Nature Podcast

Injectable fluid safely fills area in which blood clots can form, in animal trials — plus, strong evidence that an elusive form of diamond has been made in the lab.

00:47 A magnetic seal to stop clots forming in the heart

Research Article : Wang et al.

News and Views: Magnetic fluid offers better seal in heart-plugging medical procedure

Video:Magnetic gel injected into the heart could stop strokes

07:02 Research Highlights

Nature: Sewage systems secretly waft pollution into the air

Nature: This ant species is composed of only queens — no workers or males

11:31 Making hexagonal diamond

Research Article: Lai et al.

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This is an audio version of our Feature: Many people have no mental imagery. What’s going on in their brains?

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In this episode:

00:15 How Pokémon inspired fields as diverse as evolution, biodiversity and research integrity

Nature: Pokémon turns 30 — how the fictional pocket monsters shaped science

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High-speed footage reveals shoe squeaks can start with a tiny bolt of lightning — plus, evidence that a debated brain phenomenon exists in humans.

00:44 The science of squeaky shoes

Research Article : Djellouli et al.

Basketball sound effects via Bradley Kanaris/Getty.

09:05 Research Highlights

Nature: Runaway black hole leaves a trail of stars

Nature: Super-sticky feet help a robot to climb the walls

11:31 Evidence of hippocampal neurogenesis

Research Article: Disouky et al.

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00:25 How brains differ by sex and age

Nature: Brain differences between sexes get more pronounced from puberty

07:14 Bumblebees ‘fan themselves’ during flight to keep cool

Science: How do busy bees avoid overheating from flying?

Video: Birds gliding through bubbles reveal aerodynamic trick

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00:46 Data stored in glass

Nature: Microsoft Research Project Silica Team

Nature: Microsoft team creates 'revolutionary' data storage system that lasts for millennia

08:09 Research Highlights

Nature: Parasitic wasps use tamed virus to castrate caterpillars

Nature: Flexible joints: robot morphs into a range of cyborg species

10:10 An mRNA vaccine for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Nature: Sahin et al.

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In this episode:

00:26 Moderate caffeine intake might reduce dementia risk, study suggests

Nature: Coffee linked to slower brain ageing in study of 130,000 people

04:15 Using AI to work out the rules of a long-forgotten board game

Scientific American: Rules of mysterious ancient Roman board game decoded by AI

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In this episode:

00:46 The immune cells that eat waste fats from fruit flies’ brains

Nature: Cho et al.

10:21 Research Highlights

Nature: Beetle is locked into an eternal dance ― with an ant

Nature: Super-sniffer aeroplane finds oil fields’ hidden emissions

12:41 Ancient DNA evidence reveals a nuanced story of the Bell Beaker Expansion

Nature: Olalde et al.

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In this episode:

00:42 External, artificial-lung system keeps patient alive for transplant

Nature: 48 hours without lungs: artificial organ kept man alive until transplant

06:22 How lung cancer in mice hijacks neurons to outwit the immune system

Nature: How tumours trick the brain into shutting down cancer-fighting cells

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00:46 Understanding how rete ridges form in the skin

Nature: Thompson et al.

09:32 Research Highlights

Nature: Genetically engineered ‘stinkweed’ comes up roses for making seed oil

Nature: Largest galaxy survey yet confirms that the Universe is not clumpy enough

11:52 The open-source AI that performs scientific literature reviews

Nature: Asai et al.

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In this episode:

00:36 Study probes genetics of extreme longevity

Nature: Still working at 107: supercentenarian study probes genetics of extreme longevity

05:32 Controlling fluorescent proteins’ brightness with magnets

Nature: ‘Remote controlled’ proteins illuminate living cells

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00:46 Why completing difficult tasks feels rewarding

Nature: Touponse et al.

11:34 Research Highlights

Nature: Disappearing ‘planet’ reveals a solar system’s turbulent times

Nature: Getting to the (square) root of stock-market swings

13:43 How extreme weather events could threaten malaria elimination efforts

Nature: Symons et al.

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This is an audio version of our Feature: ‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI

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In this episode:

00:24 How babies share their gut microbes

Nature: Sending babies to nursery completely reshapes their microbiome

05:25 First evidence of tool use in cattle

Science: No bull: This Austrian cow has learned to use tools

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00:46 Protein-sized superposition surpasses previous experiments

Nature: Pedalino et al.

News: Schrödinger's cat just got bigger: quantum physicists create largest ever 'superposition'

11:46 Research Highlights

Nature: Ancient pottery reveals early evidence of mathematical thinking

Nature: Gifted dogs learn new words by overhearing humans

14:11 How Trump’s second term has impacted research

Nature: US science after a year of Trump

Nature: US science in 2026: five themes that will dominate Trump’s second year

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In this episode:

00:40 The rock samples destined to remain on Mars

Nature: NASA won’t bring Mars samples back to Earth: this is the science that will be lost

05:24 The genetics of dogs’ droopy ears

Nature: Do their ears hang low? The genetics of dogs’ adorable floppy ears

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In this episode:

00:47 AI can boost research productivity — at what cost?

Research article: Hao et al.

10:10 Research Highlights

Nature: Ancient ‘snowball’ Earth had frigidly briny seas

Nature: Putting immune cells into ‘night mode’ reduces heart-attack damage

12:41 JWST images are full of red dots, what are they?

Nature: Rusakov et al.

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00:54 Turning an undersea cable into a seismic detector

Researchers have shown that they can piggyback a signal on a 4,400-kilometer-long telecom cable that runs from California to Hawaii, allowing it to act like 44,000 separate seismic-activity detectors. Their method takes advantage of impurities found in glass fibre-optic cables, which reflect light differently when they are stretched and distorted by the pressure of seismic waves.

Science: Seafloor telecom cable transformed into giant earthquake detector

04:17 The origin of an ancient boat

Chemical analysis of the caulking found on the wood an ancient boat has helped researchers identify the origins of the vessel, that sank off the coast of Denmark 2,400 years ago. The team’s analysis suggests it voyaged from much farther away that had been thought — perhaps coming from the Baltic Sea region. The team also found a fingerprint left in the caulk, although who it belonged to is unknown.

LiveScience: Fingerprint of ancient seaborne raider found on Scandinavia's oldest plank boat

08:29 How heating up helps some plants pollinate

Some plants called cycads (Zamia spp.) heat up to attract the beetles that pollinate them. These beetles have heat-seeking sensors in their antennae, which they use locate the plants. Male cycads warm up around 3 hours before females, meaning that beetles head to them before first carrying pollen over to the females.

Science: Heat-seeking beetles drawn to plants that glow in infrared

13:08 The exoplanet shaped like a lemon

The discovery of exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b reveals how unusual other worlds can be. This exoplanet takes just 7.8 hours to orbit an ultra-dense pulsar whose intense gravity pulls PSR J2322-2650b into a lemon shape.

New Scientist: Strange lemon-shaped exoplanet defies the rules of planet formation

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In this episode, reporter Miryam Naddaf joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2026. We’ll hear about: small-scale AI models that could outcompete Large Language Models in reasoning, clinical trials of gene editing to treat rare human disorders, a sample collection mission from Phobos, and how changes to US policy by the Trump team are expected to impact science.

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Anecdotal stories suggesting that weight-loss drugs can help people shake long-standing addictions have been spreading fast in the past few years, through online forums, weight-loss clinics and news headlines. And now, clinical data are starting to back them up.

Over a dozen randomized clinical studies testing whether GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic can suppress addiction are now under way, and neuroscientists are working out how these weight-loss drugs act on brain regions that control craving, reward and motivation.

Scientists warn that the research is still in its early stages, but some researchers and physicians are excited, as no truly new class of addiction medicine has won approval from regulators in decades.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Will blockbuster obesity drugs revolutionize addiction treatment?

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00:40 What a trove of potato genomes reveals about the humble spud

Researchers have created a ‘pangenome’ containing the genomes of multiple potato types, something they believe can help make it easier to breed and sequence new varieties. The potato’s complicated genetics has made it difficult to sequence the plant’s genome, but improvements in technology have allowed the team to combine sequences, allowing them to look for subtle differences in between varieties.

Nature Podcast:16 April 2025

Research Article: Sun et al.

10:28 Hundreds of physicists on a remote island: we visit the ultimate quantum party

According to legend, physicist Werner Heisenberg formulated the mathematics behind quantum mechanics in 1925 while on a restorative trip to the remote North Sea island of Heligoland.

To celebrate the centenary of this event, several hundred researchers have descended on the island to take part in a conference on all things quantum physics. Nature reporter Lizzie Gibney was also in attendance, and joined us to give an inside track on the meeting.

Nature Podcast: ​​​​​​​13 June 2025

19:54 Research Highlights

A minuscule robot that can manipulate liquid droplets, and the discovery of ancient puppets on the remains of a large pyramid offers a glimpse into rituals in Mesoamerica.

Research Highlight: This tiny robot moves mini-droplets with ease

Research Highlight: Ancient puppets that smile or scowl hint at shared rituals

23:03 These malaria drugs treat the mosquitoes — not the people

Researchers have developed two compounds that can kill malaria-causing parasites within mosquitoes, an approach they hope could help reduce transmission of the disease. The team showed that these compounds can be embedded into the plastics used to make bed nets, providing an alternative to insecticide-based malaria-control measures, which are losing efficacy in the face of increased resistance.

Nature Podcast: ​​​​​​​21 May 2025

Research article: ​​​​​​​Probst et al.

33:49 Briefing Chat

The first skeletal evidence that Roman gladiators fought lions.

BBC News: Bites on gladiator bones prove combat with lion

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Nature: Asteroids, antibiotics and ants: a year of remarkable science

In this episode:

1:58 Evidence of ancient brine on an asteroid

Samples taken from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft suggest the parent body it originated from is likely to have contained salty, subsurface water. This finding provides insights into the chemistry of the early Solar System, and suggests that brines might have been an important place where pre-biotic molecules were formed.

News & Views: Asteroid Bennu contains salts from ancient brine

Nature Podcast: Asteroid Bennu contains building blocks of life

08:01 How gene expression doesn't always reflect a cell's function

Cells are often grouped into categories according to the RNA molecules they produce. However a study of zebrafish (Danio rerio) brains revealed that cells can be functionally diverse even if they appear molecularly similar. This finding adds more nuance to how a cell's ‘type’ is ultimately defined.

News & Views: Does a cell’s gene expression always reflect its function?

12:01 The disproportionate mortality risks of extreme rainfall

An assessment of death rates in India’s coastal megacity of Mumbai revealed that the impact of extreme rainfall events will be highest for women, young children and residents of informal settlements. This situation is likely to become more pronounced as a result of climate change.

News & Views: Extreme rainfall poses the biggest risk to Mumbai’s most vulnerable people

14:46 An AI-designed underwater glue

Inspired by animals like barnacles and aided by machine learning, researchers have developed a super-sticky compound that works as an underwater adhesive. To demonstrate its properties, researchers applied it to a rubber duck, which stuck firmly to a rock on a beach despite being battered by the sea.

News & Views: AI learns from nature to design super-adhesive gels that work underwater

Nature Podcast: Underwater glue shows its sticking power in rubber duck test

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00:46 The gifts that sparked a love of science

Nature put a call out for readers to tell us about memorable presents that first got them interested in science, or mementos of their life in research. These include telescopes, yeast-themed wedding rings, and... cows’ eyes.

Nature: The gift that shaped my career in science

08:12 “I am the Very Model of a Miniature Tyrannosaur”

In the first of our annual festive songs celebrating the science of the past year, we tell the story of a diminutive dinosaur that turned out to be its own species.

Nature Podcast: Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species

Nature Video: Hotly debated dinosaur is not a tiny T. rex after all

11:43 A very scientific quiz

An all-star cast competes for the glory or being the winner of the Nature Podcast’s 2025 festive quiz.

Nature: Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species

Nature: This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started

Nature Podcast: 3D-printed fake wasps help explain bad animal mimicry

Nature Video: ‘Aqua tweezers’ manipulate particles with water waves

Nature Podcast: Sapphire anvils squeeze metals atomically-thin

Nature Video: Vesuvius volcano turned this brain to glass

Nature Podcast: Ancient viral DNA helps human embryos develop

Nature Video: Magnetic fibres give this robot a soft grip

Nature: These contact lenses give people infrared vision — even with their eyes shut

Nature Video: Is this really the world's largest mirror? Researchers put it to the test

Nature Podcast: World’s tiniest pacemaker could revolutionize heart surgery

Nature Podcast: Earth’s deepest ecosystem discovered six miles below the sea

Nature Podcast: Nature goes inside the world’s largest ‘mosquito factory’ — here’s the buzz

Nature Podcast: Apocalypse then: how cataclysms shaped human societies

Nature Podcast: Honey, I ate the kids: how hunger and hormones make mice aggressive

25:21 “Hard the Hydrogel is Stuck”

Our second festive song is an ode to a rubber duck that was stuck to a rock, thanks to a newly designed, super-adhesive hydrogel.

