Twitter: @NaturePodcast (followed by 11 science writers)
Site: www.nature.com/nature/podcast
631 episodes
2014 to present
Average episode: 24 minutes
Open in Apple Podcasts • RSS
Categories: News-Style
Podcaster's summary: The 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 journalists and editors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
| Episodes |
| 2023-Mar-22 • 19 minutes How to make driverless cars safer — expose them to lots of dangerous drivers A method to test and teach autonomous cars how to deal with dangerous situations, and a renewed interest in bats and how they deal with viruses. |
| 2023-Mar-15 • 32 minutes How to build a virus-proof cell A streamlined genome makes bacteria immune to viral infection, and designing mini-MRI scanners for low- and middle-income countries. |
| 2023-Mar-08 • 27 minutes How the Australian wildfires devastated the ozone layer Why smoke particles from wildfires lead to ozone depletion, and modelling food systems with ‘digital twins’. |
| 2023-Mar-01 • 19 minutes How an increased heart rate could induce anxiety in mice A method to directly stimulate a rodent’s heart shows how bodily states can affect emotions, and assessing the impact of NASA’s mission to move an asteroid. |
| 2023-Feb-27 • 26 minutes Nature's Take: How Twitter's changes could affect science Nature staff take on the big topics that matter in science. |
| 2023-Feb-24 • 16 minutes Audio long read: How your first brush with COVID warps your immunity Researchers are working to overcome ‘imprinting’, where the immune system responds more strongly to the strain of a virus it first met, weakening response to other strains. |
| 2023-Feb-22 • 29 minutes A twisting microscope that could unlock the secrets of 2D materials How the Quantum Twisting Microscope could give a better ‘picture’ of atom thin layers, and science in Ukraine a year into Russia’s invasion. |
| 2023-Feb-15 • 30 minutes How 'metadevices' could make electronics faster Getting electronics into super-fast terahertz speeds, and how cognitive changes could alter social media’s effects on young people. |
| 2023-Feb-08 • 28 minutes This mysterious space rock shouldn’t have a ring — but it does How a ring around a distant solar system object is puzzling researchers, and understanding the hidden dangers of indoor air pollution. |
| 2023-Feb-01 • 30 minutes How mummies were prepared: Ancient Egyptian pots spill secrets Analysis of substances uncovered in embalming workshop gives insight into the mummification process, and how CAR T therapies could turbocharge cancer treatments. |
| 2023-Jan-30 • 18 minutes Audio long read: The ‘breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers A slew of remarkable trials have raised the profile of a class of weight loss drugs, but there are concerns about cost and weight stigma. |
| 2023-Jan-25 • 19 minutes Amino acid slows nerve damage from diabetes, in mouse study Experiments show the role that serine may play in a common diabetes complication. |
| 2023-Jan-18 • 20 minutes Laser 'lightning rod' diverts strikes high in the Alps After decades of research, experiment shows potential for using lasers to protect large infrastructure. |
| 2023-Jan-11 • 24 minutes The science stories you missed over the past four weeks We highlight some stories from the Nature Briefing, including climate promises from Brazil’s President Lula, how glass frogs hide their blood, and a new statue of Henrietta Lacks. |
| 2023-Jan-06 • 15 minutes Science in 2023: what to expect this year In this episode, reporter Miryam Naddaf joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2023. We'll hear about vaccines, multiple Moon missions and new therapeutics, to name but a few.News: the science events to look out for in 2023Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. |
| 2022-Dec-28 • 51 minutes The Nature Podcast’s highlights of 2022 The team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months. |
| 2022-Dec-21 • 35 minutes The Nature Podcast Festive Spectacular 2022 Games, seasonal science songs, and Nature’s 10. |
| 2022-Dec-14 • 29 minutes COVID deaths: three times the official toll An estimate of the deaths associated with COVID-19, and the lack of ethnic diversity in UK academia. |
| 2022-Dec-07 • 18 minutes Oldest DNA reveals two-million-year-old ecosystem Mastodon DNA found in ancient Greenland permafrost, and modelling the climate emissions of the plastics sector. |
| 2022-Dec-02 • 26 minutes Gaia Vince on how climate change will shape where people live The award-winning science writer joins us to discuss her book Nomad Century. |
| 2022-Nov-30 • 20 minutes Mysterious fluid from ant pupae helps feed colony A previously unobserved source of ant nutrition, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Nov-25 • 16 minutes Audio long read: Science and the World Cup — how big data is transforming football Researchers are showing their skills to help soccer coaches improve players and develop winning tactics. |
| 2022-Nov-23 • 24 minutes The satellite-free alternative to GPS A new positioning system that doesn’t rely on satellites, and the outcomes of COP27. |
| 2022-Nov-16 • 28 minutes How a key Alzheimer's gene wreaks havoc in the brain The mechanism of how a specific gene is implicated in Alzheimer’s, and the latest news from COP27. |
| 2022-Nov-14 • 31 minutes Audio long read: She was convicted of killing her four children. Could a gene mutation set her free? Kathleen Folbigg has spent 19 years in prison and was dubbed ‘Australia’s worst female serial killer’. Now, an inquiry into her case will look at clinical genetics in a whole new way. |
| 2022-Nov-09 • 25 minutes Molecular cages sift 'heavy' water from near-identical H2O A new method to separate out heavy water, and how smartphone data could help check the health of bridges. |
| 2022-Nov-04 • 20 minutes Audio long read: The controversial embryo tests that promise a better baby Companies are offering tests that calculate the risks of embryos developing complex diseases. But some are concerned whether these tests' are accurate or ethical. |
| 2022-Nov-02 • 30 minutes Flies can move their rigid, omnidirectional eyes – a little The mysterious muscles that move flies’ retinas, and calls for militaries to report their climate emissions. |
| 2022-Oct-28 • 40 minutes Racism in Health: the harms of biased medicine In this podcast special we explore the myriad ways people have injected biases and racism into modern medicine. |
| 2022-Oct-26 • 23 minutes Ancient DNA reveals family of Neanderthals living in Siberian cave Evidence of the first known neanderthal family group, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Oct-12 • 18 minutes Human brain organoids implanted into rats could offer new way to model disease Transplanted human cells integrate into rat brains, and an exoskeleton boot that adapts as people walk. |
| 2022-Oct-05 • 19 minutes Virtual library of LSD-like drugs could reveal new antidepressants Researchers develop a library of 75 million compounds to search for new drugs, and the 2022 Nobel Prizes. |
| 2022-Oct-03 • 21 minutes Nature's Take: How the war in Ukraine is impacting science Nature staff take on the big topics that matter in science. |
| 2022-Sep-30 • 23 minutes Audio long read: What scientists have learnt from COVID lockdowns The challenges of weighing the costs and benefits associated with lockdowns. |
| 2022-Sep-28 • 19 minutes A trove of ancient fish fossils helps trace the origin of jaws 400-millon-year-old find gives insights into the evolution of jawed vertebrates, and the lack of evidence in transgender policy. |
| 2022-Sep-21 • 20 minutes Huge dataset shows 80% of US professors come from just 20% of institutions A decade of data shows how a few institutions train most US professors, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Sep-14 • 20 minutes Complex synthetic cells bring scientists closer to artificial cellular life Researchers craft artificial cells from polymers and bacterial components, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Sep-07 • 22 minutes Missing foot reveals world’s oldest amputation A 31,000-year-old skeleton shows evidence of complex surgery, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Aug-26 • 24 minutes Audio long read: Hybrid brains – the ethics of transplanting human neurons into animals Human cells transplanted into animal brains provide insights into development and disease but also raise ethical questions. |
| 2022-Aug-24 • 31 minutes How to make water that's full of holes How to make water that's full of holes Embedded 'nanocages' help water dissolve large amounts of gas, and potential evidence that hominins walked on two legs seven million years ago. |
| 2022-Aug-17 • 22 minutes Do protons have intrinsic charm? New evidence suggests yes A machine learning approach examines decades of data in the hunt for the proton’s charm, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Aug-15 • 25 minutes Nature's Take: what's next for the preprint revolution Nature editors take on the big topics that matter in science. |
| 2022-Aug-10 • 22 minutes Why low temperatures could help starve tumours of fuel Cold exposure in mice activates brown fat to deny tumours glucose, and the future of extreme heatwaves. |
| 2022-Aug-03 • 23 minutes Massive Facebook study reveals a key to social mobility Friendships with people from different economic backgrounds could boost your income, and reviving pig organs after death. |
| 2022-Jul-29 • 35 minutes Coronapod: the open-science plan to unseat big Pharma and tackle vaccine inequity Inequity has been a central feature of the COVID19 pandemic. From health outcomes to access to vaccines, COVID has pushed long-standing disparities out of the shadows and into the public eye and many of these problems are global. In this episode of Coronapod we dig into a radical new collaboration of 15 countries - co-led by the WHO, and modelled on open-science. The project, called the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub, aims to create independent vaccine hubs that could supply the global south... |
| 2022-Jul-27 • 28 minutes How humans adapted to digest lactose — after thousands of years of milk drinking How the ability to digest milk spread long after people started drinking it, and assessing therapeutic ketamine’s addiction potential. |
| 2022-Jul-20 • 29 minutes How researchers have pinpointed the origin of 'warm-blooded' mammals Ancient inner ears give clues to when mammals evolved ‘warm-bloodedness’, and an efficient enzyme that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air. |
| 2022-Jul-13 • 29 minutes Ancient mud reveals the longest record of climate from the tropics A sediment core from Peru unlocks thousands of years of climate data, and the first glimpses from the James Webb Space Telescope. |
| 2022-Jul-11 • 22 minutes Higgs boson at 10: a deep dive into the mysterious, mass-giving particle We discuss the discovery of the Higgs boson and the impact it's had on physics. |
| 2022-Jul-08 • 11 minutes Coronapod: detecting COVID variants in sewage Since early in the pandemic, scientists have searched for signals of SARS-CoV-2 transmission by sampling wastewater. This surveillance method has provided vital information to inform public health responses. But the approach has never been particularly specific - pointing to broad trends rather than granular information such as which variants are spreading where. But now a team from the University of California have created two new tools to sample waste water in much greater detail - and spot variants and t... |
| 2022-Jul-06 • 30 minutes Higgs boson turns ten: the mysteries physicists are still trying to solve Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Higgs boson’s discovery, and supporting scientists who stutter. |
| 2022-Jul-01 • 29 minutes Ed Yong on the wondrous world of animal senses In the first of our new series, the award-winning science journalist joins us to discuss his book An Immense World. |
| 2022-Jun-29 • 30 minutes Norovirus could spread through saliva: a new route for infection? A new transmission route for gastrointestinal viruses, and an exotic kind of matter made from just neutrons. |
| 2022-Jun-27 • 19 minutes Audio long read: These six countries are about to go to the Moon A multitude of missions are heading to the Moon — will they be successful? |
| 2022-Jun-24 • 22 minutes Coronapod: USA authorises vaccines for youngest of kids After a long wait, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have finally approved two COVID vaccines for use in children between the ages of six months and five years old. But despite a unanimous decision amongst regulators, parents still have questions about whether to vaccinate their young children, with survey data suggesting that the majority do not intend to accept vaccines right away. In this episode of Coronapod, we dig into the trials, ... |
| 2022-Jun-22 • 32 minutes How science can tackle inequality We dive into Nature’s special edition on efforts to quantify and tackle inequality around the world, and investigate why breast cancers spread more at night. |
| 2022-Jun-15 • 32 minutes How the Black Death got its start How a pandemic that devastated the medieval world began, and efforts to control monkeypox. |
| 2022-Jun-11 • 20 minutes Coronapod: COVID and smell loss, what the science says One of the most curious symptoms of COVID-19 is the loss of smell and taste. For most, this phenomenon is short lived, but for many around the world the symptom can persist for months or even years after the infection has cleared. Once a tell-tale sign of infection, this sensory disruption is now becoming characterised as a chronic problem and scientists are only recently getting clear answers about the mechanisms behind it. In this episode of Coronapod, we dig into the most recent studies on the cause... |
| 2022-Jun-08 • 18 minutes Ancient 'giraffes' sported thick helmets for headbutting A roundup of stories from the Nature Briefing, including the academics joining the ‘great resignation’, the latest on the Perseverance rover, and more. |
| 2022-Jun-06 • 22 minutes Audio long read: The brain-reading devices helping paralysed people to move, talk and touch As implants that decode thoughts become more sophisticated, the companies making them are attracting major financial backing. |
| 2022-Jun-01 • 26 minutes Robot exercises shoulder cells for better tissue transplants A robot shoulder that stretches tendon tissue, and identifying misperceptions that can lead to vaccine hesitancy. |
| 2022-May-30 • 14 minutes Coronapod: 'A generational loss' - COVID's devastating impact on education Despite the devastating loss of life caused by COVID-19, some researchers are arguing that the longest lasting impact of the pandemic will be on education. UN agencies calculate that more or less all school students on the planet - 1.6 billion - have faced an average of 4.5 months of school closures owing to the pandemic, the largest disruption to education in history. Teachers have been under immense pressure to keep their students happy and learning, but it is an uphill battle. In this episode of Cor... |
| 2022-May-25 • 27 minutes X-ray analysis hints at answers to fossil mystery New insights into a mysterious fossil animal, and uncovering ancient settlements hidden in the Bolivian Amazon. |
| 2022-May-18 • 28 minutes How galaxies could exist without dark matter How dark-matter-free galaxies may have formed, the scientists surviving the war in Ukraine, and imaging the black hole Sagittarius A*. |
| 2022-May-13 • 14 minutes Coronapod: 'viral ghosts' support idea that SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs could be behind long COVID Millions of people around the world have been left managing the complex and amorphous syndrome that is long COVID. But the underlying cause of this myriad of symptoms is not clear. One hypothesis is that the virus is able to find a safe haven in the body from which it can bide its time and potentially re-emerge - a viral reservoir. Now researchers studying long COVID have found evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in a series of organs around the body, most notably the gut, months after the infection appears to have been... |
| 2022-May-11 • 25 minutes Retinas revived after donor's death open door to new science A new method for reviving retinal cells, and the likelihood that life originated as RNA. |
| 2022-May-04 • 25 minutes Swapping in a bit of microbial 'meat' has big eco-gains A forecast of the environmental benefits of switching to microbial protein, and the neurons that help mosquitoes home in on humans. |
| 2022-Apr-29 • 10 minutes Coronapod: COVID and diabetes, what the science says The true disability cost of the COVID-19 pandemic is still unknown, but more and more studies are adding to the list of potential fallout from even mild COVID 19 infection. In this episode of Coronapod we discuss a massive association study which links COVID-19 cases with an increase in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. We delve into the numbers to ask how big the risk might be? Whether any casual relationship can be drawn from this association? And what might be in store from future researc... |
| 2022-Apr-27 • 24 minutes How virtual meetings can limit creative ideas The innovation cost of video calls, and a new type of cell division found in fish skin. |
| 2022-Apr-25 • 18 minutes Audio long-read: The quest to prevent MS — and understand other post-viral diseases Researchers are investigating why some people infected with Epstein-Barr virus go on to develop multiple sclerosis, and what can be done to prevent it. |
| 2022-Apr-20 • 19 minutes We could still limit global warming to just 2˚C — but there's an 'if' A roundup of some recent stories from the Nature Briefing, including using leeches to survey wildlife, a potential interstellar meteorite, and more. |
