The notion of a humanoid machine was developed way back in the early 20th century and we’ve come a long way since then, integrating robots into every crevice of our lives. And we mean, every crevice.

We’ve got robot vacuum cleaners, retail robots, manufacturing and military robots. But what about the sexy robots? The masturbots? The love machines? Well, we were asked a stimulating question about this particular breed of bots: Is sex with a robot cheating? As it turns out, there is peer-reviewed research on the topic and where ethics, research and sexy robots meet, you’ll always find The Wholesome Show.

Picture this: you're on a cargo ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by a vast expanse of water when suddenly, you feel a sharp pain. No, it's not a metaphorical pang of regret for opting for the slow boat rather than the quick and painless intercontinental flight; it's an actual mouse bite. Welcome to the wild world of Gianluca Grimalda, a climate scientist with a penchant for slow travel and an unwavering commitment to the environment… machete-wielding gangsters, mice bites, job loss and all.

The 1980s had some memorable fads and crazes—hair metal bands, neon leotards, the Walkman… and criminal profiling!

One big name, and even bigger ego, in the criminal profiling world, was Richard Walter. Walter had an impressive resume, claiming to have reviewed thousands of murder cases, written criminology papers, lectured at universities, and served as an expert witness on hundreds of trials. Having worked as a staff psychologist at a prison in his earlier years, Walter had a profound understanding of the criminal mind. And he loved telling everyone about it.

What do people who have a dull singing voice, contract syphilis, and die suddenly have in common?

Well, according to a book (with the longest title EVER) published in the 18th century by James Morison, the answer was quite simple. Not enough poo.

Born in Aberdeenshire in 1770, James Morison was a bit blocked up. Well, more than a bit. For 35 years, he lived in inexpressible suffering. Having tried every course of treatment known to the medical establishment at the time and still no relief, Morrison’s agony forced him to take matters into his own hands. In 1825, he went to market selling his Vegetable Universal Medicine. Pills to purge yourself healthy!

A lesson every kid needs to learn is how to share. Little ones usually want everything for themselves, but as we grow and mature, we learn that sharing is caring. But there are some who have perhaps taken sharing too far.

Sperm donation. It’s a massive industry, helping hundreds of thousands of families enter into the joy of parenthood. Whether it's for altruistic reasons, the inherent desire to spread their wild oats, or just to earn some quick cash (2 minutes is all it takes), many men choose to donate.

But for whatever reason, some men seem to like living that donor lifestyle a little too much, popping off as much as they can to germinate their genes far and wide.

By the second half of the 20th century, humans were captivated by the idea of taming nature, making their mark on the world with colossal concrete structures. They’d gone absolutely - sorry about this - dam mad.

From democrats to dictators, the latest craze for politicians around the globe was to build dams. And for good reason! Dams are used to produce hydroelectricity, provide irrigation, protect against floods and give more work for more citizens. What could be bad about a dam? Well, many many things.

Every once in a while, somebody does something in the name of science that turns out to be really useful. Their research changes the world, a eureka moment catapults them onto the world stage for making scientific history. They might even be awarded a Nobel prize.

But what about the science we don’t hear about?

We don’t often witness the shock, the surprise, and, most importantly, the humour behind the scenes in moments of discovery. The things people set out to do that really matter to them and turn out to be hilarious. Enter the Ig Nobel Prizes.

Cereal, the food of the gods. Who can resist the crunchy, sugary deliciousness in a box? Kids (admit it - adults too) would eat it for every meal if they had the chance.

But have you ever wondered why you choose the cereal that you do? Did one in particular catch your eye?

There’s a heck of a lot of money that goes into marketing, especially products made for kids, and especially cereal. Fruit Loops, Coco Pops, Frosties - what do they all have in common? Those happy spokes characters on the box suggest to us how delicious the cereal is with their inviting facial expressions! It’s almost like they’re gazing right into your eyes telling you to pick them up and put them in your trolley.

While some people shuffle off this mortal coil in rather ordinary ways, there are those adventurous souls who seem hell-bent on making the grim reaper scratch his head in confusion. Like drowning in a pool of beer, throwing dynamite out the window of a moving vehicle (but forgetting to roll the window down), tripping on your world record breaking beard, and death during sex. Yes, that’s right. As much as we all like getting it on, there are some people throughout history who literally went out with a bang.

