The World, the Universe and Us

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#190 Problems for lab-grown meat; do we need vitamin D supplements?; waking the sleeping Arctic ocean; fish sing for Eurovision May 11, 2023

Show notes

Lab-grown meat may be cruelty free, but is it really better for the environment? Not at the moment. In fact, the team finds out how it’s up to 25 times worse than normal meat. And with prices still astronomically high, will it ever become a viable replacement?

Are we waking up the sleeping Arctic ocean? Melting sea ice from rising global temperatures is having a knock on effect on one of the Arctic’s major ocean currents, the Beaufort Gyre. Rowan speaks to earth scientists Harry Heorton and Michel Tsamados of University College London, authors of a new paper looking at the changes to the gyre. Rowan asks them whether we’re approaching a climate tipping point where changes become self-perpetuating and irreversible.

In the unlikely event that you have ever wondered what a church organ would sound like if it was played on another planet - wonder no more! Thanks to Timothy Leighton, professor of ultrasonics at the University of Southampton, we get to hear a church organ as it would sound on Mars, Jupiter and Venus. The team explains how this work might come in handy during future missions to these planets.

When it comes to sharing their food, chimps are just like 4 year-old kids. The team finds out about a new study which clues us into the evolution of altruism in apes.

Vitamin D supplementation has been the subject of a lot of controversy. Do we need to take them or not? The team highlights a new kind of study which shows how vitamin D can help fight off certain diseases.

And the team signs off the show by playing a genius entry to this year’s Eurovision song contest - EuroFISHion, a track recorded with hydrophones at the SeaLife London Aquarium.

On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Clare Wilson and Alice Klein. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#189 Spinal cord stimulation: bringing movement back to paralysed stroke survivors May 04, 2023

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Spinal cord stimulation has, for the first time, been shown to help two people with upper body paralysis due to stroke regain some arm movement.

To find out how this groundbreaking technology works, New Scientist health reporter Grace Wade speaks to two researchers who helped conduct this research - Nikhil Verma at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Erynn Sorensen at the University of Pittsburgh.

She also speaks to Heather, one of the study’s participants, who explains the emotional moment when she was able to open and close her hand for the first time in a decade.

To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#188 Consciousness measured at point of death; the lifeform with seven genomes; impact of Covid on the gut May 04, 2023

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From bright lights at the end of a tunnel, to hearing dead loved ones, there are many common sensations related to near death experiences. But what’s going on in the brain to cause them? The team hears about a signal measured in the brains of people just before they died.

Aliens may make contact with Earth as early as 2029. That’s the theory at least. The team explains how some of NASA’s deep space spacecraft could be used to beam back messages from distant planets.

For the first time an organism has been discovered with seven entirely distinct genomes inside it. The team finds out about this record breaking cryptomonad alga.

Covid-19 could be wreaking havoc on our gut microbiome, explaining why so many people experience gastrointestinal symptoms while infected. The team finds out how the disease is interacting with the gut, and whether there are any long term effects.

Alpha male elephant seals with the largest harems die younger than those with fewer females. Listen to the sounds of their territorial grunts as the team finds out what’s going on.

On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Clare Wilson, Alexandra Thompson and Michael Le Page. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#187 CultureLab: The Power of Trees with Peter Wohlleben Apr 28, 2023

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As humans are responsible for the devastation of the world’s forests, surely it’s our job, then, to step in and make things right? Well, not according to German forester and best-selling author Peter Wohlleben.

In his latest book ‘The Power of Trees’, he argues that forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests is ecologically disastrous, and that trees and forests need to be left to heal themselves.

In this episode of CultureLab, New Scientist culture and comment editor Alison Flood asks Peter about the book, and why he believes forests have the capacity to deal with climate change on their own.

To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#186 Private space company crashes on the moon; hypnotherapy as anaesthetic; record-breaking ocean warming; Rosalind Franklin and DNA Apr 27, 2023

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With SpaceX’s Starship blowing up, and ispace’s lander crashing into the moon, in the last week two of the most exciting missions of the year have failed. The team finds out what went wrong, and how long it’ll be until these missions can try again.

Fish farts and genital stridulation - the team shares a beautiful underwater soundscape of British ponds, recorded using a hydrophone. They learn about the daily acoustic activity cycles of ponds, and find out why researchers are collecting these sounds.

Hypnosis is becoming a more mainstream part of surgery, with patients being eased into operations with suggestive language and calming phrases. The team finds out how it’s helping to supplement normal anaesthetics, reducing pain and anxiety.

2024 may be the year we breach 1.5 degrees of global warming. Despite dramatic weather events over the last few years, the Earth has actually been in a cooling period called La Niña. So as we enter an El Niño, a period of warming, the team says we should brace for more intense, record-breaking heat. It comes as ocean warming hits new, and very concerning highs.

