Nature Podcast
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Nature's News & Views roundup of 2025
Nature: Asteroids, antibiotics and ants: a year of remarkable science
In this episode:
1:58 Evidence of ancient brine on an asteroid
Samples taken from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft suggest the parent body it originated from is likely to have contained salty, subsurface water. This finding provides insights into the chemistry of the early Solar System, and suggests that brines might have been an important place where pre-biotic molecules were formed.
News & Views: Asteroid Bennu contains salts from ancient brine
Nature Podcast: Asteroid Bennu contains building blocks of life
08:01 How gene expression doesn't always reflect a cell's function
Cells are often grouped into categories according to the RNA molecules they produce. However a study of zebrafish (Danio rerio) brains revealed that cells can be functionally diverse even if they appear molecularly similar. This finding adds more nuance to how a cell's ‘type’ is ultimately defined.
News & Views: Does a cell’s gene expression always reflect its function?
12:01 The disproportionate mortality risks of extreme rainfall
An assessment of death rates in India’s coastal megacity of Mumbai revealed that the impact of extreme rainfall events will be highest for women, young children and residents of informal settlements. This situation is likely to become more pronounced as a result of climate change.
News & Views: Extreme rainfall poses the biggest risk to Mumbai’s most vulnerable people
14:46 An AI-designed underwater glue
Inspired by animals like barnacles and aided by machine learning, researchers have developed a super-sticky compound that works as an underwater adhesive. To demonstrate its properties, researchers applied it to a rubber duck, which stuck firmly to a rock on a beach despite being battered by the sea.
News & Views: AI learns from nature to design super-adhesive gels that work underwater
Nature Podcast: Underwater glue shows its sticking power in rubber duck test
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The Nature Podcast festive spectacular 2025
00:46 The gifts that sparked a love of science
Nature put a call out for readers to tell us about memorable presents that first got them interested in science, or mementos of their life in research. These include telescopes, yeast-themed wedding rings, and... cows’ eyes.
Nature: The gift that shaped my career in science
08:12 “I am the Very Model of a Miniature Tyrannosaur”
In the first of our annual festive songs celebrating the science of the past year, we tell the story of a diminutive dinosaur that turned out to be its own species.
Nature Podcast: Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species
Nature Video: Hotly debated dinosaur is not a tiny T. rex after all
11:43 A very scientific quiz
An all-star cast competes for the glory or being the winner of the Nature Podcast’s 2025 festive quiz.
Nature: Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species
Nature: This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started
Nature Podcast: 3D-printed fake wasps help explain bad animal mimicry
Nature Video: ‘Aqua tweezers’ manipulate particles with water waves
Nature Podcast: Sapphire anvils squeeze metals atomically-thin
Nature Video: Vesuvius volcano turned this brain to glass
Nature Podcast: Ancient viral DNA helps human embryos develop
Nature Video: Magnetic fibres give this robot a soft grip
Nature: These contact lenses give people infrared vision — even with their eyes shut
Nature Video: Is this really the world's largest mirror? Researchers put it to the test
Nature Podcast: World’s tiniest pacemaker could revolutionize heart surgery
Nature Podcast: Earth’s deepest ecosystem discovered six miles below the sea
Nature Podcast: Nature goes inside the world’s largest ‘mosquito factory’ — here’s the buzz
Nature Podcast: Apocalypse then: how cataclysms shaped human societies
Nature Podcast: Honey, I ate the kids: how hunger and hormones make mice aggressive
25:21 “Hard the Hydrogel is Stuck”
Our second festive song is an ode to a rubber duck that was stuck to a rock, thanks to a newly designed, super-adhesive hydrogel.
Nature Podcast: Underwater glue shows its sticking power in rubber duck test
Nature Video: Why did researchers stick a duck to a rock? To show off their super glue
28:42 Nature’s 10
Each year, Nature’s 10 highlights some of the people who have helped shape science over the past 12 months. We hear about a few of the people who made the 2025 list, including: a civil servant who stood up for evidence-based public-health policy; the science sleuth who revealed a retraction crisis at Indian universities; and the baby whose life was saved by the first personalized CRISPR therapy.
Nature: Nature’s 10
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Neanderthals mastered fire — 400,000 years ago
00:46 Evidence of the earliest fire
Baked soil, ancient tools, and materials that could be used to start fires show that Neanderthals were making fire in the UK 400,000 years ago — the earliest evidence of this skill found so far. Ancient humans are known to have used naturally occurring fires, but evidence of deliberate fire-starting has been hard to come by. A new suite of evidence pushes back the date of fire mastery by 350,000 years. The team behind the finding believe it helps create a more nuanced picture of Neanderthals, who perhaps gathered round fires and told stories in ancient Europe.
Research Article:Davis et al.