| 2022-Apr-15 • 11 minutes Coronapod: Infected immune cells hint at cause of severe COVID Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a debate amongst researchers about whether the body's immune cells can themselves be infected by SARS-CoV-2. Now two new studies show that they can - and what's more, the work has revealed a new mechanism for the massive inflammatory response seen in severe COVID. In this episode of Coronapod, we dig into the papers, asking why it has taken so long to get an answer to this question? How immune cell infection could lead to severe disease? And whether th... |
| 2022-Apr-13 • 28 minutes Why do naked mole rats live as long as giraffes? Identifying how animals’ mutation rates line up with their longevity, and what the war in Ukraine means for emissions. |
| 2022-Apr-06 • 26 minutes Five years in the coldest fridge in the known Universe Searching for an elusive process that could explain a cosmic imbalance, and solving the mystery of the missing microbial plasmids. |
| 2022-Apr-05 • 19 minutes Audio long-read: A more-inclusive genome project aims to capture all of human diversity Researchers are looking to build a human ‘pangenome’ that includes wider human genetic variation than previous attempts. |
| 2022-Mar-30 • 28 minutes Winding roads could make you a better navigator How where you grew up affects your navigational abilities, and understanding how coastal storm surges are changing. |
| 2022-Mar-23 • 29 minutes Milky Way's origin story revealed by 250,000 stars Precisely ageing subgiant stars gives new insight into the Milky Way’s formation, and uncovering Yellowstone’s hydrothermal plumbing system. |
| 2022-Mar-18 • 14 minutes Coronapod: How vaccine complacency is plaguing 'COVID zero' strategies A handful of states around the world have pursued 'COVID zero' strategies. Through a combination of intensive lockdowns, travel restrictions and comprehensive test and trace systems, regions like Tonga, New Zealand, Taiwan, mainland China and Western Australia managed to keep the virus at bay. But now many of these countries are facing new outbreaks on a scale they have not yet seen, and it is being driven in part by vaccine hesitancy. In this episode of Coronapod we discuss how a successful publi... |
| 2022-Mar-17 • 15 minutes The coin toss of Alzheimer's inheritance Marty Reiswig talks about his experience in a clinical trial that hopes to at least delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. |
| 2022-Mar-16 • 27 minutes The vest that can hear your heartbeat A fabric microphone that can pick up human speech, and how AI helped the government of Togo distribute financial aid. |
| 2022-Mar-09 • 28 minutes The AI that deciphers ancient Greek graffiti An artificial intelligence that restores illegible inscriptions, and the project that's reintroducing lost species in Argentina. |
| 2022-Mar-04 • 17 minutes Coronapod: why stopping COVID testing would be a mistake Scientists say that now is the time to improve COVID data, not cut it back |
| 2022-Mar-02 • 30 minutes COVID stimulus spending failed to deliver on climate promises G20 COVID stimulus packages fail to deliver on emissions, how knowing something about a stranger could alter your behaviour, and scientists condemn the invasion of Ukraine. |
| 2022-Feb-28 • 23 minutes Audio long-read: The race to save the Internet from quantum hackers Almost everything we do on the Internet is made possible by cryptographic algorithms, which scramble our data to protect our privacy. However, this privacy could be under threat. If quantum computers reach their potential these machines could crack current encryption systems — leaving our online data vulnerable.To limit the damage of this so called 'Q-day', researchers are racing to develop new cryptographic systems, capable of withstanding a quantum attack.This is an audio version of our feature: The race ... |
| 2022-Feb-23 • 25 minutes Dinosaur-destroying asteroid struck in spring Researchers pinpoint the season that a cataclysmic asteroid struck Earth, and how climate change is affecting the intensity of fires at night. |
| 2022-Feb-16 • 25 minutes Tongan volcano eruption leaves scientists with unanswered questions Scientists scramble to understand the devastating Tongan volcano eruption, and modelling how societal changes might alter carbon emissions. |
| 2022-Feb-11 Coronapod: How African scientists are copying Moderna's COVID vaccine Vaccine inequity continues to be one of the greatest challenges in the pandemic - with only 10% of those in low- and middle-income countries fully vaccinated. One of the biggest hold-ups is a lack of vaccine manufacturing capacity in poorer nations. Bu... |
| 2022-Feb-09 RNA test detects deadly pregnancy disorder early RNA in blood shows signs of pre-eclampsia before symptoms occur, and the issues of urine in our sewage and what can be done about it. |
| 2022-Feb-04 Coronapod: what people get wrong about endemic COVID The word endemic is often mistakenly used to describe a rosy end to the pandemic where COVID-19 becomes a mild, but ever-present infection akin to the common cold. But this is by no means guaranteed and the reality could be much less favourable. In thi... |
| 2022-Feb-02 Weirdly flowing water finally has an explanation: 'quantum friction' How quantum friction explains water’s strange flows in carbon nanotubes, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Jan-28 Coronapod: Why T cells have been overlooked Much of the coverage of COVID immunity often focuses on antibody response and for good reason - these small, y-shaped proteins can detect, and in some cases neutralise, viruses like SARS-CoV-2. But as variants like Omicron evolve to evade antibodies, t... |
| 2022-Jan-26 How can battery-powered aircraft get off the ground? Getting electric planes to take off, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Jan-24 Audio long read: Is precision public health the future — or a contradiction? This is an audio version of our feature: Is precision public health the future — or a contradiction? |
| 2022-Jan-21 Coronapod: COVID death toll is likely millions more than official counts As of January 2022, the WHO reports that 5.5 million people have lost their lives to the pandemic. However, many research groups suggests that this number is likely to be a significant underestimate, although it is hard to be certain as counting mortal... |
| 2022-Jan-19 Why mutation is not as random as we thought Challenging the dogma of gene evolution, and how chiral nanoparticles could give vaccines a boost. |
| 2022-Jan-14 Podcast Extra: Recreating the lost sounds of spring The researcher resurrecting our declining soundscapes. |
| 2022-Jan-12 Webb Space Telescope makes history after tense launch In this episode of the Nature Podcast, we catch up on the biggest science stories from the holiday period by diving into the Nature Briefing. |
| 2022-Jan-05 Science in 2022: what to expect this year In this episode, Nature reporter Davide Castelvecchi joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2022. We'll hear about vaccines, multiple Moon missions, the push to save biodiversity, and more. |
| 2021-Dec-31 • 16 minutes Audio long-read: The secret lives of cells — as never seen before Cutting-edge microscopy techniques are letting researchers visualize biological molecules within cells, rather than studying them in isolation. This approach is providing new insights into how these structures interact in this complex environment. |
| 2021-Dec-29 • 36 minutes Our podcast highlights of 2021 The Nature Podcast team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months. |
| 2021-Dec-22 • 34 minutes The Nature Podcast annual holiday spectacular Games, seasonal science songs, and Nature’s 10. |
| 2021-Dec-17 • 32 minutes Coronapod: Omicron - your questions answered Several weeks after the Omicron variant was first identified, it has quickly spread across the world. Early data are showing clear signals that the latest variant of concern is able to evade immunity and spread at a rate faster than any other variant t... |
| 2021-Dec-15 • 26 minutes Pluto's strange ice patterns explained by new theory An explanation for giant ice structures on Pluto, and dismantling the mestizo myth in Latin American genetics. |
| 2021-Dec-10 • 18 minutes Coronapod: vaccines and long COVID, how protected are you? Vaccines significantly reduce the risk of developing COVID-19, but scientists are now asking what effect the vaccines might have on long COVID. Long COVID is a somewhat ill-defined, but common, syndrome that can arise from even mild cases of COVID19 - ... |
| 2021-Dec-08 • 28 minutes How 'megastudies' are changing behavioural science Speeding up comparisons of behavioural interventions, and what to expect from the James Webb Space Telescope. |
| 2021-Dec-03 • 12 minutes Coronapod: How has COVID impacted mental health? Studying mental health in populations is not a simple task, but as the pandemic has continued, mounting concerns have mobilised researchers.Now, researchers have used data from helplines in 20 countries to assess the impacts that COVID, as well as ass... |
| 2021-Dec-01 • 27 minutes What’s the best diet for people and the planet? Designing a nutritious and planet-friendly diet, and an AI that guides mathematicians. |
| 2021-Nov-29 • 23 minutes Audio long-read: The chase for fusion energy A host of private companies are promising commercial fusion reactors in the next decade. |
| 2021-Nov-26 • 9 minutes Coronapod: everything we know about the new COVID variant In a quickly developing story a new variant, first detected in Botswana, is triggering rapid action among researchers. The variant - currently named B.1.1.529 has more than 30 changes to the spike protein - and the concern is that these mutations may r... |
| 2021-Nov-24 • 23 minutes Researcher careers under the microscope: salary satisfaction and COVID impacts The Nature salary and satisfaction survey reveals researchers' outlook, and NASA’s test of planetary defences. |
| 2021-Nov-17 • 25 minutes Sea squirts teach new lessons in evolution Spineless sea squirts shed light on vertebrate evolution, and an iodine-fuelled engine powering a satellite in space. |
| 2021-Nov-12 • 18 minutes Coronapod: new hope from COVID antiviral drugs Two new anti-viral pills have been shown to be safe and effective against COVID in clinical trials, according to recent press releases. The drugs, molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and Paxlovid, developed by Pfize... |
| 2021-Nov-10 • 18 minutes The past and future of the Earth's climate Reassessing 24,000 years of global temperatures, and on the ground at COP26. |
| 2021-Nov-08 • 20 minutes Audio long-read: How dangerous is Africa’s explosive Lake Kivu? Lake Kivu, nestled between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, is a geological anomaly that holds 300 cubic kilometres of dissolved carbon dioxide and 60 cubic kilometres of methane. |
| 2021-Nov-03 • 20 minutes Podcast special: onboard the climate train to COP26 Last weekend, hundreds of young people boarded a specially chartered train in Amsterdam to travel to Glasgow ahead of the United Nations COP26 climate summit.Among them were scientists, activists and policy makers. In a Nature Podcast&n... |
| 2021-Oct-29 • 15 minutes China’s COVID vaccines have been crucial — now immunity is waning More that 3 billions doses of China's CoronaVac and Sinopharm vaccines have been administered across the globe, playing an especially important role in Latin America and South East Asia, as well as China. These vaccines use inactivated virus parti... |
| 2021-Oct-27 • 28 minutes Genomics unwraps mystery of the Tarim mummies The unexpected origins of a 4000-year-old people, protecting your ‘digital presence’ and what to expect from COP26. |
| 2021-Oct-25 • 16 minutes Coronapod: can scientists harness COVID super-immunity? People that have recovered from COVID are seeing stronger immune responses after vaccination than those that never contracted the virus. Researchers are now racing to unpick what is behind this powerful 'hybrid immunity'. In this episode of... |
| 2021-Oct-20 • 35 minutes Viking presence in the Americas pinpointed by ancient solar storm An ancient solar storm helps pinpoint when Vikings lived in the Americas, and using magnets to deftly move non-magnetic metals. |
| 2021-Oct-18 • 17 minutes Coronapod: the COVID scientists facing violent threats Hundreds of scientists have responded to a survey asking about harassment and abuse during the pandemic. The results paint a picture which is as concerning as it is shocking. In this episode of Coronapod we discuss the kinds of abuse ... |
| 2021-Oct-13 • 26 minutes How electric acupuncture zaps inflammation in mice The neurons behind acupuncture’s effect on inflammation, and how antibiotics affect gut bacteria. |
| 2021-Oct-10 • 11 minutes Coronapod: new data affirms the benefits of air filters and masks New data suggests that inexpensive, high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters can effectively scrub SARS-CoV-2 particles from the air in hospital COVID wards. The result validates previous studies carried out in controlled conditions. Currently, H... |
| 2021-Oct-06 • 26 minutes The AI that accurately predicts the chances of rain AI weather forecasters, mapping the human brain and the 2021 science Nobel prizes. |
| 2021-Sep-29 • 24 minutes Starting up in science: behind the scenes Every year, thousands of scientists struggle to launch their own labs. For three years, a reporting team from Nature documented the lives of two as they worked to get their fledgling research groups off the ground. |
| 2021-Sep-29 • 18 minutes Starting up in science: Episode 4 Every year, thousands of scientists struggle to launch their own labs. For three years, a reporting team from Nature documented the lives of two as they worked to get their fledgling research groups off the ground. |
| 2021-Sep-29 • 13 minutes Starting up in science: Episode 3 Every year, thousands of scientists struggle to launch their own labs. For three years, a reporting team from Nature documented the lives of two as they worked to get their fledgling research groups off the ground. |
| 2021-Sep-29 • 13 minutes Starting up in science: Episode 2 Every year, thousands of scientists struggle to launch their own labs. For three years, a reporting team from Nature documented the lives of two as they worked to get their fledgling research groups off the ground. |
| 2021-Sep-29 • 11 minutes Starting up in science: Episode 1 Every year, thousands of scientists struggle to launch their own labs. For three years, a reporting team from Nature documented the lives of two as they worked to get their fledgling research groups off the ground. |
| 2021-Sep-27 • 16 minutes Audio long-read: Can artificially altered clouds save the Great Barrier Reef? Australian scientists are developing new technologies to help protect coral from climate change. |
| 2021-Sep-25 • 21 minutes Coronapod: solving the COVID vaccine manufacturing problem Less than 1% of those in low income countries are fully vaccinated, and that number only rises to 10% in low-middle income countries. Meanwhile more than half of the population in wealthier countries have received a double dose with several now rolling... |
| 2021-Sep-22 • 19 minutes The floating sensors inspired by seeds How tiny seed-like sensors could monitor the environment, and the latest from the Nature Briefing. |
| 2021-Sep-15 • 22 minutes How to help feed the world with 'Blue Foods' How aquatic foods could help tackle world hunger, and how Australian wildfires spurred phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean. |
| 2021-Sep-08 • 14 minutes The billion years missing from Earth’s history A new theory to explain missing geological time, the end of leaded petrol, and the ancient humans of Arabia. |
| 2021-Sep-01 • 30 minutes Dead trees play an under-appreciated role in climate change How insects help release carbon stored in forests, and the upcoming biodiversity summit COP 15. |
| 2021-Aug-25 • 14 minutes Audio long-read: why sports concussions are worse for women As women’s soccer, rugby and other sports gain in popularity a growing body of evidence suggests that female athletes are at a greater risk of traumatic brain injury than men - what's more they tend to fare worse after a concussion and take longer... |
| 2021-Aug-21 • 14 minutes Coronapod: How Delta is changing the game Delta has quickly become the dominant COVID variant in many countries across the world, in this episode we ask why. Over the past few weeks, a slew of studies have started to shed more light on how the Delta variant differs from its cousins and even th... |
| 2021-Aug-18 • 33 minutes What’s the isiZulu for dinosaur? How science neglected African languages A team is creating bespoke words for scientific terms in African languages, and the sustainability of the electric car boom. |
| 2021-Aug-14 • 19 minutes Coronapod: COVID boosters amidst global vaccine inequity Several wealthy nations have announced plans to give third vaccine doses in a bid to help increase the protection of their most vulnerable citizens - but the science is not clear on whether this strategy will be effective or indeed necessary. Meanwhile... |
| 2021-Aug-11 • 26 minutes The brain cells that help animals navigate in 3D Researchers uncover how grid cells fire in a 3D space to help bats navigate, and a fabric that switches between being stiff and flexible. |
| 2021-Aug-06 • 13 minutes Coronapod: Ivermectin, what the science says Ivermectin is a cheap, widely available, anti-parasitic drug that has been proposed by many as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Dozens of trials have been started, but results have been far from clear, with inconsistent results further confused by hi... |
| 2021-Aug-04 • 31 minutes Flood risk rises as people surge into vulnerable regions Satellite imaging has shown population increases are 10x higher in flood prone areas, and a new way to introduce fairness into a democratic process. |
