02:54 The death star moon and a win for the little guys

The shifting orbit of one of Saturn’s moons indicates that the satellite has a subsurface ocean, contradicting theories that its interior is entirely solid. The finding calls for a fresh take on what constitutes an ocean moon.

Nature Podcast: 14 February 2024

News and Views: Mimas’s surprise ocean prompts an update of the rule book for moons

07:05 Could red mud make green steel?

Millions of tonnes of ‘red mud’, a hazardous waste of aluminium production, are generated annually. A potentially sustainable process for treating this mud shows that it could become a source of iron for making steel.

Nature Podcast: 24 Jan 2024

News and Views: Iron extracted from hazardous waste of aluminium production

12:09 A hierarchy of failure

A design principle for buildings incorporates components that can control the propagation of failure by isolating parts of the structure as they fail — offering a way to prevent a partial collapse snowballing into complete destruction.

Nature podcast: 15 May 2024

Nature video: Controlled failure: The building designed to limit catastrophe

News and Views: Strategic links save buildings from total collapse

17:57 Programable enzyme for genpme editing

RNA-guided recombinase enzymes have been discovered that herald a new chapter for genome editing — enabling the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at user-specified genome positions.

News and Views: Programmable RNA-guided enzymes for next-generation genome editing

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01:11 “Ozempic you’re able”

In the first of our annual festive songs celebrating the science of the past year, we pay homage to Ozempic, or Semaglutide, that's able to tackle obesity, diabetes and potentially a whole lot more.

05:20 A very scientific quiz

We gather an all-star cast and see how well they can remember some of the big science stories from 2024 in our annual festive quiz.

21:31 “CAR T Cells”

In the second of our festive songs, we look at CAR-T cells. These engineered immune cells have shown great promise at tackling cancer, but these treatments are not without their drawbacks.

25:43 Nature’s 10

Every year, Nature’s 10 highlights some of the people who have helped shape science over the past 12 months. We hear about a few of the people who made the 2024 list, including an economist who now needs to run a country, a Russian science-sleuth, a researcher who’s been sounding the alarm on Mpox, and a PhD student who won a salary bump for researchers in Canada.

News Feature: Nature’s 10

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Categorizing things is central to science. And there are dozens of systems scientists have created to name everything from the trenches on the sea bed to the stars in the sky.

But names have consequences — unintended or otherwise. In our new series What’s in a name we’ll explore naming in science and how names impact the world — whether that’s how the names of storms impact public safety, how the names of diseases impact patient care, or even how the names of scientific concepts can drive the direction of research itself.

In this first episode we’re looking at species names. The modern system of species naming began in the 1700s and has played a vital role in standardizing academic communication, ensuring that scientists are on the same page when they talk about an organism. However, this system is not without its issues. For example, there has been much debate around whether species with names considered offensive — such as those named after historical racists — should be changed, and what rule changes need to be made to allow this to happen.

We speak to researchers about the history of this naming system, how it’s applied and how it might evolve in the face of growing pressures.

Sources

For a full list of sources, please visit https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-04200-9

Music credits

Premiumaudio/Pond5

Alon Marcus/Pond5

Groove Committee/Pond5

Opcono/Pond5

Erik Mcnerny/Pond5

Earless Pierre/Pond5

Richard Smithson/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images

​​​​​​​Douglas Romayne/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images

Sound effects via Pond5

Thick-billed Longspur/​​​​​​​Andrew Spencer via ​​​​​​​CC BY-NC-ND 2.5

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00:45 A potential treatment for pre-eclampsia

Researchers have shown in mice experiments that an mRNA-based therapy can reverse the underlying causes of pre-eclampsia, a deadly complication of pregnancy for which treatment options are limited. Inspired by the success of mRNA vaccines, the team behind the work designed a method to deliver the genomic instructions for a blood-vessel growth factor directly into mouse placentas. This stimulated the production of extra blood vessels reducing the very high-blood pressure associated with the condition. Pre-eclampsia causes 15% of maternal deaths and 25% of foetal and newborn deaths worldwide and although the work is early and human trials will be required, the team hope that this work demonstrates the potential of using this approach to treat pre-eclampsia.

Research Article: Swingle et al.

11:00 Research Highlights

Stacks of, mass-produced bowls suggest that people founded, but then abandoned an ancient Mesopotamian civilization, and analysis of Venus’s gases suggests that the planet was always dry.

Research Highlight: Ancient stacks of dishes tell tale of society’s dissolution

Research Highlight: Has Venus ever had an ocean? Its volcanoes hint at an answer

13:29 Programmable cellular switches

A team of scientists have created cellular switches on the surface of cells, allowing them to control their behaviour. Creating these switches has been a long-term goal for synthetic biologists — especially a group of proteins called G-protein-coupled receptors that already control many cellular processes. However, engineering these proteins has been challenging, as modifications can ruin their function. Instead, the team added another molecular component that blocked the receptors activity, but could be removed in response to specific signals. This allowed the researchers to activate these receptors on command, potentially opening up a myriad of new ways to control cell behaviour, such as controlling when neurons fire.