Nature Podcast: Underwater glue shows its sticking power in rubber duck test

Nature Video: Why did researchers stick a duck to a rock? To show off their super glue

28:42 Nature’s 10

Each year, Nature’s 10 highlights some of the people who have helped shape science over the past 12 months. We hear about a few of the people who made the 2025 list, including: a civil servant who stood up for evidence-based public-health policy; the science sleuth who revealed a retraction crisis at Indian universities; and the baby whose life was saved by the first personalized CRISPR therapy.

Nature: Nature’s 10

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00:46 Evidence of the earliest fire 

Baked soil, ancient tools, and materials that could be used to start fires show that Neanderthals were making fire in the UK 400,000 years ago — the earliest evidence of this skill found so far. Ancient humans are known to have used naturally occurring fires, but evidence of deliberate fire-starting has been hard to come by. A new suite of evidence pushes back the date of fire mastery by 350,000 years. The team behind the finding believe it helps create a more nuanced picture of Neanderthals, who perhaps gathered round fires and told stories in ancient Europe. 

Research Article:Davis et al.

News and Views:Oldest known evidence of the controlled ignition of fire

11:31 Research Highlights

Machine-learning algorithms can help to identify traces of life in ancient rocks — plus, why paintings containing a vivid green pigment lose their lustre over time. 

Research Highlight:AI finds signs of life in ancient rocks

Research Highlight:The mystery of emerald green — cracked

13:55 How AI chatbots can sway voters with ease 

Research suggests that artificial-intelligence chatbots can influence voters’ political views and have a bigger effect than conventional campaigning and advertising. One study found that chatbot conversations swung participants’ candidate preferences by up to 15 percentage points, while another revealed that the chatbots’ effectiveness stems from their ability to synthesize a lot of information in a conversational way.  

Nature: AI chatbots can sway voters with remarkable ease — is it time to worry? 

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00:46 How satellite mega-constellations could ruin space-based astronomy

The ability of space-based telescopes to image the distant Universe could be in peril, according to new research investigating the impacts of light-pollution from future satellites. Streaks of reflected light from satellites currently in low-Earth orbit are already seen in telescope images, and planned launches could raise the number of satellites from around 15,000 to over half-a-million. Computer modelling revealed that this drastic increase would result in images taken by instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope becoming unusable by astronomers. The team propose a series of strategies to help mitigate these impacts, preventing this future becoming reality.

Research Article: Borlaff et al.

Nature: Satellite swarms set to photobomb more than 95% of some telescopes’ images

11:08 Research Highlights

How researchers have sped up the trapping of antimatter atoms — plus, how hydrogen fuel emission benefits vary considerably from sector to sector.

Research Highlight: Laser cooling traps more antimatter atoms than ever before

Research Highlight: Hydrogen fuel isn’t always the green choice

13:41 The negative consequences of video call glitches

Glitches in video calls are an annoying feature of everyday life, but these brief interruptions could have serious real-world impacts, according to analysis from a team of researchers. In one experiment, the team found that video calls with glitches decreased the likelihood of someone being hired for a job. Analysis of other data suggested glitchy calls were associated with lower chances of individuals being granted parole. The team behind the work think that these visual errors break the illusion that a video call is a real face-to-face conversation, potentially impairing judgements about the quality of the information discussed.

Research article: Brucks et al.

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CRISPR-based gene editing has revolutionized modern biology, but these tools are unable to access the DNA that resides inside mitochondria. Researchers are eager to access and edit this DNA to understand more about the energy production and the mutations that can cause incurable mitochondrial diseases.

Because CRISPR can’t help with these problems, researchers have been looking for other ways to precisely edit the mitochrondrial genome. And the past few years have brought some success — if researchers can make editing safe and accurate enough, it could eventually be used to treat, and even cure, these genetic conditions.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Faulty mitochondria cause deadly diseases — fixing them is about to get a lot easier

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00:46 Martian ‘micro-lightning’

The sounds of ‘micro-lightning’ have been recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover, ending a long search for the phenomenon on Mars. A lack of suitable equipment has made it difficult to gather evidence of lightning on the red planet, but a team of researchers realized that a microphone on Perseverance should be able to pick up the characteristic sounds of electrical discharges. In total they found 55 such examples, along with signs of electrostatic interference indicative of the phenomenon. They dubbed the electric bursts ‘micro-lightning’, as they are far smaller than the lighting seen on Earth, due to the thin Martian atmosphere. The team believe this finding could help better understand Martian chemistry and how best to design equipment to explore the planet’s surface.

Research Article: Chide et al.

News and Views: Is there lightning on Mars?

11:03 Research Highlights

How the biology of male seahorses’ brood pouches appears similar to mammalian pregnancy— plus, why Neanderthals’ jaws were so beefy.

Research Highlight: The origin of male seahorses’ brood pouch

Research Highlight: Neanderthal DNA reveals how human faces form

13:36 The key takeaways from COP30

The UN’s climate conference, COP30, came to a close last week in Brazil. Nature reporter Jeff Tollefson tells us what was and wasn’t agreed during the final negotiations.

Nature: What happened at COP30? 4 science take-homes from the climate summit

22:27 Why women may retract less than men

A new analysis suggests that female authors retract fewer medical science papers than their male counterparts. Women are known to be underrepresented in the medical sciences, but even accounting for this an AI-tool revealed that female authors featured on far fewer retracted research articles. Reporter Jenna Ahart has been investigating and told us why this might be, and what it means for research more broadly.

Nature: Women seem to retract fewer papers than men — but why?

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00:45 A molecule that delivers insulin through the skin

Researchers have developed a skin-permeable polymer that can deliver insulin into the body, which they say could one day offer an alternative to injections for diabetes management. The skin’s structure presents a formidable barrier to the delivery of large drugs but in this work a team show that their polymer can penetrate though the different layers without causing damage. Insulin attached to this polymer was able to reduce blood glucose levels in animal models for diabetes at a comparable speed to injected insulin. While further research is required on the long-term safety of this strategy, the team hope it could offer a way to non-invasively deliver other large-molecule drugs into the body.

Research Article: Wei et al.

09:23 Research Highlights

How extreme drought may be humanity’s biggest challenge after a huge volcanic eruption — plus, turning a bacterium into a factory for a colour-changing pigment

Research Highlight: Volcano mega-eruptions lead to parched times

Research Highlight: Dye or die: bacterium forced to make pigment to stay alive

11:42 How language lights up the brain, whatever the tongue

The human brain responds in a similar way to both familiar and unfamiliar languages, but there are some key differences, according to new research — a finding that may explain why learning a language can be difficult. A study looking involving 34 people showed that listening to an unfamiliar language triggers similar neural activity to listening to their native tongue. The finding implies that human speech triggers a common reaction in the brain regardless of understanding. However, there were subtle differences when listening to a known language that may help explain how people actually understand words.

Research Article: Bhaya-Grossman et al.

Neuron: Zhang et al

Sounds used under CC BY 4.0

27:18 Briefing Chat

Signs that greenhouse-gas emissions may peak around 2030 — plus, evidence of dog breeding by ancient humans.

Nature: Global greenhouse-gas emissions are still rising: when will they peak?

Nature: How ancient humans bred and traded the first domestic dogs

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Yoshua Bengio, considered by many to be one of the godfathers of AI, has long been at the forefront of machine-learning research . However, his opinions on the technology have shifted in recent years — he joins us to talk about ways to address the risks posed by AI, and his efforts to develop an AI with safety built in from the start. 

Nature: ‘It keeps me awake at night’: machine-learning pioneer on AI’s threat to humanity

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00:45 A coronal mass ejection from a distant star

Researchers have detected what they say is the strongest evidence yet of a coronal mass ejection (CME) coming from a star other than our Sun. CMEs are massive bursts of fast-moving plasma that can be detected thanks to the characteristic radio signal they produce. However, despite decades of searching, these signals have only been identified from the Sun. Now a team has identified a similar signal coming from a distant star in the Milky Way. They hope their discovery will lead to better understanding of the impact these colossal events might have on the atmospheres of exoplanets, and their chances of being habitable.

Research Article: Callingham et al.

12:28 Research Highlights

Video footage of a devastating earthquake provides a first-of-its-kind glimpse of a dramatic ground rupture — plus, a flock of comets seen outside our Solar System.

Research Highlight: Single video camera tells the story of deadly Myanmar quake

Research Highlight: A host of ‘exocomets’ swarms a distant star

14:29 The rare genetic variants that may increase the risk of ADHD

Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition that affects around 1 in 20 young people, but its underlying causes are not fully understood. Now, a team of researchers show that three rare genetic variants are implicated in an increased risk of ADHD, which may play a role in the neurons involved in dopamine signalling. While this work provides a better understanding of the complex genetics at play, the authors caution more research is needed to unpick the complex interplay other factors involved in ADHD.

Research Article: Demontis et al.

18:41 Briefing Chat

A high-resolution digital map for Roman roads, and how speaking more than one language could slow brain ageing.

Nature: ‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network

Nature: Want a younger brain? Learn another language

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00:45 The debate around Nanotyrannus

A hotly debated species of dinosaur, assumed by many to be a juvenile T. rex, is actually a separate species, according to new research. Nanotyrannus was a dinosaur anatomically similar to T. rex, but about a tenth of the size, leading many to argue it was a young version of the iconic species. However, examination of the limb bones of a well-preserved Nanotyrannus fossil suggests it was close to finishing its growth and so would never become as large as a T. rex, leading the authors to argue that it is, in fact, a different species.

Research Article: Zanno and Napoli

News and Views: T. rex debate settled: contested fossils are smaller rival species, not juveniles

News: ‘Teenage T. rex’ fossil is actually a different species

Video: Hotly debated dinosaur is not a tiny T. rex after all

08:46 Research Highlights

An artificial ‘neuron’ could pave the way to build a brain-inspired computer — plus, how bats buck the trend by hunting prey their own size.

Research Highlight: Artificial brains with less drain

Research Highlight: By the time you hear these bats, it’s too late

11:19 A less invasive way to prevent breast cancer

An ‘anti-hormone’ therapy has shown promise in halting the onset of hallmarks associated with breast cancer, in a small trial. Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in women worldwide, but preventative measures, such as mastectomies, are invasive. A new study examined the efficacy of a treatment that blocks progesterone, a hormone thought to play an important role in breast cancer progression. The therapy reduced both specific clinical markers of breast cancer and the number of cells that can become cancerous. Larger, longer trials are needed to show that this treatment could ultimately become part of a breast cancer prevention strategy, but the team think that this work shows the promise of this approach.

Research Article: Simões et al.

18:41 Briefing Chat

A new approach to speed up CRIPSR therapies reaching clinical trials, and how vocal cords could be healed using a tiny 3D printer.

Nature: Personalized gene editing helped one baby: can it be rolled out widely?

Nature: World’s smallest 3D bioprinter could rebuild tissue during surgery

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00:47 How bowhead whales live so long

Researchers have uncovered a protein that enhances DNA repair and may explain how bowhead whales can live more than 200 years. The protein, cold-induced RNA-binding protein, was shown to enhance repair of double stranded DNA breaks, a particularly troublesome kind of damage. The team showed that this protein could also extend the lives of Drosophila flies and enhance repair in human cells. More needs to be understood about how this protein works, but the researchers hope that it could, one day, help prevent cancer and ageing in humans.

Research Article: Firsanov et al.

News: This whale lives for centuries: its secret could help to extend human lifespan

11:22 Research Highlights

A precise way to grow crystals, with lasers — plus, the specialist organ that allows stinkbugs to protect their eggs from wasps.

Research Highlight: How to grow crystals when and where you want them

Research Highlight: Stinkbug ‘ear’ actually hosts parasite-fighting fungi

13:31 An antivenom against a broad range of snakebites

Researchers have used ‘nanobodies’ to create an antivenom that works against 17 snake species’ venom. Snakebites kill millions each year, so getting the right antivenom can be life or death. But they are difficult to produce and often are very specific. Now, using nanobodies from llamas, researchers created an antivenom against a broad range of snake species’ venom. The new antivenom can now even be produced without the llamas, and the team hope it will pave the way for a more universal antivenom.

Research Article: Ahmadi et al.