| 2021-Jul-28 • 23 minutes Has the world’s oldest known animal been discovered? Researchers debate whether an ancient fossil is the oldest animal yet discovered, and a new way to eavesdrop on glaciers. |
| 2021-Jul-26 • 24 minutes Audio long-read: How ancient people fell in love with bread, beer and other carbs Archaeological evidence shows that ancient people ate bread, beer and other carbs, long before domesticated crops. |
| 2021-Jul-24 • 15 minutes Coronapod: the latest on COVID and sporting events Early in 2021 the United Kingdom, along with several other countries, allowed mass gatherings as part of a series of controlled studies aimed at better understanding the role events could play in the pandemic. The goal was to inform policy - however ea... |
| 2021-Jul-21 • 27 minutes How the US is rebooting gun violence research Funding for gun violence research in the US returns after a 20-year federal hiatus, and the glass sponges that can manipulate ocean currents. |
| 2021-Jul-16 • 21 minutes Coronapod: Does England's COVID strategy risk breeding deadly variants? The UK government has announced that virtually all COVID restrictions will be removed in England on Monday 18th July. This will do away with social distancing requirements, allow businesses to re-open to full capacity and remove legal mask mandates. Th... |
| 2021-Jul-14 • 37 minutes How deadly heat waves expose historic racism Heat waves have disproportionate impacts on minorities in US cities, and after critiquing his own papers a researcher extols the value of self-criticism. |
| 2021-Jul-09 • 10 minutes Coronapod: Will COVID become a disease of the young? For much of the pandemic, the greatest burden of disease has been felt by older generations. But now, for the first time, vaccine roll outs are starting to skew the average age of those infections towards the young. This has led many researchers to ask... |
| 2021-Jul-07 • 30 minutes Food shocks and how to avoid them Addressing the problem of sudden food scarcity in US cities, and the up-and-coming field of computational social science. |
| 2021-Jul-02 • 15 minutes Coronapod: the biomarker that could change COVID vaccines Since the beginning oft he pandemic, researchers have searched for a biomarker which indicates immune protection from COVID-19 known as a correlate of protection. Now, the team developing the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have published the first... |
| 2021-Jun-30 • 26 minutes The scientist whose hybrid rice helped feed billions A historian reflects on the life of Chinese crop scientist Yuan Longping, and the possible influence of geothermal energy production on earthquake aftershocks. |
| 2021-Jun-28 • 22 minutes Audio long-read: How COVID exposed flaws in evidence-based medicine This is an audio version of our feature: How COVID broke the evidence pipeline |
| 2021-Jun-25 • 12 minutes Coronapod: should you have a COVID vaccine when breastfeeding? Early vaccine trials did not include pregnant or breastfeeding people which left some people asking whether COVID vaccines are safe and effective for those who are breastfeeding. The latest data suggests that they are and in this episode of Co... |
| 2021-Jun-23 • 28 minutes Quantum compass might help birds 'see' magnetic fields Researchers isolate the protein thought to allow birds to sense magnetic fields, and astronomers pinpoint the stars that could view Earth as an exoplanet. |
| 2021-Jun-18 • 13 minutes CureVac disappoints in COVID vaccine trial After a slew of wildly successful vaccine trials, this week marked a more underwhelming result. The third mRNA vaccine to complete phase three trials, developed by CureVac, is just 47% effective at staving off disease according to preliminary data. Thi... |
| 2021-Jun-16 • 31 minutes Communities, COVID and credit: the state of science collaborations The pros and pitfalls of collaboration, with insights from researchers and beyond. |
| 2021-Jun-11 • 11 minutes Coronapod: Counting the cost of long COVID The global burden of COVID-19 has predominantly been measured using metrics like case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths. But the long term health impacts are more difficult to capture. In this episode of Coronapod we discuss one way that public heal... |
| 2021-Jun-09 • 26 minutes Google AI beats humans at designing computer chips An AI that designs computer chips in hours, and zooming in on DNA’s complex 3D structures.In this episode:00:46 An AI computer microchip designerWorking out where to place the billions of components that a modern computer chip needs can take hum... |
| 2021-Jun-04 • 16 minutes Coronapod: Uncertainty and the COVID 'lab-leak' theory Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been allegations that SARS-CoV-2 could have originated in a Chinese lab. A phase one WHO investigation concluded that a 'lab-leak' was "extremely unlikely" and yet, the theory has seen... |
| 2021-Jun-02 • 18 minutes On the origin of numbers The cross-discipline effort to work our how ancient humans learned to count. |
| 2021-May-26 • 21 minutes New hope for vaccine against a devastating livestock disease A vaccine candidate for a neglected tropical disease, and calls to extend the 14-day limit on embryo research. |
| 2021-May-24 • 21 minutes Audio long-read: How harmful are microplastics? Pervasive plastic specks are of great concern to scientists – but are they really harmful? |
| 2021-May-19 • 17 minutes The 'zombie' fires that keep burning under snow-covered forests Smouldering fires lay dormant before bursting back into flame in spring. |
| 2021-May-14 • 9 minutes Coronapod: The variant blamed for India's catastrophic second wave Over the past few weeks, India has been experiencing a devastating second wave of COVID-19, recording hundreds of thousands of new cases a day.Evidence is growing that a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus known as B.1.617, first detected in India i... |
| 2021-May-12 • 26 minutes The brain implant that turns thoughts into text A new neural interface lets people type with their mind, and a crafting journey into materials science. |
| 2021-May-07 • 21 minutes Coronapod: Waiving vaccine patents and coronavirus genome data disputes In surprise news this week, the US government announced its support for waiving patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines, in an effort to boost supplies around the world.As fewer than 1% of people living in low-income countries have received COVID-19 v... |
| 2021-May-05 • 20 minutes Oldest African burial site uncovers Stone Age relationship with death Uncovering the earliest evidence of deliberate human burial in Africa, and a metal-free rechargeable battery. |
| 2021-Apr-30 • 27 minutes Coronapod special: The inequality at the heart of the pandemic For more than a century, public health researchers have demonstrated how poverty and discrimination drive disease and the coronavirus pandemic has only reinforced this.In a Coronapod special, Natu... Amy M... |
| 2021-Apr-28 • 18 minutes What fruit flies could teach scientists about brain imaging Ultra-precise measurements connect brain activity and energy use in individual fruit-fly neurons. |
| 2021-Apr-26 • 19 minutes Audio long-read: How drugmakers can be better prepared for the next pandemic Despite warnings, and a number of close calls, drugmakers failed to develop and stockpile drugs to fight a viral pandemic. Now, in the wake of SARS-CoV-2, they are pledging not to make the same mistake again.Around the world, researchers are racing ... |
| 2021-Apr-23 • 16 minutes Coronapod: Kids and COVID vaccines As clinical trials to test COVID vaccines in children begin, what are the key questions researchers want to answer? |
| 2021-Apr-21 • 26 minutes Meet the inflatable, origami-inspired structures The self-supporting structures that snap into place, and how a ban on fossil-fuel funding could entrench poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. |
| 2021-Apr-16 • 18 minutes Coronapod: could COVID vaccines cause blood clots? Here's what the science says Reports of rare and unusual blood clots have resulted in several vaccine roll outs being paused while scientists scramble to work out if the vaccines are responsible and if so how.The unusual combination of symptoms, including a low platelet count a... |
| 2021-Apr-14 • 19 minutes The sanitation crisis making rural America ill The lack of adequate sanitation in parts of the rural US, and physicists reassess muons’ magnetism. |
| 2021-Apr-09 • 22 minutes Coronapod: A whistle-blower’s quest to take politics out of coronavirus surveillance Rick Bright exposed former president Trump's political meddling in the US COVID response. Now he is championing a new privately funded initiative to track viral spread and combat new variants. We discuss the challenges of collecting da... |
| 2021-Apr-06 • 24 minutes Audio long-read: Rise of the robo-writers This is an audio version of our feature: Robo-writers: the rise and risks of language-generating AI |
| 2021-Apr-02 • 13 minutes Coronapod: How to define rare COVID vaccine side effects From a sore arm to anaphylaxis, a wide range of adverse events have been reported after people have received a COVID-19 vaccine. And yet it is unclear how many of these events are actually caused by the vaccine. In the vast majority of cases, reactions... |
| 2021-Mar-31 • 29 minutes Antimatter cooled with lasers for the first time Laser-cooled antimatter opens up new physics experiments, and the staggering economic cost of invasive species. |
| 2021-Mar-26 • 19 minutes Coronapod: the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine - what you need to know Since the beginning of the pandemic the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been plagued by confusion and controversy. The vaccine has been authorised in over 100 countries, tens of millions of doses have been administered, and it has been demonstrated to b... |
| 2021-Mar-24 • 28 minutes Network of world's most accurate clocks paves way to redefine time A web of three optical atomic clocks show incredibly accurate measurements of time, and the trailblazing astronomer who found hints of dark matter. |
| 2021-Mar-19 • 15 minutes Coronapod: Why COVID antibody treatments may not be the answer In the early days of the pandemic, researchers raced to identify the most potent antibodies produced by the immune system in response to SAR-COV-2 infection and produce them in bulk. The resulting ‘monoclonal antibodies’ have since been tested in a var... |
| 2021-Mar-17 • 23 minutes The AI that argues back A computer that can participate in live debates against human opponents. |
| 2021-Mar-12 • 13 minutes Coronapod: COVID and pregnancy - what do we know? Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been many open questions about how COVID-19 could impact pregnant people and their babies – confounded by a lack of data. |
| 2021-Mar-10 • 30 minutes The smallest measurement of gravity ever recorded Physicists examine the gravitational pull between two tiny masses, and how fossil lampreys could shake-up the field of vertebrate evolution. |
| 2021-Mar-05 • 18 minutes Coronapod: COVID's origins and the 'lab leak' theory Where did the SARS-CoV-2 virus come from? As a team of researchers from the WHO prepares to report on its investigation into the origins of the virus, we discuss the leading theories, including the controversial ‘lab leak' hypothesis. |
| 2021-Mar-03 • 26 minutes COVID, 2020 and a year of lost research The pandemic's unequal toll on the research community, and a newly discovered mitochondria-like symbiosis. |
| 2021-Feb-26 • 19 minutes Coronapod: Google-backed database could help answer big COVID questions A repository with millions of data points will track immunity and variant spread. |
| 2021-Feb-24 • 26 minutes The quark of the matter: what's really inside a proton? The surprising structure of protons, and a method for growing small intestines for transplantation. |
| 2021-Feb-23 • 23 minutes Audio long-read: Thundercloud Project tackles a gamma-ray mystery Researchers in Japan are trying to understand why thunderstorms fire out bursts of powerful radiation. |
| 2021-Feb-19 • 17 minutes Coronapod: our future with an ever-present coronavirus What’s the endgame for the COVID-19 pandemic? Is a world without SARS-CoV-2 possible, or is the virus here to stay? |
| 2021-Feb-17 • 31 minutes A mammoth discovery: oldest DNA on record from million-year-old teeth Researchers sequence the oldest DNA ever recovered, and the people bringing art and science together. |
| 2021-Feb-12 • 16 minutes Coronapod: Is mixing COVID vaccines a good idea? The science behind how and when to give vaccines doses. |
| 2021-Feb-10 • 27 minutes Human Genome Project - Nature’s editor-in-chief reflects 20 years on Looking back at the publication of the human genome, and how macrophages mend muscle. |
| 2021-Feb-05 • 18 minutes Coronapod: Variants – what you need to know Researchers are scrambling to understand the biology of new coronavirus variants and the impact they might have on vaccine efficacy. |
| 2021-Feb-03 • 28 minutes Mysterious einsteinium spills its secrets Exploring the properties of a vanishingly-rare man-made element, and the AI that generates new mathematical conjectures. |
| 2021-Jan-29 • 21 minutes Coronapod: Fixing the world’s pandemic alarm A year ago the WHO’s coronavirus emergency alarm was largely ignored. Why? |
| 2021-Jan-28 • 15 minutes Audio long-read: Push, pull and squeeze – the hidden forces that shape life Researchers are probing the subtle physical forces that sculpt cells and bodies. |
| 2021-Jan-27 • 28 minutes How a spinal device could relieve a neglected effect of cord injury A neuroprosthetic device restores blood-pressure control after spinal-cord injury, and identifying the neurons that help us understand others’ beliefs. |
| 2021-Jan-20 • 37 minutes Hiring discrimination laid bare by mountain of data Analysis of millions of job seekers shows that recruiters will discriminate based on ethnicity and gender, and the neural circuitry behind a brief period of forgetting. |
| 2021-Jan-14 • 20 minutes Coronapod: The rise of RNA vaccines Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker and Elie Dolgin discuss RNA vaccines |
| 2021-Jan-13 • 32 minutes The mysterious extinction of the dire wolf DNA clues point to how dire wolves went extinct, and a round-up of the main impacts of Brexit on science. |
| 2020-Dec-30 • 21 minutes Audio long-read: Controlling COVID with science - Iceland's story Lessons from Iceland, which utilised huge scientific resources to contain COVID-19. |
| 2020-Dec-23 • 48 minutes Our podcast highlights of 2020 The Nature Podcast team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months. |
| 2020-Dec-17 • 26 minutes Coronapod: The big COVID research papers of 2020 Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker and Traci Watson discuss some of 2020's most significant coronavirus research papers.In the final Coronapod of 2020, we dive into the scientific literature to reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have disc... |
| 2020-Dec-16 • 37 minutes Could you prevent a pandemic? A very 2020 video game A video game provides players with insights into pandemic responses, and our annual festive fun. |
| 2020-Dec-09 • 38 minutes Don’t think too deeply about the origin of life – it may have started in puddles Scientists are shifting their thinking on where life might have arisen, and a new model to tackle climate change equitably and economically. |
| 2020-Dec-03 • 16 minutes Norway's prime minister reveals plans to protect the world's oceans Erna Solberg on fisheries, fossil fuels and the future of the oceans. |
| 2020-Dec-02 • 46 minutes Cellular ageing: turning back the clock restores vision in mice A trio of genes may be key to making cells young again, and ultra precise measurement of a fundamental physics constant. |
| 2020-Nov-25 • 35 minutes Neutrinos give insights into the workings of the Sun’s core Scientists have finally confirmed the existence of a CNO cycle fusion reaction in the Sun, and why women’s contraception research needs a reboot. |
| 2020-Nov-19 • 16 minutes Coronapod: What could falling COVID death rates mean for the pandemic? Around the world, COVID death rates are falling, but why? |
| 2020-Nov-18 • 35 minutes The troubling rise of facial recognition technology Scientists have grave concerns over ethical and societal impacts of facial-recognition technology. In this surveillance special, we dig into the details. |
| 2020-Nov-13 • 19 minutes Audio long-read: The enigmatic organisms of the Ediacaran Period New fossil finds and new techniques reveal evidence that early animals were more complex than previously thought. |
| 2020-Nov-11 • 40 minutes Revealed: the impact of noise and light pollution on birds Researchers try to unpick the complex relationship between sensory pollutants and bird reproduction, and how to combat organised crime in fisheries. |
| 2020-Nov-04 • 35 minutes A powerful radio burst from a magnetic star Astronomers pin down the likely origins of mysterious fast radio bursts, and the latest on what the US election means for science. |
| 2020-Oct-30 • 23 minutes Talking politics, talking science Science and politics are not easy bedfellows - "Stick to the science" is a three part series which aims to find out whyIn the final episode we ask in this world of intertwined politics and science, how should we talk about it? |
| 2020-Oct-29 • 24 minutes Politics of the life scientific Science and politics are not easy bedfellows - "Stick to the science" is a three part series which aims to find out why.If you are a scientist working right now, what role does politics play in your work, your research, your life? |
