In this episode:00:45 The biggest black hole jets ever seenAstronomers have spotted a pair of enormous jets emanating from a supermassive black hole with a combined length of 23 million light years — the biggest ever discovered. Jets are formed when matter is ionized and flung out of a black hole, creating enormous and powerful structures in space. Thought to be unstable, physicists had theorized there was a limit to how large these jets could be, but the new discovery far exceeds this, suggesting there may be more of these monstrous jets yet to be discovered.Research Article: Oei et al. 09:44 Research HighlightsThe knitted fabrics designed to protect wearers from mosquito bites, and the role that islands play in fostering language diversity.Research Highlight: Plagued by mosquitoes? Try some bite-blocking fabricsResearch Highlight: Islands are rich with languages spoken nowhere else12:26 A sustainable, one-step method for alloy productionMaking metal alloys is typically a multi-step process that creates huge amounts of emissions. Now, a team demonstrates a way to create these materials in a single step, which they hope could significantly reduce the environmental burdens associated with their production. In a lab demonstration, they use their technique to create an alloy of nickel and iron called invar — a widely-used material that has a high carbon-footprint. The team show evidence that their method can produce invar to a quality that rivals that of conventional manufacturing, and suggest their technique is scalable to create alloys at an industrial scale.Research article: Wei et al.25:29 Briefing ChatHow AI-predicted protein structures have helped chart the evolution of a group of viruses, and the neurons that cause monkeys to ‘choke’ under pressure.Nature News: Where did viruses come from? AlphaFold and other AIs are finding answersNature News: Why do we crumble under pressure? Science has the answerSubscribe to the 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:00:45 What ancient DNA has revealed about Rapa Nui’s pastAncient DNA analysis has further demonstrated that the people of Rapa Nui did not cause their own population collapse, further refuting a controversial but popular claim. Rapa Nui, also known as Easter island, is famous for its giant Moai statues and the contested idea that the people mismanaged their natural resources leading to ‘ecological suicide’. Genomes sequenced from the remains of 15 ancient islanders showed no evidence of a sudden population crash, substantiating other research challenging the collapse idea.Research Article: Moreno-Mayar et al.News and Views: Rapa Nui’s population history rewritten using ancient DNANews article: Famed Pacific island’s population 'crash' debunked by ancient DNA17:03 Research HighlightsThe extinct bat-eating fish that bit off more than they could chew, and how manatee dung shapes an Amazonian ecosystem.Research Highlight: Ancient fish dined on bats — or died tryingResearch Highlight: The Amazon’s gargantuan gardeners: manatees19:29 A macabre parasite of adult fruit fliesDespite being a hugely-studied model organism, it seems that there’s still more to find out about the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, as researchers have discovered a new species of parasitoid wasp that infects the species. Unlike other parasitic wasps, this one lays its eggs in adult flies, with the developing larva devouring its host from the inside. The miniscule wasp was discovered by chance in an infected fruit fly collected in a Mississippi backyard and analysis suggests that despite having never been previously identified, it is widespread across parts of North America.Research article: Moore et al.32:04 Briefing ChatHow a dye that helps to give Doritos their orange hue can turn mouse tissues transparent, and an effective way to engage with climate-science sceptics.Nature News: Transparent mice made with light-absorbing dye reveal organs at workNature News: How to change people’s minds about climate change: what the science says Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The often repeated claim that "80% of the world's biodiversity is found in the territories of Indigenous Peoples" appears widely in policy documents and reports, yet appears to have sprung out of nowhere. According to a group of researchers, including those from Indigenous groups, this baseless statistic could be undermining the conservation efforts of the Indigenous People it's meant to support and prevent further work to really understand how best to conserve biodiversity.Two of the authors joined us to discuss how this statistic gained traction, the harm it could cause, and how better to support the work of Indigenous Peoples.Read more in a Comment article from the authors: No basis for claim that 80% of biodiversity is found in Indigenous territories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:00:45 Why a 'nuclear