Was Rosalind Franklin really the “wronged heroine” of DNA? Did Francis Crick and James Watson really swindle her out of her share of the credit for the breakthrough discovery of DNA’s double helix structure? That’s what Watson’s famous book ‘The Double Helix’ would have you believe. But Rowan speaks to biologist Matthew Cobb who sheds new light on what really happened.

On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Leah Crane, Madeleine Cuff and Clare Wilson. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#185 CultureLab: Cosmo Sheldrake on capturing the sounds of our oceans Apr 26, 2023

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Have you ever stopped to think about what life underwater sounds like?

Well, now is your chance to hear it first-hand as multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Cosmo Sheldrake, has released a collection of music composed entirely out of recordings from our oceans and the animals that inhabit them. 'Wild Wet World' has been a decade in the making and features the sounds of humpback whales singing, oyster toadfish grunting and haddock drumming.

In this episode of the CultureLab podcast from New Scientist, Bethan Ackerley speaks to Cosmo about some of the complexities of piecing together the album and how he hopes it will help to raise awareness about the impact of noise pollution on our oceans.

To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#184 Dead Ringers TV review: Revolutionising the future of reproductive health Apr 23, 2023

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Based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film, the new six-part TV series Dead Ringers tells the story of identical twin doctors - played by Rachel Weisz - as they explore innovations in childbirth and fertility.

In this bonus episode of the podcast, our TV columnist Bethan Ackerley speaks to the show's lead writer, Alice Birch, about how she took on Cronenberg’s twisted tale, why it was important to include graphic and realistic depictions of birth in the series, and about the emerging medical technologies that play a part in the show.

To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#183 How To Blow Up A Pipeline film review: Is it time for more radical climate activism? Apr 20, 2023

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With action on climate change moving so slowly, is it time for more radical activism? Have we been left with no option but to use sabotage and property destruction as a way to protect our planet?

Those are the questions a new film, How To Blow Up A Pipeline, aims to get you thinking about. Based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Swedish academic Andreas Malm, the film leaves viewers questioning whether sabotaging an oil pipeline is a logical form of climate activism.

In this bonus episode of the podcast, host Rowan Hooper speaks to the film’s director Daniel Goldhaber, lead actor/co-screenwriter Ariela Barer, and the movie editor Daniel Garber. Rowan’s interview with Andreas Malm can be heard here.

To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#182 3D-printing inside living organisms; what ChatGPT means for human intelligence; why insects fly towards light; carbon storage in the oceans Apr 20, 2023

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We’ve all seen the moths gather around the kitchen light or campfire flame at night, but have you ever wondered why they’re drawn to it? Well, there are loads of theories, but the team explores a brand new one which suggests insects don’t come seeking the light, but are instead imprisoned by it.

Life finds a way. Even amid the vast swathe of plastic and junk in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, creatures have set up home, thousands of miles from their natural habitats. Is this a reassuring sign of adaptability, or do we need to be worried?

Our cyborg future is upon us. It may be early stages, but the team finds out about a new experiment which has, for the first time, printed conductive material inside a living organism. This material may one day be used to create working circuits and implants inside the body.

The ocean is a massive carbon sink - but can we enhance its effects? The team discusses a concept called ocean alkalinisation, which aims to boost carbon storage by dumping a load of alkaline material into the sea. An experimental project is set to test the theory soon - but is it safe?

With the rise of AI large language models like GPT-4 and Bard, will we begin to see them rival human level intelligence - or will an entirely new type of intelligence emerge? As a taste of New Scientist’s special issue on the AI Revolution, we hear from Melanie Mitchell, professor of complexity at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico.

On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Madeleine Cuff, Michael Le Page and Alex Wilkins. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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#181 New York goes quantum; a tipping point in human culture; JUICE mission to Jupiter Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

How many people can we physically feed on Earth? As the global population is predicted to reach 11 billion by the end of the century, do we have enough land to feed all those mouths? The team discusses the safest ways to feed the world, and finds out the absolute limit of Earth’s capacity.

You know those fetching tunics Stone Age people wore? Well, we may have figured out how they stitched them together. The team discusses the discovery of a 40,000 year old horse (or bison) bone, and what it tells us about a vital tipping point in human cultural evolution.

An unhackable quantum internet is being constructed in New York City. While this isn’t the first quantum network ever built, the team explains how this particular experiment is bringing us closer than ever before to a quantum internet we can all use.

This episode goes live on launch day of the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - JUICE. The mission will stop by Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, and the team explains what they’ll be looking for. Sadly you’ll have to wait 8 years before you can check back into the podcast for the next update though…

And we hear a report from Abby Beall who’s been stargazing in the Atacama Desert in Chile on a New Scientist Discovery tour. She speaks to Elke Schulz, who runs stargazing tours nearby and is trying to get her valley recognised as a dark sky sanctuary.

On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Leah Crane, Madeleine Cuff, Alison George, Karmela Padavic Callaghan and Abby Beall. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.

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