The World, the Universe and Us

Latest Episodes:

CultureLab: Orbital - A love letter to Earth from the International Space Station, with Samantha Harvey Nov 14, 2023

Show notes

As astronauts look down on Earth from space, the experience is often life-altering. The “pale blue dot” looks fragile from way up there. And in the novel Orbital, we get to see our planet from the perspective of astronauts aboard the International Space Station, giving us a glimpse into why the distant view shifts their perspectives so dramatically.

The book follows the team of astronauts as they observe Earth, collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But author Samantha Harvey says she hopes Orbital is as much a painting as it is a novel, writing in expressive prose to capture the epic vistas witnessed from space each day. From glaciers and deserts, to the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans – and even the destructive force of an intensifying typhoon.

In this episode, Rowan Hooper asks Harvey about her inspirations and how she was able to so vividly capture this sense of Earth from afar. Plus a meditation on what it means, emotionally, to look at our planet from space and reckon with how we are changing it.

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

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

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

Weekly: Spinal cord stimulation for Parkinson’s Disease; half-synthetic yeast; harvesting the ocean’s heat for energy Nov 10, 2023

Show notes

#223

Spinal cord stimulation has, for the first time, been used to improve the mobility of someone with Parkinson’s Disease. Marc, who has battled the condition for 30 years, once fell five to six times daily, but now is able to walk kilometres per day thanks to an array of electrodes that stimulate the movement-related neurons in his spine. Though it was successful for Marc, the treatment is also highly customised and more research is needed before it might benefit people more broadly.

In the world of synthetic biology, an international team has crafted a yeast cell with half its DNA manufactured in a lab, marking a significant step in our ability to rewrite and alter complex genomes. While yeast is already used to create useful substances such as beer and insulin, synthetic yeasts could be engineered to create an even wider variety of molecules more easily. Why yeast might be just the beginning for synthetic organisms.

Can the secret to affordable, clean energy have been in the ocean all this time? Engineers are bringing a 140-year-old idea back to life, with the aim of harnessing the massive temperature difference between warm surface water and cold, deep sea water. A process known as Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) was originally proposed in the 19th century and is now being tested in some island nations. How this sustainable method works and the obstacles to its widespread adoption.

New evolutionary research shows that crabs evolved to leave the ocean up to 17 different times in the 230 million years since they arose. What these crustaceans’ remarkable evolutionary flexibility might reveal about adaptability across the animal kingdom.

Plus: Using tiny microphones to record happy rat squeaks, a breakthrough in underwater radio communication and a smashing fact about left-handed badminton players.

Hosts Christie Taylor and Chelsea Whyte discuss all of this with guests Michael Le Page, James Dinneen and Alexandra Thompson. 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

Dead Planets Society: #9 Unify the Asteroid Belt Nov 07, 2023

Show notes

Asteroids are cool, but they’re all spread out across the solar system. Wouldn’t it be neater if we could smush them all together to make one MEGA asteroid? Maybe even an asteroid… planet.

From an asteroid sausage machine to a Jell-O infused asteroid donut, Leah and Chelsea discover just how difficult and disastrous it would be to merge the asteroid belt – with one surprising silver lining. Joining them in their quest are planetary scientists Andy Rivkin of John Hopkins University, and Kathryn Volk of the University of Arizona.

Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes outlandish ideas about how to tinker with the cosmos – from punching a hole in a planet to unifying the asteroid belt to destroying the sun – and subjects them to the laws of physics to see how they fare.

Your hosts are Leah Crane and Chelsea Whyte.

If you have a cosmic object you’d like to figure out how to destroy, email the team at deadplanets@newscientist.com. It may just feature in a later episode… And if you just want to chat about this episode or wrecking the cosmos more generally, tweet @chelswhyte and @downhereonearth.

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

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

Weekly: Do you really need 8 hours of sleep?; The ancient planet buried inside Earth; Starfish are just heads Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

#222

At this point, most people have heard the accepted wisdom that you need 8 hours sleep every night, especially for a healthy brain. But what if we’ve got it all wrong? If you lie awake at night worrying about getting enough sleep, you may be in luck. A reminder that correlation is not causation, and some surprising new research into how our brains respond to lower amounts of sleep.

In space news, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has just completed a fly-by of a ‘nearby’ asteroid, in preparation for a much bigger excursion out into the solar system. Lucy’s next mission takes it to Jupiter, where it’ll be exploring the asteroids that follow in the gas giant’s orbit, and which may be fragments from early planetary formation. Also, unusual dense spots buried deep within Earth’s mantle may actually be remains of an ancient planet that collided with ours. What buried bits of ‘Theia’ might tell us about Earth’s cosmological history and the creation of our moon.

