Will we ever fully understand reality? Can we ever fully know the inner workings of the universe? Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli thinks we’re asking all the wrong questions. Inspired by the monumental, mind-bending artworks of Anish Kapoor, Rovelli explains how we must let go of old ideas and accept that we will never know everything about the universe.

Speaking to New Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ reporter Michael Brooks, Rovelli questions whether space even exists and criticises the pursuit of unfounded theories. His radical perspective suggests everything is connected, from our atoms to our soul, and the new challenge is finding a language that brings all aspects of reality into the conversation.

Rovelli is a theoretical physicist and author based at Aix-Marseille University in France, whose work focuses on loop quantum gravity, which aims to unify quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

For decades, the idea has been dismissed as too strange to take seriously. But experiments involving microtubules, anaesthetics and brain organoids are beginning to test whether quantum effects could play a role in consciousness.

We explore Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff’s controversial Orch OR theory, the evidence for and against it and whether quantum computers could one day help reveal what consciousness really is. We also venture into whether observation and consciousness could play a fundamental role in shaping reality itself.

How do you prove that 500-year-old bones dug up in a parking lot are the long-lost remains of one of Britain’s most infamous kings?

In our latest video, Professor Turi King, a leading genetic scientist and television expert, gives us the inside track on the remarkable discovery of King Richard III. She reveals how the DNA evidence sparked a royal controversy and how DNA fingerprinting techniques have transformed criminal investigations.

From identifying the Golden State Killer to problems with the Amanda Knox investigation, King discusses a wide range of cases, including what Adolf Hitler’s DNA can and cannot tell us about the notorious dictator.

The story of how Homo sapiens left Africa is more complicated than we once thought.

Fossils suggest our species reached parts of Eurasia far earlier than the major migration traditionally dated to around 60,000 years ago. So who were these early pioneers and why did their populations disappear?

In this video, we explore the latest fossil, archaeological and genetic evidence reshaping the Out of Africa model. From a 210,000-year-old Homo sapiens skull found in Greece to evidence that our species may have evolved through interconnected populations across Africa, a new picture of human origins is emerging.

We also investigate a fascinating possibility: that stronger social networks, and the exchange of ideas and new technologies, helped Homo sapiens become adaptable enough to thrive in environments across the planet.

The story of humanity may not be of one great migration, but a long history of exploration, failure, connection and, eventually, survival.

Is time real, or is it just an illusion? In our latest video, we meet Jim Al-Khalili, physicist and author of On Time, at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the home of the Prime Meridian, to explore one of the deepest mysteries in science.

From space-time at the heart of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity to the arrow of time, entropy and the origins of the universe, Al-Khalili explains why physicists remain divided over the true nature of time.

Could the past, present and future all exist at once? And is time travel really possible? Join us for a mind-bending journey through one of physics’ greatest puzzles.

Picture the world 100 or 200 years from now. What are you imagining? Hotter temperatures, melting glaciers or alpine places without snow? With heatwaves happening across Europe this summer, it’s not that hard to visualise.

Now picture Europe in a deep freeze where temperatures hit -20°C in London. Both of these scenarios might be the future we’re heading for, thanks to climate change. And there’s an even more worrying indicator: while almost the entire planet has been warming, there’s one patch in the North Atlantic Ocean just south of Greenland where temperatures have been falling.

Å®ÉúСÊÓƵs call it the “cold blob”, and some think it could be a warning that one of Earth’s most important climate systems is beginning to change and may soon hit a tipping point where climate change no longer happens gradually. If this system flips, it could have devastating consequences that change all of our lives as we know them.

At Grotte Mandrin in France, a Neanderthal discovery has challenged everything we know about our human relatives. We travelled to the cave to meet palaeoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak, who discovered Thorin, one of the last known Neanderthals, reshaping our understanding of human history.

From the remarkable preservation of remains to the groundbreaking DNA evidence there, Slimak explores how an isolated Neanderthal population survived for tens of thousands of years, even interacting with early Homo sapiens, before disappearing. Thorin’s story challenges assumptions about intelligence, identity and survival, offering a new perspective on what it means to be human.

Å®ÉúСÊÓƵs once believed they could pinpoint the moment when humans first appeared. But as new fossils have filled in our evolutionary history, that defining moment has begun to disappear – replaced by a far stranger picture of what it means to be human.

Lucy is one of the most famous fossils ever discovered, but in recent years her spotlight has dimmed. She was part of the species Australopithecus afarensis and for decades was considered one of our earliest known human ancestors. To understand Lucy is to understand the story of discovery, human evolution and, ultimately, the changing story of us.

Could a “demon” break one of the most fundamental laws of physics? Maxwell’s demon has puzzled physicists for more than 150 years. What began as a thought experiment about heat and entropy is now part of our understanding of information, computation and the laws of thermodynamics. Physicist John Goold explains the paradox and what the demon reveals about the relationship between entropy, measurement and the quantum world.

Could our universe have more dimensions than the three of space and one of time that we experience?

Recent results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) have renewed interest in whether our current picture of the universe is complete. Some theories suggest that extra dimensions could help explain three of the greatest mysteries in physics: the nature of dark energy; the invisible influence of dark matter; and why gravity is so much weaker than the other fundamental forces.

From string theory to braneworlds, the search for extra dimensions pushes the boundaries of science and could reveal that the reality we experience isn’t all there is.