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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Copyright: © Springer Nature Limited
In this episode:
In 2016, researchers created a ‘minimal cell’ bacterium with a genome that only contains genes essential for the organism's survival. Any mutation in these genes could be fatal, so it was unclear whether there could be scope for evolution. But now, a team has grown this bacterium through 2,000 generations and shown that it does have the ability to evolve and can recover from some of the fitness costs associated with its streamlined genome.
Research article: Moger-Reischer et al.
Dolphins use ‘baby talk’ when talking to their offspring, and how microwaving plastic containers can release microplastic particles.
Research Highlight: Dolphin mums whistle ‘baby talk’ with their calves
Research Highlight: What happens when you microwave that plastic bowl?
Gravitational waves were first detected in 2015, when two black holes collided — sending ripples in space-time across the Universe. Last week, four separate research collaborations found signatures of a wholly different kind of gravitational wave, with unknown origins. Nature’s Davide Castelvecchi explains how these waves were detected, and what this could mean for researchers’ understanding of black holes and the history of the cosmos.
Nature News: Monster gravitational waves spotted for first time
Nature News: Giant gravitational waves: why scientists are so excited
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, new vaccine to protect Tasmanian devils against a deadly contagious cancer, and the ‘paradoxical’ palm that flowers and fruits underground.
Nature News: Tasmanian devil cancer vaccine approved for testing
The Guardian: ‘Mind-boggling’ palm that flowers and fruits underground thrills scientists
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In the past two years, there has been an explosion in the number of papers published relating to 'skeletal editing', a technique that allows chemists to precisely edit a molecule by deleting, adding or swapping single atoms in its core.
Although many of these methods are early in development, researchers hope skeletal editing could revolutionize how organic chemists design molecules, dramatically speeding up the drug-discovery process.
This is an audio version of our Feature: ‘Almost magical’: chemists can now move single atoms in and out of a molecule’s core
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Researchers have probed the brains of octopuses and confirmed previous reports suggesting that these invertebrates have a two-stage sleep cycle similar to that seen in many vertebrates. The team suggests this system may have evolved independently in the two groups, as there are millions of years of evolutionary history between them. However, despite its presumed importance, it is a mystery why this system exists at all.
Research article: Pophale et al.
Nature Video: Do octopuses dream? Brain recordings provide the first clues
A huge volcano eruption that caused the most extreme lightning ever recorded, and a paper-inspired fabric that can keep you warm and cool.
Research Highlight: Underwater volcano triggered the most intense lightning ever recorded
Research Highlight: Fabric warms or cools the body at the flick of a switch
Calorie-restricted diets often lead to rapid weight loss at first, but over time this can slow, or even reverse. This is due to the body adapting; slowing its metabolism to use energy more efficiently. Now though, researchers have identified a key hormone in mice that seems to prevent this slowdown, which could prove useful for people who wish to lose weight.
Research article: Wang et al.
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the robot raspberry that teaches fruit-picking machines how to harvest, and an exoplanet without an atmosphere.
Nature Communications: Junge et al.
Nature Video: A robotic raspberry teaches machines how to pick fruit
Nature News: Life in the cosmos: JWST hints at lower number of habitable planets
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Loss of the Y chromosome in bladder cancer cells is associated with increased severity of disease, but the reasons behind this have been unclear. Now researchers show that the loss of this chromosome helps tumour cells evade the immune system. However, this mechanism also makes the cells more vulnerable to certain chemotherapy treatments, and the researchers hope their findings could help improve outcomes for patients in the future.
Research article: Abdel-Hafiz et al.
How pollution particles ferry influenza virus deep into the lungs, and why artificial lights could dazzle glow worms into extinction.
Research Highlight: Flu virus hitches a ride with haze particles deep into the lung
Research Highlight: Glow-worms’ ‘come-hither’ signals are lost in the glare of human lights
The cartilage in our joints is able to withstand and dissipate a lifetime of impacts, protecting our bones and muscles from damage. But the mechanical properties of cartilage have made it difficult to mimic, and developing synthetic cartilage to replace damaged tissue has proved challenging. Now a team has developed a protein-based material that shares some of cartilage’s characteristics, and shown its potential in helping heal damaged tissue.
Research article: Fu et al.
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, how early magnetic minerals might help explain why nature shows a preference for the ‘left handed’ or ‘right handed’ versions of certain molecules, and how human’s thirst for groundwater has made the North Pole drift.
Science: ‘Breakthrough’ could explain why life molecules are left- or right-handed
Nature News: Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the tilt of Earth’s axis
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Quantum computers have long held the promise of being able to perform tasks that classical computers can’t. However, despite this promise, there have been few applications that can only be accomplished by a quantum computer. Now though, researchers show that a quantum computer can resolve a physics problem concerning the orientation of quantum particles in a 2D material, which is difficult to accomplish with a ‘regular’ machine. They hope that this shows how quantum computers could be applied in real world research applications in the near future.
Nature News: IBM quantum computer passes calculation milestone
Research article: Kim et al.
News and Views: Quantum computer scales up by mitigating errors
How some bacteria turned their defences into weapons, and a forecast of how quickly arctic sea ice will disappear.
Research Highlight: Cholera bacteria turn slime into an offensive weapon
Research Highlight: The Arctic could go ice-free in less than a decade
Psychedelics are a group of drugs that affect perceptions of consciousness, and are of increasing interest in the treatment of conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. However, a lot is unknown about how they affect the brain. Now, researchers have shown that these varied drugs may have a shared mechanism: making the brain more able to forge new connections between synapses. They hope that this will inform how best to use psychedelics in treatments.
