

• 9 mins

Can China鈥檚 GDP data be trusted?

Are China鈥檚 most recent figures for economic growth wrong?

• 9 mins

Lula鈥檚 'zero deforestation' plan for the Amazon

How much of the rainforest has been lost? And can Brazil鈥檚 new president save it?

• 9 mins

Improving the numbers in the news

Tim Harford discusses the role statistics should play in the reporting of the news

• 9 mins

A $220 billion World Cup?

Has hosting the Fifa football World Cup really cost Qatar $220bn?

• 9 mins

When do food shortages become a famine?

With Somalia in crisis, we ask how data is used to officially declare a famine

• 9 mins

World Cup in Qatar: How many migrant workers have died?

Examining the wildly varying estimates of deaths in the run-up to the tournament in Qatar

• 9 mins

Why is data so important in determining how we live?

Tim Harford on how good policies depend on the availability of reliable statistics

• 9 mins

Qatar World Cup: The pressure of penalties

We analyse World Cup penalty data to ask what boosts the chance of scoring from the spot

• 9 mins

What are the numbers of 2022?

Tim Harford and guests on the numbers that help tell the big stories of the year.

• 9 mins

Irish pubs - a global numbers game

Are there more Irish pubs in Ireland than in all other countries combined?

• 9 mins

Can China's data on Covid deaths be trusted?

Is China under-reporting data on Covid related deaths?

• 9 mins

How we shook the world of very large numbers

How an edition of More or Less influenced the naming of enormous numbers

• 9 mins

Does toilet paper cause 15% of global deforestation?

We investigate the impact of our use of toilet paper on the world鈥檚 forests.

• 9 mins

Are wild mammals only 4% of the mammal population?

We examine a study that says humans and livestock dominate mammal life on Earth

• 9 mins

Hannah Fry on using shopping data to detect ovarian cancer

The mathematician discusses a study that suggests loyalty card data could signal cancer.

• 9 mins

Spreadsheet disasters

The long and costly history of spreadsheet mistakes

• 9 mins

Florence Nightingale and how she visualised data

Tim Harford discusses the power of the nurse statistician鈥檚 groundbreaking diagrams

• 9 mins