One question that pervaded the minds of early European physicians was not whether we should eat human flesh, but rather which part and how much. While cannibalism might conjure up images of wild savages, it turns out medical cannibalism was all the rage back in the day... and continues to be (say what?!).

Ahhh 1920s psychology… back when you could do anything in the name of science. Like traumatising a baby or making people believe they'd killed someone. The good old days. Picture this: It's 1924, and Carney Landis, a psych graduate student at Minnesota University, has an ambitious idea. He wanted to determine if humans had universal facial expressions for various emotions.

So did Landis reveal any universal facial expressions in response to his ever-escalating stimuli? Or did the aftermath of this classic 1920s psych experiment leave only electrocuted frogs, blown eardrums, and traumatised children?

When the doors of the Iroquois Theater opened in 1903, it was said to be the most beautiful in all of Chicago. A masterpiece adorned with mahogany and glass doors, marble and gold pillars, and a grand central staircase. Boasting a seating capacity of 1,600 people on three levels, the Iroquois promised a night of enchantment to all. Better still, it was declared in playbills and advertising to be “absolutely fireproof”.

Open plan workplaces. How do we feel about them? Now, we’re all up for modernism and advancement but when it comes to actually being able to get work done, open-plan workplaces SUCK. And there’s a lot of science to back that up. Basically, nobody gets shit done if they’re distracted all day long. The Isolator was designed to minimise visual reach, granting the wearer absolute concentration on whatever they were doing. Picture a helmet that looks like a cross between Darth Vader's headgear and a Victorian diving bell.

Imagine harnessing the power of the sun using nothing more than high school science lab equipment and household ingredients. Desktop cold fusion - it would be the biggest invention of the century! Well, that's exactly what Professors Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann thought they’d discovered in 1989. After experimenting with a palladium cathode in a simple heavy water electrolysis cell, they observed an unexpected rise in temperature. Confusingly, they concluded the solution was nuclear fusion! (Try saying that 3 times fast)

If you think cinema is just audiovisual entertainment, hold onto your popcorn folks, because today we're diving into an aromatic abyss of olfactory oddity when Hollywood engaged in the battle of the smellies. This isn't just a whiff of the absurd, but an honest-to-goodness tale of when Hollywood tried to tickle our nostrils along with our imagination. So did cinematic innovation cut the mustard or was it all just passing wind?

Everyone loves a good hack these days. It’s all about efficiency and finding ways to be even more productive. Well, that’s great for things like finding a quicker way to fold your clothes but when it comes to the workplace, the quest for more productivity can be taken a little too far. And by a little, we mean a lot. Death by overwork is so common in Japan there’s an actual term for it: Karoshi.

The history of science is peppered with some pretty dubious research… grafting second heads onto dogs, growing bits of human brains inside mouse embryos, experiments with syphilis, and the list goes on. We have delivered many episodes on some pretty horrific things done in the name of science back in the day which is why we’re suitably discomforted by a study on orphan kids called “The Monster Study”.

By the beginning of the 19th century, it was believed that one of the causes of mania was ‘hot brain’, a violent heat that boiled the blood and dried out the brain. Cooling the brain seemed an obvious solution. And so throughout the 19th century, various apparatus that harnessed therapeutic forces of water emerged to aid in “curing” the insane. And here we find the less relaxing and more barbaric origins of the shower. As we’ve discovered in many cases from that period of history, some people took it way too far.

Imagine exactly what you were doing 20 years ago. This hypothesis formed the groundbreaking research of Harvard psychology Professor Ellen Langer: Could you reverse the age-related physical and mental decline by immersing yourself in the environment of your younger self? Can you shatter the societal expectation of aging and live a youthful life until expiry?

Imagine being serenaded with an accordion and indulging in a chocolate croissant overlooking the Eiffel Tower. Who wouldn’t want to lean into an old-fashioned smooch? But not all kissing is romantic in nature. Sometimes it’s necessary to save a life. In fact, one girl has inadvertently saved countless lives by being the world’s most kissed face. It’s our pleasure to introduce to you the beautiful Resusci-Anne.