clock' is now within researchers’ reachResearchers have made a big step towards the creation of the long theorized nuclear clock, by getting the most accurate measurement of the frequency of light required to push thorium nuclei into a higher energy state. Such a timekeeper would differ from the best current clocks as their ‘tick’ corresponds to the energy transitions of protons and neutrons, rather than electrons. Nuclear clocks have the potential to be more robust and accurate than current systems, and could offer researchers new insights into fundamental forces present within atomic nuclei.Research Article: Zhang et al.News and Views: Countdown to a nuclear clockNature News: ‘Nuclear clock’ breakthrough paves the way for super-precise timekeepingEditorial: Progress on nuclear clocks shows the benefits of escaping from scientific silos10:10 Research HighlightsThe star that got partially shredded by a supermassive black hole, not just once, but twice, and how heatwaves could mangle bumblebees’ sense of smell.Research Highlight: This unlucky star got mangled by a black hole — twiceResearch Highlight: Bumblebees’ sense of smell can’t take the heat12:11 How engineered immune cells could help limit damage after spinal injuryBy harnessing T cells to fine-tune the inflammation response, researchers have limited the damage caused by spinal injury in mice, an approach they hope might one day translate into a human therapy. Following injury to the central nervous system, immune cells rush to the scene, resulting in a complex array of effects, both good and bad. In this work researchers have identified the specific kind of T cells that amass at the site, and used them to create an immunotherapy that helps the mice recover more quickly from injuries by slowing damage to neurons.Research article: Gao et al.20:36 Briefing ChatHow unprecedented floods in Brazil have helped and hindered paleontologists, and the ‘AI scientist’ that does everything from literature review through to manuscript writing, to an extent.Nature News: The race to save fossils exposed by Brazil’s record-setting floodsNature News: Researchers built an ‘AI Scientist’ — what can it do?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.
The 'file-drawer problem', where findings with null or negative results gather dust and are left unpublished, is well known in science. There has been an overriding perception that studies with positive or significant findings are more important, but this bias can have real-world implications, skewing perceptions of drug efficacies, for example.Multiple efforts to get negative results published have been put forward or attempted, with some researchers saying that the incentive structures in academia, and the ‘publish or perish’ culture, need to be overturned in order to end this bias.This is an audio version of our Feature: So you got a null result. Will anyone publish it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode:00:31 Chatbots makes racist judgements on the basis of dialectResearch has shown that large language models, including those that power chatbots such as ChatGPT, make racist judgements on the basis of users’ dialect. If asked to describe a person, many AI systems responded with racist stereotypes when presented with text written in African American English — a dialect spoken by millions of people in the United States that is associated with the descendants of enslaved African Americans — compared with text written in Standardized American English. The findings show that such models harbour covert racism, even when they do not display overt racism, and that conventional fixes to try and address biases in these models had no effect on this issue.Research Article: Hoffman et al.News and Views: LLMs produce racist output when prompted in African American EnglishNature News: Chatbot AI makes racist judgements on the basis of dialect07:01 How ancient engineers built a megalithic structureThe 6,000-year-old Dolmen of Menga is a marvel of ancient engineering. New research reveals new insights into the structure and the technical abilities of the Neolithic builders who constructed it. The work shows that a setup of counterweights and ramps may have been used to correctly position the massive sandstone blocks that make up walls of the structure, which were each tilted at precise, millimetre-scale angles. The researchers suggest that this construction shows that the Neolithic people who built the dolmen had a working understanding of physics, geometry, geology and architectural principles.Nature News: Stone Age builders had engineering savvy, finds study of 6000-year-old monument12:28 Spider makes fireflies flash as baitOrb-weaving spiders (Araneus ventricosus) use ensnared male Absocondita terminalis fireflies to trick more insects into their web. A bite from the spider causes the flashing pattern of the trapped firefly to shift to one resembling a female looking