Stay ConnectedThe Nature Podcast brings you the best stories from the world of science each week. We cover everything from astronomy to zoology, highlighting the most exciting research from each issue of the Nature journal. We meet the scientists behind the results and provide in-depth analysis from Nature‘s award-winning journalists.
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In this episode:
Kidneys from genetically-engineered miniature pigs have been transplanted into non-human primates, in some cases keeping the animals alive for more than a year. Using CRISPR, a team made dozens of edits to the pig genome to prevent the monkeys’ immune system from attacking the organs. They also removed pig retrovirus genes that could represent an infection risk. These steps are necessary if pig organs are to be used in human transplants, something many clinicians and researchers think will be needed to overcome a critical shortage of organs for transplantation.
Research article: Anand et al.
News and Views: Pig-to-primate organ transplants require genetic modifications of donor
Nature News: The most-complex gene edits yet move pig organs closer to human transplant
How babies’ nasal immune systems could explain why they tend to have mild cases of COVID-19, and the molecular ‘glue’ that allows 3D printing with challenging materials.
Research Highlight: How the littlest children stop SARS-CoV-2 in its tracks
Research Highlight: 3D printing tackles tricky materials with help from tiny crystals
This time, the discovery that the human brain uses one system for estimating whether a group contains four or fewer items, and a different one for when there are five or more. Plus, we discuss how researchers fixed the Euclid telescope’s wobbles.
Nature News: Your brain finds it easy to size up four objects but not five — here’s why
Nature News: ‘Immense relief’: Universe-mapping Euclid telescope fixes problem that threatened mission
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In this Podcast Extra, two computer scientists, Shobhana Narasimhan and Sana Odeh, join Nature's Anne Pichon to discuss the barriers that women and gender-diverse people still face when working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
They share their experiences and perspectives on the challenges facing women in research, and reflect on potential ways to move forward.
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In this episode:
Satellites reflect sunlight down to Earth, and some do so with such intensity it risks obscuring astronomers' observations from ground-based telescopes. A paper in Nature suggests that the telecommunications satellite called BlueWalker 3 at times outshines most stars visible from Earth. Astronomers worry about the increasing number of such bright satellites making astronomy more difficult, and so the team suggest that future launches should undergo impact assessments.
Research article: Nandakumar et al.
Nature News: Huge new satellite outshines nearly every star in the sky
Analysis of carrot genomes reveals how the vegetable got its orange hue, and the self-healing diamond that can fix microscopic fractures.
Research article: Coe et al.
Research Highlight: Crack this kind of diamond, and it heals itself
Trilobites are a group of extinct marine arthropods distantly related to animals like crabs and spiders. Although found throughout the fossil record, little is known about the lives of this diverse group of animals. Now, a team has used powerful x-rays to peer inside a trilobite fossil and uncovered the contents of its last meal, over 400-million-years ago. This animal appears to have been an unfussy scavenger, gorging itself on a variety of small, shelled animals.
Research article: Kraft et al.
Flora Graham from the Nature Briefing joins us to talk about the winners of this year’s science Nobel Prizes.
Nature News: Pioneers of mRNA COVID vaccines win medicine Nobel
Nature News: Physicists who built ultrafast ‘attosecond’ lasers win Nobel Prize
Nature News: Tiny ‘quantum dot’ particles win chemistry Nobel
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Australia's swamp tortoise is one of the most endangered species in the world. This species lives in wetlands that are under threat due to rising temperatures and a reduction in rainfall.
In an effort to save the tortoise, researchers are trialling a controversial strategy called assisted migration. This approach has seen captive-bred tortoises released in other wetlands some 330 kilometres south of where they are naturally found. The aim is to see whether the animals can tolerate cooler climates, and whether this new habitat might ensure the species’ future as the planet warms.
While many conservation biologists and land managers have long resisted the idea of assisted migration, attitudes are changing and other projects are beginning to test whether it can protect protect animals at risk from climate change.
This is an audio version of our Feature: These animals are racing towards extinction. A new home might be their last chance
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In this episode:
It has long been possible to create deceptive images, videos or audio to entertain or mislead audiences. Now, with the rise of AI technologies, such manipulations have become easier than ever. These deepfakes can spread misinformation, defraud people, and damage economies. To tackle this, researchers and companies are developing tools to find and label deepfakes, in an attempt to rob them of their potential to wreak havoc.
News Feature: How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science
Ultra-accurate measurement of Earth’s day-length using lasers, and the insect that amputates its own legs to survive the cold.
Research Highlight: How lasers detect day-length changes of a few milliseconds
Research Highlight: Snow-loving flies amputate their own legs for survival
Ancient stone tools are well preserved in the archeological record, and are used by researchers to understand the lives of ancient hominins. But other materials like wood are less common, since they will only preserve under specific conditions. Now researchers have found a trove of wooden artefacts in Zambia dated to be around 476,000 old. In particular, stacked timbers from the site could be the earliest known wooden structure, perhaps implying that ancient hominins had a greater capacity for woodworking than previously thought.
Research article: Barham et al.
News & Views: Hominins built with wood 476,000 years ago
Nature News: These ancient whittled logs could be the earliest known wooden structure
This week, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx successfully landed a capsule containing rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu. We talk with reporter Alex Witze, who was on the ground in Utah when the samples landed, to find out what these ancient rocks could reveal about the origins of the Solar System.
Nature News: Special delivery! Biggest-ever haul of asteroid dust and rock returns to Earth
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Cancer cells can spread to bones in the late stages of disease and in many cancers, cells actually preferentially metastasise to the spine. The reason for this has been a puzzle to researchers for years, but now a team has found a new kind of stem cell that may be involved in this process. The stem cell is found in mice and humans and could represent a clinical target in the treatment of cancer.
