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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Copyright: © Springer Nature Limited
In this episode:
People with certain neurological conditions can lose the ability to speak as a result of facial paralysis. This week, two teams demonstrate the potential of devices called brain-computer interfaces to help people in these situations communicate. These interfaces work by identifying the brain activity associated with the intent to say words, and converting this activity into speech-related outputs, such as text or audio. Both devices show marked improvements compared with previous interfaces, and show that the technology could represent a way to help restore communication to people with severe paralysis.
Research article: Metzger et al.
Research article: Willett et al.
News and Views: Brain implants that enable speech pass performance milestones
How wind-tunnel experiments could help athletes run the fastest marathon ever, and an analysis that could help explain why birds are the colours they are.
Research Highlight: Physicists find a way to set a new marathon record
Research Highlight: Which birds are drab and which dazzle? Predators have a say
As the climate warms, tropical forests around the world are facing increasing temperatures. But it’s unknown how much the trees can endure before their leaves start to die. A team has combined multiple data sources to try and answer this question, and suggest that a warming of 3.9 °C would lead to many leaves reaching a tipping point at which photosynthesis breaks down. This scenario would likely cause significant damage to these ecosystems’ role in vital carbon storage and as homes to significant biodiversity.
Research article: Doughty et al.
This time, a reexamination of Ötzi the iceman’s DNA suggests he had a different appearance, and the failure of a Russian mission to the moon.
Nature News: Ötzi the Iceman has a new look: balding and dark-skinned
Nature News: Russian Moon lander crash — what happened, and what’s next?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:
Exactly how animals sense Earth’s magnetic field has long eluded researchers. To understand it, many have turned to the fly model Drosophila melanogaster, long thought to be able to detect magnetic fields. However, a recent Nature paper has raised questions about this ability, a finding that could have repercussions for scientists’ efforts to understand the mechanism behind magnetic sensing, one of the biggest questions in sensory biology.
Research article: Bassetto et al.
News & Views: Replication study casts doubt on magnetic sensing in flies
The world’s first filter feeder, and human-caused climate change in the Bronze Age.
Research Highlight: This ancient reptile wanted to be a whale
Research Highlight: Bronze Age deforestation changed Europe’s climate
This week the famed Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico shut down. The facility’s main telescope collapsed in 2020 and the site has since been battered by storms and pandemic-related shutdowns. Now, with funding exhausted and no clear plan in place, scientists are wondering what will become of the site.
Nature News: Closing down an icon: will Arecibo Observatory ever do science again?
This time, the Standard Model of physics still isn't dead according to new measurements of muons' magnetic moment, and finding the most diverse habitat on Earth under your feet.
Nature News: Dreams of new physics fade with latest muon magnetism result
The Guardian: More than half of Earth’s species live in the soil, study finds
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A perfect storm of factors has led to huge racial disparities in maternal healthcare. In the USA, as abortion clinics continue to close, this inequity is projected to widen. In this podcast from Nature and ScientificAmerican, we hear from leading academics unpacking the racism at the heart of the system. From the historical links between slavery and gynaecology to the systematic erasure of America’s Black midwives. What is behind the Black maternal mortality crisis, and what needs to change?
Read more of Nature's coverage of racism in science.
Read full list of sources here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:
With repeated humanitarian crises displacing millions of people, researchers have been considering how this might affect acceptance of refugees. Will some refugees be more welcome than others? Will continued movements erode support for refugees overall? To answer these questions, a huge study looks at the attitudes of 33,000 people from 15 European countries towards refugees. They find that overall support for refugees has slightly increased, although some characteristics, such as ability to speak the language of the country they’re settling in, are preferred. They hope this research will help policymakers to respond to stresses on the asylum system.
Research article: Bansak et al.
The unusual feeding grounds of the pygmy right whale, and the JWST spots a possible quasar from the early Universe.
Research Highlight: An enigmatic little whale’s habits, from its own mouth
Research Highlight: JWST spots what could be a quasar from the early Universe
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, how designing shapes to roll down wiggly lines has implications for quantum physics, and a settlement for the family of Henrietta Lacks.
Research Article: Sobolev et al.
Video: These shapes roll in peculiar ways thanks to new mathematics
Nature News: How the ‘groundbreaking’ Henrietta Lacks settlement could change research
Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In the latest episode of Nature hits the books, physicist Athene Donald joins us to discuss her book Not just for the boys, why we need more women in science.