to mate, leading others into an ambush. Exactly how this system works is unclear, but researchers say it is a rare example of a predator altering the behaviour of its prey to catch others.Science: Spiders force male fireflies to flash like females—luring more males to their death16:35 The physics of paper cutsBy combining experiments and theoretical work, a team has unraveled the mystery of why only certain types of paper can cut into human skin. Their work shows that paper that is too thin will buckle without cutting, while paper that’s too thick will distribute force over a relatively large area without inflicting damage. The research suggests that the sweet spot for slicing is paper with around 65 micrometres in thickness, which includes the kind used to print certain high-profile journals…Research Highlight: What Science and Nature are good for: causing paper cuts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
For millennia, humanity has obsessed about halting ageing and, ultimately, preventing death. Yet while advances in medicine and public-health have seen human life-expectancy more than double, our maximum lifespan stubbornly remains around 120 years.On the latest episode of Nature hits the books, Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan joins us to discuss what scientists have learnt about the molecular processes underlying ageing, whether they can be prevented, and why the quest for longevity also needs to consider the health-related issues associated with old age.Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality Venki Ramakrishnan Hodder (2024)Music supplied by Airae/Epidemic Sound/Getty images. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
00:46 Old AIs can’t learn new tricksAn algorithm that reactivates dormant ‘neurons’ in deep learning based AIs could help them overcome their inability to learn new things and make future systems more flexible, research has shown. AIs based on deep learning struggle to learn how to tackle new tasks indefinitely, making them less adaptable to new situations. The reasons for this are unclear, but now a team has identified that ‘resetting’ parts of the neural networks underlying these systems can allow deep learning methods to keep learning continually.Research Article: Dohare et al.News and Views: Switching between tasks can cause AI to lose the ability to learn08:55 Research HighlightsTo stop crocodiles eating poisonous toads researchers have been making them sick, and a sacrificed child in ancient Mexico was the progeny of closely related parents.Research Highlight: How to train your crocodileResearch Highlight: DNA of child sacrificed in ancient city reveals surprising parentage11:20 Briefing ChatHow video games gave people a mental health boost during the pandemic, and where the dinosaur-destroying Chicxulub asteroid formed.Nature News: PlayStation is good for you: video games improved mental health during COVIDNature News: Dinosaur-killing Chicxulub asteroid formed in Solar System’s outer reachesSubscribe 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.
00:48 The mystery of Stonehenge’s Altar StoneStonehenge’s central stone came from Northern Scotland, more than 600 miles away from the monument, according to a new analysis of its geochemistry. It is commonly accepted that many of the rocks that make up the iconic neolithic monument came from Wales, 150 miles from the site. Previously, it had been thought that a central stone, called the Altar Stone, had also come from this area, known as the Preseli Hills. The new work suggests that the ancient Britons went much further, perhaps ferrying the Altar Stone hundreds of miles, to place the rock at the centre of Stonehenge.Research Article: Clarke et al.News: Stonehenge’s massive slabs came from as far as Scotland — 800 kilometres away12:12 Research HighlightsHow a parasite could help scientists break through the blood-brain barrier, and the physics of skateboard moves.Research Highlight: Engineered brain parasite ferries useful proteins into neuronsResearch Highlight: How expert skateboarders use physics on the half-pipe14:13 A new way to break bondsChemists have demonstrated a way to break Selenium-Selenium bonds unevenly, something they have been trying for decades. Chemical bonds have to be broken and reformed to create new compounds, but they often don’t break in a way that allows chemists to form new bonds in the ways they would like. Breaks are often ‘even’, with electrons shared equally between atoms. To prevent such an even split, a team used a specific solvent and a combination of light and heat to force the selenium bonds to break unevenly. This could potentially open up ways to create compounds that have never been made before.Research Article: Tiefel et al.News and Views: Innovative way to break chemical bonds broadens horizons for making moleculesSubscribe 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.
