Nature Podcast

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 ac...

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 i...

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...

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 unmi...

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 disto...

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. Subscrib...

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 neuroscie...

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 sequ...

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...

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 fir...

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...

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 th...

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 p...

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 d...

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 differen...

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...

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 t...

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 Nanotyra...

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&nbsp...

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...

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....

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 p...

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 h...

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...

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 b...