The UK’s first summit to discuss the safety and security of AI and its role in society has now drawn to a close. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak brought together more than 100 delegates from 28 countries, including tech CEOs such as Elon Musk. Amid frustrations over transparency, and a lacklustre policy result, what did the summit actually achieve?

Can you find the head on a starfish? Researchers investigating the animal’s genes are finding that starfish are actually just heads, and perhaps nothing else, crawling around on their lips. What this finding tells us about the way ecology and natural selection shape animal evolution.

Plus: Why some flatworms are great at sex, while others can regrow their heads – and why they can’t do both at the same time. How a desert plant is adapting to low moisture environments with salty sweat. And why chimps seek out high ground to spy on their rivals.

Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss all of this with guests Clare Wilson, Leah Crane, Matt Sparkes and Claire Ainsworth. To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Events and Links:

newscientist.com/tours

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

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

CultureLab: Suzie Edge’s curious (and sometimes gruesome) history of famous body parts Oct 31, 2023

Show notes

Did you know we have King Louis XIV to thank for fistula surgeries? After surgeons worked hard to find a cure for his rear-end ailment, the operation became the height of fashion, with people queuing up to go under the knife so they could be just like their king.

That’s just one of the incredible stories from Suzie Edge’s new book Vital Organs: A History of the World’s Most Famous Body Parts. Suzie Edge is a medical historian and frequently takes to TikTok to surprise (and sometimes shock) her followers with the true health stories of famous people from the past.

In this episode, Suzie explores some of the most fascinating tales from her book, including the tale of Alexis St. Martin, who became a medical curiosity after an accident left his stomach partially open to the world. She explains why she loves talking about the bodies of famous people from the past – how it makes them feel less like myths or legends, and more like real people. And she touches on our obsession with stigmatising people based on their physical appearance – how movie villains often have facial disfigurements, or how historians often blamed Kaiser Wilhelm’s warlike ways on his disabled left arm.

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

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

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

Weekly: Security risks of ChatGPT; do other mammals go through the menopause?; record breaking quantum computer Oct 27, 2023

Show notes

#221

Independent researchers have found new ways that OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool can assist bad actors, from providing the code needed to hack computer databases to teaching people how to make homemade explosives. While the company continually updates security safeguards, it turns out some languages can be used to bypass these guardrails.

It has long been thought that only humans and some toothed whales go through the menopause. But are there other mammals out there who experience it too? And if so, is it a rarity, or much more common than we realised? The answer may depend on how you define “menopause.”

A US start-up has broken a record in quantum computing, fitting the largest ever number of qubits – or quantum bits – into its new machine, finally exceeding the 1000-qubit milestone and more than doubling the previous record. Qubits are what allow quantum computers to do their calculations, and are essential in increasing reliability and stability. Still, more qubits aren’t the only step in the quest for more practical quantum computers.

Measuring self-awareness in animals usually involves a well-known mirror test, where an animal is given a mark before being placed in front of a mirror. If they touch the mark after seeing it on their reflection, they pass the test. But few animals have passed, and it isn’t without controversy. Now, researchers using a new kind of mirror test to investigate self-awareness in chickens – who fail the classic mirror test – think they have found new evidence that the birds recognise their reflections as “self.” This might reveal self-awareness in a greater variety of animals.

Plus: Perfecting vegan cheeses with the help of fermentation, smart glasses that could mimic echolocation for people who are blind and measuring the weight of the human immune system.

Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss all of this with guests Jeremy Hsu, Michael Le Page, Chelsea Whyte and Alex Wilkins. To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Events and Links:

www.newscientist.com/halloween

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

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

Dead Planets Society: #8 The Worst of All Worlds Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

Whether it’s searing heat, sapphire winds striking the sky like rain, or an atmosphere that makes your eyes pop out of your head, some planets are just horrible for life. But even though some pretty horrific planets already exist, the team is not satisfied – they want to bring all of these calamitous qualities together to design the worst of all worlds.

In a special bonus edition of Dead Planets Society, recorded on stage in front of an audience at New Scientist Live, Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane rope two guests in on their mission of destruction.

Joining our hosts in their quest to make the most inhospitable planet are astrobiologist and author Lewis Dartnell at the University of Westminster and Vincent Van Eylen, professor and exoplanet researcher at University College London.

Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes outlandish ideas about how to tinker with the cosmos – from punching a hole in a planet to unifying the asteroid belt. The hosts are Leah Crane and Chelsea Whyte.