AIs built on Large Language Models have wowed by producing particularly fluent text. However, their ability to do this is limited in many languages. As the data and resources used to train a model in a specific language drops, so does the performance of the model, meaning that for some languages the AIs are effectively useless.Researchers are aware of this problem and are trying to find solutions, but the challenge extends far beyond just the technical, with moral and social questions to be answered. This podcast explores how Large Language Models could be improved in more languages and the issues that could be caused if they are not.Watch our related video of people trying out ChatGPT in different languages. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
00:48 Plant trait diversity in drylandsA study reveals that, unexpectedly, plants display a greater diversity of traits in drier environments. Trait diversity is a measure of an organism's performance in an environment and can include things like the size of a plant or its photosynthetic rate. Whilst there are good data on this kind of diversity in temperate regions, an assessment of drylands has been lacking. The new study fills this knowledge gap and finds that, counter to a prevailing expectation that fewer traits would be displayed, at a certain level of aridity trait diversity doubles. The team behind the new work hope that it can help us better protect biodiversity as the planet warms and areas become drier.Research Article: Gross et al.08:25 Research HighlightsButterflies and moths use static charge to pick up pollen, and quantum physics rules out black holes made of light.Research Highlight: Charged-up butterflies draw pollen through the airResearch Highlight: Black holes made from light? Impossible, say physicists10:59 The Great Barrier Reef is the hottest it’s been for centuriesAn assessment of coral skeletons has shown that the past decade has been the warmest for the Great Barrier Reef for 400 years. By looking at the chemical composition of particularly old specimens of coral in the reef, researchers were able to create a record of temperatures going back to 1618. In addition to showing recent record breaking temperatures they also developed a model that suggests that such temperatures are very unlikely to occur without human-induced climate change. Altogether, the study suggests that the reef is in dire straits and much of the worlds’ coral could be lost.Research Article: Henley et al.News and Views: Coral giants sound the alarm for the Great Barrier ReefNature News: Great Barrier Reef's temperature soars to 400-year high18:56 ‘Publish or Perish’ becomes a card gameMost researchers are familiar with the refrain ‘Publish or Perish’ — the idea that publications are the core currency of a scientist’s career — but now that can be played out for laughs in a new board game. Created as a way to help researchers “bond over shared trauma”, the game features many mishaps familiar to academics, scrambles for funding and scathing comments, all while players must compete to get the most citations on their publications. Reporter Max Kozlov set out to avoid perishing and published his way to a story about the game for the Nature Podcast.Nature News: ‘Publish or Perish’ is now a card game — not just an academic’s lifeSubscribe 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.
00:45 Increasing the energy efficiency of light-based computersComputer components based on specialised LEDs could reduce the energy consumption of power hungry AI systems, according to new research. AI chips with components that compute using light can run more efficiently than those using digital electronics, but these light-based systems typically use lasers that can be bulky and difficult to control. To overcome these obstacles, a team has developed a way to replace these lasers with LEDs, which are cheaper and more efficient to run. Although only a proof of concept, they demonstrate that their system can perform some tasks as well as laser-based computers.Research Article: Dong et al.News and Views: Cheap light sources could make AI more energy efficient10:36 Research HighlightsThe genes that make roses smell so sweet, and how blocking inflammation could reduce heart injury after a stroke.Research Highlight: How the rose got its iconic fragranceResearch Highlight: Strokes can damage the heart — but reining in the immune system might help13:02 What researchers know about H5N1 influenza in cowsThe highly-pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 was first identified in US cattle in March 2024 and has been detected in multiple herds across the country. We round up what researchers currently know about this spread, what can be done to prevent it, and the risks this outbreak may pose to humans.Nature News: Can H5N1 spread through cow sneezes? Experiment offers cluesNature News: Huge amounts of bird-flu virus found in raw milk of infected cowsNature News: Could bird flu in cows lead to a human outbreak? Slow response worries scientistsResearch article: Eisfeld et al.22:38 Briefing ChatNASA’s Perseverance rover finds a Martian rock containing features