Episodes
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In this episode:
00:46 Mysterious methane emission from a cool brown dwarfThe James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is revealing the makeup of brown dwarfs — strange space objects that blur the line between a planet and a star. And it appears that methane in the atmosphere of one of these objects, named W1935, is emitting infrared radiation. Where the energy comes from is a mystery however, researchers hypothesise that the glow could be caused by an aurora in the object’s atmosphere, perhaps driven by an as-yet unseen moon.
Research Article: Faherty et al.
10:44 Research HighlightsThe discovery that bitter taste receptors may date back 450 million years, and the first planet outside the Solar System to boast a rainbow-like phenomenon called a ‘glory’.
Research Highlight: Bitter taste receptors are even older than scientists thought
Research Highlight: An exoplanet is wrapped in glory
13:07 How working memory worksWorking memory is a fundamental process that allows us to temporarily store important information, such as the name of a person we’ve just met. However distractions can easily interrupt this process, leading to these memories vanishing. By looking at the brain activity of people doing working-memory tasks, a team have now confirmed that working memory requires two brain regions: one to hold a memory as long as you focus on it; and another to control its maintenance by helping you to not get distracted.
Research article: Daume et al.
News and Views: Coupled neural activity controls working memory in humans
22:31 Briefing ChatThe bleaching event hitting coral around the world, and the first evidence of a nitrogen-fixing eukaryote.
New York Times: The Widest-Ever Global Coral Crisis Will Hit Within Weeks, Scientists Say
Nature News: Scientists discover first algae that can fix nitrogen — thanks to a tiny cell structure
Nature video: AI and robotics demystify the workings of a fly's wing
Vote for us in the Webbys: https://go.nature.com/3TVYHmP
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In this episode:
00:46 Mapping ‘ghost roads’ in tropical forestsAcross the world, huge numbers of illegal roads have been cut into forests. However, due to their illicit nature, the exact numbers of these roads and their impacts on ecosystems is poorly understood. To address this, researchers have undertaken a huge mapping exercise across the tropical Asia-Pacific region. Their findings reveal over a million kilometers of roads that don’t appear on official maps, and that their construction is a key driver for deforestation.
Research Article: Engert et al.
10:44 Research HighlightsHow climate change fuelled a record-breaking hailstorm in Spain, and an unusual technique helps researchers detect a tiny starquake.
Research Highlight: Baseball-sized hail in Spain began with a heatwave at sea
Research Highlight: Smallest known starquakes are detected with a subtle shift of colour
13:02 Briefing ChatA clinical trial to test whether ‘mini livers’ can grow in a person’s lymph node, and the proteins that may determine left-handedness.
Nature News: ‘Mini liver’ will grow in person’s own lymph node in bold new trial
Nature News: Right- or left-handed? Protein in embryo cells might help decide
Nature video: How would a starfish wear trousers? Science has an answer
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Missing episodes?
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Around the world, rates of cancers that typically affect older adults are increasing in those under 50 years old. Models based on global data predict that the number of early-onset cancer cases like these will increase by around 30% between 2019 and 2030.
The most likely contributors — such as rising rates of obesity and early-cancer screening — do not fully account for the increase. To try and understand the reasons behind this trend, many researchers are searching for answers buried in studies that tracked the lives and health of children born half a century ago.
This is an audio version of our Feature Why are so many young people getting cancer? What the data say
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In this episode:
00:35 Pregnancy advances your ‘biological’ age — but giving birth turns it backGrowing a baby leads to changes in the distribution of certain chemical markers on a pregnant person’s DNA, but new research suggests that after giving birth, these changes can revert to an earlier state.
Nature News: Pregnancy advances your ‘biological’ age — but giving birth turns it back
08:07 Bird gestures to say 'after you'A Japanese tit (Parus minor) will flutter its wings to invite their mate to enter the nest first. Use of these sorts of gestures, more complex than simply pointing at an object of interest, were thought to be limited to great apes, suggesting that there are more non-vocal forms of communication to be found in the animal kingdom.