We discuss how science has historically excluded women, the barriers to entry and retention that remain prevalent, and what could be done to improve the situation for female scientists today.
Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science, Athene Donald, Oxford University Press (2023)
Music supplied by Airae/Epidemic Sound/Getty images.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Neuroscientists are creating more naturalistic experiments that they hope will provide a more nuanced understanding of animal — and human — behaviour.
These set-ups differ from the classic laboratory experiments that have been used for decades, and may help in the understanding of behaviours such as escaping a predator or finding scarce food. By studying these natural actions, scientists are hoping to glean lessons about the brain and behaviour that are more holistic and more relevant to everyday activity than ever before.
This is an audio version of our Feature: Lab mice go wild: making experiments more natural in order to decode the brain
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:
Societies are becoming increasingly polarized, with people reportedly shunning those with differing political views. Social media is often thought to be exacerbating these divides, by creating echo chambers and filtering out dissimilar views. Many hoped that tweaking the algorithms that drive these platforms could reduce polarization. But, a group of studies show that such changes have little to no affect on polarization, implying that solutions to this issue are trickier than previously thought.
Research Article: Nyhan et al.
News and Views: Influence of Facebook algorithms on political polarization tested
News: Tweaking Facebook feeds is no easy fix for polarization
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:
There are many methods for better night-vision, but often these rely on enhancing light, which may not be present, or using devices which can interfere with one another. One alternative solution is to use heat, but such infrared sensors struggle to distinguish between different objects. To overcome this, researchers have now combined such sensors with machine learning algorithms to make a system that grants day-like night-vision. They hope it will be useful in technologies such as self-driving cars.
Research article: Bao et al.
News and Views: Heat-assisted imaging enables day-like visibility at night
Benjamin Franklin’s anti-counterfeiting money printing techniques, and how much snow is on top of Mount Everest really?
Research Highlight: Ben Franklin: founding father of anti-counterfeiting techniques
Research Highlight: How much snow is on Mount Everest? Scientists climbed it to find out
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the cost to scientists of English not being their native language, and the mysterious link between COVID-19 and type 1 diabetes.
Nature News: The true cost of science’s language barrier for non-native English speakers
Nature News: As COVID-19 cases rose, so did diabetes — no one knows why
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:
Schistosomiasis is a serious parasitic disease that affects millions of people, who become infected when they come into contact with contaminated water. To prevent the spread and reinfection of this disease, researchers trialled an environmental intervention that removed plants from lakes in Senegal. These plants act as food for freshwater snails – intermediate hosts for the disease. Results showed that this reduced disease levels, and that the plants could be composted to increase agricultural yields, suggesting this approach could be used to improve health and the economy.
Research article: Rohr et al.
News and Views: A sustainable way to control the parasitic disease schistosomiasis
How artificial intelligence can predict the art that people will find memorable, and the protein-based, shock-absorbing gel that can stop projectiles in their tracks.
Research Highlight: Memorable artworks are easy to predict
Research Highlight: Supersonic ‘bullets’ are softly captured by a protein gel
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, an update on Chandrayaan-3, India’s latest attempt to land a craft on the Moon - and birds that use anti-bird spikes to build nests.
Nature News: India's Moon lander successfully launches — but biggest challenge lies ahead
The Guardian: Crows and magpies using anti-bird spikes to build nests, researchers find
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:
A pair of scientists have produced a research paper in less than an hour with the help of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT. The aim of this exercise was to explore the technology’s ability to act as a research ‘co-pilot’ and spark debate about its use. While AI tools like ChatGPT have the potential to speed up research, it is still unclear what role they should play in research.
Nature News: Scientists used ChatGPT to generate an entire paper from scratch — but is it any good?
On Monday last week the average worldwide temperature reached 17.01 °C, beating a record set in 2016. Then, on Tuesday that record was broken again, as average temperatures hit 17.18 °C. Further record-breaking days may follow this year as a result of climate change, and the arrival of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is expected to strengthen in the coming months.
Bloomberg: Earth Keeps Breaking Temperature Records Due to Global Warming
Nature News: El Niño is here — how bad will it be?
Injecting monkeys with the naturally occurring protein klotho can improve their cognition. Previous work had shown that elevated levels of the enzyme could improve cognitive functions in mice, now researchers have shown that injecting klotho into old rhesus macaques caused them to perform better in memory-related tasks. While the mechanism behind this effect is unclear, it’s hoped that the finding could ultimately lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases in humans.
Nature News: Anti-ageing protein injection boosts monkeys’ memories
Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
