The World, the Universe and Us

Latest Episodes:

Weekly: The case for Arctic geoengineering; world’s oldest cheese Sep 27, 2024

Show notes

Episode 269

Could we re-freeze the Arctic… and should we? The Arctic is losing ice at an alarming rate and it’s too late to save it by cutting emissions alone. Geoengineering may be our only hope. A company called Real Ice has successfully tested a plan to artificially keep the region cold - but what are the consequences and will it work on the scale we need?

Octopuses and fish have been found hunting together in packs in an unexpected display of cooperation. Not only do the fish scout out potential prey, they even signal to the octopuses to move in for the kill. And a fish doesn’t prove helpful? They get punched.

The world’s oldest cheese has been found in China - and it’s 3,500 years old. As we get a fascinating look into the fermenting habits of ancient humans, find out how modern day fermentation is being repurposed to help us create biofuels, break down microplastics and more. We hear from Tom Ellis, professor of synthetic genome engineering at Imperial College London.

Our bodies are littered with microplastics - they’re in our livers, kidneys, guts and even our olfactory bulb. How worried should we be? Microplastics have been linked to some pretty serious health consequences - but are they the cause?

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Sophie Bushwick discuss with guests Madeleine Cuff, Michael Le Page and Grace Wade.

To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/

Get your tickets for New Scientist Live: https://www.newscientist.com/nslivepod

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekly: Does loneliness really cause ill health?; A time-travelling photon; The supermassive mystery of early black holes Sep 20, 2024

Show notes

Episode 268

Research has long linked loneliness to surprising health conditions, including diabetes and some cancers. The assumption has been that loneliness in some way causes these issues, perhaps through increased stress or inflammation. But in a study of tens of thousands of people’s biomedical data, that link has gotten more complicated. Where does this leave the relationship between loneliness and health, and the public health programs that are trying to tackle both?

Supermassive black holes are so big and existed so early in the universe’s history that astronomers are unsure how they formed. Dark matter to the rescue? Among the theories of how they formed is “direct collapse,” which a study finds may be possible with some help from decaying dark matter. But a specific type of dark matter is needed to make this theory work…so what’s next?

A photon has been observed travelling in negative time. It was caught leaving a cloud of atoms before it ever entered it. How is this possible? Is this a time travelling photon? Well, somehow, no laws of physics were broken. Obviously some quirky quantum effects are in play – but what exactly is going on?

Plus: How Earth may have once had a ring around it; a pair of black hole jets that are 23 million light years across; how some long-stemmed flowers have evolved to help bats pollinate them; and the discovery of a brand new, teeny tiny chameleon.

Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss with guests Leah Crane, Sophie Bushwick and Karmela Padavic-Callaghan.

To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Get 10 weeks of unlimited digital access to newscientist.com and our app for £10/$10 by visiting: https://www.newscientist.com/podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekly: Thorin and the lost Neanderthals; Fish that use mirrors; SpaceX’s spacewalk Sep 13, 2024

Show notes

Episode 267

The remains of an ancient Neanderthal man discovered in France may be one of the last members of a lost line. Researchers analysing the DNA of the fossil nicknamed “Thorin” (named after the dwarven king in the Hobbit) made the surprising discovery that he’s possibly one of the last of his line. He may have been part of a group that lived in isolation for 50,000 years.

How can we tell climate change is to blame for specific heat waves, hurricanes, or other extreme weather events the planet has been hit by in recent years? That’s where attribution science comes in. Find out how the fingerprints of climate change could one day make it into your daily weather report.

Elephants, chimps and even chickens have shown signs of self-awareness. Even a fish, the cleaner wrasse, has passed the famous ‘mirror test’ in recent years. But new research on this territorial fish has found it can also use mirrors as a tool – to decide if they’re big enough to fight another wrasse. Learn more about how cleaner wrasse size themselves up before picking fights, and what this may say about their cognition.

Private astronauts on a SpaceX mission performed the first ever civilian spacewalk on Thursday. Hear reaction to the historic news and why their state-of-the-art spacesuits are grabbing people’s attention. Plus hear how researchers have created a “cloud atlas”, full of gorgeous pictures of the weird and wonderful – and informative – clouds that fill Mars’ sky.

Reporter James Woodford recently took control of one of the most advanced humanoid robots ever created. An energy company is helping NASA test a robot from its Valkyrie programme in Perth, Australia. James met the robot, nicknamed Val, and even helped use virtual reality tools to control her movements.