| 2020-Oct-28 • 28 minutes A brief history of politics and science In this miniseries "Stick to the science" we explore the complex relationship between science and politics. In this first episode, we look back to history to try and unpick how this relationship has evolved and where Nature as a publication f... |
| 2020-Oct-28 • 39 minutes Lab–grown brains and the debate over consciousness The chances of mini brains becoming sentient, and a UK government decision threatens gender diversity in academia. |
| 2020-Oct-21 • 38 minutes The science behind an 'uncrushable' beetle’s exoskeleton The structure of a beetle’s super-strong exoskeleton could open up new engineering applications, and efforts to address diversity and equality imbalances in academia. |
| 2020-Oct-14 • 40 minutes Superconductivity gets heated A high pressure experiment reveals the world’s first room-temperature superconductor, and a method to target ecosystem restoration. |
| 2020-Oct-09 • 18 minutes Audio long-read: What animals really think Researchers are aligning data on animal neuronal activity with behavioural information recorded on millisecond timescales, to uncover the signatures of internal brain states associated with things like moods and motivation.This is an audio version o... |
| 2020-Oct-07 • 43 minutes Trump vs. Biden: what's at stake for science? A conversation about the US election and the possible fallout for science, and are maternal behaviours learned or innate? |
| 2020-Sep-30 • 36 minutes Greenland's ice will melt faster than any time in the past 12,000 years How current and future ice loss in Greenland compares to the past, and using graphene to make ultra-sensitive radiation detectors. |
| 2020-Sep-23 • 38 minutes After decades of trying, scientists coax plastic particles into a diamond-like structure Coaxing tiny colloid particles into a diamond structure, and manipulating cell death and homeostasis in neurodegenerative disease. |
| 2020-Sep-16 • 36 minutes Genes chart Vikings' spread across Europe Mapping the migration of the Vikings, and the world’s smallest ultrasound device. |
| 2020-Sep-09 • 39 minutes A new way to cool computer chips — from within Keeping electronics from overheating, and how to include minority populations in genetic analyses. |
| 2020-Sep-02 • 36 minutes Revealed: A clearer view of how general anaesthetics actually work Engineering yeast to produce medicines, and the mechanism of anaesthetic action. |
| 2020-Aug-26 • 35 minutes The challenge of reproducing results from ten-year-old code Protecting delicate quantum bits, and a competition to replicate findings from ancient computer code. |
| 2020-Aug-19 • 37 minutes 3D-printing some of the world's lightest materials A new way to produce aerogels opens up their use, and understanding how sulfur can change state between two liquids. |
| 2020-Aug-12 • 32 minutes The chemical that turns locusts from Jekyll into Hyde Triggering swarming behaviour in locusts, and new insights into how humans synchronize. |
| 2020-Aug-07 • 18 minutes Audio long-read: Pluto’s dark side is overflowing with secrets This is an audio version of our feature: Pluto’s dark side spills its secrets — including hints of a hidden ocean |
| 2020-Jul-29 • 34 minutes Why skin grows bigger as you stretch it Skin's unusual response to stretching is finally explained, and the latest in a huge effort to map DNA |
| 2020-Jul-22 • 42 minutes When did people arrive in the Americas? New evidence stokes debate New evidence may push back the date on human arrival to the Americas, and an examination of science’s flaws.00:59 Ancient AmericansTwo papers suggest that humans were present in the Americas thousands of years before many people ... |
| 2020-Jul-15 • 38 minutes Graphene’s magic angle reveals a new twist Probing the superconducting properties of graphene and bacteria that can use manganese to grow. |
| 2020-Jul-10 • 46 minutes Coronapod: Massive coronavirus outbreak strikes iconic Californian prison after it rejected expert aid San Quentin prison faces the third-largest outbreak in the United States. Legal pressure builds as one in three inmates is infected. |
| 2020-Jul-08 • 25 minutes The six-year-old space agency with hopes for Mars On this week’s podcast, an ambitious Mars mission from a young space agency, and how crumbling up rocks could help fight climate change. |
| 2020-Jul-03 • 33 minutes Coronapod: Lessons from pandemic ‘war-game’ simulations Biosecurity experts use military-style exercises to plan for biological threats. Have their warnings been heeded? |
| 2020-Jul-01 • 23 minutes What the atomic structure of enamel tells us about tooth decay On this week’s podcast, how the molecular structure of tooth enamel may impact decay, and a mysterious planetary core from a half-formed gas giant. |
| 2020-Jun-26 • 32 minutes Coronapod: The state of the pandemic, six months in Lockdowns are lifting but global infections are still rising. We take stock as we enter the next chapter of the outbreak. |
| 2020-Jun-24 • 27 minutes How playing poker can help you make decisions On this week’s podcast, life lessons from poker, and keeping things civil during peer review. |
| 2020-Jun-19 • 38 minutes Coronapod: Dexamethasone, the cheap steroid that could cut coronavirus deaths Hope rises as the first potentially life-saving treatment emerges from drug trials. |
| 2020-Jun-17 • 29 minutes Incest in the elite of Neolithic Ireland This week, researchers make diamonds tough, and evidence of incest in a 5,000 year old tomb.In this episode:00:51 Tough versus hardDiamonds are famed for their hardness, but they are not so resistant to fracture. Now, researchers have toughened ... |
| 2020-Jun-15 • 16 minutes Long Read Podcast: Enigmatic neutron stars may soon give up their secrets An instrument on the International Space Station is providing new insights into some of the Universe’s most baffling objects. |
| 2020-Jun-12 • 34 minutes Coronapod: The Surgisphere scandal that rocked coronavirus drug research The latest from the hydroxychloroquine saga, as a questionable dataset threatens trust in science and forces major journals to review their processes. |
| 2020-Jun-11 • 22 minutes The quantum space lab This week, the spaceborne lab that allows investigation of quantum states, and the debate surrounding how mountain height is maintained. |
| 2020-Jun-09 • 1 minutes #ShutDownSTEM and the Nature Podcast On the tenth of June, Nature will be joining #ShutdownStem #strike4blacklives. We will be educating ourselves and defining actions we can take to help eradicate anti-Black racism in academia and STEM . Please join us.https://www.shutdownstem.com/... |
| 2020-Jun-05 • 25 minutes Coronapod: The heavy toll on people of colour The coronavirus is killing a disproportionate number of people of colour. As systemic injustices are brought to the fore across the world, what can be done to address the virus's unequal burden? |
| 2020-Jun-03 • 24 minutes Lab-made skin grows its own hair This week, a new method to grow hairy skin in a dish, and new research takes aim at the RNA world hypothesis. |
| 2020-May-29 • 27 minutes Coronapod: The divisive hydroxychloroquine study that's triggering mass confusion 00:59 Chloroquine on rocky groundPresident Trump's preferred coronavirus treatment is the focus of a new study suggesting it could cause more harm than good, but not everybody agrees. We discuss the fallout as trials around the world are paused a... |
| 2020-May-27 • 20 minutes Super-efficient catalyst boosts hopes for hydrogen fuel This week, perfecting catalysts that split water using light, and the mystery of missing matter in the Universe. |
| 2020-May-22 • 34 minutes Coronapod: Hope and caution greet vaccine trial result, and Trump vs the WHO The first results from vaccine trials are promising, but scientists still urge caution, and Trump issues an ultimatum to the WHO. |
| 2020-May-20 • 22 minutes A synthetic eye that 'sees' like a human This week, crafting an artificial eye with the benefits of a human's, and understanding how disk-galaxies formed by peering back in time. |
| 2020-May-15 • 32 minutes Coronapod: The misinformation pandemic, and science funding fears With questionable coronavirus content flooding airwaves and online channels, what’s being done to limit its impact? |
| 2020-May-13 • 20 minutes The super-sleuth who spots trouble in science papers, and the puzzle of urban smog This week, Elisabeth Bik tells us about her work uncovering potential image manipulation, and a new route for particulate pollution formation. |
| 2020-May-08 • 28 minutes Coronapod: The dangers of ignoring outbreaks in homeless shelters, plus coronavirus and drug abuse Outbreaks among those unable to isolate are spreading under the radar. We hear about the researchers scrambling to get a handle on the situation. |
| 2020-May-06 • 22 minutes 07 May 2020: Galileo and the science deniers, and physicists probe the mysterious pion This week, a new way to study elusive subatomic particles - pions, and the story of Galileo remains relevant in a time of modern science denialism. |
| 2020-May-01 • 32 minutes Coronapod: What use are contact tracing apps? And new hopes for coronavirus drug remdesivir The Coronapod team pick through the latest news, plus we hear from the researchers making lemonade out of lockdown lemons. |
| 2020-Apr-29 • 23 minutes 30 April 2020: A sniff test for consciousness, and how to cut antibiotics use — with vaccines This week, how the ‘sniff-response’ can help clinicians determine a patient's state of consciousness, and how vaccines could help drive down antibiotic use. |
| 2020-Apr-24 • 33 minutes Coronapod: The race to expand antibody testing We discuss the role of antibody tests in controlling the pandemic, and how public-health spending could curtail an economic crisis. Also on the show, the open hardware community's efforts to produce medical equipment. |
| 2020-Apr-22 • 23 minutes 23 April 2020: Denisovan DNA in modern Europeans, and the birth of an unusual celestial object This week, evidence of ancient hominin DNA in modern human genomes, and the origin of a snowman-shaped object at the edge of the solar system. |
| 2020-Apr-17 • 30 minutes Coronapod: Troubling news Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss Trump withholding funds from the WHO, and how COVID-19 kills. We also hear about controlling misinformation while communicating risk. |
| 2020-Apr-10 • 31 minutes Coronapod: An untapped resource Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss the labs struggling to get involved in diagnostic testing, and should you be wearing a mask? |
| 2020-Apr-08 • 17 minutes 09 April 2020: A plastic-recycling enzyme, and supercooled molecules This week, a new enzyme speeds up the breakdown of plastic bottles, and a method to cool molecules to a fraction above absolute zero. |
| 2020-Apr-03 • 36 minutes Coronapod: Ramping up responses The latest on the British response, and what low- and middle-income countries have done to prepare for the pandemic. |
| 2020-Apr-01 • 18 minutes 02 April 2020: Dating an ancient hominid skull, and an ancient Antarctic rainforest This week, reassessing the age of the ‘Broken Hill skull’, and unearthing evidence of an ancient forest near the South Pole. |
| 2020-Mar-27 • 26 minutes Coronapod: Old treatments and new hopes Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss efforts to develop treatments for COVID-19. |
| 2020-Mar-25 • 16 minutes 25 March 2020: Ultra-fast electrical switches, and computing heart health This week, a speedy, yet simple switch, and a video-based AI helps assess heart health. |
| 2020-Mar-21 • 13 minutes Podcast Extra: Rosamund Pike on portraying Marie Curie Radioactive is a new biopic on Marie Skłodowska Curie with Rosamund Pike taking on the role of Curie. This Podcast Extra is an extended version of reporter Lizzie Gibney's interview with Rosamund, in which they talk about stepping into th... |
| 2020-Mar-20 • 21 minutes Coronapod: “Test, test, test!” In the first of our new podcast series, Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss the epidemiology needed to control the Covid-19 outbreak. |
| 2020-Mar-18 • 20 minutes 19 March 2020: Rosamund Pike in Radioactive, and the resurgence of Russian science This week, we speak to Rosamund Pike about her experience portraying Marie Skłodowska Curie, and we find out how science in Russia is changing after years of decline.In this episode:01:43 RadioactiveBritish actor Rosamund Pike tells us about her... |
| 2020-Mar-17 • 18 minutes Podcast Extra: Coronavirus - science in the pandemic In this Podcast Extra, we hear from epidemiologists, genomicists and social scientists about how they're working to tackle the coronavirus and what they've learned so far. |
| 2020-Mar-13 • 15 minutes Long Read Podcast: Are feelings more than skin deep? Research in the 1960s and 1970s suggested that emotional expressions – smiling when happy, scowling when angry, and so on – were universal. This idea stood unchallenged for a generation. |
| 2020-Mar-11 • 27 minutes 12 March 2020: An ancient bird trapped in amber, and life beneath the ocean floor This week, a newly discovered bird species from the time of the dinosaurs, and microbes hundreds of metres below the ocean floor. |
| 2020-Mar-04 • 24 minutes 05 March 2020: Ultrafast machine vision, and quicker crystal creation This week, improving computers’ image identification, and a new method for growing crystals. |
| 2020-Feb-28 • 15 minutes Backchat: Covering coronavirus In this edition of Backchat we take a deep dive into Nature's coverage of coronavirus. As cases climb, what are some of the challenges involved in reporting on the virus? |
| 2020-Feb-26 • 21 minutes 27 February 2020: Mapping fruit flies’ neural circuitry, and perfecting the properties of metallic glass This week, the brain pathways of egg laying in fruit flies, and preventing fractures in metallic glass. |
| 2020-Feb-26 • 5 minutes Podcast Extra: ‘There is lots of anxiety’: a scientist’s view from South Korea In recent days, the number of coronavirus cases have surged in South Korea.In this Podcast Extra Nick Howe speaks to Bartosz Gryzbowski, a researcher based in the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, which is just 60km away from epice... |
| 2020-Feb-19 • 28 minutes 20 February 2020: Improving battery charging, and harnessing energy from the air This week, machine learning helps batteries charge faster, and using bacterial nanowires to generate electricity from thin air. |
| 2020-Feb-12 • 27 minutes 13 February 2020: The puzzling structures of muddled materials, and paving the way for the quantum internet This week, uncovering the structure of materials with useful properties, and quantum entanglement over long distances. |
| 2020-Feb-05 • 26 minutes 06 February 2020: Out-of-office emails and work-life-balance, and an update on the novel coronavirus outbreak This week, how setting an out-of-office email could help promote a kinder academic culture. |
| 2020-Jan-29 • 28 minutes 30 January 2020: Linking Australian bushfires to climate change, and Asimov's robot ethics This week, establishing the role of climate change in Australian bushfires, and revisiting Isaac Asimov’s ethical rules for robots. |
| 2020-Jan-22 • 26 minutes 23 January: How stress can cause grey hair, and the attitude needed to tackle climate change 23 January: How stress can cause grey hair, and the attitude needed to tackle climate change |
| 2020-Jan-15 • 26 minutes 16 January 2020: Strange objects at the centre of the galaxy, and improving measurements of online activity Strange objects at the centre of the galaxy, and improving measurements of online activity. |
| 2020-Jan-08 • 11 minutes 09 January 2020: A look ahead at science in 2020 In this episode of the podcast, Nature reporter Davide Castelvecchi joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2020. |
| 2020-Jan-01 • 39 minutes 01 January 2020: Our reporters’ top picks of 2019 In this special round-up episode of the Nature Podcast, our reporters choose their favourite podcast piece of 2019.In this episode:00:33 A sole sensationA study of people who do and don't wear shoes looks into whether calluses make feet les... |
| 2019-Dec-27 • 12 minutes Nature PastCast, December 1920: The Quantum Theory This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.In this episode, we’re heading back to the early twentieth century, ... |
| 2019-Dec-23 • 18 minutes Podcast Extra: From climate lawyer to climate activist In this Podcast Extra, Nature's Chief Opinion Editor Sara Abdulla meets with Farhana Yamin to discuss why she ditched resolutions in favour of activism. This is an extended version of an interview originally broadcast in September. |
| 2019-Dec-20 • 11 minutes Podcast Extra: Epigenetics As part of Nature's 150th anniversary celebrations, Nick Howe dives into the topic of epigenetics.Since its origin in 1942, the term 'epigenetics' has been repeatedly defined and redefined. There's always been h... |
| 2019-Dec-18 • 33 minutes 19 December 2019: The three-body problem, and festive fun We’ve launched our 2019 listener survey. We want to know what you think of the show to help us make a great podcast. You can find the survey here. Thanks!This week, a solution to a centuries-old physics problem, and holiday shenanigans.I... |
| 2019-Dec-16 • 16 minutes Long Read Podcast: How to save coral reefs as the world warms Research groups around the world are exploring new ways of protecting coral reefs from climate change.This is an audio version of our feature: These corals could survive climate change — and help save the world’s reefs. |
| 2019-Dec-11 • 27 minutes 12 December 2019: Social priming, and acoustic science This week, the embattled field of social priming, and the latest sounds from a big acoustic meeting. |
| 2019-Dec-04 • 28 minutes 05 December 2019: Genomic sequencing and the source of solar winds This week, exploring two very different issues with genomic sequencing, and the latest results from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. |
