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The Rest Is Science

How Many Words Do You ACTUALLY Know?

6/10/202652 min

Most people use just a fraction of the words they understand. But how big is your vocabulary, really? When a listener builds a tool that claims to measure it, Hannah and Michael put themselves to the test. If you'd like to try for yourself, follow the link and tell us what score you get in the comments: https://vocabowl-870366514258.us-west1.run.app/ Along the way they uncover forgotten words, obscure linguistic curiosities, and a surprising question hiding beneath the quiz itself: what does it mean to know a word? After the break, they tackle your questions and answer a nuclear pizza problem, explain why humans can grow such remarkably long hair, and ask whether everyone has a voice inside their head.

For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/rest-is-science Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.

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Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek Animator: Sam Benson Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe Producer: Simona Rata Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clips

Inside Voices Debate
Nukes Won't Heat Pizza
Vocabulary Score Showdown
Playful Kid Insults
Kids’ Voices Go Internal

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Hannah Fry· Host0:01

    Welcome to The Rest is Science. I'm Hannah Fry.

  2. Michael Stevens· Host0:03

    And I'm Michael Stevens. Today is an episode of Field Notes, where we have discovered something made by you.

  3. Hannah Fry· Host0:10

    Mm-hmm.

  4. Michael Stevens· Host0:10

    And not just all of you, but one of you named Jake. I don't know the last name.

  5. Hannah Fry· Host0:15

    I don't know the last name either.

  6. Michael Stevens· Host0:16

    Didn't provide it.

  7. Hannah Fry· Host0:17

    But what I will say is Jake is an absolute legend.

  8. Michael Stevens· Host0:19

    Yeah, maybe Jake wants to be a little bit anonymous, but his website should not be anonymous.

  9. Hannah Fry· Host0:25

    Absolutely not.

  10. Michael Stevens· Host0:26

    Inspired by a discussion we had on a previous episode about how many words does a person know and how many words are there to know, he looked into it and made a website that tests how many words you know. It, it estimates the size of your vocabulary.

  11. Hannah Fry· Host0:40

    Certainly does. That's what we're gonna get into today. [upbeat music] This episode is brought to you by Cancer Research UK.

  12. Michael Stevens· Host0:52

    Here's something strange. Your DNA contains more ancient viral fragments than genes. The genes that build our cells make up only 2% of our DNA, and for years that is what scientists focused on. They treated the rest, the ancient viruses and stuff, as junk.

  13. Hannah Fry· Host1:12

    But now we know that that hidden majority, sometimes called the dark genome, influences how our biology works and how diseases like cancer behave.

  14. Michael Stevens· Host1:23

    It's a reminder that progress rarely comes as a single breakthrough. It builds gradually. Cancer Research

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