News and Views:Oldest known evidence of the controlled ignition of fire
11:31 Research Highlights
Machine-learning algorithms can help to identify traces of life in ancient rocks — plus, why paintings containing a vivid green pigment lose their lustre over time.
Research Highlight:AI finds signs of life in ancient rocks
Research Highlight:The mystery of emerald green — cracked
13:55 How AI chatbots can sway voters with ease
Research suggests that artificial-intelligence chatbots can influence voters’ political views and have a bigger effect than conventional campaigning and advertising. One study found that chatbot conversations swung participants’ candidate preferences by up to 15 percentage points, while another revealed that the chatbots’ effectiveness stems from their ability to synthesize a lot of information in a conversational way.
Nature: AI chatbots can sway voters with remarkable ease — is it time to worry?
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Photobombing satellites could ruin the night sky for space telescopes
00:46 How satellite mega-constellations could ruin space-based astronomy
The ability of space-based telescopes to image the distant Universe could be in peril, according to new research investigating the impacts of light-pollution from future satellites. Streaks of reflected light from satellites currently in low-Earth orbit are already seen in telescope images, and planned launches could raise the number of satellites from around 15,000 to over half-a-million. Computer modelling revealed that this drastic increase would result in images taken by instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope becoming unusable by astronomers. The team propose a series of strategies to help mitigate these impacts, preventing this future becoming reality.
Research Article: Borlaff et al.
Nature: Satellite swarms set to photobomb more than 95% of some telescopes’ images
11:08 Research Highlights
How researchers have sped up the trapping of antimatter atoms — plus, how hydrogen fuel emission benefits vary considerably from sector to sector.
Research Highlight: Laser cooling traps more antimatter atoms than ever before
Research Highlight: Hydrogen fuel isn’t always the green choice
13:41 The negative consequences of video call glitches
Glitches in video calls are an annoying feature of everyday life, but these brief interruptions could have serious real-world impacts, according to analysis from a team of researchers. In one experiment, the team found that video calls with glitches decreased the likelihood of someone being hired for a job. Analysis of other data suggested glitchy calls were associated with lower chances of individuals being granted parole. The team behind the work think that these visual errors break the illusion that a video call is a real face-to-face conversation, potentially impairing judgements about the quality of the information discussed.
Research article: Brucks et al.
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Audio long read: Faulty mitochondria cause deadly diseases — fixing them is about to get a lot easier
CRISPR-based gene editing has revolutionized modern biology, but these tools are unable to access the DNA that resides inside mitochondria. Researchers are eager to access and edit this DNA to understand more about the energy production and the mutations that can cause incurable mitochondrial diseases.
Because CRISPR can’t help with these problems, researchers have been looking for other ways to precisely edit the mitochrondrial genome. And the past few years have brought some success — if researchers can make editing safe and accurate enough, it could eventually be used to treat, and even cure, these genetic conditions.
This is an audio version of our Feature: Faulty mitochondria cause deadly diseases — fixing them is about to get a lot easier
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This is what lightning on Mars sounds like
00:46 Martian ‘micro-lightning’
The sounds of ‘micro-lightning’ have been recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover, ending a long search for the phenomenon on Mars. A lack of suitable equipment has made it difficult to gather evidence of lightning on the red planet, but a team of researchers realized that a microphone on Perseverance should be able to pick up the characteristic sounds of electrical discharges. In total they found 55 such examples, along with signs of electrostatic interference indicative of the phenomenon. They dubbed the electric bursts ‘micro-lightning’, as they are far smaller than the lighting seen on Earth, due to the thin Martian atmosphere. The team believe this finding could help better understand Martian chemistry and how best to design equipment to explore the planet’s surface.
Research Article: Chide et al.
News and Views: Is there lightning on Mars?
11:03 Research Highlights
How the biology of male seahorses’ brood pouches appears similar to mammalian pregnancy— plus, why Neanderthals’ jaws were so beefy.
Research Highlight: The origin of male seahorses’ brood pouch
Research Highlight: Neanderthal DNA reveals how human faces form
13:36 The key takeaways from COP30
The UN’s climate conference, COP30, came to a close last week in Brazil. Nature reporter Jeff Tollefson tells us what was and wasn’t agreed during the final negotiations.
Nature: What happened at COP30? 4 science take-homes from the climate summit
22:27 Why women may retract less than men
A new analysis suggests that female authors retract fewer medical science papers than their male counterparts. Women are known to be underrepresented in the medical sciences, but even accounting for this an AI-tool revealed that female authors featured on far fewer retracted research articles. Reporter Jenna Ahart has been investigating and told us why this might be, and what it means for research more broadly.
Nature: Women seem to retract fewer papers than men — but why?
