Apocalypse then: how cataclysms shaped human societies

00:46 A multi-variant avian flu vaccine that could enhance pandemic preparednessA vaccine capable of protecting against multiple strains of avian influenza virus may 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 due to the risk of them evolving to cause another pandemic. But because there are multiple variants of these viruses, it has been hard to pre-prepare vaccines. Now, a team have used information on how these viruses evolved over time to design a vaccine that in animal studies provided protection against different H5 strains. They hope their approach could be applied to create stockpiles of vaccine that could be used in the event of a pandemic, regardless of the strain that causes it.Research Article: Kok et al.10:53 Research HighlightsMaking muon beams without a huge particle accelerator — plus, the bats hunting migrating birds in mid-air.Research Highlight: Portable muon beam could accelerate archaeology scansResearch Highlight: European bats capture migrating birds and eat them on the wing13:34 Briefing ChatA new search engine that can sift through the staggering volumes of biological data, and the multiple failings revealed by an assessment of 25 years of carbon offsetting data.Nature: ‘Google for DNA’ brings order to biology’s big dataThe Guardian: Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says​​​​​​​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.

00:48 The stereotypes hidden in Internet imagesStereotyped 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 head of research, while women were linked to occupations like cook or nurse. The research shows that these biases have been embedded into the training data for AI models and could affect future hiring. The researchers caution that society is at risk of creating a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ where these stereotypes shape the real world.Research Article: Guilbeault et al.News and Views: Distorted representations of age and gender are reflected in AI models13:24 Research HighlightsA very hungry planet — plus, how climate change is leading to larger trees in the Amazon.Research Highlight: ‘Rogue’ planet is fastest-growing ever observedResearch Highlight: Trees of the Amazon are becoming even mightier15:49 Astronomers name their favourite exoplanetThirty years ago, astronomers announced the discovery of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star, sparking a renewed passion into spotting these planets that lie beyond our Solar System. In celebration, Nature asked researchers to tell us about their favourites.News: These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s whyHear the music of a distant planetary system25:51 Nobel newsFlora Graham from the Nature Briefing joins us to talk about the winners of this year’s science Nobel prizes.Nature: Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’Nature: Groundbreaking quantum-tunnelling experiments win physics NobelNature: Chemistry Nobel for scientists who developed massively porous ‘super sponge’ materialsNature: Will AI ever win its own Nobel? Some predict a prize-worthy science discovery soonSubscribe 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.

00:50 How ancient viruses drive modern human developmentResearch 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 of lab-derived embryo analogues, and for the switching on of human-specific genes.Research Article: Fueyo et al.News and Views: Ancient viral DNA in the human genome shapes early development10:39 Research HighlightsLonger whale mothers are more likely to give birth to daughters — plus, how the stink of the corpse flower waxes and wanes to attract pollinators.Research Highlight: Big mother whales have more daughters than sonsResearch Highlight: Corpse flowers waft out stinky compounds as fast as landfills do13:05 How heat can fuel DNA computersResearchers have developed a way to use heat to recharge DNA-based computer circuits, which could help overcome one of the stumbling blocks preventing this technology from being scaled up. Although DNA strands have been used to perform computational tasks for some time, current methods can run out of energy or build up waste products, preventing their continued use. Now, using just heat a team have demonstrated a reuseable neural network based on DNA. They hope that ultimately this could be a step in the development of bigger and more powerful DNA computers that could be used to power targeted clinical therapies.Research Article: Song & Qian22:20 Briefing ChatA one-time gene therapy for Huntington’s disease show promise at slowing the brain disorder’s progression — plus, how mitochondria throw out ‘tainted’ DNA.Nature: Huntington’s disease treated for first time using gene therapyNature: Mitochondria expel tainted DNA — spurring age-related inflammationSubscribe 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 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 by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits.Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism, many researchers were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition.This is an audio version of our Feature: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

00:48 New insights into tick-borne encephalitisResearchers have identified a key protein that helps tick-borne encephalitis virus enter the brain. In rare cases an infection can lead to serious neurological symptoms, but little was known about how the virus interacts with human cells. Now, a team show that a protein found on the outside of cells plays an important role in infection. In mouse experiments, they show that blocking the ability of the virus to bind to this protein protected the mice from disease. Currently no treatments exist, but the team hopes that this research will ultimately lead to a viable drug for this disease.Research Article: Mittler et al.08:47 Research HighlightsThe squirming robot that speeds up the insertion of an emergency breathing tube — plus, the 10,000-year-old remains that could be the oldest intentionally preserved mummiesResearch Highlight: Soft robot steers itself down the human airwayResearch Highlight: Smoke-dried mummies pre-date Egypt’s embalmed bodies11:21 How might cancelled NIH grants affect the future of US science?To assess the potential impact of cuts to funding by the Trump administration, Nature trained a machine-learning bot to try and reproduce the NIH’s method of cancelling grants and applied it to science that was successfully funded around ten years ago. This thought experiment shows that highly impactful science and medical research might have been at risk had a similar process been followed a decade ago, revealing the potentially broad-reaching consequences of these actions today.Nature Index: What research might be lost after the NIH’s cuts? Nature trained a bot to find outNews: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature20:54 Briefing ChatWhat researchers understand about chatbot-induced psychosis, and the AI designed viruses capable of killing E. coli bacteria.Nature: Can AI chatbots trigger psychosis? What the science saysNature: World’s first AI-designed viruses a step towards AI-generated 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.