Scientific American: Wild Birds Gesture ‘After You’ to Insist Their Mate Go First
13:34 The carbon cost of home-grown vegResearch have estimated that the carbon footprint of home-grown food and community gardens is six-times greater than conventional, commercial farms. This finding surprised the authors — keen home-growers themselves — who emphasize that their findings can be used to help make urban efforts (which have worthwhile social benefits) more carbon-efficient.
BBC Future: The complex climate truth about home-grown tomatoes
20:29 A look at next week's total eclipseOn 8th April, a total eclipse of the Sun is due to trace a path across North America. We look at the experiments taking place and what scientists are hoping to learn.
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In this episode:
01:28 Inflammation’s role in memoryHow memories are stored is an ongoing question in neuroscience. Now researchers have found an inflammatory pathway that responds to DNA damage in neurons has a key role in the persistence of memories. How this pathway helps memories persist is unclear, but the researchers suggest that how the DNA damage is repaired may play a role. As inflammation in the brain is often associated with disease, the team were surprised by this finding, which they hope will help uncover ways to better preserve our memories, especially in the face of neurodegenerative disorders.
Research Article: Jovasevic et al.
News and Views: Innate immunity in neurons makes memories persist
08:40 Research HighlightsThe effect of wind turbines on property values, and how waste wood can be used to 3D print new wooden objects.
Research Highlight: A view of wind turbines drives down home values — but only briefly
Research Highlight: Squeeze, freeze, bake: how to make 3D-printed wood that mimics the real thing
11:14 How melting ice is affecting global timekeepingDue to variations in the speed of Earth’s rotation, the length of a day is rarely exactly 24 hours. By calculating the strength of the different factors affecting this, a researcher has shown that while Earth’s rotation is overall speeding up, this effect is being tempered by the melting of the polar ice caps. As global time kept by atomic clocks occasionally has to be altered to match Earth’s rotation, human-induced climate change may delay plans to add a negative leap-second to ensure the two align.
Research article: Agnew
News and Views: Melting ice solves leap-second problem — for now
20:04 Briefing ChatAn AI for antibody development, and the plans for the upcoming Simons observatory.
Nature News: ‘A landmark moment’: scientists use AI to design antibodies from scratch
Nature News: ‘Best view ever’: observatory will map Big Bang’s afterglow in new detail
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This podcast has been corrected: in a previous version at 5:55 we stated that that the team's 200mm devices currently contain only a couple of magnetic tunnelling junctions, in fact they studied 500-1000 devices in this work.
00:48 How mysterious skyrmions could power next-generation computersSkyrmions are tiny whirlpools of magnetic spin that some researchers believe have useful properties that could unlock new kinds of computing. However getting skyrmions to perform useful computational tasks has been tricky. Now researchers have developed a method to create and manipulate skyrmions in a way that is compatible with existing computing technology, allowing them to read and write data at a fraction of the energy cost of conventional systems. The team think this shows that skyrmions could be a viable part of the next generation of computers.
Research Article: Chen et al.
News and Views: Magnetic whirlpools offer improved data storage
07:51 Research HighlightsHow robotically-enhanced, live jellyfish could make ocean monitoring cheap and easy, and how collective saliva tests could be a cost-effective way of testing for a serious infant infection.
Research Highlight: These cyborg jellyfish could monitor the changing seas
Research Highlight: Pooling babies’ saliva helps catch grave infection in newborns
10:01 AI identifies X factor hidden within zebra finch songsMale songbirds often develop elaborate songs to demonstrate their fitness, but many birds only learn a single song and stick with it their entire lives. How female birds judge the fitness between these males has been a long-standing puzzle. Now, using an AI-based system a team has analysed the songs of male zebra finches and shown that some songs have a hidden factor that is imperceptible to humans. Although it’s not clear exactly what this factor is, songs containing it were shown to be harder to learn and more attractive to females. The researchers hope that this AI-based method will allow them to better understand what makes some birdsong more attractive than others.
Research article: Alam et al.
News and Views: Birds convey complex signals in simple songs
20:04 Briefing ChatHow H5N1 avian influenza is threatening penguins on Antarctica, and why farmed snake-meat could be a more environmentally-friendly way to produce protein for food.