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Insulin cream offers needle-free option for diabetes
00:45 A molecule that delivers insulin through the skin
Researchers have developed a skin-permeable polymer that can deliver insulin into the body, which they say could one day offer an alternative to injections for diabetes management. The skin’s structure presents a formidable barrier to the delivery of large drugs but in this work a team show that their polymer can penetrate though the different layers without causing damage. Insulin attached to this polymer was able to reduce blood glucose levels in animal models for diabetes at a comparable speed to injected insulin. While further research is required on the long-term safety of this strategy, the team hope it could offer a way to non-invasively deliver other large-molecule drugs into the body.
Research Article: Wei et al.
09:23 Research Highlights
How extreme drought may be humanity’s biggest challenge after a huge volcanic eruption — plus, turning a bacterium into a factory for a colour-changing pigment
Research Highlight: Volcano mega-eruptions lead to parched times
Research Highlight: Dye or die: bacterium forced to make pigment to stay alive
11:42 How language lights up the brain, whatever the tongue
The human brain responds in a similar way to both familiar and unfamiliar languages, but there are some key differences, according to new research — a finding that may explain why learning a language can be difficult. A study looking involving 34 people showed that listening to an unfamiliar language triggers similar neural activity to listening to their native tongue. The finding implies that human speech triggers a common reaction in the brain regardless of understanding. However, there were subtle differences when listening to a known language that may help explain how people actually understand words.
Research Article: Bhaya-Grossman et al.
Neuron: Zhang et al
27:18 Briefing Chat
Signs that greenhouse-gas emissions may peak around 2030 — plus, evidence of dog breeding by ancient humans.
Nature: Global greenhouse-gas emissions are still rising: when will they peak?
Nature: How ancient humans bred and traded the first domestic dogs
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‘Malicious use is already happening’: machine-learning pioneer on making AI safer
Yoshua Bengio, considered by many to be one of the godfathers of AI, has long been at the forefront of machine-learning research . However, his opinions on the technology have shifted in recent years — he joins us to talk about ways to address the risks posed by AI, and his efforts to develop an AI with safety built in from the start.
Nature: ‘It keeps me awake at night’: machine-learning pioneer on AI’s threat to humanity
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Huge eruption on a distant star confirmed at last
00:45 A coronal mass ejection from a distant star
Researchers have detected what they say is the strongest evidence yet of a coronal mass ejection (CME) coming from a star other than our Sun. CMEs are massive bursts of fast-moving plasma that can be detected thanks to the characteristic radio signal they produce. However, despite decades of searching, these signals have only been identified from the Sun. Now a team has identified a similar signal coming from a distant star in the Milky Way. They hope their discovery will lead to better understanding of the impact these colossal events might have on the atmospheres of exoplanets, and their chances of being habitable.
Research Article: Callingham et al.
12:28 Research Highlights
Video footage of a devastating earthquake provides a first-of-its-kind glimpse of a dramatic ground rupture — plus, a flock of comets seen outside our Solar System.
Research Highlight: Single video camera tells the story of deadly Myanmar quake
Research Highlight: A host of ‘exocomets’ swarms a distant star
14:29 The rare genetic variants that may increase the risk of ADHD
Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition that affects around 1 in 20 young people, but its underlying causes are not fully understood. Now, a team of researchers show that three rare genetic variants are implicated in an increased risk of ADHD, which may play a role in the neurons involved in dopamine signalling. While this work provides a better understanding of the complex genetics at play, the authors caution more research is needed to unpick the complex interplay other factors involved in ADHD.
Research Article: Demontis et al.
18:41 Briefing Chat
A high-resolution digital map for Roman roads, and how speaking more than one language could slow brain ageing.
Nature: ‘Google Maps’ for Roman roads reveals vast extent of ancient network
Nature: Want a younger brain? Learn another language
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Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species
00:45 The debate around Nanotyrannus
A hotly debated species of dinosaur, assumed by many to be a juvenile T. rex, is actually a separate species, according to new research. Nanotyrannus was a dinosaur anatomically similar to T. rex, but about a tenth of the size, leading many to argue it was a young version of the iconic species. However, examination of the limb bones of a well-preserved Nanotyrannus fossil suggests it was close to finishing its growth and so would never become as large as a T. rex, leading the authors to argue that it is, in fact, a different species.
Research Article: Zanno and Napoli
News and Views: T. rex debate settled: contested fossils are smaller rival species, not juveniles
News: ‘Teenage T. rex’ fossil is actually a different species
Video: Hotly debated dinosaur is not a tiny T. rex after all
08:46 Research Highlights
An artificial ‘neuron’ could pave the way to build a brain-inspired computer — plus, how bats buck the trend by hunting prey their own size.