Research article: Nardou et al.
News and Views: Timing is key for behavioural benefits of psychedelics
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time a study showing that the energy drink additive taurine increases the lifespans of several animals, and how much reformatting research papers is costing science.
Nature News: Taurine supplement makes animals live longer — what it means for people is unclear
Nature News: Revealed: the millions of dollars in time wasted making papers fit journal guidelines
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In mammals, infanticide is a relatively common behaviour, but not a default one. For example, virgin female mice will often kill young produced by other females, but this behaviour disappears when they become mothers themselves. To understand this switch, researchers have identified a brain circuit associated with infanticidal behaviour that gets switched off after mice give birth. They hope that by better understanding this circuit it could inform why animals engage in such behaviours.
Research article: Mei et al.
Research Briefing: A battle between neural circuits for infanticide and maternal-care behaviours
The cyclone raging at the north pole of Uranus, and the ants that build landmarks to help them find their way home.
Research Highlight: A storm is whirling atop Uranus
Research Highlight: These hardy ants build their own landmarks in the desert
The sun produces streams of plasma called solar wind that stretch out and provide a protective bubble around the solar system. However, despite decades of study, there’s much that isn’t known about how the Sun makes it. Now, a team has used data from the Parker Solar Probe and shown that the source of one sort of wind, known as ‘fast solar wind’, appears to be due to colliding magnetic fields that produce the huge amount of energy needed to fire plasma away from the Sun.
Research article: Bale et al.
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time the origins of patriarchal societies, and the tiling pattern that never repeats itself.
BBC Futures: How did patriarchy actually begin?
Nature News: This infinite tiling pattern could end a 60-year mathematical quest
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Mapping the network of genes that control cellular processes can be difficult to do when gene-expression data is sparse, such as in rare diseases or those affecting tissues that are hard to clinically sample. To overcome this, a team has developed an artificial intelligence system trained on a large, general dataset, and used it to make predictions about gene interactions in data-limited situations. As a test-case they look at the heart condition cardiomyopathy, and show that the system can identify potential interactions that could represent new therapeutic targets.
Research article: Theodoris et al.
Microbes that can break down persistent ‘forever chemicals’, and why intermolecular distances are the key to keeping gummy sweets chewy.
Research Highlight: Microbes take the ‘forever’ out of ‘forever chemicals’
Research Highlight: Better gummy sweets are within reach, thanks to physics
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, how chronic stress can inflame the gut, and understanding how rocket launches might impact wildlife.
Nature News: Chronic stress can inflame the gut — now scientists know why
Nature News: Does the roar of rocket launches harm wildlife? These scientists seek answers
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Shocked by the impact of online misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, several researchers are launching efforts to survey scientists’ thinking on issues from vaccine safety to climate change. They hope that their projects will make scientific debate, and degrees of consensus, more visible and transparent, benefiting public conversation and policymaking. However, others suggest that these attempts might merely further politicize public debate.
This is an audio version of our Feature: Can giant surveys of scientists fight misinformation on COVID, climate change and more?
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Global demand for palm oil has resulted in huge expansion of the palm plantations needed to produce it, causing widespread tropical deforestation and species loss. To address this, researchers planted islands of native trees among the palms in a large plantation, and showed that this approach increases ecosystem health, without affecting crop yields. The team say that while protecting existing tropical rainforests should remain a priority, tree islands represent a promising way to restore ecosystems.
Research article: Zemp et al.
The oldest identified ‘blueprints’ depict vast hunting traps with extraordinary precision, and fossil evidence that pliosaurs swimming the Jurassic seas may have been as big as whales.
Research Highlight: Oldest known ‘blueprints’ aided human hunters 9,000 years ago
Research Highlight: This gigantic toothy reptile terrorized the Jurassic oceans
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, how shredded nappies could partially replace sand in construction, and how CRISPR helped crack the mystery of the death cap mushrooms’s deadly toxin.
Nature News: World’s first house made with nappy-blended concrete
Nature News: Deadly mushroom poison might now have an antidote — with help from CRISPR
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Researchers have pointed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at JD1, one of the universe's most distant known galaxies. The power of JWST has filled in some of the gaps in what was known about the galaxy, giving greater insight into its age, structure and composition. The team behind the work hope that learning more about how early galaxies like JD1 formed will help explain how the universe evolved into its present state.
Research article: Roberts-Borsani et al.
Why your choice of soap might make you irresistible to mosquitoes, and how tardigrade-inspired claws help tiny robots cling to blood-vessels.
Research Highlight: Your favourite soap might turn you into a mosquito magnet
Research Highlight: Claws like a tardigrade’s give swimming microrobots a grip
Fish that live in coral reefs are some of the fastest growing in the world, despite the environment they live in being relatively nutrient poor. This contradiction has long puzzled researchers, but now, a team has looked deep into the evolutionary history of the fish and discovered a critical point in time when they shifted towards faster growth, much earlier than was previously thought.
Research article: Siqueira et al.
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the first frog thought to pollinate flowers, and a field-trial to vaccinate wild koalas against chlamydia.
Scientific American: This Frog May Be the First Amphibian Known to Pollinate Flowers
Associated Press: Koalas are dying from chlamydia. A new vaccine effort is trying to save them
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