If you have a cosmic object you’d like us to figure out how to destroy, email the team at deadplanets@newscientist.com. Or if you just want to chat about this episode or wrecking the cosmos more generally, tweet @chelswhyte and @downhereonearth.

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

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

Weekly: Communicating with sleeping people; Massive marsquake; World’s smallest particle accelerator Oct 20, 2023

Show notes

#220

When you’re asleep, you’re completely dead to the world, right? Well, it turns out we can actually communicate with people while they’re sleeping and even get them to smile or frown on command – at least some of the time., Why this window into the sleeping brain could have important implications for treating people with certain sleep-related health conditions, or even better insights into why and how we dream.

In space, scientists have discovered the source of the largest ever recorded marsquake, which rattled the red planet last year. Unlike other quakes on Mars, which does not have plate tectonics to explain seismic events, this one was not the result of an asteroid impact. And the oldest fast radio burst ever detected shocks researchers – a blast with power enough to microwave a bowl of popcorn twice the size of our Sun. What both these events can tell us about unearthly environments.

As a record bird flu outbreak continues to devastate bird populations across the globe, we’ve got a surprising finding about its origins. Unlike previous outbreaks, the virus currently circulating originated in Europe and Africa, not Asia. Why this geographical shift? And how can knowing its origins help prevent future outbreaks?

The world’s best known particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, is the largest machine on the planet. But it turns out particle accelerators don’t need to be so big. Scientists have made a truly miniature accelerator, so small it could fit into a pen tip, which could have hugely practical benefits for medical care.

Plus: How to reduce the energy footprint of massive data centres, why hitting ‘snooze’ on your alarm clock may not actually be a bad thing and how dung beetles can help us keep track of highly endangered lemurs.

And if you want one final chance to win a free copy of Rob Eastaway’s Headscratchers, email your guess for this week’s puzzle to podcasts@newscientist.com, or send a voice message to hear yourself on the show.

Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss all of this with guests Clare Wilson, Alex Wilkins, Grace Wade and Karmela Padavic-Callaghan. To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Events and Links:

newscientist.com/20497

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

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

CultureLab: Free will doesn’t exist? Robert Sapolsky’s vision to reshape society Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

Would you feel uneasy or relieved to know that free will doesn’t exist? For those who have been fortunate in life, it may feel an attack to suggest they are not captains of their own ships - that their success was down to biological and environmental chance. But for others it may feel a lot more liberating.

Robert Sapolsky is an author, eminent neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University, known by many for his work studying baboons and human biology. But his latest book is much more associated with the field of philosophy. Determined: Life Without Free Will explores the notions of choice, responsibility and morality, arguing that free will does not exist and why acknowledging this should cause us to rethink the fundamentals of human society.

In this episode of CultureLab, Timothy Revell asks Sapolsky why humans are so-hardwired to believe that free will does exist, how our understanding of free will has shifted over the years and whether we could avoid societal collapse if everyone began believing their actions are not their own.

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

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

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

Weekly: Most detailed map ever of the human brain; clash of the ice planets; are US spies weakening encryption for everyone? Oct 13, 2023

Show notes

#219

The most detailed map yet of the human brain has been unveiled. The human brain atlas visualises the brain more precisely than we’ve ever been able to before. Cell by cell the map can illuminate how the brain is as specialised and organised as it is and how it develops throughout our lifetimes. How has this been achieved and what can we do with this new level of detail?

Two distant icy planets have smashed into each other, turning them into a doughnut of vaporised rock orbiting their nearest star. It’s the first time we’ve been able to pinpoint an event like this, and it may reshape our understanding of how star systems evolve.

A prominent cryptography expert is warning that one of the United States’ top intelligence agencies may be trying to weaken the next generation of encryption. When quantum computers become widespread, modern encryption will be all but useless. But as scientists work to come up with new mathematical techniques to safeguard our online data, one mathematician has claimed the National Security Agency is intentionally watering down proposed new standards for cryptographic algorithms – with potential consequences for everyone’s security.

Despite being made of solid metal, Earth’s inner core is unusually soft and squishy – more like clay or rubber than cast iron. A game of high-pressure musical chairs involving iron atoms may explain it all.

Plus: How Neanderthals hunted cave lions, how to make solid roads on our moon and celebrating the winner (and all the runners-up) of Fat Bear Week.

And if you want the chance to win a free copy of Rob Eastaway’s Headscratchers, email your guess for this week’s puzzle to podcasts@newscientist.com, or send a voice message to hear yourself on the show.

Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss all of this with guests Clare Wilson, Jacob Aron, Rob Eastaway, Matthew Sparkes and Karmela Padavic-Callaghan. To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

Events and Links:

newscientist.com/20497

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

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