Nature News: Bird-flu threat disrupts Antarctic penguin studies
Scientific American: Snake Steak Could Be a Climate-Friendly Source of Protein
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In this episode:
00:45 Making a map of the human heartThe human heart consists of multiple, specialised structures that all work together to enable the organ to beat for a lifetime. But exactly which cells are present in each part of the heart has been difficult to ascertain. Now, a team has combined molecular techniques to create an atlas of the developing human heart at an individual cell level. Their atlas provides insights into how cell communities communicate and form different structures. They hope that this knowledge will ultimately help in the treatment of congenital heart conditions, often caused by irregular development of the heart.
Research article: Farah et al.
Nature video: Building a heart atlas
08:37 Research HighlightsResidue in ceramic vases suggests that ancient Mesoamerican peoples consumed tobacco as a liquid, and a wireless way to charge quantum batteries.
Research Highlight: Buried vases hint that ancient Americans might have drunk tobacco
Research Highlight: A better way to charge a quantum battery
11:11 The evolution of menopause in toothed whalesMenopause is a rare phenomenon, only known to occur in a few mammalian species. Several of these species are toothed whales, such as killer whales, beluga whales and narwhals. But why menopause evolved multiple times in toothed whales has been a long-standing research question. To answer it, a team examined the life history of whales with and without menopause and how this affected the number of offspring and ‘grandoffpsring’. Their results suggest that menopause allows older females to help younger generations in their families and improve their chances of survival.
Research Article: Ellis et al.
News and Views: Whales make waves in the quest to discover why menopause evolved
18:03 Briefing ChatHow the new generation of anti-obesity drugs could help people with HIV, and the study linking microplastics lodged in a key blood vessel with serious health issues.
Nature News: Blockbuster obesity drug leads to better health in people with HIV
Nature News: Landmark study links microplastics to serious health problems
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In this episode:
00:48 Bumblebees can learn new tricks from each otherOne behaviour thought unique to humans is the ability to learn something from your predecessors that you couldn’t figure out on your own. However, researchers believe they have shown bumblebees are also capable of this ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ approach to learning. Bees that were taught how to complete a puzzle too difficult to solve on their own, were able to share this knowledge with other bees, raising the possibility that this thought-to-be human trait could be widespread amongst animals.
Research article: Bridges et al.
News and Views: Bees and chimpanzees learn from others what they cannot learn alone
16:55 Research HighlightsWhy the Krakatau eruption made the skies green, and the dining habits of white dwarf stars.
Research Highlight: Why sunsets were a weird colour after Krakatau blew its top
Research Highlight: This dying star bears a jagged metal scar
19:28 The fish that collectively, electrically senseMany ocean-dwelling animals sense their environment using electric pulses, which can help them hunt and avoid predators. Now research shows that the tiny elephantnose fish can increase the range of this sense by combining its pulses with those of other elephantnose fish. This allows them to discriminate and determine the location of different objects at a much greater distance than a single fish is able to. This is the first time a collective electric sense has been seen in animals, which could provide an ‘early-warning system', allowing a group to avoid predators from a greater distance.
Research Article: Pedraja and Sawtell
27:54 Briefing ChatThe organoids made from cells derived from amniotic fluid, and the debate over the heaviest animal.
Nature News: Organoids grown from amniotic fluid could shed light on rare diseases
The New York Times: Researchers Dispute Claim That Ancient Whale Was Heaviest Animal Ever
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In this episode:
00:49 What caused the Universe to become fully transparent?Around 13 billion years ago, the Universe was filled with a dense ‘fog’ of neutral hydrogen that blocked certain wavelengths of light. This fog was lifted when the hydrogen was hit by radiation in a process known as reionisation, but the source of this radiation has been debated. Now, researchers have used the JWST to peer deep into the Universe’s past and found that charged particles pouring out from dwarf galaxies appear to be the the main driver for reionization. This finding could help researchers understand how some of the structures we now see in the Universe were formed.
Research article: Atek et al.
08:46 Research HighlightsAncient inscriptions could be the earliest example of the language that became Basque, and how researchers etched a groove… onto soap film.