| 2019-Nov-29 • 14 minutes Nature Pastcast, November 1869: The first issue of Nature In this episode, we’re heading back to 4 November 1869, when Nature’s story began. |
| 2019-Nov-27 • 25 minutes 28 November 2019: Nature’s 2019 PhD survey, and older women in sci-fi novels This week, delving into the results of the latest graduate student survey, and assessing ageism in science fiction literature. |
| 2019-Nov-20 • 19 minutes 21 November 2019: A new antibiotic from nematode guts, grant funding ‘lotteries’, and butterfly genomes This week, an antibiotic that targets hard-to-treat bacteria, and a roundup of the latest science news.In this episode:00:49 Discovering darobactinResearchers looked inside nematode guts and have identified a new antibiotic with some useful prop... |
| 2019-Nov-13 • 23 minutes 14 November 2019: A rapid, multi-material 3D printer, and a bacterium’s role in alcoholic hepatitis This week, a new 3D printer allows quick shifting between many materials, and understanding the link between gut microbes and liver disease.00:46 A new dimension for 3D printersA new nozzle lets a 3D printer switch between materials at a rapid rate... |
| 2019-Nov-07 • 18 minutes Backchat: Nature's 150th anniversary This week marks 150 years since the first issue of Nature was published, on 4 November 1869. In this anniversary edition of Backchat, the panel take a look back at how the journal has evolved in this time. |
| 2019-Nov-06 • 31 minutes 07 November 2019: The fossil of an upright ape, science in 150 years, and immunization progress around the world This week, insights into the evolution of walking upright, how science needs to change in the next 150 years, and the unfinished agenda for vaccines. |
| 2019-Oct-31 • 13 minutes Nature Pastcast, October 1993: Carl Sagan uses Galileo to search for signs of life This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.In the early 1990s, a team of astrophysicists led by Carl Sagan look... |
| 2019-Oct-30 • 25 minutes 31 October 2019: An AI masters the video game StarCraft II, and measuring arthropod abundance This week, a computer beats the best human players in StarCraft II, and a huge study of insects and other arthropods.In this episode:00:45 Learning to playBy studying and experimenting, an AI has reached Grandmaster level at the video game Starc... |
| 2019-Oct-28 • 10 minutes Podcast Extra: Detecting gravitational waves As part of Nature's 150th anniversary celebrations, we look back at an important moment in the history of science. |
| 2019-Oct-23 • 27 minutes 24 October 2019: Quantum supremacy and ancient mammals This week, a milestone in quantum computing, and rethinking early mammals. |
| 2019-Oct-16 • 24 minutes 17 October 2019: Mapping childhood mortality, and evolving ‘de novo’ genes This week, investigating child mortality rates at a local level, and building genes from non-coding DNA.In this episode:00:43 A regional view of childhood mortalityResearchers map countries' progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development... |
| 2019-Oct-09 • 24 minutes 10 October 2019: Estimating earthquake risk, and difficulties for deep-learning This week, a method for predicting follow-up earthquakes, and the issues with deep learning systems in AI.In this episode:00:47 Which is the big quake?A new technique could allow seismologists to better predict if a larger earthquake will follow... |
| 2019-Oct-09 • 4 minutes Podcast Extra: Q&A with Nobel Prize winner John B Goodenough In this Podcast Extra, we speak to John B Goodenough, from the University of Texas at Austin in the US. Today, John was announced as one of the joint winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. |
| 2019-Oct-08 • 8 minutes Podcast Extra: Q&A with Nobel Prize winner Didier Queloz In this Podcast Extra, we speak to physicist Didier Queloz, who was announced today as one of the joint winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics. Reporter Benjamin Thompson went along to chat with him. |
| 2019-Oct-02 • 26 minutes 03 October 2019: Leapfrogging speciation, and migrating mosquitoes This week, how new species may form by sexual imprinting, and a previously unknown way for mosquitoes to migrate.In this episode:00:43 New species by sexual imprinting?A Central American frog chooses mates resembling its parents, a possible rout... |
| 2019-Sep-27 • 16 minutes Nature PastCast, September 1963: Plate tectonics – the unifying theory of Earth sciences This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.Earthquakes, volcanoes, the form... |
| 2019-Sep-25 • 24 minutes 26 September 2019: Mysteries of the ancient mantle, and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy This week, diamond-containing rocks may help uncover secrets of the Earth’s mantle, and a reflection on science since the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was published.In this episode:00:46 Earth’s EvolutionExplosive eruptions have allowed resea... |
| 2019-Sep-21 • 16 minutes Podcast Extra: Absurd scientific advice How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems is the new book from XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe. In this Podcast Extra, Randall talks about the book, its inspiration and the bizarre thought experiments it contains. |
| 2019-Sep-19 • 19 minutes Backchat: Covering Climate Now In this episode:00:44 A global media collaborationThis week, Nature is taking part in the Covering Climate Now project. What is it, and why has Nature joined? Editorial: Act now and avert a climate crisis05:49 ‘Climate change’ vs ‘climate emerge... |
| 2019-Sep-18 • 26 minutes 19 September 2019: XKCD, and Extinction Rebellion This week, absurd advice from XKCD’s Randall Munroe, and a conversation climate lawyer turned activist Farhana Yamin. |
| 2019-Sep-11 • 24 minutes 12 September 2019: Modelling early embryos, and male-dominated conferences This week, modelling embryonic development, and an analysis of male dominated conferences.In this episode:00:44 Imitating implantationResearchers have created a system that uses stem cells to model the early stages of pregnancy. Resear... |
| 2019-Sep-04 • 26 minutes 05 September 2019: Persistent antibiotic resistance, and modelling hot cities This week, Salmonella spreading antibiotic resistance, and the drivers of urban heat islands.In this episode: 00:46 Antibiotic resistance reservoirsResearchers have identified how Salmonella ‘persister’ cells can spread... |
| 2019-Aug-30 • 19 minutes Nature PastCast, August 1975: Antibodies’ ascendency to blockbuster drug status This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.They’re found in home-testing kits for pregnancy, hospital tests for... |
| 2019-Aug-28 • 26 minutes 29 August 2019: Carbon-based computing, and depleting ancient-human genomes This week, a computer chip based on carbon nanotubes, and the potential pitfalls of sequencing ancient-human remains.In this episode: 00:45 A nanotube microprocessorScientists are looking beyond silicon, by constructing a computer chip u... |
| 2019-Aug-21 • 24 minutes 22 August 2019: Combating online hate speech, and identifying early fossils This week, the resilience of internet hate groups, and searching for early life.In this episode:00:46 Tackling internet hateResearchers have been modelling how hate groups interact online, and have come up with suggestions to combat this activit... |
| 2019-Aug-14 • 25 minutes 15 August 2019: Atomic espionage in the Second World War, and exploring the early Universe This week, spilling nuclear secrets, and a mysterious period in the Universe’s history.In this episode:00:46 "The most dangerous spy in history"We hear the story of Klaus Fuchs, who gave away the details of building an atomic bomb.... |
| 2019-Aug-07 • 26 minutes 08 August 2019: A mindset for success, and mercury in fish This week, a mindset to improve school performance, and the complex story of how mercury accumulates in fish.In this episode:00:46 Growth MindsetHow a one hour course could improve academic achievement. Research article: Yeage... |
| 2019-Jul-31 • 20 minutes 01 August 2019: The placental microbiome, and advances in artificial intelligence This week, whether the placenta is lacking microbes, and new hardware for artificial intelligence.In this episode:00:43 Microbe-free placentas?New research suggests that the placenta is sterile. Research article: de Goffau et ... |
| 2019-Jul-26 • 15 minutes Nature PastCast, July 1942: Secret science in World War 2 This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science. |
| 2019-Jul-24 • 19 minutes 25 July 2019: The history of climate change, and making vaccines mandatory This week, how the climate has changed throughout history, and why enforcing vaccination should be done with care.In this episode:00:39 Climate through timeResearchers have modelled how climate has changed throughout the past 2000 years.&nbs... |
| 2019-Jul-19 • 26 minutes Backchat July 2019: Breaking news, audience-led journalism and human gene editing In this episode:01:01 Breaking NewsThe first image of a black hole took the world by storm, but what was it like reporting such a quickly developing story? News: Black hole pictured for first time — in spectacular detail;&nbs... |
| 2019-Jul-17 • 27 minutes 18 July 2019: Quantum logic gates in silicon, and moving on from lab disasters This week, a new advance in silicon based quantum computing and experiences of how to recover when disaster strikes.In this episode:00:45 Quantum logicA fast and accurate two-qubit logic gate has been designed in silicon. Research arti... |
| 2019-Jul-10 • 13 minutes 11 July 2019: The moon, past, present, and future This week, an extended chat about all things lunar with Alex Witze.Instead of a regular edition of the Nature Podcast, this week we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of humans walking on the Moon. Nick Howe catches up with planetary scien... |
| 2019-Jul-03 • 23 minutes 04 July 2019: Machine learning in materials science, and sand’s sustainability This week, using an algorithm to find properties in materials science, and the global consequences of sand-mining.In this episode:00:47 Predicting propertiesA word-association algorithm is reading millions of abstracts to discover new properties... |
| 2019-Jun-28 • 16 minutes Nature PastCast, June 1876: Gorillas, man-eating monsters? This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science. |
| 2019-Jun-26 • 27 minutes 27 June 2019: Callused feet, and protein-based archaeology This week, how wearing shoes might affect foot sensitivity, and uncovering history with ancient proteins. |
| 2019-Jun-19 • 24 minutes 20 June 2019: Non-native species, and a blood-inspired robot battery This week, what makes birds invasive, and a robotic fish powered by a blood-like battery.In this episode:00:44 How do alien bird species establish themselves?Researchers have been looking at how bird species settle in non-native locations.&n... |
| 2019-Jun-12 • 24 minutes 13 June 2019: Mighty magnets, and aerosols in the atmosphere This week, a record-breaking magnetic field, and aerosols’ potential effects on the atmosphere. |
| 2019-Jun-05 • 21 minutes 06 June 2019: Microbes modifying medicine and kickstarting plate tectonics This week, how gut microbes might be affecting drugs, and a new theory on the beginning of plate tectonics.In this episode:00:45 Microbes metabolising drugsResearchers are investigating whether the gut microbiota can alter the activity of medici... |
| 2019-May-31 • 16 minutes Nature PastCast May 1983: Discovering the ozone layer hole This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.The discovery of the ozone hole in the mid-1980s was a shock. Scient... |
| 2019-May-30 • 16 minutes 30 May 2019: Cold fusion, gender parity in universities, and studying wildfires This week, looking back at cold fusion, a ranking of gender balance in universities, and measuring the impact of wildfires. |
| 2019-May-22 • 28 minutes 23 May 2019: Pre-industrial plankton populations, European science, and ancient fungi. This week, how climate change has affected plankton, the future of European science, and evidence of an ancient fungus. |
| 2019-May-15 • 24 minutes 16 May 2019: Recoding genomes, and material from the Moon's far side This week, rewriting the script of life, and a trip to the far side of the Moon. |
| 2019-May-08 • 21 minutes 09 May 2019: Urban vs Rural BMI, and the health of rivers This week, body mass increases around the world, and river connections in decline. |
| 2019-May-01 • 27 minutes 02 May 2019: China's growing science network, and talking brain signals This week, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and translating brain patterns into speech. |
| 2019-Apr-26 • 14 minutes Nature PastCast April 1953: The other DNA papers This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.Over 60 years ago, James Watson and Francis Crick published their f... |
| 2019-Apr-25 • 11 minutes 25 April 2019: Tiny earthquakes, the genetics of height, and how US-China politics is affecting research This week we’ve got an extended News Chat between presenter Benjamin Thompson and Nature's European Bureau Chief Nisha Gaind. They discuss a new way to identify tiny earthquakes, new insights into the heritability of height, and how political tens... |
| 2019-Apr-17 • 28 minutes 18 April 2019: Reviving brains, lightning, and spring books This week, restoring function in dead pig brains, spring science books, and the structure of lightning.If you have any questions about the partly-revived brains study, then the reporters at Nature are keen to answer them. You can submit them at the ... |
| 2019-Apr-11 • 7 minutes Podcast Extra: The first image of a black hole This week, researchers released the first image of a black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy. In this special News Chat, Nature reporter Davide Castelvecchi, who was at a press conference in Brussels where the image was announced, tells Benjamin Tho... |
| 2019-Apr-10 • 24 minutes 11 April 2019: Heart failure and vacuum field fluctuations. This week, a new mouse model for heart failure and characterising energy fluctuations in empty space. |
| 2019-Apr-03 • 26 minutes 04 April 2019: MDMA and the malleable mind, and keeping skin young This week, why MDMA could make social interactions more rewarding, and how your skin keeps itself youthful. |
| 2019-Mar-29 • 21 minutes Backchat March 2019: Calls for a research moratorium, and the evolution of science reporting In this month’s roundtable, our reporters discuss calls to pause heritable genome-editing research, and how science journalism has changed in the past 20 years. |
| 2019-Mar-27 • 30 minutes 28 March 2019: Human impacts on Mount Kilimanjaro, sex differences in pain, and a crystal-based cooling method This week, how humans are affecting Kilimanjaro's ecosystems, differences in pain based on biological sex, and refrigerating with crystals. |
| 2019-Mar-20 • 25 minutes 21 March 2019: Antibiotics in orchards, and rethinking statistical significance This week, a plan to spray antibiotics onto orange trees, and is it time to retire statistical significance? |
| 2019-Mar-15 • 16 minutes Nature Pastcast March 1918: The eclipse expedition to put Einstein to the test This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our Pastcast series, bringing to life key moments in the history of science.As the First World War draws to an end, astron... |
| 2019-Mar-14 • 12 minutes 14 March 2019: Ebola in DRC, a new HIV treatment, and the proposed US budget. Instead of a regular edition of the Nature Podcast, this week we’ve got an extended News Chat between Benjamin Thompson and Amy Maxmen. They discuss the ongoing Ebola outbreak in DRC, an injectable treatment for HIV, and how the proposed US 2020 budget... |
| 2019-Mar-06 • 27 minutes 07 March 2019: Coastal carbon-sinks, mobile health, and Mileva Marić This week, wetlands' ability to store carbon, mobile health, and the story of Mileva Marić. |
| 2019-Feb-27 • 31 minutes 28 February 2019: Cuckoo parasitism, topological materials, and cannabinoids in yeast. This week, the parenting strategies of a tropical cuckoo, increasing the number of topological materials, and growing cannabinoids in yeast. |
| 2019-Feb-20 • 25 minutes 21 February 2019: Mouse cell atlases and cataloguing viruses This week, mapping every cell in a mouse embryo and the benefits of cataloguing all the viruses on Earth. |
| 2019-Feb-13 • 24 minutes 14 February 2019: Atherosclerosis and disruptive science This week, the links between atherosclerosis and sleep-deprivation, and how team size affects research outputs. |
| 2019-Feb-06 • 25 minutes 07 February 2019: Massive chemical libraries, and CRISPR-CasX This week, virtual drug discovery, and a new addition to the CRISPR toolkit. |
| 2019-Jan-30 • 22 minutes 31 January 2019: Women of the periodic table, and harvesting energy from Wi-Fi This week, the female chemists who helped build the periodic table, and harnessing the extra energy in Wi-Fi signals. |
| 2019-Jan-23 • 23 minutes 24 January 2019: Economic downturns and black holes This week, the effects of recessions on public health, and simulating supermassive black holes. |
| 2019-Jan-16 • 23 minutes 17 January 2019: RNA splicing in yeast, and a walking fossil This week, investigating introns’ roles, and reanimating a fossil. |
| 2019-Jan-11 • 11 minutes Podcast Extra: The search for a rare disease treatment Nick Sireau’s sons have a rare genetic disease called alkaptonuria, which can lead to body tissues becoming brittle, causing life long health issues.In this Podcast Extra, Geoff Marsh speaks to Nick and to the physician Dr Lakshminarayan Ranganath a... |
| 2019-Jan-09 • 21 minutes 10 January 2019: Fast Radio Bursts and new year future gazing This week, detecting intergalactic radio bursts, and seeing what’s in store for science in 2019. |