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Advice on how to get good sleep is everywhere, with the market for sleep aids worth more than US$100 billion annually. However, scientists warn that online hacks and pricey tools aren’t always effective, and suggest that lessons learnt about the workings of a network of biological clocks found in the human body could ultimately lead to improved sleep.

This is an audio version of our Feature: How to get the best night’s sleep: what the science says

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00:48 How hunger, hormones and aggression interact in mouse brains

Researchers have uncovered the neural mechanisms that underlie an aggressive behaviour in mice prompted by hunger and hormonal state. Virgin female mice can become aggressive towards mouse pups when they are food deprived, but it seems that the relevant amounts of pregnancy hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, also played a role. By investigating the neurons involved, neuroscientists showed how hunger and hormones are integrated by the brain to lead to aggressive behaviour. This could help researchers understand more about how multiple stimuli are interpreted by the brain, something much harder to study than single stimulus effects.

Research Article: Cao et al.

09:35 Research Highlights

The overlooked environmental costs of wastewater treatment facilities — plus, an ancient communal hunting system that lasted well into the eighteenth century.

Research Highlight: Wastewater treatment produces surprising amounts of greenhouse gases

Research Highlight: Andean peoples hunted and gathered long after they embraced farming

11:53 What generative AI could mean for higher education

Around the world, universities and students are scrambling to adapt to the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. And while there is optimism that these tools could improve education, there are also concerns about the ways they could stifle independent, critical thought. We hear about the studies trying to unpick the potential impact of this new technology.

News Feature: Universities are embracing AI: will students get smarter or stop thinking?

21:26 Briefing Chat

A blood test for Alzheimer’s, and what should be the next ‘test’ for AI after the Turing test?

Nature: Blood tests are now approved for Alzheimer’s: how accurate are they?

Nature: AI language models killed the Turing test: do we even need a replacement?

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00:46 A multi-variant avian flu vaccine that could enhance pandemic preparedness

A vaccine capable of protecting against multiple strains of avian influenza virus might be a step closer, according to new research. The H5 subtype of avian influenza viruses has spilled over into mammals and is particularly concerning to researchers because of the risk that one of its variants may evolve to cause a pandemic. But because there are multiple variants of these viruses, it has been hard to pre-prepare vaccines. Now, a team has used information on how H5 viruses changed over time to design a vaccine that in animal studies provided protection against different H5 variants. They hope their approach could be applied to create stockpiles of a vaccine that could be used in the event of a pandemic, regardless of the variant that causes it.

Research Article:Kok et al.

10:53 Research Highlights

Making muon beams without a huge particle accelerator — plus, the bats hunting migrating birds in mid-air.

Research Highlight:Portable muon beam could accelerate archaeology scans

Research Highlight:European bats capture migrating birds and eat them on the wing

13:34 Briefing Chat

A new search engine that can sift through the staggering volumes of biological data, and the multiple failings revealed by an assessment of 25 years of carbon offsetting data.

Nature:‘Google for DNA’ brings order to biology’s big data

The Guardian:Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says​​​​​​​

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00:48 The stereotypes hidden in Internet images

Stereotyped assumptions about women’s ages and their perceived job suitability are enhanced by Internet imagery, according to new research. A study of hundreds of thousands of online images shows that women appear younger than men. This stereotype extends to the jobs that people perceive women do, with men being associated with roles such as CEO or head of research, while women were linked to occupations like cook or nurse. The research shows that these biases have been embedded into the training data for AI models and could affect future hiring. The researchers caution that society is at risk of creating a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ where these stereotypes shape the real world.

Research Article: Guilbeault et al.

News and Views: Distorted representations of age and gender are reflected in AI models

13:24 Research Highlights

A very hungry planet — plus, how climate change is leading to larger trees in the Amazon.

Research Highlight: ‘Rogue’ planet is fastest-growing ever observed

Research Highlight: Trees of the Amazon are becoming even mightier

15:49 Astronomers name their favourite exoplanet

Thirty years ago, astronomers announced the discovery of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star, sparking a renewed passion into spotting these planets that lie beyond our Solar System. In celebration, Nature asked researchers to tell us about their favourites.

News: These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why

Hear the music of a distant planetary system

25:51 Nobel news

Flora Graham from the Nature Briefing joins us to talk about the winners of this year’s science Nobel prizes.

Nature: Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’

Nature: Groundbreaking quantum-tunnelling experiments win physics Nobel

Nature: Chemistry Nobel for scientists who developed massively porous ‘super sponge’ materials

Nature: Will AI ever win its own Nobel? Some predict a prize-worthy science discovery soon

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00:50 How ancient viruses drive modern human development

Research suggests that ancient viral-DNA embedded in the human genome is playing a key role in early embryo development. Around 8% of our genome consists of endogenous retrovirus DNA — the remnants of ancient infections, but knowledge of their activity is limited. Now, a team show that these sequences are required for the correct development of lab-derived embryo analogues, and for the switching on of human-specific genes.

Research Article: Fueyo et al.

News and Views: Ancient viral DNA in the human genome shapes early development

10:39 Research Highlights

Longer whale mothers are more likely to give birth to daughters — plus, how the stink of the corpse flower waxes and wanes to attract pollinators.

Research Highlight: Big mother whales have more daughters than sons

Research Highlight: Corpse flowers waft out stinky compounds as fast as landfills do

13:05 How heat can fuel DNA computers

Researchers have developed a way to use heat to recharge DNA-based computer circuits, which could help overcome one of the stumbling blocks preventing this technology from being scaled up. Although DNA strands have been used to perform computational tasks for some time, current methods can run out of energy or build up waste products, preventing their continued use. Now, using just heat a team have demonstrated a reuseable neural network based on DNA. They hope that ultimately this could be a step in the development of bigger and more powerful DNA computers that could be used to power targeted clinical therapies.

Research Article: Song & Qian

22:20 Briefing Chat

A one-time gene therapy for Huntington’s disease show promise at slowing the brain disorder’s progression — plus, how mitochondria throw out ‘tainted’ DNA.

Nature: Huntington’s disease treated for first time using gene therapy

Nature: Mitochondria expel tainted DNA — spurring age-related inflammation

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In April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism, and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent. Although Kennedy said that environmental factors are the main cause of autism, research has shown that genetics plays a bigger part. Also, the rise in prevalence, many researchers say, is

predominantly caused by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits.

Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism, many researchers were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?

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00:48 New insights into tick-borne encephalitis

Researchers have identified a key protein that helps tick-borne encephalitis virus enter the brain. In rare cases an infection can lead to serious neurological symptoms, but little was known about how the virus interacts with human cells. Now, a team show that a protein found on the outside of cells plays an important role in infection. In mouse experiments, they show that blocking the ability of the virus to bind to this protein protected the mice from disease. Currently no treatments exist, but the team hopes that this research will ultimately lead to a viable drug for this disease.

Research Article: Mittler et al.

08:47 Research Highlights

The squirming robot that speeds up the insertion of an emergency breathing tube — plus, the 10,000-year-old remains that could be the oldest intentionally preserved mummies

Research Highlight: Soft robot steers itself down the human airway

Research Highlight: Smoke-dried mummies pre-date Egypt’s embalmed bodies

11:21 How might cancelled NIH grants affect the future of US science?

To assess the potential impact of cuts to funding by the Trump administration, Nature trained a machine-learning bot to try and reproduce the NIH’s method of cancelling grants and applied it to science that was successfully funded around ten years ago. This thought experiment shows that highly impactful science and medical research might have been at risk had a similar process been followed a decade ago, revealing the potentially broad-reaching consequences of these actions today.

Nature Index: What research might be lost after the NIH’s cuts? Nature trained a bot to find out

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

20:54 Briefing Chat

What researchers understand about chatbot-induced psychosis, and the AI designed viruses capable of killing E. coli bacteria.

Nature: Can AI chatbots trigger psychosis? What the science says

Nature: World’s first AI-designed viruses a step towards AI-generated life

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Science journalist Lizzie Wade’s first book, Apocalypse: A Transformative Exploration of Humanity's Resilience Through Cataclysmic Events explores some of the cataclysmic events that humans have faced through history. Lizzie joined us to discuss what modern archaeology has revealed about these events, and the role these they’ve have played in shaping societies around the world.

Apocalypse: A Transformative Exploration of Humanity's Resilience Through Cataclysmic Events Lizzie Wade Harper (2025)

Music supplied by SPD/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images

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00:50 The AI tool that predicts disease risk

Researchers have developed an AI tool that can calculate a person’s risk of developing over 1,000 different diseases, sometimes years in advance. The system, called Delphi-2M, was trained to identify patterns of disease progression using 400,000 people's health records from data repository the UK Biobank. This training allowed it to predict someone’s future disease risks, based on their current medical record. While AI health prediction systems do exist, they typically only estimate risks for a single disease — the authors hope that their system could one day save healthcare professionals time and be used to calculate disease burdens at a population level.

Research Article: Shmatko et al.

News: What diseases will you have in 20 years? This AI makes predictions

11:01 Research Highlights

Evidence that refugees hosted by local families integrate better into their adoptive country — plus, the squidgy shirt that can keep wearers cool.

Research Highlight: How to help refugees thrive: have local families host them

Research Highlight: Jelly-filled garment keeps wearers cool when heat and humidity soar

13:50 Give an AI a task and it may cheat for you

Using AI tools may make you more likely to cheat at tasks like tax reporting, according to a new study. Using a well-studied test of honesty, researchers looked to see if people were more likely to engage in unethical behaviour if given the option of delegating it to an AI. Including AIs seemed to increase the chance that someone would be dishonest, which raises concerns about the impacts of these tools on ethics.

Research Article: Köbis et al

News and Views: People are more likely to cheat when they delegate tasks to AI

24:54 Briefing Chat

Europe has a new supercomputer, JUPITER, that could boost its AI ambitions, and a catalogue of octopus movement.

Nature: World's most energy-efficient AI supercomputer comes online

New York Times: Building an Octopus Dictionary, One Arm Movement at a Time

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In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in the US directly detected ripples in space-time, known as gravitational waves. These waves were produced by the final spiral of two orbiting black holes that smashed into each other, sending ripples across the Universe. 

In this podcast, Benjamin Thompson speaks to Cole Miller from the University of Maryland about the quest to detect gravitational waves, which were first hypothesised by Albert Einstein back in 1916. 

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00:45 Attributing extreme heat events to major energy producers

Major energy producers increased the likelihood and intensity of heatwaves, according to research published in Nature. Using data from an international disaster database, a team developed a methodology to investigate how much anthropogenic climate change had influenced heatwaves. They conclude that many of these events would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, and that nearly a quarter of the heatwaves recorded from 2000 to 2023 can be directly linked to the greenhouse-gas emissions from individual energy giants.

Research Article: Juvé et al.

News and Views Forum: Heatwaves linked to emissions of individual fossil-fuel and cement producers

News: Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies

10:47 Research Highlights

How shifting coastal tides may have spurred the rise of the world’s oldest civilization — plus, the liquid crystal lenses that can refocus in a flash.

Research Highlight: Changing tides ushered in the world’s first civilization

Research Highlight: Liquid-crystal specs refocus with the push of a button

12:40 The growing resistance to the US war on science

Science in the United States is facing an increasing crisis, in the face of swinging cuts and President Donald Trump’s ongoing attack on anything with a connection to diversity, equity and inclusion. In the face of this crisis, many researchers are fighting back — we hear about some of their efforts, and what they think about their chances of success.

News Feature: Scientists take on Trump: the researchers fighting back

27:28 Briefing Chat

How CRISPR-edited pancreas cells could offer new hope for those with type 1 diabetes, and what brain scans reveal about how we process colour.

Nature: Hope for diabetes: CRISPR-edited cells pump out insulin in a person — and evade immune detection

Nature: My blue is your blue: different people’s brains process colours in the same way

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In 2016, Brian Wansink wrote a blog post that prompted scientific sleuths to investigate his work. They found evidence of data manipulation, and, after several news articles and two investigations by his institution, he would found to have committed misconduct, as defined by Cornell University. His work had been used to inform US policy around food, much of which has now been thrown into question.

Cases like this are rare, but science is not immune to misconduct. The rise in 'paper mills' — organisations that produce questionable or fake papers that they sell authorships on — has led some to worry that misconduct is on the rise and that a proportion of the scientific literature cannot be trusted.

In episode two of Self Correction, we explore how researchers are responding to the problem of research misconduct. We discuss how difficult it is to determine the prevalence of misconduct, and how sleuths, journalists and research integrity institutions are fighting back.

This episode was written and produced by Nick Petrić Howe. Dan Fox was the editor. The music was provided by Triple Scoop Music.