Research Article: Kalogriopoulos et al.

19:35 Google reaches a milestone in quantum computing

A team at Google has shown it is possible to create a quantum computer that becomes more accurate as it scales up, a goal researchers have been trying to achieve for decades. Quantum computing could potentially open up applications beyond the capabilities of classical computers, but these systems are error-prone, making it difficult to scale them up without introducing errors into calculations. The team showed that by increasing the quality of all the components in a quantum computer they could create a system with fewer errors, and that this trend of improvement continued as the system became larger. This breakthrough could mean that quantum computers are getting very close to realising the useful applications that their proponents have long promised.

Nature: ‘A truly remarkable breakthrough’: Google’s new quantum chip achieves accuracy milestone

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Zoologist Arik Kershenbaum has spent his career studying animals and how they communicate in the wild. In his book Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication, Arik takes a deep dive into the various forms of communication, from wolf howls to gibbon songs, to look at how different species get their points across, why they do it the way they do, and what insights they provide into our own use of language.

Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication Arik Kershenbaum Penguin (2024)

Music supplied by SPD/Triple Scoop Music/Getty Images

Wolf howl via NPS & MSU Acoustic Atlas/Jennifer Jerrett

Slowed down dolphin whistle via Arik Kershenbaum

Hyrax song via Arik Kershenbaum

Pileated gibbon song via Rushenb CC BY-SA 4.0

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00:48 Chemotherapy efficacy varies with the menstrual cycle

Breast cancer cells are more susceptible to chemotherapy at certain points in the menstrual cycle, new data in Nature suggests. Researchers studied the equivalent hormonal cycle in mice and found that during the oestrous phase, where progesterone levels are low, tumours are more susceptible to chemotherapy. The same effect was shown in humans in a small retrospective study. The team caution that a larger clinical trial would need to be conducted, but hope that this work could open up an, easy to implement, way to boost the effect of chemotherapy.

Research Article: Bornes et al.

News and Views: What is the best time of the month to treat breast cancer?

09:22 Research Highlights

How coffee changes your gut microbiota, and the first amber deposits found in Antarctica hint at an ancient rainforest.

Research Highlight: Do you drink coffee? Ask your gut

Research Highlight: Antarctica’s first known amber whispers of a vanished rainforest

11:47 Is human-level artificial intelligence close?

The latest AI system released by OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, is better able to break down problems into smaller chunks, making it closer to a human way of solving problems than other systems. This has reignited discussions about the likelihood of AIs achieving human-level intelligence. Although previously the realm of science fiction, researchers are now taking the idea of ‘artificial general intelligence’, or AGI, more seriously. Although this technology has the potential to help tackle humanity's biggest challenges, there are concerns about the safety of such technology if it were to become autonomous.

News Feature: How close is AI to human-level intelligence?

21:43 Briefing Chat

How making a bank of centenarians’ stem cells could help unlock the secrets of healthy ageing, and what some 1.5 million year old footprints reveal about how ancient hominin species may have interacted.

Nature: What’s the secret to living to 100? Centenarian stem cells could offer clues

Nature: These two ancient human relatives crossed paths 1.5 million years ago

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AI tools that help researchers design new proteins have resulted in a boom in designer molecules. However, these proteins are being churned out faster than they can be made and tested in labs.

To overcome this, multiple protein-design competitions have popped up, with the aim of sifting out the functional from the fantastical. But while contests have helped drive key scientific advances in the past, it's unclear how to identify which problems to tackle and how best to select winners objectively.

This is an audio version of our Feature: AI has dreamt up a blizzard of new proteins. Do any of them actually work?

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00:50 Fossilised faeces give news insights into dinosaurs’ diets and rise

A huge collection of fossilised digestive contents has provided clues as to how dinosaurs grew to become the dominant animals on the planet. Why these animals rose to dominance has been unclear, with one theory proposing that a chance event wiped out other species, whereas another suggests that dinosaurs had adaptations that better allowed them to thrive. By analysing over 500 vomit and faeces fossils, researchers have better identified what dinosaurs ate, and their interactions with other animals. The new work suggests both of these theories are correct, with dinosaurs benefiting from one or the other at different points in time. The researchers believe this work demonstrates how useful fossilised food contents are for understanding these ancient creatures.

Research Article: Qvarnström et al.

News and Views: Wastes of time — faeces and vomit track how dinosaurs rose to prominence

News: Fossilized poo and vomit shows how dinosaurs rose to rule Earth

10:05 Research Highlights

Bacteria found on an asteroid actually came from Earth, and why play helps chimps to cooperate.