Research Highlight: Artificial brains with less drain
Research Highlight: By the time you hear these bats, it’s too late
11:19 A less invasive way to prevent breast cancer
An ‘anti-hormone’ therapy has shown promise in halting the onset of hallmarks associated with breast cancer, in a small trial. Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in women worldwide, but preventative measures, such as mastectomies, are invasive. A new study examined the efficacy of a treatment that blocks progesterone, a hormone thought to play an important role in breast cancer progression. The therapy reduced both specific clinical markers of breast cancer and the number of cells that can become cancerous. Larger, longer trials are needed to show that this treatment could ultimately become part of a breast cancer prevention strategy, but the team think that this work shows the promise of this approach.
Research Article: Simões et al.
18:41 Briefing Chat
A new approach to speed up CRIPSR therapies reaching clinical trials, and how vocal cords could be healed using a tiny 3D printer.
Nature: Personalized gene editing helped one baby: can it be rolled out widely?
Nature: World’s smallest 3D bioprinter could rebuild tissue during surgery
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Bowhead whales can live for more than 200 years – this protein might be why
00:47 How bowhead whales live so long
Researchers have uncovered a protein that enhances DNA repair and may explain how bowhead whales can live more than 200 years. The protein, cold-induced RNA-binding protein, was shown to enhance repair of double stranded DNA breaks, a particularly troublesome kind of damage. The team showed that this protein could also extend the lives of Drosophila flies and enhance repair in human cells. More needs to be understood about how this protein works, but the researchers hope that it could, one day, help prevent cancer and ageing in humans.
Research Article: Firsanov et al.
News: This whale lives for centuries: its secret could help to extend human lifespan
11:22 Research Highlights
A precise way to grow crystals, with lasers — plus, the specialist organ that allows stinkbugs to protect their eggs from wasps.
Research Highlight: How to grow crystals when and where you want them
Research Highlight: Stinkbug ‘ear’ actually hosts parasite-fighting fungi
13:31 An antivenom against a broad range of snakebites
Researchers have used ‘nanobodies’ to create an antivenom that works against 17 snake species’ venom. Snakebites kill millions each year, so getting the right antivenom can be life or death. But they are difficult to produce and often are very specific. Now, using nanobodies from llamas, researchers created an antivenom against a broad range of snake species’ venom. The new antivenom can now even be produced without the llamas, and the team hope it will pave the way for a more universal antivenom.
Research Article: Ahmadi et al.
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Audio long read: How to get the best night’s sleep — what the science says
Advice on how to get good sleep is everywhere, with the market for sleep aids worth more than US$100 billion annually. However, scientists warn that online hacks and pricey tools aren’t always effective, and suggest that lessons learnt about the workings of a network of biological clocks found in the human body could ultimately lead to improved sleep.
This is an audio version of our Feature: How to get the best night’s sleep: what the science says
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Honey, I ate the kids: how hunger and hormones make mice aggressive
00:48 How hunger, hormones and aggression interact in mouse brains
Researchers have uncovered the neural mechanisms that underlie an aggressive behaviour in mice prompted by hunger and hormonal state. Virgin female mice can become aggressive towards mouse pups when they are food deprived, but it seems that the relevant amounts of pregnancy hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, also played a role. By investigating the neurons involved, neuroscientists showed how hunger and hormones are integrated by the brain to lead to aggressive behaviour. This could help researchers understand more about how multiple stimuli are interpreted by the brain, something much harder to study than single stimulus effects.
Research Article: Cao et al.
09:35 Research Highlights
The overlooked environmental costs of wastewater treatment facilities — plus, an ancient communal hunting system that lasted well into the eighteenth century.
Research Highlight: Wastewater treatment produces surprising amounts of greenhouse gases
Research Highlight: Andean peoples hunted and gathered long after they embraced farming
11:53 What generative AI could mean for higher education
Around the world, universities and students are scrambling to adapt to the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. And while there is optimism that these tools could improve education, there are also concerns about the ways they could stifle independent, critical thought. We hear about the studies trying to unpick the potential impact of this new technology.
News Feature: Universities are embracing AI: will students get smarter or stop thinking?
21:26 Briefing Chat
A blood test for Alzheimer’s, and what should be the next ‘test’ for AI after the Turing test?
Nature: Blood tests are now approved for Alzheimer’s: how accurate are they?
Nature: AI language models killed the Turing test: do we even need a replacement?
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New bird flu vaccine could tackle multiple variants with one shot
00:46 A multi-variant avian flu vaccine that could enhance pandemic preparedness
A vaccine capable of protecting against multiple strains of avian influenza virus might be a step closer, according to new research. The H5 subtype of avian influenza viruses has spilled over into mammals and is particularly concerning to researchers because of the risk that one of its variants may evolve to cause a pandemic. But because there are multiple variants of these viruses, it has been hard to pre-prepare vaccines. Now, a team has used information on how H5 viruses changed over time to design a vaccine that in animal studies provided protection against different H5 variants. They hope their approach could be applied to create stockpiles of a vaccine that could be used in the event of a pandemic, regardless of the variant that causes it.