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Raising mosquitoes to tackle disease might sound like an odd concept, but that’s what a facility in Brazil is aiming to do. Millions of mosquitoes are produced there every week, but these insects carry harmless Wolbachia bacteria that curbs their ability to spread deadly human viruses. Nature reporter Mariana Lenharo visited the facility and told us all about her experience in this Podcast Extra.

News: This is the world’s largest ‘mosquito factory’: its goal is to stop dengue

Video: Inside a mosquito factory

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00:45 The ant queen that can produce two different species

Researchers have made an unusual observation that appears at odds with biology: an ant, known as the Iberian Harvester Ant can produce offspring of two completely different species. Many ants need to mate with other species to produce workers that are a genetic mix of the two, known as hybrids. But in Sicily, a team found hybrid worker ants but no trace of the father. They suggest that the one species present, Messor ibericus, is able to lay its own eggs, but also eggs of another species, Messor structor. These offspring can then mate to produce the hybrid workers. This strategy conflicts with several conventional definitions of what a species is, which may prompt a rethink of these already blurry concepts.

Research Article: Juvé et al.

News and Views: Ant queens produce sons of two distinct species

News: ‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

09:33 Research Highlights

Humans are living longer but a life expectancy of a hundred appears out of reach — plus, how light pollution is making birds sing for longer.

Research Highlight: When will life expectancy reach 100? No time soon

Research Highlight: Bright city lights make birds around the world sing longer

11:42 How to keep bridges standing

Researchers have discovered that steel truss bridges possess a number of mechanisms that make them resilient to collapse, even after damage. Steel truss bridges are a common kind of bridge, but many are ageing and under increased pressure due to climate change and increased vehicle loads. To understand how damage affects these bridges a team of engineers built a scale replica of a bridge section and monitored how it coped when different sections were cut. They found six distinct resistance mechanisms that allowed the bridge to continue carrying heavy loads even with the damaged sections. They hope these data will help fortify existing bridges and inform the design of future bridges to help prevent catastrophic collapse.

Research Article: Reyes-Suárez et al.

18:37 Briefing Chat

The chemistry underlying why beer drinkers fall into two taste camps, and how a deep-sea worm uses arsenic to survive its toxic environment..

Nature: Beer lovers fall into two flavour camps — which one are you in?

Science: Deep-sea worms fight poison with poison to survive in hydrothermal vents

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The search for signs of consciousness has expanded, thanks to advanced neuroimaging techniques. These tools allow researchers to detect consciousness in unresponsive humans, and now researchers are looking to develop tests that work in animals and perhaps even artificial intelligence systems of the future. 

This is an audio version of our Feature: How to detect consciousness in people, animals and maybe even AI

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00:48 How the 18th-Century 'Great Fear’ spread across rural France

In the late 1700s, rural France was beset with rapidly spreading rumours of aristocratic plots to suppress revolutionary ideas. But how, and why, these rumours were able to spread so quickly has puzzled historians. Now, using modern epidemiological modelling, a team suggests that a combination of high wheat prices, income and literacy level drove this period of French history known as the Great Fear.

Research Article: Zapperi et al.

News: An abiding mystery of the French Revolution is solved — by epidemiology

12:40 Research Highlights

An unorthodox explanation for dark energy — plus, and how a tiny marsupial predator overcame near extinction.

Research Highlight: Does dark energy spawn from black holes? Could be a bright idea

Research Highlight: Tiny Australian predator defies drought to recover from near-extinction

15:13 The quantum interpretation quiz

Physicists differ widely in their interpretations of quantum mechanics, and so do Nature readers, according to our Cosmo-inspired quiz. The quantum world is notoriously difficult to explain, with interpretations of the mathematical foundations ranging from the epistemic, which only describes information, to the realist, where equations map onto the real world. The quiz suggests that many readers prefer the realist, even if that is difficult to mesh with the physics itself.

Feature: Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey show

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00:46 Electrochemical fusion

Researchers have used electrochemistry to increase the rates of nuclear fusion reactions in a desktop reactor. Fusion energy promises abundant clean energy, but fusion events are rare, hindering progress. Now, inspired by the controversial claim of cold fusion, researchers used electrochemistry to get palladium to absorb more deuterium ions, that are used in fusion. When a beam of deuterium was fired at the deuterium-filled palladium, they saw a 15% increase in fusion events. They did not get more energy than they put in, but the authors believe this is a step towards enhancing fusion energy and shows the promise of electrochemical techniques.

Research Article: Chen et al.

News and Views: Low-energy nuclear fusion boosted by electrochemistry

10:06 Research Highlights

Do ants hold the key to better teamwork? — plus, the coins that hint at extensive hidden trade networks in southeast Asia.

Research Highlight: Super-efficient teamwork is possible — if you’re an ant

Research Highlight: Ancient coins unveil web of trade across southeast Asia

12:31 The microbial taste of chocolate

Chocolate gets its best tastes from microbes, according to a new study. Fermentation of cocoa beans helps create chocolate tastes but not much has been known about the process. Now, the temperature, pH and microbes involved have been identified and the researchers showed how it would be possible to manipulate these to produce premium chocolate flavours.

News: Why chocolate tastes so good: microbes that fine-tune its flavour

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In this Podcast Extra, we discuss a report released by the US Department of Energy, which concluded that global warming is “less damaging economically than commonly believed”. However, many researchers say that the report misrepresents decades of climate science.

We discuss how scientists are trying to coordinate a unified response amidst concerns that this report will be used in attempts to repeal a 2009 government ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public welfare.

News: Outrage over Trump team’s climate report spurs researchers to fight back

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

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00:46 Tiny solar flyer

Researchers have used a phenomenon known as thermal transpiration to create a solar-powered flying device that can stay aloft without any moving parts. The diminutive device, just one centimetre across, consists of two thin, perforated membranes that allow air to flow through the device, generating lift. Although only a proof-of-concept, the team hope that a scaled-up version of the device could be used to measure conditions in the mesosphere, a particularly hard-to-study part of the Earth’s atmosphere, or even on Mars.

Research Article: Schafer et al.

News and Views: Levitating platform could ride sunlight into the ‘ignorosphere’

News: These tiny flyers levitate on the Sun's heat alone

07:57 Research Highlights

A 3D scan of body art on a 2,000-year-old mummy reveals the techniques used by ancient tattooists — plus, the bacterial cause of a devastating sea-star disease.

Research Highlight: Intricate origins of ice mummy’s ink revealed

Research Highlight: Mystery of billions of sea-star deaths solved at last

10:22 Quantum gravity goes to the lab

Despite being one of the most successful scientific frameworks in history, there is one thing that quantum physics can’t explain: gravity. Whether gravity is quantum in nature is something that has had physicists vexed, but now a slew of experiments are being planned to try and answer this question. We hear how these experiments will work, and what their results might mean for physicists’ understanding of the universe.

News Feature: Is gravity quantum? Experiments could finally probe one of physics’ biggest questions

20:26 Briefing Chat

How genes can have different effects depend on the parent they come from, and how lithium shows promise in treating Alzheimer’s disease in mice studies.

Nature: These genes can have the opposite effects depending on which parent they came from

Nature: New hope for Alzheimer’s: lithium supplement reverses memory loss in mice

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00:45 Researchers develop a new glue and test it on a rubber duck

Aided by machine learning, researchers have developed a super-sticky compound that works as an underwater adhesive. Inspired by animals like barnacles, the team developed a new kind of a material called a hydrogel. The material is capable of securely fastening objects together even when immersed in salty water— a challenge for existing adhesives. To show off its properties the researchers applied it to a rubber duck, which stuck firmly to a rock on a beach despite being battered by waves.

Research Article: Liao et al.

News and Views: AI learns from nature to design super-adhesive gels that work underwater

07:37 Research Highlights

The tomato-infused origins of the modern potato — plus, a specific group of stem cells that may help to drive osteoarthritis.

Research Highlight: Potato, tomato: the roots of the modern tater

Research Highlight: Ageing stem cells in the knees drive arthritis damage

09:46 The diversity of microbes within living trees

By taking samples from over 150 trees in a forest in the US, researchers have revealed a previously unknown community of microorganisms living there. While the microbiomes of animals have been well explored, studies looking at the microbes living inside trees are limited. In this work the team show distinct populations of microbes living within different parts of a tree, and huge diversity in populations between trees. The team behind the work hope these findings will lead to a greater understanding of tree physiology and the role these microbes play in broader ecosystems.

Research Article: Arnold et al.

18:46 The ‘de-extinction’ debate

Back in April, the company Colossal Biosciences claimed to have de-extincted dire wolves, a large-bodied wolf species that once roamed North America. We discuss the science behind this technology, and the debates within the research community surrounding Colossal’s announcement.

News Feature: This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started.

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00:45 The deepest ecosystem ever discovered

Researchers have dived down to more than 9,000 metres below the surface of the Pacific and discovered surprisingly complex communities of life living in deep ocean trenches. The new research shows an array of animal life that appears to be using methane as a source of energy. The researchers are planning more dives to learn more about this mysterious ecosystem and how these animals can thrive despite the extreme pressure they face.

Research Article: Peng et al

09:36 Research Highlights

A fossilized leg bone reveals an 11-million-year-old fight between a terror bird and a caiman, plus the anti-ageing secret of ‘immortal’ stars.

Research Highlight: Rumble in the Miocene: terror bird versus caiman

Research Highlight: ‘Immortal’ stars have an elixir of youth: dark matter

11:45 How infections could awaken dormant cancer

New research reveals that infection by a respiratory virus has the potential to awaken dormant cancer cells. In mice studies, a team showed that inflammation caused by infection with influenza or SARS-CoV-2 could initiate the awakening of breast cancer cells that had metastasized to the lungs. Observational studies using human health data also showed that a COVID-19 infection was associated with increased risk of lung metastasis and cancer death. While the precise mechanisms are unknown, the team say that understanding the process could help mitigate any risks of cancer progression caused by a viral infection.

Research Article: Chia et al.

News and Views: Inflammation during viral infection can rouse dormant cancer cells

21:45 Will physicists ever agree on quantum mechanics?

A survey of more than 1,100 physicists has revealed that there are widely different interpretations of what quantum mechanics means for our understanding or reality. Reporter Lizzie Gibney takes us through the different ideas physicists have and asks if such disagreements even matter.

Nature: Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows

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00:46 How hot can solid gold get?

A new study suggests that gold can be superheated far beyond its melting point without it becoming a liquid. Using an intense burst from a laser, a team heated a gold foil to 14 times its melting point, far beyond a theoretical limit put forward in previous studies. The team suggest that the speed at which they heated the gold allowed them to shoot past this limit, but there is scepticism about whether the team actually achieved the level of heating they report.

Research Article: White et al.

News and Views: Solid gold superheated to 14 times its melting temperature

News: Superheated gold stays solid well past its predicted melting point

10:05 Research Highlights

How island life led to huge wingspans for flying foxes, and how a sugary diet ‘rewires’ a mouse’s brain.

Research Highlight: How the world’s biggest bats got their enormous wingspans

Research Highlight: How sugar overload in early life affects the brain later

12:30 Researchers warn about the threat of nuclear war

With increasing political polarisation and more nuclear-armed nations, researchers are warning about the threat of nuclear war. Reporter Alex Witze has been speaking to scientists, and she told us about their chief concerns and how to avoid a conflict in an era of AI and misinformation.

News Feature: How to avoid nuclear war in an era of AI and misinformation

23:22 Briefing Chat

What a new AI model from China means for science, and why some dolphins use sponges to hunt.

Nature: ‘Another DeepSeek moment’: Chinese AI model Kimi K2 stirs excitement

Associated Press: Some Australian dolphins use sponges to hunt fish, but it’s harder than it looks

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A simple methodological error meant that for years researchers considered drinking moderate amounts of alcohol to be healthy. Now plenty of evidence suggests that isn't the case, but errors like this still plague the scientific literature. So, how can the scientific literature become more error-free?

In the first episode of this two-part series, to determine what steps can be taken to help clean up science we explore peer review, replications, AI and even paying people to detect errors.

This episode was written and produced by Nick Petrić Howe. Dan Fox was the editor. The Swiss horn music came from DangerLaef on Freesound. All other sound effects and music were provided by Triple Scoop Music.

Correction 25 July 2025: a previous version of this podcast incorrectly stated that one in five papers are retracted, when it should have been one in 500. This has now been updated.