Research Highlight: Ancient bronze hand’s inscription points to origins of Basque language
Research Highlight: Laser pulses engrave an unlikely surface: soap films
11:05 Controlling cholesterol with epigeneticsTo combat high cholesterol, many people take statins, but because these drugs have to be taken every day researchers have been searching for alternatives. Controlling cholesterol by editing the epigenome has shown promise in lab-grown cells, but its efficacy in animals was unclear. Now, researchers have shown the approach can work in mice, and have used it to silence a gene linked to high cholesterol for a year. The mice show markedly lowered cholesterol, a result the team hope could pave the way for epigenetic therapeutics for humans.
Research Article: Cappelluti et al.
18:52 The gene mutation explaining why humans don’t have tailsWhy don’t humans and other apes have a tail? It was assumed that a change must have happened in our genomes around 25 million years ago that resulted in the loss of this flexible appendage. Now researchers believe they have pinned down a good candidate for what caused this: an insertion into a particular gene known as TBXT. The team showed the key role this gene plays by engineering mice genomes to contain a similar change, leading to animals that were tail-less. This finding could help paint a picture of the important genetic mutations that led to the evolution of humans and other apes.
Nature News: How humans lost their tails — and why the discovery took 2.5 years to publish
Research Article: Xia et al.
News and Views: A mobile DNA sequence could explain tail loss in humans and apes
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The phenomenon of animals catching diseases from humans, called reverse zoonoses, has had a severe impact on great ape populations, often representing a bigger threat than habitat loss or poaching.
However, while many scientists and conservationists agree that human diseases pose one of the greatest risks to great apes today there are a few efforts under way to use a research-based approach to mitigate this problem.
This is an audio version of our Feature Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them
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The deep haunting tones of the world's largest animals, baleen whales, are iconic - but how the songs are produced has long been a mystery. Whales evolved from land dwelling mammals which vocalize by passing air through a structure called the larynx - a structure which also helps keep food from entering the respiratory system. However toothed whales like dolphins do not use their larynx to make sound, instead they have evolved a specialized organ in their nose. Now a team of researchers have discovered the structure used by baleen whales - a modified version of the larynx. Whales like Humpbacks and Blue whales are able to create powerful vocalizations but their anatomy also limits the frequency of the sounds they can make and depth at which they can sing. This leaves them unable to escape anthropogenic noise pollution which occur in the same range.
Article: Evolutionary novelties underlie sound production in baleen whales
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In this episode:
00:45 Why are humans so helpful?Humans are notable for their cooperation and display far more altruistic behaviour than other animals, but exactly why this behaviour evolved has been a puzzle. But in a new paper, the two leading theories have been put the test with a model and a real-life experiment. They find that actually neither theory on its own leads to cooperation but a combination is required for humans to help one another.
Research article: Efferson et al.
News and Views: Why reciprocity is common in humans but rare in other animals
10:55 Research HighlightsThe discovery of an ancient stone wall hidden underwater, and the fun that apes have teasing one another.
Research Highlight: Great ‘Stone Age’ wall discovered in Baltic Sea
Research Highlight: What a tease! Great apes pull hair and poke each other for fun
13:14 The DVD makes a comebackOptical discs, like CDs and DVDs, are an attractive option for long-term data storage, but these discs are limited by their small capacity. Now though, a team has overcome a limitation of conventional disc writing to produce optical discs capable of storing petabits of data, significantly more than the largest available hard disk. The researchers behind the work think their new discs could one day replace the energy-hungry hard disks used in giant data centres, making long-term storage more sustainable.
Research Article: Zhao et al.
20:10 Briefing ChatThe famous fossil that turned out to be a fraud, and why researchers are making hybrid ‘meat-rice’.
Ars Technica: It’s a fake: Mysterious 280 million-year-old fossil is mostly just black paint
Nature News: Introducing meat–rice: grain with added muscles beefs up protein
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00:45 Smoking's long-term effects on immunity
It's well-known that smoking is bad for health and it has been linked to several autoimmune disorders, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. Now, researchers have investigated the immune responses of 1,000 people. Whilst some effects disappear after quitting, impacts on the T cell response lingers long after. The team hopes that this evidence could help better understand smoking's association with autoimmune diseases.
