Why do bright lights make me sneeze? episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 3, 2022 · 37 MIN

Why do bright lights make me sneeze?

from CrowdScience · host BBC World Service

This week’s CrowdScience is dedicated to bodily fluids – and why humans spend so much time spraying them all over the place. From snot and vomit to sweat and sneezes, listeners have been positively drenching our inbox with queries. Now presenter Marnie Chesterton and a panel of unsqueamish expert guests prepare themselves to wade through… One listener has found that as he ages, bright light seems to make him sneeze more and more – with his current record sitting at 14 sneezes in a row. He’d like to know if light has the same effect on other people and why? Sticking with nasal fluids, another listener wants to know why she’s always reaching for a tissue to blow her endlessly dripping nose and yet her family seem to produce hardly any snot at all. Could it be because she moved from a hotter climate to a colder one? CrowdScience reveals the answers to these and other sticky questions… if you can find the stomach to listen. Produced by Melanie Brown Contributors: Jagdish Chaturvedi – ENT Surgeon Åsmund Eikenes – Author Prof. Lydia Bourouiba - Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT Rubiaya Hussain – PhD student, optics and photonics, ICFO[Image: Woman sneezing. Credit: Getty Images]

This week’s CrowdScience is dedicated to bodily fluids – and why humans spend so much time spraying them all over the place. From snot and vomit to sweat and sneezes, listeners have been positively drenching our inbox with queries. Now presenter Marnie Chesterton and a panel of unsqueamish expert guests prepare themselves to wade through… One listener has found that as he ages, bright light seems to make him sneeze more and more – with his current record sitting at 14 sneezes in a row. He’d like to know if light has the same effect on other people and why? Sticking with nasal fluids, another listener wants to know why she’s always reaching for a tissue to blow her endlessly dripping nose and yet her family seem to produce hardly any snot at all. Could it be because she moved from a hotter climate to a colder one? CrowdScience reveals the answers to these and other sticky questions… if you can find the stomach to listen. Produced by Melanie Brown Contributors: Jagdish Chaturvedi – ENT Surgeon Åsmund Eikenes – Author Prof. Lydia Bourouiba - Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT Rubiaya Hussain – PhD student, optics and photonics, ICFO[Image: Woman sneezing. Credit: Getty Images]

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Why do bright lights make me sneeze?

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This episode is 37 minutes long.

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This episode was published on June 3, 2022.

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This week’s CrowdScience is dedicated to bodily fluids – and why humans spend so much time spraying them all over the place. From snot and vomit to sweat and sneezes, listeners have been positively drenching our inbox with queries. Now presenter...

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