Episodes

  • 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 computers

    Skyrmions 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 Highlights

    How 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 songs

    Male 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 Chat

    How 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


    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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  • In this episode:

    00:45 Making a map of the human heart

    The 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 Highlights

    Residue 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 whales

    Menopause 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 Chat

    How 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 other

    One 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 Highlights

    Why 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 sense

    Many 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 Chat

    The 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 Highlights

    Ancient 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 epigenetics

    To 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 tails

    Why 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 Highlights

    The 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 comeback

    Optical 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 Chat

    The 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 Highlights

    Why 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 Chat

    An 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


    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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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


    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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  • In this episode:

    0:46 Borrowing tricks from cancer could help improve immunotherapy

    T 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 Highlights

    How 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 Chat

    How 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


    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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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 Europe

    Ancient 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 Highlights

    How 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 Chat

    Analysis 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 iron

    Red 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 Highlights

    The 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 Chat

    A 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

    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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  • In this episode:

    0:55 The AI that deduces solutions to complex maths problems

    Researchers 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 Highlights

    A 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-offs

    Mass 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 Chat

    An 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


    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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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.


    We chat about: an extra-warm sweater inspired by polar bear fur; the fossil find revealing what a juvenile tyrannosaur liked to snack on; why scientists are struggling to open OSIRIS-REx’s sample container; how 2023 was a record for retractions; and how cats like to play fetch, sometimes.


    Nature News: Polar bear fur-inspired sweater is thinner than a down jacket — and just as warm

    Scientific American: Tyrannosaur’s Stomach Contents Have Been Found for the First Time

    Nature News: ‘Head-scratcher’: first look at asteroid dust brought to Earth offers surprises

    Nature News: More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record

    Scientific American: Cats Play Fetch, Too—But Only on Their Own Terms


    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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  • In this episode, reporter Miryam Naddaf joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2024. We'll hear about the mass of the neutrino, the neural basis of consciousness and the climate lawsuits at the Hague, to name but a few.


    News: the science events to look our for in 2024


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  • Perovskites are cheap, abundant photovoltaic materials that some have hailed as the future of green energy.


    Around the world, companies are layering perovskites on top of traditional silicon to develop so-called tandem solar cells that some think could deliver at least 20% more power than a silicon cell alone.


    However, there remain multiple issues to overcome before these products are ready for widespread uptake in the notoriously competitive solar-power market.


    This is an audio version of our Feature A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy?


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  • In this episode:

    00:54 Franklin’s real role

    When it comes to the structure of DNA, everyone thinks they know Rosalind Franklin’s role in its discovery. The story goes that her crucial data was taken by James Watson without her knowledge, helping him and Francis Crick solve the structure. However, new evidence has revealed that this wasn’t really the case. Rosalind Franklin was not a ‘wronged heroine’, she was an equal contributor to the discovery.

    Nature Podcast: 25 April 2023

    Comment: What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure

    14:37 An automated way to monitor wildlife recovery

    To prevent the loss of wildlife, forest restoration is key, but monitoring how well biodiversity actually recovers is incredibly difficult. Now though, a team has collected recordings of animal sounds to determine the extent of the recovery. However, while using these sounds to identify species is an effective way to monitor, it’s also labour intensive. To overcome this, they trained an AI to listen to the sounds, and found that although it was less able to identify species, its findings still correlated well with wildlife recovery, suggesting that it could be a cost-effective and automated way to monitor biodiversity.


    Nature Podcast: 25 October 2023

    Research article: Müller et al.

    27:11 Research Highlights

    The first brain recording from a freely swimming octopus, and how a Seinfeld episode helped scientists to distinguish the brain regions involved in understanding and appreciating humour.


    Research Highlight: How to measure the brain of an octopus

    Research Highlight: One brain area helps you to enjoy a joke — but another helps you to get it

    30:24 Why multisensory experiences can make stronger memories

    It’s recognized that multisensory experiences can create strong memories and that later-on, a single sensory experience can trigger memories of the whole event, like a specific smell conjuring a visual memory. But the neural mechanisms behind this are not well understood. Now, a team has shown that rich sensory experiences can create direct neural circuit between the memory regions involved with different senses. This circuit increases memory strength in the flies, and helps explain how sense and memories are interlinked.


    Nature Podcast: 25 April 2023

    Research article: Okray et al.

    38:58 Briefing Chat

    How elephant seals catch some shut-eye while diving.


    New York Times: Elephant Seals Take Power Naps During Deep Ocean Dives


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  • Many AIs are 'black box' in nature, meaning that part of all of the underlying structure is obfuscated, either intentionally to protect proprietary information, due to the sheer complexity of the model, or both. This can be problematic in situations where people are harmed by decisions made by AI but left without recourse to challenge them.


    Many researchers in search of solutions have coalesced around a concept called Explainable AI, but this too has its issues. Notably, that there is no real consensus on what it is or how it should be achieved. So how do we deal with these black boxes? In this podcast, we try to find out.


    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.


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