The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer
Relatively few people are lefties, and it’s a puzzle why. Still, the science of handedness is revealing fascinating insights about you – from how it could change the way you think, to the fact that you might be ‘left-eared’.
Download ‘The Curious Case of the Sinister Hand’ from the Radio 4 website, and discover more animations and articles from Rutherford & Fry on BBC Future.
From the time we pick up a chunky crayon and start scribbling as children, it begins to become clear whether we’re right- or left-handed. But what makes one hand dominate? And why are left-handers in the minority?
To find out more, Adam Rutherford and I decided to investigate the science and history behind human handedness for the BBC Radio 4 series The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry.
It soon became clear that there was more to the question than we thought: for example, I had never realised that our body is lopsided in other ways too. Take your eyes, for instance. You can tell whether you are right or left-eyed by trying the following test:
