00:46 Inequalities in US faculty hiringIn the US, where a person gained their PhD can have an outsized influence on their future career. Now, using a decade worth of data, researchers have shown there are stark inequalities in the hiring process, with 80% of US faculty trained at just 20% of institutions.Research article: Wapman et al.09:01 Research HighlightsHow wildlife can influence chocolate production, and the large planets captured by huge stars.Research Highlight: A chocoholic’s best friends are the birds and the batsResearch Highlight: Giant stars turn to theft to snag jumbo planets11:42 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, what science says about grieving for a public figure, and why suburban Australians are sharing increasingly sophisticated measures to prevent cockatoos from opening wheelie bins.Nature News: Millions are mourning the Queen — what’s the science behind public grief?The Guardian: ‘Interspecies innovation arms race’: cockatoos and humans at war over wheelie bin raidsSubscribe 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 Synthetic cells made from bacterial bitsFor years researchers have been interested in creating artificial cells, as they could be useful for manufacturing compounds and understanding how life works. Now a new method shows how this can be accomplished using polymer droplets that integrate components of burst bacteria. The synthesised cells are able to perform translation and transcription and have several features that resemble real cells, like a proto-nucleus and a cytoskeleton.Research article: Xu et al.News and Views: Life brought to artificial cells09:33 Research HighlightsA mysterious ancient creature identified from its vomit, and the combination of immunity, diet and bacteria that could protect from metabolic disorders.Research Highlight: The Jurassic vomit that stood the test of timeResearch Highlight: A sugary diet wrecks gut microbes — and their anti-obesity efforts11:42 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, research on the safety of three-person embryos, and the gene that gave our ancestors an edge over neanderthals.Nature News: Embryos with DNA from three people develop normally in first safety studyNature News: Did this gene give modern human brains their edge?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 Evidence of ancient surgeryA skeleton with an amputated foot discovered in Borneo has been dated to 31,000 years ago, suggesting that complex surgery might be much older than previously thought. The person whose foot was removed survived the procedure, which the researchers behind the find say shows the ‘surgeon’ must have had detailed knowledge of anatomy, and likely had access to antiseptic compounds.Research article: Maloney et al.News and Views: A surgical dawn 31,000 years ago in Borneo10:12 Research HighlightsMummified reptiles hint at severe drought 250 million years ago, and mapping avalanche risk in remote locations.Research Highlight: Quick-dried Lystrosaurus ‘mummy’ holds clues to mass death in the TriassicResearch Highlight: Avalanches in remote peaks are revealed with old satellites’ aid13:09 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, how extreme heat has likely contributed to Pakistan’s devastating floods, and what the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed about exoplanets so far?Nature News: Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year?Nature News: Webb telescope wows with first image of an exoplanetNature News: Webb telescope spots CO2 on exoplanet for first time: what it means for finding alien 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.