Research Article:Kok et al.
10:53 Research Highlights
Making muon beams without a huge particle accelerator — plus, the bats hunting migrating birds in mid-air.
Research Highlight:Portable muon beam could accelerate archaeology scans
Research Highlight:European bats capture migrating birds and eat them on the wing
13:34 Briefing Chat
A new search engine that can sift through the staggering volumes of biological data, and the multiple failings revealed by an assessment of 25 years of carbon offsetting data.
Nature:‘Google for DNA’ brings order to biology’s big data
The Guardian:Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says
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How stereotypes shape AI – and what that means for the future of hiring
00:48 The stereotypes hidden in Internet images
Stereotyped assumptions about women’s ages and their perceived job suitability are enhanced by Internet imagery, according to new research. A study of hundreds of thousands of online images shows that women appear younger than men. This stereotype extends to the jobs that people perceive women do, with men being associated with roles such as CEO or head of research, while women were linked to occupations like cook or nurse. The research shows that these biases have been embedded into the training data for AI models and could affect future hiring. The researchers caution that society is at risk of creating a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ where these stereotypes shape the real world.
Research Article: Guilbeault et al.
News and Views: Distorted representations of age and gender are reflected in AI models
13:24 Research Highlights
A very hungry planet — plus, how climate change is leading to larger trees in the Amazon.
Research Highlight: ‘Rogue’ planet is fastest-growing ever observed
Research Highlight: Trees of the Amazon are becoming even mightier
15:49 Astronomers name their favourite exoplanet
Thirty years ago, astronomers announced the discovery of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star, sparking a renewed passion into spotting these planets that lie beyond our Solar System. In celebration, Nature asked researchers to tell us about their favourites.
News: These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why
Hear the music of a distant planetary system
25:51 Nobel news
Flora Graham from the Nature Briefing joins us to talk about the winners of this year’s science Nobel prizes.
Nature: Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’
Nature: Groundbreaking quantum-tunnelling experiments win physics Nobel
Nature: Chemistry Nobel for scientists who developed massively porous ‘super sponge’ materials
Nature: Will AI ever win its own Nobel? Some predict a prize-worthy science discovery soon
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Ancient viral DNA helps human embryos develop
00:50 How ancient viruses drive modern human development
Research suggests that ancient viral-DNA embedded in the human genome is playing a key role in early embryo development. Around 8% of our genome consists of endogenous retrovirus DNA — the remnants of ancient infections, but knowledge of their activity is limited. Now, a team show that these sequences are required for the correct development of lab-derived embryo analogues, and for the switching on of human-specific genes.
Research Article: Fueyo et al.
News and Views: Ancient viral DNA in the human genome shapes early development
10:39 Research Highlights
Longer whale mothers are more likely to give birth to daughters — plus, how the stink of the corpse flower waxes and wanes to attract pollinators.
Research Highlight: Big mother whales have more daughters than sons
Research Highlight: Corpse flowers waft out stinky compounds as fast as landfills do
13:05 How heat can fuel DNA computers
Researchers have developed a way to use heat to recharge DNA-based computer circuits, which could help overcome one of the stumbling blocks preventing this technology from being scaled up. Although DNA strands have been used to perform computational tasks for some time, current methods can run out of energy or build up waste products, preventing their continued use. Now, using just heat a team have demonstrated a reuseable neural network based on DNA. They hope that ultimately this could be a step in the development of bigger and more powerful DNA computers that could be used to power targeted clinical therapies.
Research Article: Song & Qian
22:20 Briefing Chat
A one-time gene therapy for Huntington’s disease show promise at slowing the brain disorder’s progression — plus, how mitochondria throw out ‘tainted’ DNA.
Nature: Huntington’s disease treated for first time using gene therapy
Nature: Mitochondria expel tainted DNA — spurring age-related inflammation
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Audio long read: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?
In April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism, and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent. Although Kennedy said that environmental factors are the main cause of autism, research has shown that genetics plays a bigger part. Also, the rise in prevalence, many researchers say, is
predominantly caused by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits.
Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism, many researchers were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition.
This is an audio version of our Feature: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?
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How a dangerous tick-borne virus sneaks into the brain
00:48 New insights into tick-borne encephalitis
Researchers have identified a key protein that helps tick-borne encephalitis virus enter the brain. In rare cases an infection can lead to serious neurological symptoms, but little was known about how the virus interacts with human cells. Now, a team show that a protein found on the outside of cells plays an important role in infection. In mouse experiments, they show that blocking the ability of the virus to bind to this protein protected the mice from disease. Currently no treatments exist, but the team hopes that this research will ultimately lead to a viable drug for this disease.