Science journalist Lizzie Wade’s first book, Apocalypse: A Transformative Exploration of Humanity's Resilience Through Cataclysmic Events explores some of the cataclysmic events that humans have faced through history. Lizzie joined us to discuss what modern archaeology has revealed about these events, and the role these they’ve have played in shaping societies around the world.Apocalypse: A Transformative Exploration of Humanity's Resilience Through Cataclysmic Events Lizzie Wade Harper (2025)Music supplied by SPD/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

00:50 The AI tool that predicts disease riskResearchers have developed an AI tool that can calculate a person’s risk of developing over 1,000 different diseases, sometimes years in advance. The system, called Delphi-2M, was trained to identify patterns of disease progression using 400,000 people's health records from data repository the UK Biobank. This training allowed it to predict someone’s future disease risks, based on their current medical record. While AI health prediction systems do exist, they typically only estimate risks for a single disease — the authors hope that their system could one day save healthcare professionals time and be used to calculate disease burdens at a population level.Research Article: Shmatko et al.News: What diseases will you have in 20 years? This AI makes predictions11:01 Research HighlightsEvidence that refugees hosted by local families integrate better into their adoptive country — plus, the squidgy shirt that can keep wearers cool.Research Highlight: How to help refugees thrive: have local families host themResearch Highlight: Jelly-filled garment keeps wearers cool when heat and humidity soar13:50 Give an AI a task and it may cheat for youUsing AI tools may make you more likely to cheat at tasks like tax reporting, according to a new study. Using a well-studied test of honesty, researchers looked to see if people were more likely to engage in unethical behaviour if given the option of delegating it to an AI. Including AIs seemed to increase the chance that someone would be dishonest, which raises concerns about the impacts of these tools on ethics.Research Article: Köbis et alNews and Views: People are more likely to cheat when they delegate tasks to AI24:54 Briefing ChatEurope has a new supercomputer, JUPITER, that could boost its AI ambitions, and a catalogue of octopus movement.Nature: World's most energy-efficient AI supercomputer comes onlineNew York Times: Building an Octopus Dictionary, One Arm Movement at a TimeSubscribe 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 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in the US directly detected ripples in space-time, known as gravitational waves. These waves were produced by the final spiral of two orbiting black holes that smashed into each other, sending ripples across the Universe.   In this podcast, Benjamin Thompson speaks to Cole Miller from the University of Maryland about the quest to detect gravitational waves, which were first hypothesised by Albert Einstein back in 1916.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

00:45 Attributing extreme heat events to major energy producersMajor energy producers increased the likelihood and intensity of heatwaves, according to research published in Nature. Using data from an international disaster database, a team developed a methodology to investigate how much anthropogenic climate change had influenced heatwaves. They conclude that many of these events would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, and that nearly a quarter of the heatwaves recorded from 2000 to 2023 can be directly linked to the greenhouse-gas emissions from individual energy giants.Research Article: Juvé et al.News and Views Forum: Heatwaves linked to emissions of individual fossil-fuel and cement producersNews: Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies10:47 Research HighlightsHow shifting coastal tides may have spurred the rise of the world’s oldest civilization — plus, the liquid crystal lenses that can refocus in a flash.Research Highlight: Changing tides ushered in the world’s first civilizationResearch Highlight: Liquid-crystal specs refocus with the push of a button12:40 The growing resistance to the US war on scienceScience in the United States is facing an increasing crisis, in the face of swinging cuts and President Donald Trump’s ongoing attack on anything with a connection to diversity, equity and inclusion. In the face of this crisis, many researchers are fighting back — we hear about some of their efforts, and what they think about their chances of success.News Feature: Scientists take on Trump: the researchers fighting back27:28 Briefing ChatHow CRISPR-edited pancreas cells could offer new hope for those with type 1 diabetes, and what brain scans reveal about how we process colour.Nature: Hope for diabetes: CRISPR-edited cells pump out insulin in a person — and evade immune detectionNature: My blue is your blue: different people’s brains process colours in the same waySubscribe 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 2016, Brian Wansink wrote a blog post that prompted scientific sleuths to investigate his work. They found evidence of data manipulation, and, after several news articles and two investigations by his institution, he would found to have committed misconduct, as defined by Cornell University. His work had been used to inform US policy around food, much of which has now been thrown into question.Cases like this are rare, but science is not immune to misconduct. The rise in 'paper mills' — organisations that produce questionable or fake papers that they sell authorships on — has led some to worry that misconduct is on the rise and that a proportion of the scientific literature cannot be trusted.In episode two of Self Correction, we explore how researchers are responding to the problem of research misconduct. We discuss how difficult it is to determine the prevalence of misconduct, and how sleuths, journalists and research integrity institutions are fighting back.This episode was written and produced by Nick Petrić Howe. Dan Fox was the editor. The music was provided by Triple Scoop Music.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.