Research Highlight: Bacteria found on a space rock turn out to be Earth-grown

Research Highlight: Chimps tickle and wrestle in play to pave the way for teamwork

12:46 A commensal fungus found in mouse guts

By testing mice across the United States, researchers have identified a fungus that is well adapted to living in the gastrointestinal tracts of mice, an important step in modelling the role these microorganisms play in the body. Fungi are known to be a constituent of the gut microbiome, but very little is known about what they do. Now, a team has identified that the fungus Kazachstania pintolopesii is likely a long-term resident of mice guts, which they hope will allow them to study how these microbes interact with the immune system, and the role they play in host defence and allergies.

Research Article: Liao et al.

21:57 The key takeaways from COP29

The United Nations annual climate change conference, COP29, finished last week. Largely the discussions revolved around climate finance — the idea that wealthier countries who have benefitted most from past carbon emissions should pay to help poorer, vulnerable countries adapt to the effects of climate change. Although a last minute agreement was hammered out at the conference, not everyone was happy with the text and promised actions. We discuss this and the other key outcomes of COP29.

Nature: Is the COP29 climate deal a historic breakthrough or letdown? Researchers react

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00:45 A squid-inspired device for needle-free drug delivery

Inspired by squids’ ability to shoot ink, a team of researchers have developed swallowable devices that can deliver tiny jets of drugs directly into the gut lining, circumventing the need for needles. Previous studies have shown that most people prefer to take medication in pill form, rather than as an injection, but many drugs are degraded as they pass through the digestive system. The team’s new swallowable devices overcome this issue, and deliver drugs directly to where they need to be. So far, this approach has shown efficacy in animal models, but more work needs to be done to ensure their safety in humans.

Research Article: Arrick et al.

10:50 Research Highlights

The largest ‘terror bird’ fossil ever found, and a simple solution to help prevent premature births.

Research Highlight: Huge carnivorous ‘terror bird’ rivalled the giant panda in size

Research Highlight: Reducing pregnancy risk could be as easy as chewing gum

12:52 A milder way to break down ‘forever chemicals’.

Two papers describe how light-activated catalysts could be used to break down toxic ‘forever chemicals’, hinting at a new way to clean up pollution caused by these persistent compounds. Forever chemicals contain multiple carbon-fluorine bonds that give them useful physical properties, but these bonds are some of the strongest in organic chemistry, making these compounds energetically difficult to break down. The new, light-based methods demonstrate low-energy ways to sever these bonds, a milestone that could make forever chemicals less permanent.

Research Article: Zhang et al.

Research Article: Liu et al.

News and Views: Catalysts degrade forever chemicals with visible light

21:04 Briefing Chat

Analysis of far-side soil highlights the Moon’s turbulent past, and how CRISPR can help make sweeter tomatoes.

Nature: First rocks returned from Moon’s far side reveal ancient volcanic activity

CNN: Findings from the first lunar far side samples raise new questions about the moon’s history

Nature: CRISPR builds a big tomato that’s actually sweet

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00:46 The role of skull bone marrow in ageing

During ageing, bone marrow in the skull becomes an increasingly important site of blood-cell production. This is in stark contrast to most bones where the ability of marrow to make blood and immune cells declines. Studies in mice and humans showed that ageing results in skull bone-marrow expanding, and in mice this marrow was more resistant to inflammation and other hallmarks of ageing. The team behind the work hope by understanding this process better it may be possible to help organs become more resistant to ageing.

Research Article: Koh et al.

08:56 Research Highlights

Elderly big brown bats show remarkable resistance to age-related hearing loss, and why search-engine algorithms may not be the main driver steering people towards misinformation.

Research Highlight: No hearing aids needed: bats’ ears stay keen well into old age

Research Highlight: Don’t blame search engines for sending users to unreliable sites

11:38 How to make lead a useful material to date the Solar System

Researchers have overcome a major hurdle preventing the radioactive isotope lead-205 from being used as a ‘clock’ to date the age of the Solar System. 205Pb is made in some stars and thanks to its half life of around 17 million years has been proposed as a potential way to date ancient astronomical processes. However, exactly how much 205Pb can escape a star were unclear, limiting its dating potential. Now, researchers have mimicked the conditions seen in stars to pin down how much 205Pb can escape into space, paving the way for its use as a clock.

Research Article: Leckenby et al.

19:51 Briefing Chat

How millions of Android smartphones were used to map the Earth’s ionosphere, and the ethical implications of a virologist who treated her own cancer.

Nature: Google uses millions of smartphones to map the ionosphere

Nature: This scientist treated her own cancer with viruses she grew in the lab

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Samantha Harvey's Booker Prize shortlisted novel Orbital is set inside an International Space Station-like vessel circling 250 miles above Earth. It looks at a day-in-the-life of the crew, investigating the contrasts they experience during the 16 orbits they make around the planet, crossing continents, oceans and the line separating night and day.

On the latest episode of Nature hits the books, Samantha joins us to discuss why the ISS is a rich setting for fiction, the challenges of putting yourself in the shoes of an astronaut, and how distance can give new perspectives on global issues like climate change.

Orbital Samantha Harvey Vintage (2024)

Music supplied by Airae/Epidemic Sound

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