Nature Podcast

The self-supporting structures that snap into place, and how a ban on fossil-fuel funding could entrench poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.In this episode:00:45 Self-supporting, foldable structuresDrawing inspiration from the art of origami, a team of researchers have demonstrated a way to design self-supporting structures that lock into place after being inflated. The team hope that this technique could be used to create arches and emergency shelters that can be quickly unfolded from flat with minimal input.Research Article: Melancon et al.News and Views: Large-scale origami locks into place under pressureVideo: Origami-inspired structures could be deployed in disaster zones07:32 Research HighlightsNocturnal fluctuations cause scientists to underestimate rivers’ carbon emissions, and the ‘island rule’ of animal size-change is seen around the world.Research Highlight: Rivers give off stealth carbon at nightResearch Highlight: Animals around the world follow the ‘island rule’ to a curious fate09:55 Banning fossil-fuel funding will not alleviate povertyA ban by wealthy nations on the funding of overseas fossil-fuel projects would do little to reduce the world’s climate emissions and much to entrench poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, argues economist Vijaya Ramachandran.World View: Blanket bans on fossil-fuel funds will entrench poverty17:17 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the first powered flight on another world, and estimating how many Tyrannosaurus rex ever lived.News: Lift off! First flight on Mars launches new way to explore worldsVideo: Flying a helicopter on Mars: NASA’s IngenuityNews: How many T. rex ever existed? Calculation of dinosaur’s abundance offers an answerSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reports of rare and unusual blood clots have resulted in several vaccine roll outs being paused while scientists scramble to work out if the vaccines are responsible and if so how.The unusual combination of symptoms, including a low platelet count and clots focussed in the abdomen or brain, seems similar to a rare side effect from treatment with the drug blood thinning drug Heparin - however it is not clear how the vaccines could cause the syndrome.In this episode of Coronapod we discuss the latest theories and ask how scientists are trying to get to the bottom of this important question. Medical regulators maintain that the benefits of these vaccines significantly outweigh the risks. But as uncertainty spreads, we ponder the wider implications of these reports, including the public perception of risk.News: How could a COVID vaccine cause blood clots? Scientists race to investigateCoronapod: How to define rare COVID vaccine side effectsSubscribe 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 lack of adequate sanitation in parts of the rural US, and physicists reassess muons’ magnetism.In this episode:00:45 How failing sanitation infrastructure is causing a US public health crisisIn the US, huge numbers of people live without access to adequate sanitation. Environmental-health advocate Catherine Coleman Flowers tells us about her new book looking at the roots and consequences of this crisis, focusing on Lowndes County, Alabama, an area inhabited largely by poor Black people, where an estimated 90% of households have failing or inadequate waste-water systems.Book review: Toilets – what will it take to fix them?07:56 Research HighlightsWhy adding new members to the team can spark ideas, and how manta rays remember the best spots for pampering.Research Highlight: Want fresh results? Analysis of thousands of papers suggests trying new teammatesResearch Highlight: What manta rays remember: the best spots to get spruced up10:13 Reassessing muons’ magnetic momentA decade ago, physicists measured the ‘magnetic moment’ of the subatomic muon, and found their value did not match what theory suggested. This puzzled researchers, and hinted at the existence of new physics. Now, a team has used a different method to recalculate the theoretical result and see if this discrepancy remains.Research Article: Fodor et al.News: Is the standard model broken? Physicists cheer major muon resultSubscribe 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.

Rick Bright exposed former president Trump's political meddling in the US COVID response. Now he is championing a new privately funded initiative to track viral spread and combat new variants. We discuss the challenges of collecting data on a rapidly spreading virus, from transmission dynamics to genomic surveillance. We also ask why a veteran government scientist like Bright, the ex-director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, would take a new path in the private sector.News Q&A: Pandemic whistle-blower: we need a non-political way to track virusesNews: Why US coronavirus tracking can’t keep up with concerning variantsSubscribe 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 2020, the artificial intelligence (AI) GPT-3 wowed the world with its ability to write fluent streams of text. Trained on billions of words from books, articles and websites, GPT-3 was the latest in a series of ‘large language model’ AIs that are used by companies around the world to improve search results, answer questions, or propose computer code.However, these large language model are not without their issues. Their training is based on the statistical relationships between the words and phrases, which can lead to them generating toxic or dangerous outputs.Preventing responses like these is a huge challenge for researchers, who are attempting to do so by addressing biases in training data, or by instilling these AIs with common-sense and moral judgement.This is an audio version of our feature: Robo-writers: the rise and risks of language-generating AI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From a sore arm to anaphylaxis, a wide range of adverse events have been reported after people have received a COVID-19 vaccine. And yet it is unclear how many of these events are actually caused by the vaccine. In the vast majority of cases, reactions are mild and can be explained by the body's own immune response. But monitoring systems designed to track adverse events are catching much rarer but more serious events. Now scientists need to work out if they are causally liked to the vaccine, or are just statistical anomalies - and that is not an easy task.News: Why is it so hard to investigate the rare side effects of COVID vaccines?Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Never miss an episode: Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. Head here for the Nature Podcast RSS feed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laser-cooled antimatter opens up new physics experiments, and the staggering economic cost of invasive species.In this episode:00:44 Cooling antimatter with a laser focusAntimatter is annihilated whenever it interacts with regular matter, which makes it tough for physicists to investigate. Now though, a team at CERN have developed a way to trap and cool antihydrogen atoms using lasers, allowing them to better study its properties.Research Article: Baker et al.News and Views: Antimatter cooled by laser light09:27 Research HighlightsA dramatic increase in Arctic lightning strikes, and an acrobatic bunny helps researchers understand hopping.Research Highlight: Rising temperatures spark boom in Arctic lightningResearch Highlight: Rabbits that do ‘handstands’ help to find a gene for hopping11:53 Cost of invasionInvasive alien species are organisms that end up in places where they don’t really belong, usually as a result of human activity. These species can cause loss of biodiversity and a host of damage to their new environments. This week, researchers estimate that the economic impact of invasive species to be over US $1 trillion.Research Article: Diagne et al.19:04 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the physics that might explain how a ship blocked the Suez Canal, and a new insight into octopuses’ sleep patterns.The Financial Times: The bank effect and the big boat blocking the SuezScience: Octopuses, like humans, sleep in two stagesSubscribe 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.

Since the beginning of the pandemic the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been plagued by confusion and controversy. The vaccine has been authorised in over 100 countries, tens of millions of doses have been administered, and it has been demonstrated to be safe and effective. However, over the past few weeks the vaccine has again been in the headlines.In this episode of Coronapod, we discuss all of these controversies and ask how they may the reputation of the vaccine, and what that could mean for roll-outs moving forward.News: Latest results put Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID vaccine back on trackNews: What scientists do and don’t know about the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID vaccineSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Never miss an episode: Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. Head here for the Nature Podcast RSS feed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A web of three optical atomic clocks show incredibly accurate measurements of time, and the trailblazing astronomer who found hints of dark matter.In this episode:00:44 Optical clock networkOptical atomic clocks have the potential to reach new levels of accuracy and redefine how scientists measure time. However, this would require a worldwide system of connected clocks. Now researchers have shown that a network of three optical clocks is possible and confirm high levels of accuracy.Research Article: BACON collaborationNews and Views: Atomic clocks compared with astounding accuracy08:55 Research HighlightsThe possible downside of high-intensity workouts, and the robot with adaptable legs for rough terrain.Research Highlight: Can people get too much exercise? Mitochondria hint that the answer is yesResearch Highlight: A motorized leg up: this robot changes its limb length to suit the terrain11:26 Vera RubinVera Rubin was an astronomer whose observations were among the first to show evidence of dark matter. At the time, female astronomers were a rarity, but Vera blazed the trial for future women in science.Books Review: Vera Rubin, astronomer extraordinaire — a new biography18:35 Briefing ChatWe discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, carbon cost of bottom trawling, and the fictional French researcher confounding metrics.The Guardian: Bottom trawling releases as much carbon as air travel, landmark study findsScience: Who is Camille Noûs, the fictitious French researcher with nearly 200 papers?Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Video: The quantum world of diamonds Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early days of the pandemic, researchers raced to identify the most potent antibodies produced by the immune system in response to SAR-COV-2 infection and produce them in bulk. The resulting ‘monoclonal antibodies’ have since been tested in a variety of settings as treatments for COVID-19.But despite promising clinical trial results and several therapies having already been approved, antibody therapies have not yet played a large role in the fight against COVID-19. In this episode of Coronapod, we ask why.News: COVID antibody treatments show promise for preventing severe diseaseNews: Antibody therapies could be a bridge to a coronavirus vaccine — but will the world benefit?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.