Research article: Sun et al.
News and Views: Stem cells provide clues to why vertebrae attract tumour cells
A preference for certain percussion instruments among palm cockatoos, and modelling where people wait on train platforms.
Research Highlight: This parrot taps out beats — and it custom-builds its instruments
Research Highlight: The maths of how we wait in crowded places
This time, a second trial shows the effectiveness of using MDMA to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and how an upgrade to an X-ray laser will let researchers make ultra-crisp ‘molecular movies’.
Nature News: Psychedelic drug MDMA moves closer to US approval following success in PTSD trial
Nature News: World’s most powerful X-ray laser will ‘film’ chemical reactions in unprecedented detail
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The modern world is held together by adhesives, but these fossil-fuel derived materials come at an environmental cost. To overcome this, a team have developed a soya-oil based adhesive, which also takes inspiration from the proteins that marine animals like mussels use to stick firmly to rocks. The researchers say their glue is strong, reversible, and less carbon intensive to produce than existing adhesives.
Research article: Westerman et al.
Why chemicals derived from wood could be sustainable alternatives to a common plastic building block, and how historical accounts helped researchers estimate the brightness of a 1859 solar flare.
Research Highlight: Wood component yields useful plastics — without the health risks
Research Highlight: A historic solar flare’s huge intensity is revealed by new tools
Around the world, millions of children are affected by malnutrition, which can result in stunting or wasting, both associated with serious health issues. Despite a widespread recognition of the seriousness of stunting and wasting, there are still questions about their extent, causes and consequences. To answer these, a team have pooled data from previous studies, and show that nutritional interventions targeting the earliest years of life could have the greatest impact.
Research article: Benjamin-Chung et al.
Research article: Mertens et al.
Research article: Mertens et al.
Nature Collection: Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals
This time, what rejoining the Horizon Europe research-funding programme means for UK research, and the 1.4-million-year-old stone balls that are mystifying scientists.
Nature News: Scientists celebrate as UK rejoins Horizon Europe research programme
Science: Were these stone balls made by ancient human relatives trying to perfect the sphere?
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Around 900,000 years ago the ancestors of modern humans were pushed to the brink of extinction, according to new research. Genetic studies suggest that the breeding population of our ancestors in Africa dropped to just 1,280 and didn’t expand again for another 117,000 years. This population crash would likely have had an impact on human genetic diversity, and may have driven the evolution of important features of modern humans, such as brain size.
Nature News: Human ancestors nearly went extinct 900,000 years ago
Poor historical waste practices have left high levels of pollution around Antartica’s research facilities. By surveying the seafloor near Australia’s Casey research station, researchers have revealed high concentrations of hydrocarbons and heavy metals.This pollution is likely to be widespread, but its impact on the continent is unknown.
Nature News: Antarctic research stations have polluted a pristine wilderness
Persistently low levels of sea-ice around Antarctica have caused emperor penguins to abandon their breeding colonies early, resulting in the death of large numbers of chicks. Although the affected populations only represent a small number of the total emperor penguins on the continent, it’s unclear how they’ll fare if trends in sea-ice melt continue.
Science: Emperor penguins abandon breeding grounds as ice melts around them
Researchers have developed an artificial-intelligence that can describe how compounds smell by analysing their molecular structures. The system’s description of scents are often similar to those of trained human sniffers, and may have applications in the food and perfume industries. Currently the AI works on individual molecules, and is unable to identify the smells associated with complex combinations of molecules, something humans noses do with ease.
Nature: AI predicts chemicals’ smells from their structures
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Oxygen 28 is an isotope of oxygen with 20 neutrons and eight protons. This strange isotope has long been sought after by physicists, as its proposed unusual properties would allow them to put their theories of how atomic nuclei work to the test. Now, after decades of experiments physicists believe they have observed oxygen 28. The observations are at odds with theory predictions, so they imply that there’s a lot more physicists don’t know about the forces that hold atomic nuclei together.
Research article: Kondo et al.
News and Views: Heaviest oxygen isotope is found to be unbound
How venus fly traps can protect themselves from wildfires, and a ball-point pen that can ‘write’ LEDs.
Research Highlight: Venus flytraps shut their traps when flames approach
Research Highlight: A rainbow of LEDs adorns objects at the stroke of a pen
AIs have been beating humans at games for years, but in these cases the AI has always trained in exactly the same conditions in which it competes. In chess for example, the board can be simulated exactly. Now though, researchers have demonstrated an AI that can beat humans in a place where simulation can only take you so far, the real world. The Swift AI system is able to race drones against champion-level humans, and beat them most of the time. The researchers hope this research can help improve the efficiency of drones in general.
Research article: Kaufmann et al.
News and Views: Drone-racing champions outpaced by AI
Video: AI finally beats humans at a real-life sport - drone racing
This time, the Indian Space Research Organization’s successful moon landing, and the low level of support offered to researchers whose first language isn’t English by journals.
Nature News: India lands on the Moon! Scientists celebrate as Chandrayaan-3 touches down
Nature News: Scientists who don’t speak fluent English get little help from journals, study finds
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Investigations suggest that, in some fields, at least one-quarter of clinical trials might be problematic or even entirely made up. Faked or unreliable trials are dangerous, as they could end up being included in the reviews that help inform clinical treatments. However, the extent of the problem in unclear, and many researchers urge stronger scrutiny.
This is an audio version of our Feature: Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials. How many studies are faked or flawed?
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