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In this episode:

00:48 The ancient mega-predator with a ‘stealth mode’

The extinct marine mega-predator Temnodontosaurus had specialised adaptations to stealthily hunt its prey, suggests an analysis of a fossil flipper. Although Temnodontosaurus was a member of a well-studied group of marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs, its lifestyle has been a mystery due to a lack of preserved soft tissue. Now, a team have studied the fossil remains of a fore-fin, revealing several anatomical details that likely reduced low-frequency noise as the animal swam. It’s thought that these adaptations helped Temnodontosaurus stalk other ichthyosaurs and squid-like creatures that made up its prey.

Research Article: Lindgren et al.

09:46 Research Highlights

Research shows that future space probes could navigate using two stars as reference points, and how objects are more memorable when people encounter them while feeling positive emotions.

Research Highlight: Lonely spacecraft can navigate the stars

Research Highlight: Memory gets a boost from positive emotion

12:11 ‘Leaky’ mitochondria could be the root cause of sleep

Cumulative damage to mitochondria during waking hours could be a key driver for the need to sleep, according to new research. In fruit fly experiments, a team showed that being awake caused damage to mitochondria found in a specific set of neurons. Once this damage reaches a threshold it kicks off a process that ultimately leads to sleep. Although it’s unclear if this process occurs in humans, the researchers think this need for sleep may be an ancient process that coincided with the evolution of organisms with power-hungry nervous systems.

Research Article: Sarnataro et al.

23:04 The secret messages used to trick peer-review AI

Researchers have been sneaking text into their papers designed to trick AI tools into giving them a positive peer-review report. Multiple instances of these prompts have been found, which are typically hidden using white text or an extremely small font invisible to humans. We discuss the rise in this practice and what is being done to tackle it.

Video: Could hidden AI prompts game peer review?

Nature: Scientists hide messages in papers to game AI peer review

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Vianet Djenguet is an award-winning wildlife film-maker and camera operator whose work has featured in a number of major nature documentaries.

In this podcast, Vianet joins us to talk about his career, how wildlife film-making have changed, and his experiences working with local researchers to capture footage of endangered animals on the new television series The Wild Ones.

The Wild OnesApple TV+(2025)

Music supplied by SPD/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images

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00:48 The past 35,000 years of disease

Ancient DNA evidence shows that the advent of agriculture led to more infectious disease among humans, with pathogens from animals only showing up 6,500 years ago. The DNA, extracted from human teeth, shows the history of diseases present in Eurasia over tens of thousands of years. The approach used could be a powerful way to understand how illness has shaped humanity, but it is unable to detect some bacteria that enter the bloodstream at low concentrations or some viruses, so future work could seek to fill that gap.

Research Article: Sikora et al.

News: Animal diseases leapt to humans when we started keeping livestock

10:58 Research Highlights

DNA studies confirm that sardines were a major ingredient of the Roman Empire’s favourite fish sauce, and how analysis of animal manure identified global hotspots for antibiotic-resistance genes.

Research Highlight: Ancient DNA helps trace stinky Roman fish sauce to its source

Research Highlight: Poo of farm animals teems with drug-resistance genes

13:17 Using whale poo to study toxic algae in the Arctic

A 19-year experiment sampling bowhead whale faeces reveals a link between warming Arctic waters and increasing levels of toxic algae, researchers say. While climate change is expected to drive increases in the prevalence of harmful algal blooms, long-term data is lacking. To address this, a team worked with indigenous communities to collect and sample whale poo, showing that increases in algal toxins in the Arctic food chain are linked to rising ocean temperatures. The researchers suggest levels of these toxins need to be closely monitored to protect Arctic communities that depend on marine resources for food.

Research Article: Lefebvre et al.

24:06 Briefing Chat

An object from beyond our solar system has been spotted zipping past Jupiter, and evidence that Neanderthals created ‘fat factories’ to extract vital nutrients from animal bones.

Nature: Neanderthals boiled bones in ‘fat factories’ to enrich their lean diet

Nature: Rare find: interstellar visitor seen blazing through our Solar System

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Questions and doubts about vaccines are on the rise worldwide and public-health specialists worry that these trends could worsen. But while the shift in public attitudes towards immunizations can leave scientists, physicians and many others feeling disheartened, a surge of research on vaccine hesitancy is starting to offer ways to address the issue.

This is an audio version of our Feature How to speak to a vaccine sceptic: research reveals what works

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In this episode:

00:45 Why animals evolve to be imperfect mimics

Many harmless animals mimic dangerous ones to avoid being eaten, but often this fakery is inaccurate. To help explain why evolution sometimes favours imperfect mimicry, a team 3D printed a range of imaginary insects. The novel creatures were designed to mimic wasps with varying degrees of accuracy and the team then presented these models to different predators. They showed that while birds were hard to fool, invertebrate predators were less able to discern between the mimics and accurate wasp models. The results suggest that predator perception plays a key role in the level of accuracy needed to fool them and may help explain the existence of inaccurate mimics in nature.

Research article: Taylor et al.

News and Views: 3D printing offers a way to study mimicry by insects

12:53 Research Highlights

Ritual ‘retirement’ rather than family feud may explain broken statues of a female pharaoh, and how kelp ‘loofahs’ made by killer whales might be the first example of toolmaking by a marine mammal.

Research Highlight: The shattered statues of Queen Hatshepsut: the reasons for the wreckage

Research Highlight: Killer whales exfoliate each other with home-made scrubbers

15:02 Briefing Chat

The sea slugs that steal chloroplasts to snack on, and the researchers re-enacting a Stone Age sea-voyage.

Nature: ‘Wildest thing’: solar-powered slug steals chloroplasts and stores them for emergencies

Nature: These scientists re-enacted Stone Age voyage to Japan’s remote islands

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In this episode:

00:45 Is AI-research being co-opted to keep track of people?

A significant amount of research in the AI field of computer vision is being used to analyse humans in ways that support the development of surveillance technologies, according to new research. By analysing the contents of thousands of research papers, the team behind the work showed that 90% of studies, and 86% of patents resulting from them, involved data relating to imaging humans. While there are many positive applications for this technology, such as in medical diagnostics, this work shows evidence of a pipeline from computer-vision research to surveillance.

Research article: Kalluri et al.

News and Views: Computer-vision research is hiding its role in creating ‘Big Brother’ technologies

Video: Is AI powering Big Brother? Surveillance research is on the rise

News: Wake up call for AI: computer-vision research increasingly used for surveillance

Editorial: Don’t sleepwalk from computer-vision research into surveillance

09:38 Research Highlights

A minuscule robot that can manipulate liquid droplets, and the sensors that can identify hydrothermal explosions at Yellowstone National Park.

Research Highlight: This tiny robot moves mini-droplets with ease

Research Highlight: Sensors pinpoint the exact time of a Yellowstone explosion

12:12 The first images from the world’s largest digital camera

This week, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has unveiled the first images from its 3,200 megapixel digital camera. We discuss the images, and how the facility will help researchers learn more about the Universe.

News: First images from world’s largest digital camera leave astronomers in awe

19:18 Briefing Chat

How scientists created hexanitrogen, a new molecule made of six nitrogen atoms, and the why researchers are excited about the first confirmed skull of an extinct Denisovan.

Chemistry World: Most energetic molecule ever made is stable – in liquid nitrogen

Nature: First ever skull from ‘Denisovan’ reveals what ancient people looked like

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In this episode:

00:45 The tiny moths that use the stars to navigate

Bogong moths use the stars to help them navigate during their enormous migration across Australia, according to new research. Every year, billions of these nocturnal moths travel up to 1,000 km to cool caves in the Australian Alps, despite having never been there before. By placing moths in a flight-simulator that also acted as a planetarium, the team behind the work showed that moths could use the bright Milky Way to help them fly in the correct direction.

Research article: Dreyer et al.

10:17 Research Highlights

Nigeria's pangolins are under threat because their meat is delicious, and how the gravitational pull of other galaxies may prevent the Milky Way colliding with Andromeda.

Research Highlight: Why pangolins are poached: they’re the tastiest animal around

Research Highlight: A long-predicted cosmic collision might not happen after all

12:37 How humans expanded their habitats before migrating out of Africa

New research suggests that shortly before modern humans successfully migrated out of Africa, they massively expanded the range of ecosystems they lived in. By combining climate modelling with data from archaeological sites across the African continent, researchers put forward evidence that 70,000 years ago, humans expanded the ecosystems they lived in to include diverse habitat types from forests to deserts. The authors suggest this ability to live in different places may have helped the later humans that migrated out of the continent around 50,000 years ago.

Research article: Hallet et al.

21:59 Briefing Chat

Blowing bubble-rings could be humpback whales' way of trying to communicate with humans, and the research suggesting that everyone’s breathing pattern is unique.

Science Alert: Humpback Whale Bubble Rings May Be an Attempt to Communicate With Us

Nature: How you breathe is like a fingerprint that can identify you

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According to legend, physicist Werner Heisenberg formulated the mathematics behind quantum mechanics in 1925 while on a restorative trip to the remote North Sea island of Heligoland.

To celebrate the centenary of this event, several hundred researchers have descended on the island to take part in a conference on all things quantum physics. Nature reporter Lizzie Gibney was also in attendance, and joined us to give an inside track on the meeting.

News: Happy birthday quantum mechanics! I got a ticket to the ultimate physics party

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00:45 A flexible neural-implant that grows with the brain

Researchers have developed a soft electronic implant that can measure brain activity of amphibian embryos as they develop. Understanding the neural activity of developing brains is a key aim for neuroscientists, but conventional, rigid probes can damage growing brains. To overcome this, a team have developed a flexible mesh that stretches with the brain and tested it by monitoring single neuron activity during development of frog and axolotl embryos. More testing and ethical considerations will be required, but the researchers hope that eventually such implants could help with neurological conditions that affect humans.

Research article: Sheng et al.

13:11 Research Highlights

The exoplanet slowly evaporating into space, and cockatoos that have figured out an innovative way to stay hydrated.

Research Highlight: Solved: the mystery of the evaporating planet

Research Highlight: Clever cockatoos learn an easy way to quench their thirst

15:30 An AI-based way to repair damaged paintings

By combining AI tools with mechanical engineering techniques, a researcher has developed a new way to speed up the restoration of damaged paintings. The technique creates a removable mask that can be overlaid onto a painting to cover any damage apparent in the artwork. It was successfully tested on an oil painting, fixing a large number of damaged areas in only a few hours. This could offer a significant speed-boost to painting restoration, which can often take months, or even years.

Research article: Kachkine

Video: Meet the engineer who invented an AI-powered way to restore art

27:36 Briefing Chat

A new ranking system could make it easier to spot universities that are chasing publishing metrics at the expense of rigorous science, and evidence that cutting off rhinos’ horns deters poachers.

Nature: ‘Integrity index’ flags universities with high retraction rates

AP: Cutting off rhinos’ horns is a contentious last resort to stop poaching. A new study found it works

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In this Podcast Extra, we examine President Donald Trump's calls for NASA to land humans on Mars. Although the White House has proposed spending some US$1 billion in 2026 on Mars plans, critics say the final cost will likely be hundreds of billions of dollars spread over a number of years.

This call comes amidst plans to drastically reduce NASA's funding, and the proposed cancelling of dozens of the space agency's missions, including projects to study Earth, Mars and Venus.

News: Trump wants to put humans on Mars — here’s what scientists think

News: Five key climate and space projects on Trump’s chopping block

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

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00:45 Iron’s role in mice sex determination

Iron deficiency in mice mothers can sometimes result in their offspring developing female sex organs despite having male sex genes, according to new research. While genetics has been thought to be the primary factor in determining offspring sex in mammals, the new work shows that a lack of iron disrupts an enzyme involved in the development of testes, leading to some mice with male sex-determining genes being born with female genitalia and ovaries. This suggests that sex determination is controlled by more than genetics, but more work will need to be done to understand the precise mechanisms involved.

News: Male mice can grow ovaries if their pregnant mums are iron deficient

Research article: Okashita et al.

06:31 Research Highlights

How climate change is making dust storms more likely, and understanding the genetics of a boy who couldn’t feel pain.

Research Highlight: The perfect storm for dust storms, thanks to global warming

Research Highlight: CRISPR helps to show why a boy felt no pain

08:51 The role of small-scale fishers in sustainability

The contributions that small-scale fishers make to sustainable fishing have been described as ‘invisible’, but now a huge research project has revealed the role this community plays in feeding populations and protecting oceans. Looking at data from 58 countries, researchers have shown that small-scale fishers account for around 40% of the global catch and feed approximately 25% of the world’s population. The people behind the initiative hope that these data can help give a voice to small-scale fishers as people look for ways to feed the world sustainably.

