Nature Podcast

In this episode: 00:15 How Pokémon inspired fields as diverse as evolution, biodiversity and research integrity. Nature: Pokémon turns 30 — how the fictional pocket monsters shaped science Subscribe 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.

High-speed footage reveals shoe squeaks can start with a tiny bolt of lightning — plus, evidence that a debated brain phenomenon exists in humans. 00:44 The science of squeaky shoes Research Article : Djellouli et al. Basketball sound effects via Bradley Kanaris/Getty. 09:05 Research Highlights Nature: Runaway black hole leaves a trail of stars Nature: Super-sticky feet help a robot to climb the walls 11:31 Evidence of hippocampal neurogenesis Research Article: Disouky et al. Subscribe 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.

00:25 How brains differ by sex and age Nature: Brain differences between sexes get more pronounced from puberty 07:14 Bumblebees ‘fan themselves’ during flight to keep cool Science: How do busy bees avoid overheating from flying? Video: Birds gliding through bubbles reveal aerodynamic trick Subscribe 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.

00:46 Data stored in glass Nature: Microsoft Research Project Silica Team Nature: Microsoft team creates 'revolutionary' data storage system that lasts for millennia 08:09 Research Highlights Nature: Parasitic wasps use tamed virus to castrate caterpillars Nature: Flexible joints: robot morphs into a range of cyborg species 10:10 An mRNA vaccine for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Nature: Sahin et al. Subscribe 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.

In this episode: 00:26 Moderate caffeine intake might reduce dementia risk, study suggests Nature: Coffee linked to slower brain ageing in study of 130,000 people 04:15 Using AI to work out the rules of a long-forgotten board game Scientific American: Rules of mysterious ancient Roman board game decoded by AI Subscribe 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.

In this episode: 00:46 The immune cells that eat waste fats from fruit flies’ brains Nature: Cho et al. 10:21 Research Highlights Nature: Beetle is locked into an eternal dance ― with an ant Nature: Super-sniffer aeroplane finds oil fields’ hidden emissions 12:41 Ancient DNA evidence reveals a nuanced story of the Bell Beaker Expansion Nature: Olalde et al. Subscribe 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.

In this episode: 00:42 External, artificial-lung system keeps patient alive for transplant Nature: 48 hours without lungs: artificial organ kept man alive until transplant 06:22 How lung cancer in mice hijacks neurons to outwit the immune system Nature: How tumours trick the brain into shutting down cancer-fighting cells Subscribe 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.

00:46 Understanding how rete ridges form in the skin Nature: Thompson et al. 09:32 Research Highlights Nature: Genetically engineered ‘stinkweed’ comes up roses for making seed oil Nature: Largest galaxy survey yet confirms that the Universe is not clumpy enough 11:52 The open-source AI that performs scientific literature reviews Nature: Asai et al. Subscribe 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.

In this episode: 00:36 Study probes genetics of extreme longevity Nature: Still working at 107: supercentenarian study probes genetics of extreme longevity 05:32 Controlling fluorescent proteins’ brightness with magnets Nature: ‘Remote controlled’ proteins illuminate living cells Subscribe 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.

In this episode: 00:46 Why completing difficult tasks feels rewarding Nature: Touponse et al. 11:34 Research Highlights Nature: Disappearing ‘planet’ reveals a solar system’s turbulent times Nature: Getting to the (square) root of stock-market swings 13:43 How extreme weather events could threaten malaria elimination efforts Nature: Touponse et al. Subscribe 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.

This is an audio version of our Feature: ‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode: 00:24 How babies share their gut microbes Nature: Sending babies to nursery completely reshapes their microbiome 05:25 First evidence of tool use in cattle Science: No bull: This Austrian cow has learned to use tools Subscribe 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.

00:46 Protein-sized superposition surpasses previous experiments Nature: Pedalino et al. News: Schrödinger's cat just got bigger: quantum physicists create largest ever 'superposition' 11:46 Research Highlights Nature: Ancient pottery reveals early evidence of mathematical thinking Nature: Gifted dogs learn new words by overhearing humans 14:11 How Trump’s second term has impacted research Nature: US science after a year of Trump Nature: US science in 2026: five themes that will dominate Trump’s second year Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode: 00:40 The rock samples destined to remain on Mars Nature: NASA won’t bring Mars samples back to Earth: this is the science that will be lost 05:24 The genetics of dogs’ droopy ears Nature: Do their ears hang low? The genetics of dogs’ adorable floppy ears Subscribe 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.