| 2018-Dec-26 • 23 minutes 26 December 2018: Our reporters' top picks of 2018 In this special round-up episode of the Nature Podcast, a few of our regular reporters choose their favourite podcast piece of 2018, and explain why they enjoyed making it. |
| 2018-Dec-19 • 34 minutes 20 December 2018: Quantum physics adds a twist, and festive fun The Nature Podcast’s 2018 end of year special, including songs, books, our annual quiz, and more! |
| 2018-Dec-13 • 10 minutes Podcast Extra: Evidence of a ‘transmissible’ Alzheimer’s protein New research suggests that a key protein involved in the neurodegenerative disease can be transferred between brains. |
| 2018-Dec-12 • 24 minutes 13 December 2018: The art of performing science, and chiral chemistry This week, ‘performing’ experiments, and making mirrored molecules. |
| 2018-Dec-05 • 24 minutes 06 December 2018: Heart xenotransplants and phage fighting This week, improving heart xenotransplants, and soil bacteria versus phages. |
| 2018-Nov-28 • 24 minutes 29 November 2018: Atomic clock accuracy and wind farm worries This week, measuring gravity’s strength with clocks, and worries over wind farms’ wakes. |
| 2018-Nov-21 • 24 minutes 22 November 2018: An ion-drive aeroplane, and DNA rearrangement. This week, a solid-state plane engine with no moving parts, and ‘mosaicism’ in brain cells. |
| 2018-Nov-14 • 22 minutes 15 November 2018: Barnard’s Star, and clinical trials This week, evidence of a nearby exoplanet, and clinical trials in a social media world. |
| 2018-Nov-07 • 25 minutes 08 November 2018: Designer cells, and a Breakthrough researcher This week, building a cell from the bottom up, and a Breakthough Prize winner |
| 2018-Oct-31 • 23 minutes 01 November 2018: Mood forecasting technology, and where are the WIMPs? This week, the role that mood forecasting technology may play in suicide prevention, and a 'crisis' in dark matter research. |
| 2018-Oct-17 • 24 minutes 18 October 2018: Cannabis horticulture and the Sun's place in history This week, how science can help Canadian cannabis growers and a potted history of the Sun. |
| 2018-Oct-10 • 23 minutes 11 October 2018: The life of a new Nobel laureate and organised ants This week, what life is like when you've just won a Nobel prize, and how a vestigial organ helps ants get organised. |
| 2018-Oct-03 • 31 minutes 04 October 2018: Latent HIV, bird personalities and the Hyabusa2 mission This week, targeting latent HIV, the breeding behaviour of bold birds, and an update on a near-Earth asteroid mission. |
| 2018-Sep-26 • 22 minutes 27 September 2018: A wearable biosensor and a mechanical metamaterial. This week, an ultra-thin, wearable biosensor and a multi-shape, mechanical metamaterial. |
| 2018-Sep-19 • 25 minutes 20 September 2018: Negative emissions and swarms under strain This week, the ethics of sucking carbon-dioxide out of the atmosphere and bee swarms under strain. |
| 2018-Sep-12 • 25 minutes 13 September 2018: The oldest drawing and the energy of data This week, the oldest drawing ever found, and the hidden energy costs of data. |
| 2018-Sep-05 • 23 minutes 6 September 2018: Space junk, and a physicist’s perspective on life This week, keeping an eye on space junk, and how a physicist changed our understanding of life. |
| 2018-Aug-29 • 23 minutes 30 August 2018: Gravity’s big G and the evolution of babies This week, an early mammal relative’s babies, and new attempts to pin down the strength of gravity. |
| 2018-Aug-24 • 24 minutes Backchat August 2018: Audio reporting, audience feedback, and Brexit In this month’s roundtable, audio vs print reporting, returning to Brexit, and finding out about our audience. |
| 2018-Aug-22 • 25 minutes 23 August 2018: Quantum computers and labour division in ants This week, colony size and labour division in ants, and simulating a quantum system on a quantum computer. |
| 2018-Aug-15 • 30 minutes 16 August 2018: Bumblebees, opioids, and ocean weather This week, more worries for bees, modelling the opioid crisis, and rough weather for seas. |
| 2018-Aug-08 • 27 minutes 8 August 2018: Fox aggression, microbiota and geoengineering This week, shaping the gut microbiota, geoengineering’s effect on farming, and the genetics of fox aggression. |
| 2018-Aug-01 • 32 minutes 02 August 2018: Zebra finch colour perception, terraforming Mars, and attributing extreme weather This week, how a bird sees colour, potential problems with terraforming Mars, and linking extreme weather to our changing climate. |
| 2018-Jul-25 • 29 minutes 26 July 2018: Conservation, automata, and pet DNA tests This week, automata through the ages, problems with pet DNA tests, and a conservation conundrum. |
| 2018-Jul-18 • 27 minutes 19 July 2018: DNA scaffolds, climate-altering microbes, and a robot chemist This week, tougher DNA nanostructures, climate-altering permafrost microbes, and using a robot to discover chemical reactions. |
| 2018-Jul-11 • 31 minutes 12 July 2018: Rats, reefs, and career streaks This week, rats and coral reefs, charting successful careers streaks, and Cape Town’s water crisis. |
| 2018-Jul-04 • 31 minutes 05 July 2018: A DNA computer, the koala genome, and the invisibility of LGBTQ+ researchers This week, investigating the koala genome, the issues facing LGBTQ+ researchers, and a DNA-based neural network. |
| 2018-Jun-29 • 19 minutes Backchat June 2018: Lab health, email briefings, and CRISPR In this month’s roundtable, we discuss lab health, email briefings, and how science stories can affect the stock market. |
| 2018-Jun-27 • 29 minutes 27 June 2018: Air pollution, sick plants, and stress This week, the relationship between air pollution and infant death in Africa, stressed brains, and diagnosing sick plants from afar. |
| 2018-Jun-20 • 27 minutes 21 June 2018: Pancreatic cancer, silica cages, and AI bias This week, pancreatic cancer-related weight loss, tiny silica cages, and bias in Artificial Intelligence algorithms. |
| 2018-Jun-13 • 33 minutes 14 June 2018: Baobab tree death, zebrafish stem cells, and ice in Antarctica This week, the mysterious death of African baobab trees, Antarctica’s past, present, and future, and how zebrafish protect their stem cells. |
| 2018-Jun-06 • 31 minutes 07 June 2018: Magnetic animal migration, cold enzymes, and mouse memory This week, making enzymes work better in the cold, short-term memory production in mice, and magnetic detection in animals. |
| 2018-May-30 • 24 minutes 31 May 2018: Boosting diversity in physics, and life after an asteroid impact This week, boosting diversity in physics graduate programs, and life’s recovery after a massive asteroid impact. |
| 2018-May-23 • 32 minutes 24 May 2018: Climate costs, cleverer cab journeys, and peering through matter with muons This week, estimating the economic cost of climate change, a new solution to the Minimum Fleet Problem, and the flourishing field of muography. |
| 2018-May-16 • 28 minutes 17 May 2018: Probing the proton, research misconduct, and making sense of mystery genes This week, peering inside the proton, identifying the pitfalls of research misconduct, and identifying what bacterial genes of unknown function actually do. |
| 2018-May-09 • 29 minutes 10 May 2018: AI neuroscience, liquid crystals, and depression in academia This week, artificial intelligence recreates our sense of place, liquid crystals deliver cargo, and experiencing depression in academia. |
| 2018-May-02 • 29 minutes 03 May 2018: Building early embryos, the fear response in mice, and ancient rhino remains This week, constructing early embryos, how mice react to danger, and what an ancient butchered rhino is telling us about hominin migration. |
| 2018-Apr-25 • 21 minutes 26 April 2018: Mini brains, and an updated enzyme image This week, the ethical questions raised by model minds, and an updated view on an enzyme that keeps chromosomes protected. |
| 2018-Apr-20 • 28 minutes Backchat April 2018: Sexual harassment, social media, and celebrity scientists In this month’s roundtable, we discuss celebrity scientists, sexual harassment in research, and the science behind a social media scandal. |
| 2018-Apr-18 • 31 minutes 19 April 2018: Synchronised shrimp, supernova science, and spring books. This week, tiny sea creatures with potentially big effects, the science of a supernova, and a roundup of spring books. |
| 2018-Apr-11 • 23 minutes 12 April 2018: The power of remote sensing, and watching a neutron star glitch This week, looking for glitchy signals from neutron stars, and using remote sensing in research. |
| 2018-Apr-04 • 24 minutes 05 April 2018: Human's influence on the Mississippi and 'dirty' mice This week, dissecting human influence on the Mississippi's floods, and getting 'dirty' mice into the lab. |
| 2018-Mar-28 • 23 minutes 29 March 2018: AI in chemistry, and liquid droplets in living cells. This week, testing a neural network's chemistry skills, and what the physics of droplets is teaching us about the biology of cells. |
| 2018-Mar-21 • 30 minutes 22 March 2018: Mexican cavefish, the gut microbiome, and a wearable brain scanner. This week, glucose metabolism in Mexican cavefish, the effect of non-antibiotic drugs on gut microbes, and a wearable brain scanner. |
| 2018-Mar-14 • 23 minutes 15 March 2018: Geoengineering Antarctica and increasing NMR’s resolution. This week, geoengineering glaciers to prevent sea level rise, and using diamonds to improve NMR’s resolution. |
| 2018-Mar-07 • 22 minutes 8 March 2018: Surprising graphene superconductors, and 50 years dreaming of electric sheep. This week, graphene’s latest superpower, and a retrospective of a sci-fi classic. |
| 2018-Feb-28 • 31 minutes 1 March 2018: Brain waves and a fingerprint from the early Universe This week, the landscape of childhood cancers, physicists find a fingerprint from the early Universe, and brain waves cause a splash. |
| 2018-Feb-23 • 24 minutes Backchat February 2018: Luck, debate, and the quantum internet Our reporters discuss the role of serendipity in science, how to cover the iterative nature of research, and what the quantum internet might become. |
| 2018-Feb-21 • 28 minutes 22 February 2018: A focus on adolescence This week, a teenage special: defining adolescence; high school researchers; and the science of teen risk taking. |
| 2018-Feb-14 • 27 minutes 15 February 2018: Optical clocks, healthy ageing, and fieldwork during pregnancy This week, refocusing ageing research, a transportable optical clock, and researching during pregnancy. |
| 2018-Feb-07 • 30 minutes 08 February 2018: Tough timber, magpie intelligence, and invasive crayfish This week, crayfish clones in Madagascar, the social smarts of magpies, and building tougher wood. |
| 2018-Jan-31 • 21 minutes 01 February 2018: Stone Age tools in India, and coral reefs in crisis This week, reframing humans' arrival in India, and the many hazards facing coral reefs. |
| 2018-Jan-24 • 29 minutes 25 January 2018: Tiny robots, 3D images, and a honeycomb maze This week, a mini all-terrain robot, 3D painting with light, and a new maze for rats. |
| 2018-Jan-17 • 24 minutes 18 January 2018: Climate sensitivity, and the fetal microbiome This week, pinning down the climate's carbon dioxide sensitivity, and the battle over babies' first bacteria. |
| 2018-Jan-10 • 32 minutes 10 January 2018: Conflict conservation, and the shape of a memory This week, tabletop physics, what a memory looks like, and conflict's toll on wildlife. |
| 2017-Dec-22 • 25 minutes Backchat December 2017: Trump, physics, and uncited papers Backchat’s back, with discussions of Donald Trump, papers with zero citations, and the perils of writing about physics. |
| 2017-Dec-20 • 38 minutes 21 December 2017: Earth AI, a news quiz, and sci-fi This week, our end of year special, featuring Earth science AI, a news story quiz, and science fiction in the modern era. |
| 2017-Dec-13 • 30 minutes 14 December 2017: Volcanoes, viruses & electric eels This week, electric eel inspired batteries, virus inspired protein shells, and modelling magma viscosity. |
| 2017-Dec-06 • 23 minutes 7 December 2017: Exoplanet geology & duck-like dinosaurs This week, exoplanet geology and a dual-terrain, duck-like dinosaur. |
| 2017-Nov-29 • 24 minutes 30 November 2017: Unnatural DNA & worm mothers This week, reading unnatural DNA, and young worm mothers explain a wriggly riddle. |
| 2017-Nov-22 • 26 minutes 23 November 2017: Sleep deprivation & radioactive lightning This week, lightning gamma rays, the Internet that wasn’t, and the science of sleep deprivation. |
| 2017-Nov-15 • 24 minutes 16 November 2017: Ancient inequality & bacterial communication This week, a bacterial communication system, and ancient houses illuminate inequality. |
| 2017-Nov-08 • 23 minutes 9 November 2017: Axolotls & treating a genetic skin condition This week, a potential stem cell treatment for a genetic skin condition, and the disappearing axolotl. |
| 2017-Nov-01 • 25 minutes 2 November 2017: Evolving verbs & Earth's microbiome This week, squishy sea creatures, evolving verbs, and Earth's microbiome. |
| 2017-Oct-25 • 29 minutes 26 October 2017: Undead cells & Antarctic instability This week, undead cells, the strain of PhDs, and the traces of Antarctic instability. |
| 2017-Oct-19 • 22 minutes 19 October 2017: Neutron star gravitational waves & the future of work This week, neutron stars that are making waves in the physics world, and taking a look at the past to understand the future of work. |
| 2017-Oct-11 • 30 minutes 12 October 2017: A dwarf planet & DNA sequencing This week, a dwarf planet with a ring, 40 years of Sanger DNA sequencing, and the grieving families contributing to a huge genetics projects. |
| 2017-Oct-06 • 60 minutes Nature Extra: 500th show compilation To celebrate our 500th episode, the Nature Podcast asked 8 presenters – past and present – to recommend their favourite contributions to the show. |
| 2017-Oct-04 • 40 minutes Nature Podcast: 5 October 2017 This week, floating cities, malaria free mosquitos, and using evolution to inspire aircraft design. |
| 2017-Sep-20 • 23 minutes Nature Podcast: 21 September 2017 This week, Sherlock Holmes the scientist; and investigating the nanotubes between cells. |
| 2017-Sep-13 • 23 minutes Nature Podcast: 14 September 2017 This week, writing quantum software, and predicting the loss of Asia's glaciers. |
| 2017-Sep-06 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 7 September 2017 Protecting red haired people from cancer, machine learning and gravitational distortions, and peeking inside predatory journals. |
| 2017-Aug-23 • 24 minutes Nature Podcast: 24 August 2017 The creeping danger of slow landslides, and what worms can teach us about the wriggly problem of reproducibility. |
| 2017-Aug-16 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 17 August 2017 This week, preventing genetic diseases in China, a red supergiant star's mystery, and the algal boom. |
| 2017-Aug-11 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 10 August 2017 This week, ancient mammal relatives, complex brain maps, and a 19th century solar eclipse. |
| 2017-Aug-02 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 3 August 2017 This week, the first flower, gene editing human embryos, and the antimatter quest. |
| 2017-Jul-26 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 27 July 2017 This week, a brain-inspired computer, the brain's control of ageing, and Al Gore the climate communicator. |
| 2017-Jul-19 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 20 July 2017 This week, getting a handle on topology, and working out why the fastest animals are medium sized. |
| 2017-Jul-12 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 13 July 2017 This week, defying quantum noise, looking at early signs of autism, and taking steps to assess exercise. |
| 2017-Jul-05 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 6 July 2017 This week, a new kind of quantum bit, the single-cell revolution, and exploring Antarctica’s past to understand sea level rise. |
| 2017-Jul-03 • 26 minutes Grand Challenges: Energy To combat global warming, the world needs to change where it gets its energy from. Three energy experts discuss the challenges of transitioning to low carbon energy, and what advances are needed to make the journey possible. This is the final episode... |
| 2017-Jun-30 • 18 minutes Extra: The grey zone Sometimes people can become trapped in the grey zone between conscious and unconscious states. Kerri Smith talks to neuroscientist Adrian Owen about communicating with patients in vegetative states. |
| 2017-Jun-16 • 23 minutes Backchat: June 2017 Our reporters and editors respond to the UK election. Plus, the tangled taxonomy of our species, and why physicists love to hate the standard model. |
| 2017-Jun-14 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 15 June 2017 This week, treating infection without antibiotics, wireless charging, and making sense of music. |
| 2017-Jun-14 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 15 June 2017 This week, treating infection without antibiotics, wireless charging, and making sense of music. |
| 2017-Jun-07 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 8 June 2017 This week, early Homo sapiens in Morocco, mathematicians trying to stop gerrymandering, and going beyond the standard model. |
| 2017-Jun-05 • 25 minutes Grand Challenges: Food security Millions around the world are chronically hungry. Three experts on agriculture discuss how to help people grow enough food, in a world of evolving technology, global markets and a changing climate. |
| 2017-May-31 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 1 June 2017 This week, ‘sticky’ RNA causes disease, disorganised taxonomy, and 'intelligent crowd' peer review. |
| 2017-May-31 • 7 minutes Nature Extra: Futures May 2017 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from May, ’Life, hacked' by Krystal Claxton. |
| 2017-May-26 • 24 minutes Backchat: May 2017 This month the team are chatting scientific data, scientific papers and... religion. |