Immersive : Small-scale fisheries

19:44 Briefing Chat

The discovery of an ‘ambidextrous’ protein; and why humpback whales, despite their enormous eyes, appear to be shortsighted.

Nature: Rare ‘ambidextrous’ protein breaks rules of handedness

Discover Magazine: Big Eyes, Blurry Vision: Why Humpback Whales Struggle to See Clearly

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With the world looking likely to blow past the temperature targets laid out in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a growing number of voices are saying that carbon removal technologies will be necessary if humanity is to achieve its long-term climate goals. If these approaches succeed, they could help nations and corporations to meet their climate commitments — and help the world to halt global warming.

However, questions remain about the financial viability of these technologies, and whether they can live up to the hype.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Three ways to cool Earth by pulling carbon from the sky

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00:33 Was a boom in papers driven by AI?

A spike in papers formulaically analysing a public data set has sparked worries that AI is being used to generate low quality and potentially misleading analyses.

Nature: AI linked to explosion of low-quality biomedical research papers

08:07 Lenses that give humans infrared vision

Researchers in China have created contact lenses that can allow humans to see infrared light, which could help with search and rescue missions, sending secret messages and even surgery.

Nature: These contact lenses give people infrared vision — even with their eyes shut

14:17 Does the Earth's core have a leak?

Geologists have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that Earth's core is leaking. Rocks from Hawaii were found to contain isotopes of a rare element, which suggests the material originally came from the core. More work will need to be done to rule out other explanations.

Nature: Is Earth’s core leaking? Volcanic rocks provide strongest evidence yet

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00:45 Treating mosquitoes for malaria

Researchers have developed two compounds that can kill malaria-causing parasites within mosquitoes, an approach they hope could help reduce transmission of the disease. The team showed that these compounds can be embedded into the plastics used to make bed nets, providing an alternative to insecticide-based malaria-control measures, which are losing efficacy in the face of increased resistance.

Research article: Probst et al.

10:42 Research Highlights

The sunlight-powered device that can harvest drinkable water from desert air, and evidence that the world’s richest people are disproportionately responsible for climate impacts.

Research Highlight: Atacama sunshine helps to pull water from thin air

Research Highlight: The world’s richest people have an outsized role in climate extremes

13:02 The genetics that can lead to pregnancy loss

Researchers have found specific genetic mutations that can lead to pregnancy loss. It’s known that errors, such as the duplication of chromosomes, can lead to nonviable pregnancies but less has been known about non-chromosomal genetic errors. The new work identifies DNA sequence changes that can lead to a non-viable pregnancy. This may offer clinicians the ability to screen embryos for these changes to help avoid pregnancy loss.

Research article: Arnadottir et al.

22:24 Briefing Chat

Bespoke CRISPR-based therapy treats baby boy with devastating genetic disease, and the ‘anti-spice’ compounds that can lower chillies’ heat.

Nature: World’s first personalized CRISPR therapy given to baby with genetic disease

New Scientist: Chemists discover 'anti-spice' that could make chilli peppers less hot

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00:46 An antimatter delivery van takes its first road trip

Researchers have developed a portable antimatter containment device and tested it by putting it in a truck and driving it around CERN. Their system could represent a big step forward in efforts to take particles made at CERN’s ‘antimatter factory’ and transport them to other labs, something currently impossible due to antimatter being destroyed upon contact with matter. The team showed the feasibility of their approach by using the system to safely transport particles of matter and are now looking to adapt it to ferry antimatter particles.

Research article:Leonhardt et al.

11:45 Research Highlights

How a tradition of female diving on a South Korean island might have shaped the genomes of the island’s population, and a poison-dart frog that curiously seems to be monogamous.

Research Highlight:How Korea’s female divers have adapted to cold plunges

Research Highlight:A ‘hidden gem’ of the Amazon is a frog with odd habits

13:46 The mathematics of a near-miss between black holes

Physicists have tackled a longstanding problem in physics — understanding how two black holes gravitationally interact as they fly past each other — which could help with future detections of the gravitational waves that would be created by these events. Rather than repeatedly running expensive computer simulations to approximate the answer to this problem, a team of theorists have come up with a mathematical formula to describe a black hole fly-by, which can be run in a matter of seconds. Their results could be used to identify the tell-tale signatures of these events when they actually occur.

Research article:Driesse et al.

22:10 Briefing Chat

How physicists turned lead into gold, for a microsecond and at tremendous cost, and the genetics of the skunk cabbage’s foul odour.

Nature:Physicists turn lead into gold — for a fraction of a second

Video:Scientists turn lead into gold

Nature:How skunk cabbages and other smelly plants brew their foul odour

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In this Podcast Extra, we examine recent developments US National Science Foundation, which has seen significant numbers of research grants terminated. In addition, there have been freezes on funding for new grants and any additional money to existing ones. We also discuss US President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, which calls for disproportionately large cuts to federal science funding.

News: Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones

News: Trump proposes unprecedented budget cuts to US science

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

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00:46 How fishing activity altered the migration pattern of Herring

Selective fishing of older herring has resulted in a large shift in the migration pattern of these fish, according to new research. For years, herring have visited sites on the south coast of Norway to spawn, but in 2020 a rapid shift was seen, with the fish instead visiting areas hundreds of kilometres to the north. Researchers have concluded that too many older fish have been removed from these waters, preventing the knowledge of the best spawning grounds being passed to younger, less experienced fish. This finding shows how human activity can affect animal migration, which could have serious consequences for the delicately balanced ecosystems built around them.

Research article: Slotte et al.

10:37 Research Highlights

Archaeologists have identified tools that the ancient Maya may have used for tattooing, and the self-assembling stable structures that may help ‘forever chemicals’ persist in nature.

Research Highlight: Tattoo-making tools used by ancient Maya revealed

Research Highlight: ‘Forever’ molecules bunch themselves into cell-like structures

13:02 How might AI companions affect users’ mental health?

AI companions — apps where humans build relationships with computers — are hugely popular, with millions of people around the world using them. But despite increased social and political attention, research investigating how these systems can affect users has been lacking. We find out about the latest research in this space.

News Feature: Supportive? Addictive? Abusive? How AI companions affect our mental health

24:52 Briefing Chat

A technique that lets researchers directly edits proteins within living cells, and how a fibre-rich, low-fat diet could help replenish populations of gut microbes ravaged by antibiotics.

Nature: Powerful protein editors offer new ways of probing living cells

Nature: How to fix a gut microbiome ravaged by antibiotics

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In this episode:

00:46 What will be left of US science after Trump 2.0?

100 days into his term, President Donald Trump and his administration have already caused the biggest shakeup in modern scientific history, slashing funding, bringing large swathes of US research to a standstill and halting many clinical trials. But many fear these actions are just the beginning. We look at what the long-term impacts of these decisions might be for science in the United States and the world.

Nature: Will US science survive Trump 2.0?

13:42 Research Highlights

A distant planet that orbits two stars, at a right angle, and how fringe-lipped bats’ hearing helps them find palatable amphibians.

Research Highlight: ‘Tatooine’-like planet orbits two stars ― but at a weird angle

Research Highlight: For these bats, eavesdropping is a valuable learnt skill

16:07 Briefing Chat

The first skeletal evidence from bones that Roman gladiators fought lions, and scientists finally pinpoint the genes responsible for three of the pea traits studied by Gregor Mendel.

BBC News: Bites on gladiator bones prove combat with lion

Nature: Century-old genetics mystery of Mendel’s peas finally solved

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Research shows that, over the past two decades, rates of mental illness have been increasing in adolescents in many countries. While some scientists point to soaring use of smartphones and social media as a key driver for this trend, others say the evidence does not show a large effect of these technologies on teenagers’ psychological health.

At the heart of the dispute is a large, complex and often conflicting body of research that different researchers interpret in different ways. This has left parents unsure what to do.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health?

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00:27 Five people see ‘olo’, a brand-new colour

Using a laser system to activate specific eye cells, a team has allowed five study participants to perceive a vibrant blue-greenish hue well outside the natural range of colours seen by humans. Although the setup required to accomplish this feat is currently complicated, this finding could provide more understanding about how the brain perceives colour and could one day help boost the vision of people with colour blindness.

Nature News: Brand-new colour created by tricking human eyes with laser

08:30 US regulator greenlights pig-liver transplant trial

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first trial to test whether genetically modified pig livers can be used safely to treat people with organ failure. In the initial phase of the trial, four people with severe liver failure will be temporarily connected to an external pig liver that will filter their blood. Participants will then be monitored for a year for safety and changes in liver function. The organs have been genetically modified to make them more compatible with humans.

Nature News: Pig livers for people: US regulator greenlights first safety trial

14:08: A chunk of lab-grown chicken

Using a designer ‘circulatory system’, a team of researchers have created what they think is the largest piece of meat grown in the laboratory yet. One of the challenges to producing larger pieces of lab-grown meat has been providing cells with sufficient oxygen and nutrients, something the team’s new setup helps overcome. They used it to grow a chunk of chicken muscle about the size of a nugget, but multiple challenges remain before meat produced in this way could make it to market.

Nature News: Winner, winner, lab-made dinner! Team grows nugget-sized chicken chunk

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Categorizing things is central to science. And there are dozens of systems scientists have created to name everything from the trenches on the sea bed to the stars in the sky.

But names have consequences. What’s in a name is a series exploring naming in science and how names impact the world. We look at whether the system of naming species remains in step with society, how the names of diseases can create stigma, and how the names chosen by scientists can help, or hinder, communication with the public.

In episode three, we're looking at how the names chosen for concepts in physics can inadvertently send researchers down very specific research avenues while distracting them from others. In this podcast we hear five stories about the importance of names and how much can be lost in translation when physicists try and label the unknown.

For a list of sources and music used, please visit the podcast show notes

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In this episode:

00:46 A potato pangenome

Researchers have created a ‘pangenome’ containing the genomes of multiple potato types, something they believe can help make it easier to breed and sequence new varieties. The potato's complicated genetics has made it difficult to sequence the plant's genome, but improvements in technology have allowed the team to combine sequences, allowing them to look for subtle differences in between varieties.

Research Article:Sun et al.

09:57 Research Highlights

How ancient DNA analysis revealed that unusually bound medieval books are covered in sealskin, and top quarks and their antimatter counterparts are detected after nuclear smash-ups at the Large Hadron Collider.

Research Highlight:Mystery of medieval manuscripts revealed by ancient DNA

Research Highlight:Top quarks spotted at mega-detector could reveal clues to early Universe

12:30 The top cited twenty-first century research papers

Analysis from Nature reveals the 25 highest-cited papers published this century and explores why they are breaking records. We hear about the field that got the highest number of papers on the list, and whether any feature in the all-time top citation list.

News Feature:Exclusive: the most-cited papers of the twenty-first century

News Feature:These are the most-cited research papers of all time

News Feature:Science’s golden oldies: the decades-old research papers still heavily cited today

21:47 Briefing Chat

Re-analysis of a cosmic collision shows evidence of a planet spiralling into its host star, and how shrugging off lighting strikes gives tonka bean trees an evolutionary edge.

Science:Astronomers spot a planetary ‘suicide’

Live Science:Tropical tree in Panama has evolved to kill its 'enemies' with lightning

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00:46 Complete sequencing of ape genomes

Researchers have sequenced the complete genomes of six ape species, helping uncover the evolutionary history of our closest relatives and offering insights into what makes humans human. The genomes of chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan and siamang have been sequenced end-to-end, filling in gaps that have long eluded researchers.

Research Article: Yoo et al.

News and Views: Complete ape genomes offer a close-up view of human evolution

News: What makes us human? Milestone ape genomes promise clues

08:47 Research Highlights

How sunflower stars are evading a mysterious epidemic, and how solar panels made of moon dust could power lunar bases.

Research Highlight: Revealed: where rare and giant starfish hide from an enigmatic killer

Research Highlight: Solar cells made of Moon dust could power up a lunar base

11:36 How to make a competitive laser-plasma accelerator

After decades of research, physicists have demonstrated that, in principle, an alternative kind of particle accelerator can work just as well as more conventional designs. Many particle accelerators that power huge experiments like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are radio-frequency accelerators, but they are large and limited in how strong their magnetic fields can be. The new work shows that accelerators that instead use plasma to accelerate particles could be a viable alternative and could be built at much smaller scales.

Research article: Winkler et al.

19:55 Briefing Chat

A drug that makes blood poisonous to mosquitoes, and how an AI worked out how to solve key challenges in Minecraft by ‘imagining’ solutions.