Research article: Saint-André et al.
News and Views: Smoking’s lasting effect on the immune system
07:03 Research HighlightsWhy explosive fulminating gold produces purple smoke, and a curious act of altruism in a male northern elephant seal.
Research Highlight: Why an ancient gold-based explosive makes purple smoke
Research Highlight: ‘Altruistic’ bull elephant seal lends a helping flipper
09:28 Briefing ChatAn author-based method to track down fake papers, and the new ocean lurking under the surface of one of Saturn's moons.
Nature News: Fake research papers flagged by analysing authorship trends
Nature News: The Solar System has a new ocean — it’s buried in a small Saturn moon
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For over a century, cancer has been classified by areas of the body - lung cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer etc. And yet modern medical research is telling us that the molecular and genetic mechanisms behind cancers are not necessarily tied to parts of the body. Many drugs developed to treat metastatic cancers have the capacity to work across many different cancers, and that presents an opportunity for more tailored and efficient treatments. Oncologists are calling for a change in the way patients, clinicians and regulators think about naming cancers.
In this podcast, senior comment editor Lucy Odling-Smee speaks with Fabrice André from Institute Gustave Roussy, to ask what he thinks needs to change.
Comment: Forget lung, breast or prostate cancer: why tumour naming needs to change
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In this episode:
0:46 Borrowing tricks from cancer could help improve immunotherapyT cell based immunotherapies have revolutionised the treatment of certain types of cancer. However these therapies — which involved taking someone’s own T cells and reprogramming them to kill cancer cells — have struggled to treat solid tumours, which put up multiple defences. To overcome these, a team has taken mutations found in cancer cells that help them thrive and put them into therapeutic T cells. Their results show these powered-up cells are more efficient at targeting solid tumours, but don’t turn cancerous themselves.
Research article: Garcia et al.
11:39 Research HighlightsHow researchers solved a submerged-sprinkler problem named after Richard Feynman, and what climate change is doing to high-altitude environmental records in Switzerland.
Research Highlight: The mystery of Feynman’s sprinkler is solved at last
Research Highlight: A glacier’s ‘memory’ is fading because of climate change
14:28 What might the car batteries of the future look like?As electric cars become ever more popular around the world, manufacturers are looking to improve the batteries that power them. While conventional lithium-ion batteries have dominated the electric vehicle market for decades, researchers are developing alternatives that have better performance and safety — we run though some of these options and discuss their pros and cons.
News Feature: The new car batteries that could power the electric vehicle revolution
25:32 Briefing ChatHow a baby’s-eye view of the world helps an AI learn language, and how the recovery of sea otter populations in California slowed rates of coastal erosion.
Nature News:This AI learnt language by seeing the world through a baby’s eyes
News: How do otters protect salt marshes from erosion? Shellfishly
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Cervical cancer is both treatable and preventable, and the WHO has called for countries to come together to to eliminate the disease in the next century.
However the disease still kills over 300,000 people each year, and levels of screening, treatment and vaccination need to be stepped up in order to achieve this goal.
These challenges are particularly stark in low- and middle-income countries, where a lack of funding, staffing and infrastructure are obstacles. Vaccine hesitancy, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, is also a key problem.
In this Podcast Extra, two experts share their thoughts on how best to overcome these obstacles, and make elimination of cervical cancer a reality.
Comment: Cervical cancer kills 300,000 people a year — here’s how to speed up its elimination
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In this episode:
0:48 How hominins spread through EuropeAncient stone tools are often uncovered in Europe, but it can be difficult to identify who crafted them, as Neanderthals and Homo sapiens coexisted in the region for several thousand years. The makers of one type of tool found in northern Europe has long puzzled researchers, but now through genetic analysis of nearby skeletal fragments, it has been revealed that they were made by Homo sapiens. The age of these tools suggests that modern humans were more widespread and adaptable to living in colder climates than previously thought.
Research article: Mylopotamitaki et al.
News and Views: Stone tools in northern Europe made by Homo sapiens 45,000 years ago
09:36 Research HighlightsHow a Colombian mountain range lost its root, and what Roman wine may have looked, smelled and tasted like.