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Christie Taylor discuss with guests Alison George, Madeleine Cuff, Corryn Wetzel and James Woodford.

To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CultureLab: Amorina Kingdon on the grunting, growling and singing world underwater Sep 09, 2024

Show notes

Have you ever heard a haddock knock? What about a cusk eel’s chatter?

Sound travels four-and-a-half times faster through water than air and can be heard across huge distances. It’s how whales are able to communicate hundreds of kilometres apart. Yet, for all its wonder, much of the underwater acoustic world remains a mystery to scientists.

Although human ears can’t detect most marine sounds, the invention of hydrophones – microphones designed to capture underwater audio – is helping scientists begin to unravel this hidden world.

So how does sound move through water? And how do underwater creatures perceive and use sound? Amorina Kingdon’s new book ‘Sing Like Fish’ explores these questions, revealing how marine life depends on ingenious uses of sound to communicate, navigate, and thrive.

In this episode, Kingdon and host Christie Taylor explore the fascinating ways fish and other marine animals produce sound, the physics of underwater ears, and how humans are impacting critical underwater soundscapes. Plus, samples of some of the most captivating underwater sounds she’s encountered in her research.

To read about subjects like this and much more, visit newscientist.com.

How The Light Gets In: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekly: First living transparent mouse; lab-grown stem cells; Spy balloons Sep 06, 2024

Show notes

🎧 Episode 266

⚡️ The first human blood stem cells have been created in a lab and successfully turned into functioning bone marrow. This research could revolutionise the treatment of blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma. So far it’s only been tested on mice, but researchers are hopeful it could work in humans too.

⚡️ In other mouse news, we are now able to turn mice see-through. Using a surprisingly common food dye, researchers have turned the skin of living mice transparent. The technique, which didn’t harm the mice, offers a new (though gruesome) look into the living body.

⚡️ The US is planning to launch spy balloons to carry out surveillance and act as backup communication links. The news comes just a year after the US shot down a Chinese balloon that was full of intelligence-gathering equipment. Coincidence? Find out why balloons are making a comeback.

⚡ Bats have a huge role in human health, often harbouring diseases that are then passed onto us, such as rabies and covid-19. But it turns out when bat populations collapse, that’s also bad for human health. New research finds that when bats die, insecticide use in agriculture goes up and so does infant mortality – find out how the three are linked.

⚡ How dark is deep space? Are there any regions of the universe that are completely and utterly devoid of all light? Researchers now have an answer. Plus, ISS astronauts report a strange noise on Boeing’s stranded Starliner capsule.

🎙️ Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss with guests James Woodford, Chris Simms, Jeremy Hsu and Michael Le Page.

📕 To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekly: Could mpox be the next covid-19?; Science of beat drops; Clothes made from potatoes Aug 30, 2024

Show notes

🎧 Episode 265

⚡️ The latest mpox variant has infected a record number of people in central Africa, has been found in travellers in Sweden and Thailand, and the World Health Organization has now declared it a public health emergency of international concern – just 15 months after the previous such declaration for mpox expired in 2023. But is this virus likely to become another covid? And as health authorities in the most affected countries struggle to keep it under control, will we be able to avoid further global outbreaks of the disease?

⚡️ New rogue worlds have been discovered in our galaxy that resemble both planets and stars but are neither. Thought to be brown dwarfs, the sheer number of them calls into question our understanding of how planet-sized objects form. This, plus another failed – but also successful – attempt to find dark matter’s hypothesised WIMPs.

⚡️ As a piece of music builds up to its crescendo, our brains know exactly when the beat is about to drop. Researchers have discovered the parts of our brains that are responsible for making sense of musical changes or “boundaries” – and this is true whether you’re listening to Mozart or Metallica.

⚡ Clothes made from…potatoes? An idea to turn fibres from potato stems into fabric has turned from concept to reality. If we can use potato fibres instead of other more energy intensive materials, the designers say, we could reduce the environmental footprint of clothing production.

🎙️ Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss with guests Alexandra Thompson, Leah Crane, Grace Wade and Madeleine Cuff.

📕 To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CultureLab: Lucy Foulkes on how adolescence shapes us Aug 26, 2024

Show notes

Ever wondered how your teenage years shaped the person you are today? Or why certain rebellious behaviours, like underage drinking, seem almost inevitable, no matter which generation you look at? Adolescence is a crucial, yet often misunderstood, phase of life.