associated with fossilized microbial life, and how metallic nodules on the ocean floor could be the source of mysterious ‘dark oxygen’Space.com: NASA's Perseverance Mars rover finds possible signs of ancient Red Planet lifeNature News: Mystery oxygen source discovered on the sea floor — bewildering scientistsSubscribe 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 India, a group of researchers raced to develop a CRISPR-based genome editing therapy to save the life of a young woman with a rare neurodegenerative disease. Despite a valiant effort, the pace of research was ultimately too slow to save her life. While many are convinced that these therapies could offer hope to those with overlooked genetic conditions, it will likely take years to develop the techniques needed to quickly create bespoke treatments, something people in need don't have.This is an audio version of our Feature: Hope, despair and CRISPR — the race to save one woman’s life Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
00:48 A rapid way to identify serious bacterial infectionsA newly-developed method that can rapidly identify the type of bacteria causing a blood-infection, and the correct antibiotics to treat it, could save clinicians time, and patient lives. Blood infections are serious, and can lead to the life-threatening condition sepsis, but conventional diagnostic methods can take days to identify the causes. This new method does away with some of the time-consuming steps, and the researchers behind it say that if it can be fully automated, it could provide results in less than a day.Research Article: Kim et al.11:49 Research HighlightsThe discovery of a connection between three star-forming interstellar clouds could help explain how these giant structures form, and evidence of the largest accidental methane leak ever recorded.Research Highlight: Found: the hidden link between star-forming molecular cloudsResearch Highlight: Blowout! Satellites reveal one of the largest methane leaks on record14:22 AIs fed AI-generated text start to spew nonsenseWhen artificial intelligences are fed data that has itself been AI-generated, these systems quickly begin to spout nonsense responses, according to new research. Typically, large language model (LLM) AI’s are trained on human-produced text found online. However, as an increasing amount of online content is AI-generated, a team wanted to know how these systems would cope. They trained an AI to produce Wikipedia-like entries, then trained new iterations on the model on the text produced by its predecessor. Quickly the outputs descended into gibberish, which highlights the dangers of the Internet becoming increasingly full of AI-generated text.Research Article: Shumailov et al.25:49 Briefing ChatHow psilocybin — the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms — resets communication between brain regions, and the surprise cancellation of a NASA Moon mission.Nature News: Your brain on shrooms — how psilocybin resets neural networksNature News: NASA cancels $450-million mission to drill for ice on the Moon — surprising researchersSubscribe 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.
01:04 A gel to safely transport proteinsA gel that encases proteins could be a new way to safely transport medicines without requiring them to be kept cold, according to new research. To test it, the team behind the work posted themselves a protein suspended in this gel, showing that it was perfectly preserved and retained its activity, despite being dropped in transit and exposed to varying temperatures. The researchers hope this gel will help overcome the need to freeze protein-based medicines, which can be expensive to do and difficult to maintain during transportation.Research Article: Bianco et al.News and Views: Gel protects therapeutic proteins from deactivation — even in the post08:51 Research HighlightsHow an abundance of cicadas led to a host of raccoon activity, and how wine-grape harvest records can be used to estimate historical summertime temperaturesResearch Highlight: Massive cicada emergence prompted raccoons to run wildResearch Highlight: Wine grapes’ sweetness reveals Europe’s climate history11:24 Making a plastic biodegradableBy embedding a plastic with an engineered enzyme, researchers have developed a fully biodegradable material that can be broken down in a home compost heap. Plastic production often requires high temperatures, so the team adapted an enzyme to make it more able to withstand heat, while still able to break down a common plastic called PLA. They hope this enzyme-embedded plastic could replace current single-use items, helping to reduce the huge amount of waste produced each year.Research Article: Guicherd et al.19:53 Briefing ChatThis time, how to make lab-grown meat taste more meaty, and a subterranean Moon cave that could be a place for humans to shelter.Nature News: This lab-grown meat probably tastes like real beefThe Guardian: Underground cave found on moon could be ideal base for explorersNature hits the books: Living on Mars would probably suck — here's whySubscribe 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.