Research Highlight: A mysterious mountain range lacks roots but still stands tall
Research Highlight: The clever system that gave Roman wines an amber colour and nutty aroma
15:21 Briefing ChatAnalysis of lab-grown neurons reveals why brain cells grow so slowly in humans, and a genetic therapy for a certain type of deafness shows promise.
Video: Why human brain cells grow so slowly
Science: Gene therapies that let deaf children hear bring hope—and many questions
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Evidence so far suggests that the prevalence of long COVID in low- and middle-income countries could be similar to that of wealthier countries. For example, by some estimates, more than four million people in Brazil have long COVID.
However, an absence of research on the condition in less-wealthy countries has left advocates hamstrung: few physicians acknowledge that long COVID exists. A lack of data is also hampering efforts to search for the mechanisms of the condition and tailor treatments.
This is an audio version of our Feature Long COVID is a double curse in low-income nations — here’s why
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In this episode:
0:46 Turning a toxic by-product into ironRed mud is a toxic by-product of aluminium manufacture, and millions of tonnes of it is produced each year. The majority ends up in landfills, pumped into vast lakes or stored in dried mounds, posing a serious environmental risk. This week, researchers demonstrate how red mud can be reused to make iron, a vital component in the production of steel. As their method uses hydrogen plasma rather than fossil fuels, they suggest it could be a way to reduce the carbon emissions associated with the steelmaking industry.
Research article: Jovičević-Klug et al.
News and Views: Iron extracted from hazardous waste of aluminium production
09:36 Research HighlightsThe economics of next-generation geothermal power plants, and the folded-fabric robot that crawls like a snake.
Research Highlight: Flexible geothermal power makes it easier to harness Earth’s inner heat
Research Highlight: Origami fabric robot slithers like a snake
20:53 Briefing ChatA computational model that predicts a person's likelihood of developing long COVID, NASA finally crack open the lid of OSIRIS-REx’s sample container, and how the ‘Moon Sniper’ craft pulled off the most precise lunar landing ever.
Nature News: Long-COVID signatures identified in huge analysis of blood protein
Johnson Space Centre: NASA’S OSIRIS-REx Curation Team Reveals Remaining Asteroid Sample
Nature News: Japan’s successful Moon landing was the most precise ever
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In this episode:
0:55 The AI that deduces solutions to complex maths problemsResearchers at Google Deepmind have developed an AI that can solve International Mathematical Olympiad-level geometry problems, something previous AIs have struggled with. They provided the system with a huge number of random mathematical theorems and proofs, which it used to approximate general rules of geometry. The AI then applied these rules to solve the Olympiad problems and show its workings for humans to check. The researchers hope their system shows that it is possible for AIs to ‘learn’ basic principles from large amounts of data and use them to tackle complex logical challenges, which could prove useful in fields outside mathematics.
Research article: Trinh et al.
09:46 Research HighlightsA stiff and squishy ‘hydrospongel’ — part sponge, part hydrogel — that could find use in soft robotics, and how the spread of rice paddies in sub-Saharan Africa helps to drive up atmospheric methane levels.
Research Highlight: Stiff gel as squishable as a sponge takes its cue from cartilage
Research Highlight: A bounty of rice comes at a price: soaring methane emissions
12:26 The food-web effects of mass predator die-offsMass Mortality Events, sometimes called mass die-offs, can result in huge numbers of a single species perishing in a short period of time. But there’s not a huge amount known about the effects that events like these might be having on wider ecosystems. Now, a team of researchers have built a model ecosystem to observe the impact of mass die-offs on the delicate balance of populations within it.
Research article: Tye et al.
20:53 Briefing ChatAn update on efforts to remove the stuck screws on OSIRIS-REx’s sample container, the ancient, fossilized skin that was preserved in petroleum, and a radical suggestion to save the Caribbean’s coral reefs.
OSIRIS-REx Mission Blog: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Team Clears Hurdle to Access Remaining Bennu Sample
Nature News: This is the oldest fossilized reptile skin ever found — it pre-dates the dinosaurs
Nature News: Can foreign coral save a dying reef? Radical idea sparks debate
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