Science Alert: Drug For Rare Disease Turns Human Blood Into Mosquito Poison

Nature: AI masters Minecraft: DeepMind program finds diamonds without being taught

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Science writer and New York Times columnist Carl Zimmer's latest book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life we Breathe dives into the invisible maelstrom of microbial life swirling in the air around us — examining how it helped shape our world, and the implications that breathing it in can have on human health. Carl joined us to discuss historical efforts to show that diseases could spread large distances through the air, the staunch resistance to this idea, and what the rivalry between these two groups meant for public health.

Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe Carl Zimmer Dutton (2025)

Music supplied by SPD/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images

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In this Podcast Extra, we hear the latest on how decisions by the Trump administration are affecting science in the US. Most recently, a purge of National Institutes of Health (NIH) leadership has seen the chiefs of multiple institutes and centres removed from their posts.

Plus, after cancelling nearly all NIH projects studying transgender health, the White House has directed the agency to focus on studying “regret” after a person transitions to align their body with their gender identity.

News: ‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs

News: Exclusive: Trump White House directs NIH to study ‘regret’ after transgender people transition

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

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00:46 Millimetre-sized pacemaker fits inside syringe

Researchers have developed a tiny, temporary pacemaker that dissolves when no longer needed, helping to overcome some of the challenges associated with current devices. Temporary pacemakers are often required after heart surgery but implanting them can require invasive procedures. This new device is injectable, requires no external power and is controlled using light shone through the skin. The tiny pacemaker has shown promise in animal and heart models, and the team think it could also be used in other situations where electrical stimulation is needed, like the brain.

Research Article: Zhang et al.

08:19 Research Highlights

Measurements show that global warming is causing lakes to lose their oxygen, and a massive, 30-year analysis showing that a diet of plant-rich foods is associated with healthy ageing

Research Highlight: Life-giving oxygen is wafting out of lakes worldwide

Research Highlight: The best foods for healthy ageing ― and the worst

10:21 Shingles vaccine linked to reduced dementia risk

A large-scale population study suggests that getting a shingles vaccine reduces the probability of someone getting dementia by around one-fifth. By taking advantage of the way a shingles vaccine was rolled out in Wales, a team were able to compare dementia outcomes in vaccine-eligible people to those born just a few weeks earlier who were ineligible. Although more tests will be needed to confirm this finding and to understand the mechanisms behind it, the team hope that vaccination against this viral infection could represent a cost-effective way to for preventing or delaying dementia.

Research article: Eyting et al.

20:20 Briefing Chat

Data suggests that racial profiling plays a role in whether someone receives a traffic citation or fine, and studies suggest that paying researchers who review manuscripts could speed up the peer-review process, without affecting the quality of reviews.

Ars Technica: Study of Lyft rideshare data confirms minorities get more tickets

Nature: Publishers trial paying peer reviewers — what did they find?

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With money pouring in and an unprecedented level of public attention and excitement, scientists are publishing a steady stream of papers on ways to measure how rapidly a person’s body is declining.

However, there are mixed feelings of enthusiasm and apprehension among researchers about efforts to develop tests that measure the impact of ageing on the body, as they are often interpreted and presented without a full reckoning of the uncertainties that plague them.

This is an audio version of our Feature: How quickly are you ageing? What molecular ‘clocks’ can tell you about your health

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In this episode:

00:46 Newly discovered molecule shows potent antibiotic activity

Researchers have identified a new molecule with antibiotic activity against a range of disease-causing bacteria, including those resistant to existing drugs. The new molecule — isolated from soil samples taken from a laboratory technician’s garden — is called lariocidin due to its lasso-shaped structure. The team say that in addition to its potent antibiotic activity, the molecule also shows low toxicity towards human cells, making it a promising molecule in the fight against drug-resistant infections.

Research Article:Jangra et al.

09:36 Research Highlights

A reduction in ships' sulfur emissions linked to a steep drop in thunderclouds, and the epic sea-voyage that let iguanas reach Fiji.

Research Highlight:Ship-pollution cuts have an electrifying effect: less lightning at sea

Research Highlight: Iguanas reached Fiji by floating 8,000 kilometres across the sea

13:54 Assessing the nuances of humans’ biodiversity impacts

A huge study analysing data from thousands of research articles has shown that the human impacts on biodiversity are large but are in some cases context dependent. The new study reveals that at larger scales, communities of living things are becoming more similar due to human influence, but at the smaller scale they are becoming more different. "These are generally unwanted effects on biodiversity," says study author Florian Altermatt, "this is one more very strong argument that stopping and reducing these pressures to halt and reverse biodiversity declines is needed."

Research article:Keck et al.

21:45 Briefing Chat

How a proposed green-energy facility in Chile could increase light pollution at one of the world’s most powerful telescopes, and how a calving Antarctic iceberg revealed an unseen aquatic ecosystem.

Nature:Light pollution threatens fleet of world-class telescopes in Atacama Desert

Scientific American:Stunning Antarctic Sea Creatures Discovered after Iceberg Breaks Away

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00:46 Microsatellite makes messaging secure

A tiny satellite has enabled quantum-encrypted information to be sent between China and South Africa, the farthest distance yet achieved for quantum communication. Using a laser-based system, a team in the city of Hefei was able to beam a ‘secret key’ encoded in quantum states of photons, to their colleagues over 12,000 km away. This key allowed scrambled messages to be decrypted — including one containing a picture of the Great Wall of China. The team’s system is drastically smaller and cheaper that previous attempts, and they think it represents a big step towards the creation of a global network of secure, quantum communication.

Research Article: Li et al.

News: Mini-satellite paves the way for quantum messaging anywhere on Earth

09:53 Research Highlights

How storms known as ‘atmospheric rivers’ could replenish Greenland’s ice, and a prosthetic hand that can distinguish objects by touch almost as well as a human.

Research Highlight: Mega-storm dumps 11 billion tonnes of snow ― and builds up a melting ice sheet

Research Highlight: Robotic fingers can tell objects apart by touch

12:27 An AI that gives other AIs helpful feedback

Researchers have created an AI system called TextGrad which can provide written feedback on another AI’s performance. This feedback is interpretable by humans, which could help researchers tweak the incredibly complicated, and sometimes inscrutable models that underpin modern AIs. “Previously optimising machine learning algorithms requires quite a lot of human engineering,” says James Zou, one of the team behind this work, “but with TextGrad, now the AI is able to self-improve to a large extent.”

Research Article: Yuksekgonul et al.

20:55 How the Trump administration’s cuts are affecting science

The first two months of Donald Trump’s presidency has seen swingeing cuts to US federal funding for research, particularly to research associated with DEI. We hear the latest on these cuts and their impact from reporter Max Kozlov.

Nature: ‘My career is over’: Columbia University scientists hit hard by Trump team’s cuts

Nature: How the NIH dominates the world’s health research — in charts

Nature: ‘Scientists will not be silenced’: thousands protest Trump research cuts

Nature: Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants

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00:46 2D metals made using sapphire press

Taking inspiration from industrial forging, researchers have demonstrated a way to squeeze molten metals into atomically-thin layers, creating relatively large flakes of 2D metals. Using a hydraulic press containing two sapphire anvils, a team was able to create sub-nanometer thick sheets of different metals — these sheets had diameters exceeding 0.1 mm, orders of magnitude larger than other methods have achieved. 2D metals have been theorized to possess several useful properties not seen in their larger, 3D counterparts, but have been difficult to make at scale, something this method may help overcome.

Research Article: Zhao et al.

News and Views: Metals squeezed to thickness of just two atoms

09:36 Research Highlights

The discovery of ancient puppets on remains of a large pyramid offers a glimpse into rituals in Mesoamerica, and how the presence of a certain pattern of sleep brainwaves might help predict which people will recover from an unresponsive state.

Research Highlight: Ancient puppets that smile or scowl hint at shared rituals

Research Highlight: Who’s likely to wake up from a coma? Brainwaves provide a clue

12:17 The virology lessons learnt from the COVID pandemic

SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, has become one of the most closely examined viruses on the planet. In the five years since the pandemic, over 150,000 articles have been written about it, and 17 million genome sequences have been generated. We discuss the lessons virologists have learnt from this intense study of a single organism, and how these might help the world prepare for future pandemics.

News Feature: Four ways COVID changed virology: lessons from the most sequenced virus of all time

23:36 Briefing Chat

How an AI alert-system could help researchers train their telescopes on a neutron star collision, and how expiration dates on plastic food-waste helped biologists age birds’ nests.

Nature: How AI could let us watch epic star collisions in real time

Science: Plastic waste in bird nests can act like a tiny time capsule

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00:46 Ancient humans made bone tools 1.5 million years ago

A 1.5-million-year-old cache of animal-bone tools reveals that ancient humans systematically crafted with this material much earlier than previously thought. Researchers uncovered 27 bone artefacts in Tanzania honed into sharp tools almost 40 cm long. This discovery pushes back the dedicated manufacture of bone tools by around a million years and could have helped these early humans develop new kinds of technology. “This raises a lot of interesting questions,” says study author Ignacio de la Torre.

Research Article: de la Torre et al.

09:11 Research Highlights

Cane toads’ remarkable homing abilities, and evidence that the block of rock that makes up southern Tibet originated in what is now Australia.

Research Highlight: Take me home, country toads

Research Highlight: Lhasa′s rocks reveal an Australian birthplace

11:45 A trove of antibacterial molecules hidden in human proteins

To help protect against infection, cells in the body will selectively cut proteins to produce molecules known as antimicrobial peptides, according to new research. A team has found that many potential peptides appear to be locked up within proteins — to get them out, cells shift the activity of a waste-disposal system called the proteasome, known for its role in protein degradation and recycling. In tests, one of these peptides showed efficacy at protecting mice from infection, indicating that these molecules could one day have therapeutic potential.

Research Article: Goldberg et al.

News and Views: Protein waste turned into antibiotics as a defence strategy of human cells

21:08 Briefing Chat

An update on two missions heading to the Moon to look for water, and why fears that a crucial ocean-current system will collapse in the face of climate change may be incorrect.

Nature: Meet the ice-hunting robots headed for the Moon right now

Nature: Iconic ocean-current system is safe from climate collapse ― for now

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Over the past two decades, research has emerged showing that opportunities for risky play are crucial for children's healthy physical, mental and emotional development. However, because play is inherently free-form it has been difficult to study. Now, scientists are using innovative approaches, including virtual reality, to probe the benefits of risky play, and how best to promote it.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Why kids need to take more risks — science reveals the benefits of wild, free play

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00:47 A ‘smart’ way to quickly detect cardiac arrest

Google researchers have developed an AI for a smartwatch that will call for help if its wearer is having a cardiac arrest. Trained, in part, on data gained when patients had their hearts deliberately stopped during a medical procedure, the team’s machine learning algorithm can automatically detect the telltale signs of cardiac arrest. The team think this system could save lives, although more testing is required. "Our hope is that as these capabilities expand it provides a new way to keep people safer,” says Jake Sunshine, one of the researchers behind the study.

Research Article: Shah et al.

09:15 Research Highlights

Evidence that a low dose of yellow fever vaccine might be enough to provide lasting immunity, and the odd umbrella-shaped tree fossil that suggests that early plants may have been more complex than previously thought.

Research Article: Kimathi et al.

Research Article: Gastaldo et al.

11:10 Briefing Chat

Microsoft’s new AI that helps create video game ‘worlds’, and why dogs blink more when other dogs do the same.

Nature: Microsoft builds AI that creates ‘impressive’ video-game worlds

Science: Dogs, like people, may use blinking to bond

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01:14 A simple switch to reduce racist ratings

A study of almost 70,000 ratings showed that racial discrimination could be eliminated from an online platform by switching from a five-star rating system to a thumbs up or down. The platform connected customers to workers who performed home repair jobs, and prior to the shift people categorised by the study authors as ‘non-white’ had lower ratings and got paid less than their white counterparts. Through follow up studies the authors also showed that the five-star system allowed people to impart their personal opinions, whereas a thumbs up or down just focused them on whether a job was good or bad. The team hopes this could be an easy-to-implement shift to tackle racial discrimination.

Research Article: Botelho et al.

News and Views: Racial bias eliminated when ratings switch from five stars to thumbs up or down

11:24 Research Highlights

Experimental evidence that cockatoos like flavouring their food, and the harsh climate of sixteenth century Transylvania.

Research Highlight: Gourmet cockatoos like to fancy up their food

Research Highlight: Transylvanian diaries reveal centuries-old climate extremes

14:05 An analysis of retraction hotspots

A Nature investigation has revealed where the most retractions come from, with hospitals in China and institutions in India and Pakistan topping the list. Retractions are a normal part of science and may be a sign of necessary scrutiny, but they can also signal misconduct and use of paper mills. Features Editor Richard Van Noorden joins us to discuss what this means for science and tackling sloppy research.