| 2017-May-24 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 25 May 2017 This week, E. coli with colour vision, tracing the Zika virus outbreak, and a roadmap for medical microbots. |
| 2017-May-18 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 18 May 2017 This week, wonky vehicle emissions tests, error-prone bots help humans, and animals that lack a microbiome. |
| 2017-May-10 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 11 May 2017 This week, fake antibodies scupper research, the diversity of cells in a tumour, and what happened before tectonic plates? SURVEY: https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/RmZVDI... |
| 2017-May-03 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 4 May 2017 This week, the secret life of the thalamus, how to talks about antibiotic resistance, and dangerous research. Survey link: https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/RmZVDI... |
| 2017-May-01 • 30 minutes Grand Challenges: Ageing Ageing is inevitable, but that doesn't mean we're ready for it - as individuals, or as a society. A geneticist, a psychiatrist and an economist pick apart our knowledge of the ageing process and the major challenges to be solved so we can liv... |
| 2017-Apr-28 • 7 minutes Nature Extra: Futures April 2017 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from March, 'Cold comforts' by Graham Robert Scott. |
| 2017-Apr-26 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 27 April 2017 This week, the earliest Americans, 2D magnets, and the legacy of the Universe’s first ‘baby picture’. |
| 2017-Apr-21 • 24 minutes Backchat: April 2017 Science fans everywhere will take to the streets this weekend in the March for Science. Plus, biases in artificial intelligence and how scientific papers are getting harder to read. |
| 2017-Apr-12 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 13 April 2017 This week, politician scientists, human genetic ‘knockouts’ and East Antarctica’s instability. |
| 2017-Apr-05 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 6 April 2017 This week, easing the pressure on fisheries, protein structure surprises, and your reading list for 2017 so far. |
| 2017-Apr-03 • 28 minutes Grand Challenges: Mental Health Mental health disorders touch rich and poor, young and old, in every country around the world. Hear three experts discuss the evidence for interventions, how to get help to the right people, and which problem, if solved, would help the most. |
| 2017-Mar-31 • 7 minutes Nature Extra: Futures March 2017 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from March, 'Green boughs will cover thee' by Sarah L Byrne. |
| 2017-Mar-29 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 30 March 2017 This week, mapping sound in the brain, dwindling groundwater, and giving common iron uncommon properties. |
| 2017-Mar-23 • 23 minutes Backchat: March 2017 A sting operation finds several predatory journals offered to employ a fictional, unqualified academic as an editor. Plus, the Great Barrier Reef in hot water, and trying to explain 'time crystals'. |
| 2017-Mar-22 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 23 March 2017 This week, peering into a black hole, reorganising the dinosaur family tree and finding drug combos for cancer. |
| 2017-Mar-15 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 16 March 2017 This week, making plane fuel greener, yeast chromosomes synthesised from scratch, and seeking out hidden HIV. |
| 2017-Mar-10 • 16 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - March 1918 As the First World War draws to an end, astronomer Arthur Eddington sets out on a challenging mission: to prove Einstein’s new theory of general relativity by measuring a total eclipse. The experiment became a defining example of how science should be... |
| 2017-Mar-09 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 9 March 2017 This week, the earliest known life, Neanderthal self-medication, and data storage in a single atom. |
| 2017-Mar-01 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 2 March 2017 This week, a migration special: a researcher seeks refuge; smart borders; and climate migration. |
| 2017-Mar-01 • 22 minutes Backchat: February 2017 AI gets creative, stifled stories and incomplete space missions |
| 2017-Feb-27 • 4 minutes Nature Extra: Futures February 2017 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell and Richard Hodson read you their favourite from February, 'Fermi's zookeepers' by David Gullen. |
| 2017-Feb-22 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 23 February 2017 This week, highlights from AAAS, the new epigenetics, and a new way to conduct biomedical research |
| 2017-Feb-15 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 16 February 2017 This week, Winston Churchill’s thoughts on alien life, how cells build walls, and paradoxical materials. |
| 2017-Feb-10 • 12 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - February 1925 Paleontologist Raymond Dart had newly arrived in South Africa when he came across a fossil that would change his life and his science. It was the face, jaw and brain cast of an extinct primate – not quite ape and not quite human. The paleontology... |
| 2017-Feb-08 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 9 February 2017 This week, free-floating DNA in cancers, an ancient relative of molluscs and can the Arctic’s ice be regrown? |
| 2017-Feb-01 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 2 February 2017 Bird beaks show how evolution shifts gear, getting to Proxima b, and have physicists made metallic hydrogen? |
| 2017-Jan-31 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures January 2017 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you their favourite from January, 'The last robot' by S. L. Huang. |
| 2017-Jan-27 • 23 minutes Backchat: January 2017 Moonshots, frameworks, catapults – how best to name your science project? Plus, the implications for science of Trump’s first days in office, and the perils of trying to reproduce others’ work. |
| 2017-Jan-25 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 26 January 2017 This week, outer space law, predictive policing and enhancing the wisdom of the crowds. |
| 2017-Jan-18 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 19 January 2017 This week, communication between viruses, reproducing cancer studies, and explaining ‘fairy circles’. |
| 2017-Jan-13 • 16 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - January 1896 Physics in the late nineteenth century was increasingly concerned with things that couldn't be seen. From these invisible realms shot x-rays, discovered by accident by the German scientist William Röntgen. |
| 2017-Jan-11 • 23 minutes Nature Podcast: 12 January 2017 This week, ridding New Zealand of rats, making choices in the grocery store, and what to expect in 2017. |
| 2016-Dec-21 • 39 minutes Nature Podcast: 22 December 2016 It’s our bumper end-of-year show, with a 2016 round-up, holiday reading picks, science carols, word games and more. |
| 2016-Dec-14 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 15 December 2016 This week, a spray that boosts plant growth and resilience, 3-million-year old hominin footprints, and the seahorse genome. |
| 2016-Dec-09 • 13 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - December 1920 In the early twentieth century physicists had become deeply entangled in the implications of the quantum theory. Was the world at its smallest scales continuous, or built of discrete units? It all began with Max Planck. His Nobel Prize was the subject... |
| 2016-Dec-07 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 8 December 2016 This week, the benefits of randomness, correcting brain waves soothes Alzheimer’s, and the DNA of liberated slaves. |
| 2016-Dec-01 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures November 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Adam Levy reads you his favourite from November, ’Melissa' by Troy Stieglitz. |
| 2016-Nov-30 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 1 December 2016 This week, CRISPR’s rival stumbles, Pluto’s icy heart, and is mitochondrial replacement ready for the clinic? |
| 2016-Nov-23 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 24 November 2016 Tracking whale shark DNA in seawater, the human computers behind early astronomy, building materials with a microscope, and a new synchrotron starts up in the Middle East. |
| 2016-Nov-21 • 20 minutes Nature Backchat: November 2016 Donald Trump’s impact on research and climate action, and how Nature should discuss politics. |
| 2016-Nov-16 • 20 minutes Nature Podcast: 17 November 2016 This week, your brain on cannabis, testing CRISPR in a human, and what it might be like to live on Mars. |
| 2016-Nov-11 • 14 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - November 1869 The first issue of Nature looked very different from today's magazine. It opened with poetry and was written for a general audience. We hear how Nature began, and how it became the iconic science journal it is today. |
| 2016-Nov-09 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 10 November 2016 This week, CERN for the brain, modelling the effects of a climate tax on food, a brain-spine interface helps paralysed monkeys walk, and what Trump's win might mean for science. |
| 2016-Nov-02 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 3 November 2016 This week, the earliest humans to roam Australia, Werner Herzog’s new film about volcanoes, and are astronomers turning a blind eye to competing theories? |
| 2016-Oct-31 • 8 minutes Nature Extra: Futures October 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from October, ’The sixth circle' by J. W. Armstrong. |
| 2016-Oct-26 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 27 October 2016 This week, the challenges facing young scientists, pseudo-pseudo genes, and the history of HIV in the US. |
| 2016-Oct-21 • 23 minutes Nature Backchat: October 2016 Europe’s Mars probe loses touch, UK government proposes research funding shake-up, and science’s most bothersome buzzwords. |
| 2016-Oct-19 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 20 October 2016 This week, making egg cells in a dish, super-bright flares in nearby galaxies, trying to predict the election, and the scientists voting for Trump. |
| 2016-Oct-14 • 13 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - October 1993 In the early 1990s, a team of astrophysicists saw signs of life on a planet in our galaxy. Astronomy experts tell the story, and discuss how we can tell if there is life beyond the Earth. Originally aired 16/10/2013. |
| 2016-Oct-12 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 13 October 2016 This week, refugee mental health, better neural nets, and changing attitudes to female genital cutting. |
| 2016-Oct-06 • 9 minutes Nature Extra: Nobel News Science gets glitzy in October each year as the Nobel Prizes are awarded. Find out who took home the prizes for Medicine or Physiology, Physics and Chemistry. |
| 2016-Oct-05 • 23 minutes Nature Podcast: 6 October 2016 This week, a limit to lifespan, AI's black box problem, and ageing stem cells. |
| 2016-Oct-03 • 25 minutes Nature Backchat: September 2016 The challenges of getting into science, getting a decent salary once you’re in, and getting funding through philanthropy. |
| 2016-Sep-28 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 29 September 2016 This week, the chemistry of life’s origins, two million years of temperatures, and studying the heaviest elements. |
| 2016-Sep-22 • 8 minutes Nature Extra: Futures September 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Miranda Keeling reads you our favourite from September, ’Try Catch Throw’ by Andrew Neil Gray. |
| 2016-Sep-21 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 22 September 2016 This week, a sea of viruses, defining social class, the human journey out of Africa and human remains found on Antikythera shipwreck. |
| 2016-Sep-15 • 16 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - September 1963 When a German geologist first suggested that continents move, people dismissed it as a wild idea. In this podcast, we hear how a 'wild idea' became plate tectonics, the unifying theory of earth sciences. |
| 2016-Sep-14 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 15 September 2016 This week, the ideal office environment, synthesising speech, and embryo epigenetics. |
| 2016-Sep-07 • 36 minutes Nature Podcast: 8 September 2016 This week, solving ethical dilemmas Star Trek style, farming festivals boost yield, and three scientists on their sci-fi inspirations. |
| 2016-Aug-31 • 15 minutes Nature Podcast: 1 September 2016 This week, famous hominin Lucy may have died when she fell from a tree, and an antibody-based drug shows promise in Alzheimer’s |
| 2016-Aug-30 • 6 minutes Futures: August 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Kerri Smith reads you her favourite from August, 'Interdimensional trade benefits' by Brian Trent. |
| 2016-Aug-24 • 23 minutes Nature Backchat: August 2016 A nearby Earth-like planet, preprint servers proliferate, and the scientific legacy that Obama leaves behind. |
| 2016-Aug-24 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 25 August 2016 This week, an Earth-like planet on our doorstep, dietary restriction combats ageing syndrome, and drugs for neglected diseases. |
| 2016-Aug-23 • 19 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - August 1975 Six out of ten of the world's best-selling drugs are based on molecules called monoclonal antibodies. But their high impact comes with a low profile. This is a story of how basic science quietly became blockbuster medicine. Originally aired 14/08/13. |
| 2016-Aug-17 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 18 August 2016 This week, how fins became limbs, a giant gene database cracks clinical cases, and making better opioids. |
| 2016-Aug-10 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 11 August 2016 This week, the migration route of the first Americans, the bandwidth crisis, clever conductors, and the next CRISPR. |
| 2016-Aug-03 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 4 August 2016 This week, parenting tips from science, quenching a question about thirst, and a programmable quantum computer. |
| 2016-Aug-01 • 15 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - July 1942 Scientists were put to good use during the Second World War. John Westcott's secret project was to design radars. His work not only helped the war effort – it also led to new branches of science. Originally aired 19/07/2013. |
| 2016-Jul-29 • 7 minutes Nature Extra: Futures July 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Adam Levy reads you his favourite from July, 'Revision theory' by Blaize M. Kaye. |
| 2016-Jul-27 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 28 July 2016 This week, how we time our breathing, working with indigenous peoples, and using yeast genetics to build better beer. |
| 2016-Jul-21 • 26 minutes Nature Backchat: July 2016 What’s it like having an endless supply of Brexit stories? Why do space missions always get so much attention? And why are rhinos being airlifted to Australia? |
| 2016-Jul-20 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 21 July 2016 This week, the perils of tech in health, tumour fighting bacteria, and the science of what sounds good. |
| 2016-Jul-13 • 32 minutes Nature Podcast: 14 July 2016 This week, a special issue on conflict. The psychological toll of war, how to count the dead, and predicting conflict in the 21st century. |
| 2016-Jul-06 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 7 July 2016 This week, nature and landscape, the Hitomi satellite’s swan song, and reforming peer review. |
| 2016-Jul-01 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures June 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. The Nature Podcast team read you their favourite from June, ‘The Memory Ward’ by Wendy Nikel. |
| 2016-Jun-29 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 30 June 2016 This week, Dolly the sheep’s legacy, the trials of funding interdisciplinary research, and an ‘IPCC’ for social science. |
| 2016-Jun-22 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 23 June 2016 This week, transmissible cancer, organising the hadron menagerie, and the latest gravitational wave result and what physicists want to know next. |
| 2016-Jun-22 • 23 minutes Nature Backchat: June 2016 What could Brexit mean for EU research and researchers? How should reporters cover the US elections when nobody says anything about science? Plus a dramatic and dangerous Antarctic rescue. |
| 2016-Jun-15 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 16 June 2016 This week, pimping proteins, adapting enzymes, and conserving coral reefs. |
| 2016-Jun-10 • 16 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - June 1876 In the late 1800s, Europe was gripped by 'gorilla fever'. Were these beasts man's closest relative in the animal kingdom? Getting a gorilla to Europe was a rare event, and in 1876 Nature heralds the arrival of a young specimen. |
| 2016-Jun-08 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 9 June 2016 This week, researcher rehab, the hobbit’s ancestry, and Google’s quantum plans. |
| 2016-Jun-01 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 2 June 2016 This week, the genetics behind a textbook case of evolution, Earth’s core conundrum, and Pluto’s polygonal surface. |
| 2016-May-27 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures May 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from May, ‘Project Earth is leaving beta’ by J. W. Alden. |
| 2016-May-25 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 26 May 2016 This week, how clouds form, a Neanderthal construction project, and comparing the meerkats. |