In this episode: 00:47 AI can boost research productivity — at what cost? Research article: Hao et al. 10:10 Research Highlights Nature: Ancient ‘snowball’ Earth had frigidly briny seas Nature: Putting immune cells into ‘night mode’ reduces heart-attack damage 12:41 JWST images are full of red dots, what are they? Nature: Rusakov et al. Subscribe 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.

00:54 Turning an undersea cable into a seismic detector Researchers have shown that they can piggyback a signal on a 4,400-kilometer-long telecom cable that runs from California to Hawaii, allowing it to act like 44,000 separate seismic-activity detectors. Their method takes advantage of impurities found in glass fibre-optic cables, which reflect light differently when they are stretched and distorted by the pressure of seismic waves. Science: Seafloor telecom cable transformed into giant earthquake detector 04:17 The origin of an ancient boat Chemical analysis of the caulking found on the wood an ancient boat has helped researchers identify the origins of the vessel, that sank off the coast of Denmark 2,400 years ago. The team’s analysis suggests it voyaged from much farther away that had been thought — perhaps coming from the Baltic Sea region. The team also found a fingerprint left in the caulk, although who it belonged to is unknown. LiveScience: Fingerprint of ancient seaborne raider found on Scandinavia's oldest plank boat 08:29 How heating up helps some plants pollinate Some plants called cycads (Zamia spp.) heat up to attract the beetles that pollinate them. These beetles have heat-seeking sensors in their antennae, which they use locate the plants. Male cycads warm up around 3 hours before females, meaning that beetles head to them before first carrying pollen over to the females. Science: Heat-seeking beetles drawn to plants that glow in infrared 13:08 The exoplanet shaped like a lemon The discovery of exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b reveals how unusual other worlds can be. This exoplanet takes just 7.8 hours to orbit an ultra-dense pulsar whose intense gravity pulls PSR J2322-2650b into a lemon shape. New Scientist: Strange lemon-shaped exoplanet defies the rules of planet formation Subscribe 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.

In this episode, reporter Miryam Naddaf joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2026. We’ll hear about: small-scale AI models that could outcompete Large Language Models in reasoning, clinical trials of gene editing to treat rare human disorders, a sample collection mission from Phobos, and how changes to US policy by the Trump team are expected to impact science. Subscribe 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.

Anecdotal stories suggesting that weight-loss drugs can help people shake long-standing addictions have been spreading fast in the past few years, through online forums, weight-loss clinics and news headlines. And now, clinical data are starting to back them up. Over a dozen randomized clinical studies testing whether GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic can suppress addiction are now under way, and neuroscientists are working out how these weight-loss drugs act on brain regions that control craving, reward and motivation. Scientists warn that the research is still in its early stages, but some researchers and physicians are excited, as no truly new class of addiction medicine has won approval from regulators in decades. This is an audio version of our Feature: Will blockbuster obesity drugs revolutionize addiction treatment? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

00:40 What a trove of potato genomes reveals about the humble spud Researchers have created a ‘pangenome’ containing the genomes of multiple potato types, something they believe can help make it easier to breed and sequence new varieties. The potato’s complicated genetics has made it difficult to sequence the plant’s genome, but improvements in technology have allowed the team to combine sequences, allowing them to look for subtle differences in between varieties. Nature Podcast: 16 April 2025 Research Article: Sun et al. 10:28 Hundreds of physicists on a remote island: we visit the ultimate quantum party According to legend, physicist Werner Heisenberg formulated the mathematics behind quantum mechanics in 1925 while on a restorative trip to the remote North Sea island of Heligoland. To celebrate the centenary of this event, several hundred researchers have descended on the island to take part in a conference on all things quantum physics. Nature reporter Lizzie Gibney was also in attendance, and joined us to give an inside track on the meeting. Nature Podcast: ​​​​​​​13 June 2025 19:54 Research Highlights A minuscule robot that can manipulate liquid droplets, and the discovery of ancient puppets on the remains of a large pyramid offers a glimpse into rituals in Mesoamerica. Research Highlight: This tiny robot moves mini-droplets with ease Research Highlight: Ancient puppets that smile or scowl hint at shared rituals 23:03 These malaria drugs treat the mosquitoes — not the people Researchers have developed two compounds that can kill malaria-causing parasites within mosquitoes, an approach they hope could help reduce transmission of the disease. The team showed that these compounds can be embedded into the plastics used to make bed nets, providing an alternative to insecticide-based malaria-control measures, which are losing efficacy in the face of increased resistance. Nature Podcast: ​​​​​​​21 May 2025 Research article: ​​​​​​​Probst et al. 33:49 Briefing Chat The first skeletal evidence that Roman gladiators fought lions. BBC News: Bites on gladiator bones prove combat with lion Subscribe 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.

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