The development of brain chimaeras – made up of human and animal neurons – is an area of research that has hugely expanded in the past five years. Proponents say that these systems are yielding important insights into health and disease, but others say the chimeras represent an ethical grey zone, because of the potential to blur the line between humans and other animals, or to recapitulate human-like cognition in an animal.This is an audio version of our Feature: Hybrid brains: the ethics of transplanting human neurons into animals Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode:00:45 How adding pores helps water carry gasAlthough water is an excellent solvent, it’s limited in its ability to dissolve gasses. To overcome this a team have developed ‘porous water’ containing tiny cages that can hold large numbers of gas molecules. The team suggest that this technology could have multiple medical applications, including in the development of artificial blood.Research article: Erdosy et al.News and Views: Suspended pores boost gas solubility in water11:35 Research HighlightsSynthetic ‘nerves’ help mice to walk, and planets orbiting a star that’s due to go supernova.Research Highlight: Stretchy synthetic nerve helps mice give ball a mighty kickResearch Highlight: A massive planet circles a huge star doomed to explode14:16 When did hominins get on their feet?One of humanity's defining characteristics is our ability to walk on two legs. However, when this ability evolved remains a mystery. A paper out this week suggests that the species Sahelanthropus tchadensis was walking on two legs seven million years ago – but others dispute these findings. We hear about the research and the debate surrounding it.News: Seven-million-year-old femur suggests ancient human relative walked uprightResearch article: Daver et al.News and Views: Standing up for the earliest bipedal hominins21:45 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, modelling an enormous, extinct megalodon shark, and a potential way to break down ‘forever chemicals’.The Guardian: Ancient megalodon shark could eat a whale in a few bites, research suggestsNature News: How to destroy ‘forever chemicals’: cheap method breaks down PFASSubscribe 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 Evidence of a proton’s charmFor decades, scientists have debated whether protons have ‘intrinsic charm’, meaning they contain elementary particles known as charm quarks. Now, using machine learning to comb through huge amounts of experimental data, a team have shown evidence that the charm quark can be found within a proton, which may have important ramifications in the search for new physics.Research article: The NNPDF CollaborationNews and Views: Evidence at last that the proton has intrinsic charm11:26 Research HighlightsHow sea sponges ‘sneeze’ to clean their filters, and why bonobos’ infantile behaviour helps them receive consolation after conflict.Research Highlight: How a sponge ‘sneezes’ mucus: against the flowResearch Highlight: Bonobo apes pout and throw tantrums — and gain sympathy13:52 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the repeated evolution of the crab body-shape, and why demanding work can lead to mental fatigue.Discover: Evolution Only Thinks About One Thing, and It’s CrabsNature News: Why thinking hard makes us feel tiredSubscribe 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 first episode of Nature's Take, we get four of Nature's staff around microphones to get their expert take on preprints. These pre-peer-review open access articles have spiked in number over recent years and have cemented themselves as an integral part of scientific publishing. But this has not been without its issues.In this discussion we cover a lot of ground. Amongst other things, we ask whether preprints could help democratise science or contribute to a loss of trust in scientists. We pick apart the relationship between preprints and peer-reviewed journals and tackle some common misconceptions. We ask how preprints have been used by different fields and how the pandemic has changed the game. And as we look to the future, we ask how preprints fit into the discussion around open access and even if they could do away with journals all together. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cold exposure in mice activates brown fat to deny tumours glucose, and the future of extreme heatwaves. 00:45 How cold temperatures could starve tumoursA team of researchers have found that exposing mice to the cold could starve tumour cells of the blood glucose they need to thrive. They showed that the cold temperatures deprived the tumours of fuel by activating brown fat – a tissue that burns through glucose to keep body temperature up. The team also showed preliminary evidence of the effect occurring in one person with cancer, but say that more research is needed before this method can be considered for clinical use.Research article: Seki et al.08:59 Research HighlightsEvidence of the world’s southernmost human outpost from before the Industrial Revolution, and how jumping up and down lets canoes surf their own waves.Research Highlight: Bones and weapons show just how far south pre-industrial humans gotResearch Highlight: How jumping up and down in a canoe propels it forwards11:24 The future of extreme heatwavesClimate scientists have long warned that extreme heat and extreme heatwaves will become more frequent as a result of climate change. But across the world these events are happening faster, and more furiously, than expected, and researchers are scrambling to dissect recent heatwaves to better understand what the world might have in store.News Feature: Extreme heatwaves: surprising lessons from the record warmth Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

00:47 The economic benefits of social connectionsBy looking at data gathered from billions of Facebook friendships, researchers have shown that having more connections with people from higher income groups could increase future incomes by 20%. They also show how such connections can be formed, and how schools and other institutions could help to improve peoples’ opportunities in the future.Research Article: Chetty et al.Research Article: Chetty et al.News and Views: The social connections that shape economic prospectsLink to the data11:06 Research HighlightsHow balloons could help measure quakes on Venus, and the parasitic fungus that tricks flies into mating with fly corpses.Research Highlight: Balloon flotilla detects an earthquake from high in the skyResearch Highlight: The fungus that entices male flies to mate with female corpses13:40 Reviving pig organs hours after deathWhen someone dies, tissues start to irreversibly degrade, but recently this irreversibility has been brought into question by studies showing that some organs can be partially revived several hours after death. Now, working in pigs, researchers have shown it is possible to revive the functions of several organs at once. This could pave the way for improved organ transplantation, but ethicists advise caution.Research Article: Andrijevic et al.News and Views: Improved organ recovery after oxygen deprivationNews: Pig organs partially revived in dead animals — researchers are stunnedSubscribe 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.

Inequity has been a central feature of the COVID19 pandemic. From health outcomes to access to vaccines, COVID has pushed long-standing disparities out of the shadows and into the public eye and many of these problems are global. In this episode of Coronapod we dig into a radical new collaboration of 15 countries - co-led by the WHO, and modelled on open-science. The project, called the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub, aims to create independent vaccine hubs that could supply the global south, and take on the giants of the pharmaceutical industry in the process. But the road ahead is long - the challenges are complex and numerous, and the odds are stacked against them. But at a time when stakes couldn't be higher, momentum is building and if successful, the tantalising possibility of an end to a dangerous legacy of dependence looms. Can it be done? And if so, what needs to change to make it happen? We ask these questions and more.News Feature: The radical plan for vaccine equityThis project was supported by the Pulitzer Center. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.