Research Article: Mittler et al.
08:47 Research Highlights
The squirming robot that speeds up the insertion of an emergency breathing tube — plus, the 10,000-year-old remains that could be the oldest intentionally preserved mummies
Research Highlight: Soft robot steers itself down the human airway
Research Highlight: Smoke-dried mummies pre-date Egypt’s embalmed bodies
11:21 How might cancelled NIH grants affect the future of US science?
To assess the potential impact of cuts to funding by the Trump administration, Nature trained a machine-learning bot to try and reproduce the NIH’s method of cancelling grants and applied it to science that was successfully funded around ten years ago. This thought experiment shows that highly impactful science and medical research might have been at risk had a similar process been followed a decade ago, revealing the potentially broad-reaching consequences of these actions today.
Nature Index: What research might be lost after the NIH’s cuts? Nature trained a bot to find out
News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature
20:54 Briefing Chat
What researchers understand about chatbot-induced psychosis, and the AI designed viruses capable of killing E. coli bacteria.
Nature: Can AI chatbots trigger psychosis? What the science says
Nature: World’s first AI-designed viruses a step towards AI-generated life
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Apocalypse then: how cataclysms shaped human societies
Science journalist Lizzie Wade’s first book, Apocalypse: A Transformative Exploration of Humanity's Resilience Through Cataclysmic Events explores some of the cataclysmic events that humans have faced through history. Lizzie joined us to discuss what modern archaeology has revealed about these events, and the role these they’ve have played in shaping societies around the world.
Apocalypse: A Transformative Exploration of Humanity's Resilience Through Cataclysmic Events Lizzie Wade Harper (2025)
Music supplied by SPD/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images
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This AI tool predicts your risk of 1,000 diseases — by looking at your medical records
00:50 The AI tool that predicts disease risk
Researchers have developed an AI tool that can calculate a person’s risk of developing over 1,000 different diseases, sometimes years in advance. The system, called Delphi-2M, was trained to identify patterns of disease progression using 400,000 people's health records from data repository the UK Biobank. This training allowed it to predict someone’s future disease risks, based on their current medical record. While AI health prediction systems do exist, they typically only estimate risks for a single disease — the authors hope that their system could one day save healthcare professionals time and be used to calculate disease burdens at a population level.
Research Article: Shmatko et al.
News: What diseases will you have in 20 years? This AI makes predictions
11:01 Research Highlights
Evidence that refugees hosted by local families integrate better into their adoptive country — plus, the squidgy shirt that can keep wearers cool.
Research Highlight: How to help refugees thrive: have local families host them
Research Highlight: Jelly-filled garment keeps wearers cool when heat and humidity soar
13:50 Give an AI a task and it may cheat for you
Using AI tools may make you more likely to cheat at tasks like tax reporting, according to a new study. Using a well-studied test of honesty, researchers looked to see if people were more likely to engage in unethical behaviour if given the option of delegating it to an AI. Including AIs seemed to increase the chance that someone would be dishonest, which raises concerns about the impacts of these tools on ethics.
Research Article: Köbis et al
News and Views: People are more likely to cheat when they delegate tasks to AI
24:54 Briefing Chat
Europe has a new supercomputer, JUPITER, that could boost its AI ambitions, and a catalogue of octopus movement.
Nature: World's most energy-efficient AI supercomputer comes online
New York Times: Building an Octopus Dictionary, One Arm Movement at a Time
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Detecting gravitational waves
In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in the US directly detected ripples in space-time, known as gravitational waves. These waves were produced by the final spiral of two orbiting black holes that smashed into each other, sending ripples across the Universe.
In this podcast, Benjamin Thompson speaks to Cole Miller from the University of Maryland about the quest to detect gravitational waves, which were first hypothesised by Albert Einstein back in 1916.
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Feeling the heat: fossil-fuel producers linked to dozens of heatwaves
00:45 Attributing extreme heat events to major energy producers
Major energy producers increased the likelihood and intensity of heatwaves, according to research published in Nature. Using data from an international disaster database, a team developed a methodology to investigate how much anthropogenic climate change had influenced heatwaves. They conclude that many of these events would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, and that nearly a quarter of the heatwaves recorded from 2000 to 2023 can be directly linked to the greenhouse-gas emissions from individual energy giants.
Research Article: Juvé et al.
News and Views Forum: Heatwaves linked to emissions of individual fossil-fuel and cement producers
News: Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies
10:47 Research Highlights
How shifting coastal tides may have spurred the rise of the world’s oldest civilization — plus, the liquid crystal lenses that can refocus in a flash.