00:45 In situ editing of the gut microbiomeResearchers have developed a method to directly edit the genes of specific bacteria in the guts of live mice, something that has previously been difficult to accomplish due to the complexity of this environment. The tool was able to edit over 90% of an E. coli strain colonising mice guts, with other work showing the tool could be used to edit genes in pathogenic bacterial species and strains. It is hoped that with further research this technique could be adapted to work in humans, potentially altering bacteria associated with disease.Nature News: This gene-editing tool alters bacteria in the gut of living miceResearch Article: Brödel et al.06:56 Research HighlightsThe ants that perform life-saving surgery on their nest-mates, and why amber’s scarcity led ancient artisans to make imitation jewellery.Research Highlight: Ants amputate their nest-mates’ legs to save livesResearch Highlight: Fake jewellery from the Stone Age looks like the real deal08:46 How is bone health maintained during breastfeeding?During breastfeeding bones are stripped of calcium, while levels of oestrogen — which normally helps keep them healthy — drop off precipitously. This puts bones under tremendous stress, but why they don’t break down at this time has proved a mystery. Now, a team has identified a hormone produced in lactating mice that promotes the build up of bones, keeping them strong during milk production. Injecting this hormone into injured mice helped their bones heal faster, and the team hopes that their finding could ultimately help treat bone-weakening conditions like osteoporosis in humans.Research Article: Babey et al.17:55 Briefing ChatThis time, new clues about the neurological events that spark migraines, and a quick chemical method to recycle old clothes.Nature News: What causes migraines? Study of ‘brain blackout’ offers cluesNature News: Chemical recycling’: 15-minute reaction turns old clothes into useful moleculesSubscribe 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.
00:47 Searching for dark matter in black holesResearchers have been scanning the skies looking for black holes that formed at the very beginning of the Universe — one place where elusive and mysterious dark matter is thought to be located. If these black holes did contain dark matter, they would be especially massive and so researchers would be able to see the bending of light as they pass in front of stars. Such events would be rare, so to find them researchers trawled through a decades-long dataset. However, despite the large number of observations, the researchers didn't find many examples of these events and none that were long enough to show signs of much dark matter. So, the hunt for enigmatic material goes on.Research Article: Mróz et al.09:42 Research HighlightsHow some comb jellies survive the crushing ocean depths, and how giving cash to mothers in low-income households can boost time and money spent on children.Research Highlight: Deep-sea creatures survive crushing pressures with just the right fatsResearch Highlight: Families given cash with no strings spend more money on kids12:39 A simple, solution to tackle a deadly frog diseaseA simple ‘sauna’ built of bricks and a supermarket-bought greenhouse, can help frogs rid themselves of a devastating fungal disease, new research has shown. While options to prevent or treat infection are limited, the fungus that causes the disease chytridiomycosis has an achilles heel: it can’t survive at warm temperatures. A team in Australia used this knowledge to their advantage to develop saunas where frogs can warm themselves to clear an infection. Frogs who spent time in these hot environments were able to shake the fungus, and gained some immunity to subsequent infections. While this research only involved one type of frog, it offers some hope in tackling a deadly disease that has driven multiple species to extinction.Research Article: Waddle et al.News and Views: Mini saunas save endangered frogs from fungal disease20:06 Briefing ChatThis time, we discuss what the upcoming UK election could mean for science, and the return of rock samples from the Moon’s far side.Nature News: UK general election: five reasons it matters for scienceNature News: First ever rocks from the Moon’s far side have landed on EarthSubscribe 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 2026, NASA aims to send humans back to the Moon's surface, as part of the Artemis III mission. In preparation, astronauts have been performing moonwalking simulations to ensure that they are able to make the most of their precious time on the lunar surface. In one dress rehearsal, a pair of astronauts took part in a training exercise in an Arizona volcanic field, working with a science team to practice doing geology work in difficult conditions designed to mimic some that will be experienced at the lunar south pole.This is an audio version of our Feature: How NASA astronauts are training to walk on the Moon in 2026Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for Nature Podcast is available too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