Nature: Exclusive: These universities have the most retracted scientific articles

22:43 Briefing Chat

Layoffs in the US’s Environmental Protection Agency, reactions to the DEI purge at NASA, and what RFK Jr.’s role as secretary of Health and Human Services could mean for health research.

Nature: ‘Targeted and belittled’: scientists at US environmental agency speak out as layoffs begin

Nature: NASA embraced diversity. Trump’s DEI purge is hitting space scientists hard

Nature: Vaccine sceptic RFK Jr is now a powerful force in US science: what will he do?

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In this episode:

00:45 An elusive, cosmic neutrino with a record-breaking energy

An enormous array of detectors, deep under the Mediterranean Sea, has captured evidence of the highest-energy neutrino particle ever recorded, although researchers aren’t sure exactly where in the cosmos it originated. Calculations revealed this particle had over 30 times the energy of previously detected neutrinos. The team hopes that further study and future detections will help reveal the secrets of high-energy phenomena like supernovae.

Research Article: The KM3NeT Collaboration

11:34 Research Highlights

How bonobos adjust their communication to account for what other individuals know, and the discovery of a huge collection of beads adorning the attire of the powerful Copper Age women in Spain.

Research Highlight: Bonobos know when you’re in the know ― and when you’re not

Research Highlight: Record-setting trove of buried beads speaks to power of ancient women

14:15 US judge puts NIH grant cuts on hold

A judge has blocked a policy that would have slashed billions of dollars of funding for US research institutions, which come as part of President Donald Trump’s controversial crackdown on government spending. We discuss the reasoning behind the proposed cuts and the impacts they may have if enacted. We also look at the effects that President Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and funding are having across the US.

Nature: ‘Devastating’ cuts to NIH grants by Trump’s team put on hold by US judge

Nature: Have Trump’s anti-DEI orders hit private funders? HHMI halts inclusive science programme

Nature: Scientists globally are racing to save vital health databases taken down amid Trump chaos

25:50 Briefing Chat

Why the latest odds on asteroid 2024 YR4’s chance of impacting Earth are so hard to calculate, and how the latest version of DeepMind's AlphaGeometry AI has reached the gold-medal level in geometry.

New York Times: Why the Odds of an Asteroid Striking Earth in 2032 Keep Going Up (and Down)

Nature: DeepMind AI crushes tough maths problems on par with top human solvers

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In episode 2 of 'What's in a name' we look how choosing names can help, or hinder, attempts to communicate important messages.

Categorizing things is central to science. And there are dozens of systems scientists have created to name everything from the trenches on the sea bed to the stars in the sky.

But names have consequences. In our series What’s in a name we explore naming in science and how names impact the world — whether the system of naming species remains in step with society, how the names of diseases can create stigma, or even how the names of scientific concepts can drive the direction of research itself.

In episode two, we're looking at how the names chosen by scientists help, or hinder, communication with the public.

Well chosen names can quickly convey scientific concepts or health messages — in emergency situations they can even save lives. We'll hear how the systems of naming tropical storms and Covid-19 variants came to be, and how they took different approaches to achieve the same outcome.

We'll also consider the language used to talk about climate change, and how the ways of describing it have been used to deliberately introduce uncertainty and confusion.

Listen to the first episode Should offensive species names be changed? The organisms that honour dictators, racists and criminals

For a list of sources please visit the the episode's webpage

Music credits

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Richard Smithson/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images

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In this episode:

00:45 How arithmetic skills don’t transfer between applied and academic environments

Mathematics skills learnt in real-world situations may not translate to the classroom and vice versa, according to a new study. A team surveyed children in India who work in markets, to see whether the skills they learnt there transferred to the classroom. While proficient at solving market-based arithmetic problems, they struggled to solve problems typically used in schools. The reverse was seen for children enrolled in schools with no market-selling experience. The authors hope this finding could help adjust teaching curricula and bridge the gap between intuitive and formal maths.

Research Article: Banerjee et al.

12:38 Research Highlights

Wolverine populations rebound in Sweden and Norway, and why wobbly arrows launch faster than rigid ones.

Research Highlight: Who’s the new furry neighbour? It might be a wolverine

Research Highlight: How a wobbly arrow can achieve superpropulsion

14:59 The unexpected movements seen in super-dense crowds

A study has revealed that when packed crowds reach a certain density, large groups of people suddenly start to move in circular patterns — a finding that could be used to identify dangerous overcrowding. By assessing footage of the densely-packed San Fermín festival, a team observed this spontaneous phenomenon, and modelled the physics underlying it. Studying the movements of giant crowds has been difficult, and the team hope this work could help event organisers to identify and respond to situations where people could get hurt.

Research Article: Gu et al.

News and Views: Crowds start to spin when their densities hit a threshold

Sound effects:

Crowd Cheering - Ambience by GregorQuendel via CC BY 4.0

Cupinzano sounds by Europa Press - Footage News via Getty Images

24:00 Briefing Chat

An update on the US National Science Foundation’s scrutinizing of grants to comply with President Trump’s directives, and why scratching an itch may have unexpected antibacterial properties.

Nature:Exclusive: how NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s orders

Nature: Why it feels good to scratch that itch: the immune benefits of scratching

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The explosive improvement in artificial intelligence (AI) technology has largely been driven by making neural networks bigger and training them on more data. But experts suggest that the developers of these systems may soon run out of data to train their models. As a result, teams are taking new approaches, such as searching for other unconventional data sources, or generating new data to train their AIs.

This is an audio version of our Feature: The AI revolution is running out of data. What can researchers do?

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In this episode:

00:46 Evidence of ancient brine reveals Bennu’s watery past

Analysis of samples taken from the asteroid Bennu reveal the presence of organic compounds important for life, and that its parent asteroid likely contained salty, subsurface water. Collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, these rocks and dust particles give insights into the chemistry of the early Solar System, and suggest that brines may have been an important place where pre-biotic molecules were formed. As brines are found throughout the Solar System, this finding raises questions about whether similar molecules will be found in places like Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Research Article: McCoy et al.

Research Article: Glavin et al.

News: Asteroid fragments upend theory of how life on Earth bloomed

14:22 Research Highlights

How seaweed farms could capture carbon, and why chimps follow each other to the bathroom.

Research Highlight: Seaweed farms dish up climate benefits

Research Highlight: All together now: chimps engage in contagious peeing

16:31 How maize may have supported a civilization

Researchers have found evidence of intensive maize agriculture that could help explain how a mysterious South American society produced enough food to fuel a labour-force big enough to build enormous earth structures. It appears that the Casarabe people, who lived in the Amazon Basin around 500-1400 AD, restructured the landscape to create water conserving infrastructure that allowed for year-round production of maize. While this work provides new insights into how the Casarabe may have established a complex monument-building culture, these people vanished around 600 years ago, and many questions remain about their lives.

Research Article: Lombardo et al.

Research Article: Hermenegildo et al.

25:52 DeepSeek R1 wows scientists

A new AI model from a Chinese company, DeepSeek, rivals the abilities of OpenAI’s o1 — a state-of-the art ‘reasoning’ model — at a fraction of the cost. The release of DeepSeek has thrilled researchers, asked questions about American AI dominance in the area, and spooked stock markets. We discuss why this large language model has sent shockwaves around the world and what it means for the future of AI.

News: China’s cheap, open AI model DeepSeek thrills scientists

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00:56 How the paths to professorship vary

A huge analysis of hiring practices has revealed that criteria to get a promotion to full professorship is hugely variable around the world. The authors suggest that this variability results in researchers from countries that value one type of metric being locked out of professor positions in others. They hope that the database of hiring practices created in this study could help institutions adjust their hiring policies to create a more diverse science workforce.

Research Article:Lim et al.

News:Want to become a professor? Here’s how hiring criteria differ by country

09:36 Research Highlights

Lasers reveal hidden tattoos on ancient mummified-skin, and a new pill that cuts flu symptoms and viral levels in the body.

Research Highlight:Hidden tattoos on mummy skin emerge under a laser’s light

Research Highlight:Got flu? Promising drug shortens symptoms

12:13 Cancer cells’ broken mitochondria could poison immune cells

Researchers have shown that cancer cells can slip their dysfunctional mitochondria into T cells, limiting the immune system’s cancer-fighting capabilities. Cancer cells are known to steal healthy mitochondria from immune cells to help tumours survive and thrive. Now, researchers have shown mitochondria can move in the opposite direction too, with the donor T cells showing signs of various stress responses that make them less effective when inside a tumour. The team showed that blocking this transfer limited this effect, and hopes that this mechanism could offer a new avenue for boosting the immune system’s response to cancer.

Research Article:Ikeda et al.

News & Views:Mitochondrial swap from cancer to immune cells thwarts anti-tumour defences

21:12 Science and the Gaza conflict

Noah Baker and Ehsan Masood turn to the war in Gaza, and discuss what comes next for science as a ceasefire comes into force.

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00:46 Designing new antivenoms to treat snakebites

Researchers have shown that machine learning can quickly design antivenoms that are effective against lethal snake-toxins, which they hope will help tackle a serious public health issue. Thousands of people die as a result of snakebites each year, but treatment options are limited, expensive and often difficult to access in the resource-poor settings where most bites occur. The computer-aided approach allowed researchers to design two proteins that provided near total protection against individual snake toxins in mouse experiments. While limited in scope, the team behind the work believe these results demonstrate the promise of the approach in designing effective and cheaper treatments for use in humans.

Research Article:Vázquez Torres et al.

11:28 Research Highlights

How male wasp spiders use hairs on their legs to sniff out mates, and how noradrenaline drives waves of cleansing fluid through the brain.

Research Highlight: ​​​​​​​Male spiders smell with their legs

Research Highlight: ​​​​​​​How the brain cleans itself during deep sleep

13:53 Earth breaches 1.5 °C climate limit for the first time

News broke last week that in 2024, Earth’s average temperature climbed to more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels for the first time. Although this is only a single year so far, we discuss what breaking this significant threshold means for the 2015 Paris climate agreement and what climate scientists understand about the speed that Earth is heating up.  

Nature: ​​​​​​​Earth breaches 1.5 °C climate limit for the first time: what does it mean?

23:39 Briefing Chat

NASA delays deciding its strategy for collecting and returning Mars rocks to Earth, and why papers on a handful of bacterial species dominate the scientific literature.

Nature: ​​​​​​​NASA still has no plan for how to bring precious Mars rocks to Earth

Nature: ​​​​​​​These are the 20 most-studied bacteria — the majority have been ignored

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In this episode of the Nature Podcast, we catch up on some science stories from the holiday period by diving into the Nature Briefing.

00:53 The retraction of a controversial COVID study that promoted unproven treatment

A much-critiqued study demonstrating the now-disproven idea that hydroxychloroquine can treat COVID-19 has been retracted — more than four-and-a-half years after it was published.

Nature: Controversial COVID study that promoted unproven treatment retracted after four-year saga

09:10 The skin’s unexpected immune system

Researchers have discovered that healthy skin — once thought to be a passive barrier — can actually produce antibodies that fight off infections. It’s hoped that the finding could one day lead to the development of needle-free vaccines that can be applied to the skin.

Nature: The skin’s ‘surprise’ power: it has its very own immune system

13:02 Researchers fear Europa’s icy crust may be much thicker than thought

New estimates, based on data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, suggest that the ice on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may be significantly thicker than previously thought. If these estimates prove accurate it could reduce the chances of Europa being habitable for extraterrestrial life.

Science: Surprisingly thick ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa complicates hunt for life

20:11 Modelling the running prowess of our ancient relatives

3D computer simulations of Australopithecus afarensis — an ancient hominin that lived more than three million years ago — reveals that while our relatives could run on two legs, they likely did so at a far slower pace than modern humans.

Nature: Humans evolved for distance running — but ancestor ‘Lucy’ didn’t go far or fast

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In this episode, reporter Miryam Naddaf joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2025. We’ll hear about: the latest Moon missions, 30 years of the United Nations' COP climate summits, the return of Donald Trump, and more.

Nature: Science in 2025: the events to watch for in the coming year

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Marc Abrahams created the Ig Nobel prizes in 1991, after years of collecting examples of weird research that he included in the Journal of Irreproducible Results. The aim of these satirical awards is to honour achievements that “make people laugh, then think”.

While the initial response from the scientific community was mixed, last year the prize received more than 9,000 nominations. Several researchers who have won an ‘Ig’ say that it has improved their careers by helping them to reach wider audiences, and spend more time engaging with the public about their work.

This is an audio version of our Feature: How a silly science prize changed my career

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