Research Highlight: Changing tides ushered in the world’s first civilization
Research Highlight: Liquid-crystal specs refocus with the push of a button
12:40 The growing resistance to the US war on science
Science in the United States is facing an increasing crisis, in the face of swinging cuts and President Donald Trump’s ongoing attack on anything with a connection to diversity, equity and inclusion. In the face of this crisis, many researchers are fighting back — we hear about some of their efforts, and what they think about their chances of success.
News Feature: Scientists take on Trump: the researchers fighting back
27:28 Briefing Chat
How CRISPR-edited pancreas cells could offer new hope for those with type 1 diabetes, and what brain scans reveal about how we process colour.
Nature: Hope for diabetes: CRISPR-edited cells pump out insulin in a person — and evade immune detection
Nature: My blue is your blue: different people’s brains process colours in the same way
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Research misconduct: how the scientific community is fighting back
In 2016, Brian Wansink wrote a blog post that prompted scientific sleuths to investigate his work. They found evidence of data manipulation, and, after several news articles and two investigations by his institution, he would found to have committed misconduct, as defined by Cornell University. His work had been used to inform US policy around food, much of which has now been thrown into question.
Cases like this are rare, but science is not immune to misconduct. The rise in 'paper mills' — organisations that produce questionable or fake papers that they sell authorships on — has led some to worry that misconduct is on the rise and that a proportion of the scientific literature cannot be trusted.
In episode two of Self Correction, we explore how researchers are responding to the problem of research misconduct. We discuss how difficult it is to determine the prevalence of misconduct, and how sleuths, journalists and research integrity institutions are fighting back.
This episode was written and produced by Nick Petrić Howe. Dan Fox was the editor. The music was provided by Triple Scoop Music.
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Nature goes inside the world’s largest ‘mosquito factory’ — here’s the buzz
Raising mosquitoes to tackle disease might sound like an odd concept, but that’s what a facility in Brazil is aiming to do. Millions of mosquitoes are produced there every week, but these insects carry harmless Wolbachia bacteria that curbs their ability to spread deadly human viruses. Nature reporter Mariana Lenharo visited the facility and told us all about her experience in this Podcast Extra.
News: This is the world’s largest ‘mosquito factory’: its goal is to stop dengue
Video: Inside a mosquito factory
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Two ants, two species, one mother
00:45 The ant queen that can produce two different species
Researchers have made an unusual observation that appears at odds with biology: an ant, known as the Iberian Harvester Ant can produce offspring of two completely different species. Many ants need to mate with other species to produce workers that are a genetic mix of the two, known as hybrids. But in Sicily, a team found hybrid worker ants but no trace of the father. They suggest that the one species present, Messor ibericus, is able to lay its own eggs, but also eggs of another species, Messor structor. These offspring can then mate to produce the hybrid workers. This strategy conflicts with several conventional definitions of what a species is, which may prompt a rethink of these already blurry concepts.
Research Article: Juvé et al.
News and Views: Ant queens produce sons of two distinct species
News: ‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother
09:33 Research Highlights
Humans are living longer but a life expectancy of a hundred appears out of reach — plus, how light pollution is making birds sing for longer.
Research Highlight: When will life expectancy reach 100? No time soon
Research Highlight: Bright city lights make birds around the world sing longer
11:42 How to keep bridges standing
Researchers have discovered that steel truss bridges possess a number of mechanisms that make them resilient to collapse, even after damage. Steel truss bridges are a common kind of bridge, but many are ageing and under increased pressure due to climate change and increased vehicle loads. To understand how damage affects these bridges a team of engineers built a scale replica of a bridge section and monitored how it coped when different sections were cut. They found six distinct resistance mechanisms that allowed the bridge to continue carrying heavy loads even with the damaged sections. They hope these data will help fortify existing bridges and inform the design of future bridges to help prevent catastrophic collapse.
Research Article: Reyes-Suárez et al.
18:37 Briefing Chat
The chemistry underlying why beer drinkers fall into two taste camps, and how a deep-sea worm uses arsenic to survive its toxic environment..
Nature: Beer lovers fall into two flavour camps — which one are you in?
Science: Deep-sea worms fight poison with poison to survive in hydrothermal vents
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Audio long read: How to detect consciousness in people, animals and maybe even AI
The search for signs of consciousness has expanded, thanks to advanced neuroimaging techniques. These tools allow researchers to detect consciousness in unresponsive humans, and now researchers are looking to develop tests that work in animals and perhaps even artificial intelligence systems of the future.