00:31 How open are ‘open source’ AI systems?Many of the large language models powering AI systems are described as ‘open source’ but critics say this is a misnomer, with restricted access to code and training data preventing researchers from probing how these systems work. While the definition of open source in AI models is yet to be agreed, advocates say that ‘full’ openness is crucial in efforts to make AI accountable. New research has ranked the openness of different systems, showing that despite claims of ‘openness’ many companies still don’t disclose a lot of key information.Nature News: Not all ‘open source’ AI models are actually open: here’s a ranking06:12 Why longer freight trains are more prone to derailmentIn the US, there are no federal limits on the length of a freight train, but as companies look to run longer locomotives, questions arise about whether they are at greater risk of derailment. To find out, a team analysed data on accidents to predict the chances of longer trains coming off the tracks. They showed that replacing two 50-car freight trains with one 100-car train raises the odds of derailment by 11%, with the chances increasing the longer a train gets. While derailments are uncommon, this could change as economic pressures lead the freight industry to experiment with ever-longer trains.Scientific American: Longer and Longer Freight Trains Drive Up the Odds of Derailment11:44 How historic wheat could give new traits to current cropsGenes from century-old wheat varieties could be used to breed useful traits into modern crops, helping them become more disease tolerant and reducing their need for fertiliser. Researchers sequenced the genomes of hundreds of historic varieties of wheat held in a seed collection from the 1920s and 30s, revealing a huge amount of genetic diversity unseen in modern crops. Plant breeding enabled the team to identify some of the areas of the plants’ genomes responsible for traits such as nutritional content and stress tolerance. It’s hoped that in the long term this knowledge could be used to improve modern varieties of wheat.Science: ‘Gold mine’ of century-old wheat varieties could help breeders restore long lost traitsSubscribe 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 How light touches are sensed during sex150 years after they were discovered, researchers have identified how specific nerve-cell structures on the penis and clitoris are activated. While these structures, called Krause corpuscles, are similar to touch-activated corpuscles found on people’s fingers and hands, there was little known about how they work, or their role in sex. Working in mice, a team found that Krause corpuscles in both male and females were activated when exposed to low-frequency vibrations and caused sexual behaviours like erections. The researchers hope that this work could help uncover the neurological basis underlying certain sexual dysfunctions.News: Sensory secrets of penis and clitoris unlocked after more than 150 yearsResearch article: Qi et al.News and Views: Sex organs sense vibrations through specialized touch neurons07:03 Research HighlightsAstronomers struggle to figure out the identity of a mysterious object called a MUBLO, and how CRISPR gene editing could make rice plants more water-efficient.Research Highlight: An object in space is emitting microwaves — and baffling scientistsResearch Highlight: CRISPR improves a crop that feeds billions09:21 How fish detect the source of soundIt’s long been understood that fish can identify the direction a sound came from, but working out how they do it is a question that’s had scientists stumped for years. Now using a specialist setup, a team of researchers have demonstrated that some fish can independently detect two components of a soundwave — pressure and particle motion — and combine this information to identify where a sound comes from.Research article: Veith et al.News and Views: Pressure and particle motion enable fish to sense the direction of soundD. cerebrum sounds: Schulze et al.20:30: Briefing ChatAncient DNA sequencing reveals secrets of ritual sacrifice at Chichén Itzá, and how AI helped identify the names that elephants use for each other.Nature News: Ancient DNA from Maya ruins tells story of ritual human sacrificesNature News: Do elephants have names for each other?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.
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