| 2016-May-18 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 19 May 2016 This week, treasures from sunken cities, new antibiotics made from scratch, and experimenting with history. |
| 2016-May-16 • 25 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat May 2016 The endless quest to make fusion energy, virtual reality in the lab, and the biggest story of the month: a boat gets given a name. |
| 2016-May-11 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 12 May 2016 This week, the Zika virus and birth defects, colliding quasi-particles, and combatting sprawling networks of spam. |
| 2016-May-09 • 16 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - May 1985 Jonathan Shanklin was sifting through a backlog of data when he made the startling discovery of a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. In this podcast, he and others recall events in the mid-1980s and discuss how the 'ozone hole' became ... |
| 2016-May-06 • 8 minutes Nature Extra: Futures April 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Adam Levy and Shamini Bundell read you their favourite from April, ‘Choices, in sequential order’ by Karlo Yeager Rodríguez. |
| 2016-May-04 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 5 May 2016 This week, the value of failed experiments, ketamine without side effects, and our brains’ energy demands. |
| 2016-Apr-27 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 28 April 2016 This week, a language map of the brain, listening for landslides a year after the Nepal quake, and the Soviet internet that never was. |
| 2016-Apr-26 • 27 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat April 2016 The fuss over editing human embryos dies down, the quantum expertise of Canada’s Prime Minister, and what it’s like to report for 24 hours straight. |
| 2016-Apr-20 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 21 April 2016 This week, the psychology of climate change, the 1.5 degree temperature target, and what to do when climate change ruins your research. |
| 2016-Apr-13 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 14 April 2016 This week, a computer game helps build a quantum computer, the brain’s built-in backup, and the history and science of hearing voices. |
| 2016-Apr-08 • 15 minutes REBROADCAST: Nature PastCast - April 1953 Everyone knows that Watson and Crick published a seminal paper on the structure of DNA. But fewer know that two other papers on DNA were published in the same issue of Nature. Learn more in the first of a new podcast series: the Nature PastCast. [First... |
| 2016-Apr-06 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 7 April 2016 This week, apps that claim to treat mental health issues, ritual human sacrifice, and supernova debris on Earth. |
| 2016-Mar-31 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures March 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from March, 'Adjenia’ by Natalia Theodoridou. |
| 2016-Mar-30 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 31 March 2016 This week, Antarctic-sized uncertainty, making gamers more polite, and a pocket gravity meter. |
| 2016-Mar-23 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 24 March 2016 This week, toggling brain activity with radio waves, how to build stuff that lasts, and making thrillseekers into care-takers. |
| 2016-Mar-21 • 25 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat March 2016 Misused statistics, the latest gossip on Google’s Go-playing AI, and watching mathematicians win prizes. |
| 2016-Mar-16 • 32 minutes Nature Podcast: 17 March 2016 This week, retrieving lost memories, nailing down China’s emissions, and is Alzheimer’s disease transmissible? |
| 2016-Mar-09 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 10 March 2016 This week, the frontiers of CRISPR, chewing raw goat for science, and using the eye’s own stem cells to fix it. |
| 2016-Mar-08 • 5 minutes Nature Extra: Futures February 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from February, ‘Duck, duck, duck' by Samantha Murray. |
| 2016-Mar-02 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 3 March 2016 This week, more fast radio bursts spotted, how do you know where you are when you’re not moving, and listening in on a whale banquet. |
| 2016-Feb-25 • 22 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat February 2016 A month of manipulation, as we look at a re-run of a famously manipulative psychology study, learn how to manipulate our own brains and minds, and nudge our societies towards better collective action. |
| 2016-Feb-24 • 25 minutes Nature Podcast: 25 February 2016 This week, a special episode about the future. How can we future-proof our world, or fight our natural bias against planning for the future? And what does the science of today mean for the health of tomorrow? |
| 2016-Feb-17 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 18 February 2016 This week, making shipping greener, AAAS conference highlights and human genes in a Neanderthal. |
| 2016-Feb-12 • 7 minutes Nature Extra: Gravitational waves Einstein's prediction was right: gravitational waves do exist. Scientists at the LIGO collaboration reported their discovery yesterday in Washington, DC. Reporters Adam Levy and Alexandra Witze take stock. |
| 2016-Feb-10 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 11 February 2016 This week, the end of Moore’s law, religion and cooperation, and shareholders’ duty to manage climate risks. |
| 2016-Feb-03 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 4 February 2016 This week, killing off old cells lengthens life, brain-tickling comedy, and new forests make good carbon sinks. |
| 2016-Feb-01 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures January 2016 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads ‘Beyond 550 astronomical units' by Mike Brotherton. |
| 2016-Jan-29 • 30 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat January 2016 The putative Planet X, gravitational wave rumours and how to report them, and The Selfish Gene 40 years on. |
| 2016-Jan-27 • 23 minutes Nature Podcast: 28 January 2016 This week, the computer that can play Go, a general ‘ageing’ factor, and the stolen library of John Dee. |
| 2016-Jan-20 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 21 January 2016 This week, a brain sensor that melts away after use, a 10,000 year old murder mystery, and what happens when chickens go wild. |
| 2016-Jan-13 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 14 January 2016 This week, our gut bugs’ love of fibre, squeezing quantum states, and studying boredom. |
| 2016-Jan-06 • 22 minutes Nature Podcast: 7 January 2016 This week, science predictions for 2016, the effect of extreme weather on crops, and a new phase of hydrogen for the new year. |
| 2015-Dec-21 • 11 minutes Podcast Extra – The Psychology of Star Wars What can the world of Star Wars tell us about psychology? Travis Langley explains all in this Podcast Extra, using examples from his new book ‘Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind’. |
| 2015-Dec-17 • 48 minutes Nature Podcast: 17 December 2015 This week, we’re wrapping up the highlights of the year, catching up on the climate meeting in Paris, looking forward to psyching out the characters in Star Wars, busting some scientific myths, and playing an evolution-themed board game. |
| 2015-Dec-09 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 10 December 2015 This week, the dwarf planet Ceres gets a close-up, using fetal tissue in science, and the wasting condition that worsens outcomes for cancer patients. |
| 2015-Dec-02 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 3 December 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Nov-29 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures November 2015 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Kerri Smith reads you her favourite from November, 'One slow step for man' by S R Algernon. |
| 2015-Nov-26 • 21 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat November 2015 Einstein’s theory of general relativity turns 100 years old. Will there ever be another theory like it, or another scientist like Einstein? Plus, we discuss International Years as news pegs. |
| 2015-Nov-25 • 25 minutes Nature Podcast: 26 November 2015 This week, super-high-res ultrasound, the amazing world of soils, and five classic books about sustainability. |
| 2015-Nov-18 • 32 minutes Nature Podcast: 19 November 2015 This week, a nursery for big baby planets, meddling with taste perception, China’s mega water transfer plan, and the 100th anniversary of general relativity. |
| 2015-Nov-11 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 12 November 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Nov-05 • 7 minutes Nature Extra: Futures October 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Nov-04 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 5 November 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Oct-28 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 29 October 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Oct-23 • 28 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat October 2015 Astronomer quits over sexual harassment investigation, reporting on the abstract world of mathematics, and science in fashion. |
| 2015-Oct-22 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 22 October 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Oct-14 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 15 October 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Oct-08 • 4 minutes Nature Extra: Futures September 2015 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell and Geoff Marsh read you their favourite from September, Time Flies, by Carie Juettner. |
| 2015-Oct-07 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 8 October 2015 This week, an impenetrable mathematical proof, toggling REM sleep on and off, and the latest results from the Rosetta mission. |
| 2015-Sep-30 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 1 October 2015 This week, the future of digital currency; a new lead for antibiotics; and 25 years of cataloguing the human genome. |
| 2015-Sep-23 • 24 minutes Nature Podcast: 24 September 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Sep-22 • 25 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat September 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Sep-16 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 17 September 2015 This week, camouflaging nanoparticles to deliver drugs, science meets theatre, and getting a global picture of air pollution. |
| 2015-Sep-09 • 23 minutes Nature Podcast: 10 September 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Sep-09 • 15 minutes Nature Extra - Neurotribes Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Sep-03 • 7 minutes Nature Extra: Futures August 2015 Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Shamini Bundell reads you her favourite from August, The Shoulder of Orion, by Eric Garside |
| 2015-Sep-02 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 3 September 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Aug-26 • 12 minutes Podcast Extra: The Invention of Science In his new book, historian David Wootton takes us back to the scientific revolution around the turn of the 17th Century, and asks: was this really when modern science was born? |
| 2015-Aug-26 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 27 August 2015 This week, a new look at the scientific revolution, accelerating positrons on a tabletop, and squashing the unsquashable. |
| 2015-Aug-21 • 20 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat August 2015 Japan’s nuclear restart, summer quiet descends in the newsroom, and our special guest Geoff Brumfiel compares science reporting at Nature and NPR. |
| 2015-Aug-18 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 20 August 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Aug-12 • 16 minutes Nature Podcast: 13 August 2015 This week, making chemists’ lives easier, updating a centuries-old sunspot record, and anti-GM activists get their hands on scientists’ inboxes. |
| 2015-Aug-05 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 6 August 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-29 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 30 July 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-27 • 5 minutes Nature Extra: Futures July 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-24 • 23 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat July 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-22 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 23 July 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-15 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 16 July 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-14 • 16 minutes Podcast Extra - A Beautiful Question Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-08 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 9 July 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-02 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 2 July 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jul-01 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures June 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jun-24 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 24 June 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jun-23 • 27 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat June 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jun-17 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 18 June 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jun-10 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 11 June 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-Jun-03 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 4 June 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-May-28 • 25 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat May 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-May-28 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures May 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-May-27 • 25 minutes Nature Podcast: 28 May 2015 This week, the ethics of killer robots, laser weapons become a reality, and the subtleties of temperature. |
| 2015-May-26 • 24 minutes Audiofile: In search of lost sound Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-May-20 • 27 minutes Nature Podcast: 21 May 2015 The oldest stone tools yet found, making opiates from yeast and sugar, and the perks of sex… for beetles. |
| 2015-May-13 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 14 May 2015 Nature Podcast - the world's best science and medicine on your desktop |
| 2015-May-06 • 26 minutes Nature Podcast: 7 May 2015 This week, brain-inspired computers, scientists soldiering on past retirement age, and the origins of complex cells deduced from deep-sea samples. |
| 2015-Apr-29 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 30 April 2015 This week, a tiny bat-like dinosaur, a competitor for graphene, and the best new science books this spring. |
| 2015-Apr-24 • 29 minutes Audiofile: Real life Dr Dolittles Will we ever be able to talk to animals? In this episode, Geoff Marsh meets a variety of researchers and animals who persevere at the communication barrier in the name of science. |
| 2015-Apr-22 • 25 minutes Nature Podcast: 23 April 2015 This week, a new treatment for Ebola, the making of the Tibetan plateau, and could bees be addicted to pesticides? |
| 2015-Apr-21 • 23 minutes Nature: Backchat April 2015 The periodic table’s fuzzy edges, the nuances of reporting on animal research, and Richard gets charged up about some overhyped coverage of a new battery. |
| 2015-Apr-15 • 31 minutes Nature Podcast: 16 April 2015 This week, how oxytocin affects the brain, self- experimentation in science, and the wedding rings that went to Hubble. |
| 2015-Apr-08 • 30 minutes Nature Podcast: 9 April 2015 This week, the Moon and her sister, the Sun and its personality, and the latest wonder material to hit the big-time. |
| 2015-Apr-01 • 29 minutes Nature Podcast: 2 April 2015 This week, improving walking, pushing the boundary between quantum and classical, and the need for more social science on climate change. |
| 2015-Mar-25 • 28 minutes Nature Podcast: 26 March 2015 This week, the role of black holes in growing galaxies, Dragon’s Den for scientists, and ice inside our bodies. |
| 2015-Mar-25 • 21 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat Where will NASA’s next planetary mission go? Plus, a gene editing technique comes under fire, and the American editors’ biggest language gripes. |
| 2015-Feb-27 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Noah Baker reads you his favourite from February, Good for something by Deborah Walker. |
| 2015-Jan-30 • 6 minutes Nature Extra: Futures Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Geoff Marsh reads you his favourite from January, The Descent of Man, by Christoph Weber. |
| 2014-Oct-14 • 21 minutes Nature Extra: Backchat What do Nature’s reporters really think about the science they cover? Find out in Backchat. In this episode, Nobel Prize excitement (and frustrations), and the world’s oldest cave art. |
| 2014-Sep-29 • 4 minutes Nature Podcast Extra: Futures Nature Extra: Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Kerri Smith reads you her favourite from September, The tiger waiting on the shore, by Paul Currion. |
| 2014-Aug-01 • 4 minutes Nature Podcast Extra: Futures Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Lizzie Gibney reads you her favourite from July, Benjy's Birthday, by John Grant. |
| 2014-Apr-01 • 4 minutes Nature Podcast Extra: Futures Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Now its sister title Nature Physics has followed suit, publishing a sci-fi story each month. Kerri Smith reads you this month’s tale, The stuff we don’t do, by Marissa Lingen. |