This is an audio version of our Feature: How to detect consciousness in people, animals and maybe even AI
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Viral spread: how rumours surged in revolutionary France
00:48 How the 18th-Century 'Great Fear’ spread across rural France
In the late 1700s, rural France was beset with rapidly spreading rumours of aristocratic plots to suppress revolutionary ideas. But how, and why, these rumours were able to spread so quickly has puzzled historians. Now, using modern epidemiological modelling, a team suggests that a combination of high wheat prices, income and literacy level drove this period of French history known as the Great Fear.
Research Article: Zapperi et al.
News: An abiding mystery of the French Revolution is solved — by epidemiology
12:40 Research Highlights
An unorthodox explanation for dark energy — plus, and how a tiny marsupial predator overcame near extinction.
Research Highlight: Does dark energy spawn from black holes? Could be a bright idea
Research Highlight: Tiny Australian predator defies drought to recover from near-extinction
15:13 The quantum interpretation quiz
Physicists differ widely in their interpretations of quantum mechanics, and so do Nature readers, according to our Cosmo-inspired quiz. The quantum world is notoriously difficult to explain, with interpretations of the mathematical foundations ranging from the epistemic, which only describes information, to the realist, where equations map onto the real world. The quiz suggests that many readers prefer the realist, even if that is difficult to mesh with the physics itself.
Feature: Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey show
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Fusion energy gets a boost from cold fusion chemistry
00:46 Electrochemical fusion
Researchers have used electrochemistry to increase the rates of nuclear fusion reactions in a desktop reactor. Fusion energy promises abundant clean energy, but fusion events are rare, hindering progress. Now, inspired by the controversial claim of cold fusion, researchers used electrochemistry to get palladium to absorb more deuterium ions, that are used in fusion. When a beam of deuterium was fired at the deuterium-filled palladium, they saw a 15% increase in fusion events. They did not get more energy than they put in, but the authors believe this is a step towards enhancing fusion energy and shows the promise of electrochemical techniques.
Research Article: Chen et al.
News and Views: Low-energy nuclear fusion boosted by electrochemistry
10:06 Research Highlights
Do ants hold the key to better teamwork? — plus, the coins that hint at extensive hidden trade networks in southeast Asia.
Research Highlight: Super-efficient teamwork is possible — if you’re an ant
Research Highlight: Ancient coins unveil web of trade across southeast Asia
12:31 The microbial taste of chocolate
Chocolate gets its best tastes from microbes, according to a new study. Fermentation of cocoa beans helps create chocolate tastes but not much has been known about the process. Now, the temperature, pH and microbes involved have been identified and the researchers showed how it would be possible to manipulate these to produce premium chocolate flavours.
News: Why chocolate tastes so good: microbes that fine-tune its flavour
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Controversial climate report from Trump team galvanizes scientists into action
In this Podcast Extra, we discuss a report released by the US Department of Energy, which concluded that global warming is “less damaging economically than commonly believed”. However, many researchers say that the report misrepresents decades of climate science.
We discuss how scientists are trying to coordinate a unified response amidst concerns that this report will be used in attempts to repeal a 2009 government ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public welfare.
News: Outrage over Trump team’s climate report spurs researchers to fight back
News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature
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Sun-powered flyers could explore the mysterious mesosphere
00:46 Tiny solar flyer
Researchers have used a phenomenon known as thermal transpiration to create a solar-powered flying device that can stay aloft without any moving parts. The diminutive device, just one centimetre across, consists of two thin, perforated membranes that allow air to flow through the device, generating lift. Although only a proof-of-concept, the team hope that a scaled-up version of the device could be used to measure conditions in the mesosphere, a particularly hard-to-study part of the Earth’s atmosphere, or even on Mars.
Research Article: Schafer et al.
News and Views: Levitating platform could ride sunlight into the ‘ignorosphere’
News: These tiny flyers levitate on the Sun's heat alone
07:57 Research Highlights
A 3D scan of body art on a 2,000-year-old mummy reveals the techniques used by ancient tattooists — plus, the bacterial cause of a devastating sea-star disease.
Research Highlight: Intricate origins of ice mummy’s ink revealed
Research Highlight: Mystery of billions of sea-star deaths solved at last
10:22 Quantum gravity goes to the lab
Despite being one of the most successful scientific frameworks in history, there is one thing that quantum physics can’t explain: gravity. Whether gravity is quantum in nature is something that has had physicists vexed, but now a slew of experiments are being planned to try and answer this question. We hear how these experiments will work, and what their results might mean for physicists’ understanding of the universe.
News Feature: Is gravity quantum? Experiments could finally probe one of physics’ biggest questions
20:26 Briefing Chat
How genes can have different effects depend on the parent they come from, and how lithium shows promise in treating Alzheimer’s disease in mice studies.
Nature: These genes can have the opposite effects depending on which parent they came from
Nature: New hope for Alzheimer’s: lithium supplement reverses memory loss in mice
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