Adolescent psychologist Lucy Foulkes’s new book ‘Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us’ will leave you reflecting on your own formative years in a whole new light – and offers insights that may help settle your anxieties as a parent of teens.

In this episode, Foulkes explains to New Scientist editor Catherine de Lange why adolescence is often such a challenging period, explains how these struggles are essential for self-discovery and shares tips on how adults can help the young people in their lives navigate this tricky period.

To read about subjects like this and much more, visit newscientist.com.

How The Light Gets In: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weekly: 1 in 5 coma patients have awareness; How to end the opioid crisis; ‘Wow’ space signal…is lasers? Aug 23, 2024

Show notes

#264

Some people in comas can understand what’s happening around them. Previously estimated to be 1 in 10, that figure has now shot up to 1 in 5 – meaning this hidden awareness is much more common than we realised.

Another new drug has been approved to reverse opioid overdoses. Zurnai is more powerful than previous medications, which may be useful as the supply of illicit drugs becomes increasingly toxic. But with the opioid epidemic having killed more than 80,000 people in the US last year alone, are there ways to abate this crisis so fewer people overdose in the first place?

The mysterious Wow! signal, detected by the Big Ear radio telescope in the 70s, was an unusual burst of radio waves that astronomers couldn’t explain – except, for some, the answer was aliens. Alien hunters have clung to this as the best potential evidence of extraterrestrial life, as the signal's origins have remained unexplained for 50 years. But we may have just figured out the answer to where it came from.

Many mainframe computers in big organisations like banks, airlines and government departments still rely on ancient computer code dating back to the 60s. The trouble is, as mainframe computers have gone out of use in most other contexts, the programming language COBOL is no longer taught to up-and-coming coders. Could AI help, as our understanding of COBOL dies out?

Record fast cooling in part of the Atlantic Ocean is baffling scientists. This cooling isn’t linked to the normal La Niña wind patterns, so what else is at play? And how could it affect our global weather in the coming season?

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Christie Taylor discuss with guests Alexandra Thompson, Grace Wade and Alex Wilkins.

To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anxiety Special: The science of anxiety and how to make it work for you Aug 15, 2024

Show notes

#263

Anxiety. We’ve all felt it – some worse than others. But what exactly causes anxiety and why are some of us more likely to be hit by it? Science is finally unpacking the ins and outs of this evolutionary response.

Whether you experience anxiety getting on a plane or when doing something out of your comfort zone, understanding why it happens is the best way to take control of it.

In this special episode, New Scientist journalists and expert guests look at the phenomenon of anxiety. What is happening inside the brain when anxiety kicks in? Why do we need to better understand our own internal, bodily processes to fight anxiety? How much of our tendency towards anxiety is down to genetics?

And they bring actionable advice too, including simple, science-backed lifestyle changes you can make to become less anxious, plus the surprising reasons anxiety can actually be a good thing – and how to make it work for you

Host Christie Taylor discusses with guests Alexis Wnuk, Eleanor Parsons, Sahib Khalsa, David Robson, Caroline Hickman and Todd Kashdan, with additional reporting from Helen Thomson, Graham Lawton and Bethan Ackerley.

This episode is part of a special issue of New Scientist magazine. Find all the articles at https://www.newscientist.com/issue/3485/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CultureLab: The best science TV of the year – so far. Aug 12, 2024

Show notes

With so many new TV series and documentaries available, it can be tough to decide what's truly worth your time. That’s where our TV columnist Bethan Ackerley comes in. From the genetically-gifted superheroes of Supacell…to a sobering documentary about the ethics of assisted dying, she has a wealth of options for your next night in.

Bethan and host Christie Taylor share a rundown of the top science TV shows from 2024 so far. They also get excited for what’s still to come this year and next, with recommendations on what to keep an eye out for.

Explore all of Bethan’s TV columns at newscientist.com/author/bethan-ackerley.

In this episode Christie and Bethan discuss the following series:

Science fiction:

Dr. Who (BBC/Disney+)

Time Bandits (Apple TV+)

Supacell (Netflix)

The 3-Body Problem (Netflix)

Fallout (Amazon Prime Video)

Scavengers Reign (Netflix)

Historical fiction:

The Decameron (Netflix)

Documentary: