709 episodes

The Nature Podcast brings you the best stories from the world of science each week. We cover everything from astronomy to zoology, highlighting the most exciting research from each issue of the Nature journal. We meet the scientists behind the results and provide in-depth analysis from Nature's journalists and editors.
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Nature Podcast Springer Nature Limited

    • Science
    • 4.3 • 159 Ratings

The Nature Podcast brings you the best stories from the world of science each week. We cover everything from astronomy to zoology, highlighting the most exciting research from each issue of the Nature journal. We meet the scientists behind the results and provide in-depth analysis from Nature's journalists and editors.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Killer whales have menopause. Now scientists think they know why

    Killer whales have menopause. Now scientists think they know why

    In this episode:
    00:45 Making a map of the human heartThe human heart consists of multiple, specialised structures that all work together to enable the organ to beat for a lifetime. But exactly which cells are present in each part of the heart has been difficult to ascertain. Now, a team has combined molecular techniques to create an atlas of the developing human heart at an individual cell level. Their atlas provides insights into how cell communities communicate and form different structures. They hope that this knowledge will ultimately help in the treatment of congenital heart conditions, often caused by irregular development of the heart.
    Research article: Farah et al.
    Nature video: Building a heart atlas
    08:37 Research HighlightsResidue in ceramic vases suggests that ancient Mesoamerican peoples consumed tobacco as a liquid, and a wireless way to charge quantum batteries.
    Research Highlight: Buried vases hint that ancient Americans might have drunk tobacco
    Research Highlight: A better way to charge a quantum battery
    11:11 The evolution of menopause in toothed whalesMenopause is a rare phenomenon, only known to occur in a few mammalian species. Several of these species are toothed whales, such as killer whales, beluga whales and narwhals. But why menopause evolved multiple times in toothed whales has been a long-standing research question. To answer it, a team examined the life history of whales with and without menopause and how this affected the number of offspring and ‘grandoffpsring’. Their results suggest that menopause allows older females to help younger generations in their families and improve their chances of survival.
    Research Article: Ellis et al.
    News and Views: Whales make waves in the quest to discover why menopause evolved
    18:03 Briefing ChatHow the new generation of anti-obesity drugs could help people with HIV, and the study linking microplastics lodged in a key blood vessel with serious health issues.
    Nature News: Blockbuster obesity drug leads to better health in people with HIV
    Nature News: Landmark study links microplastics to serious health problems
    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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    • 27 min
    These tiny fish combine electric pulses to probe the environment

    These tiny fish combine electric pulses to probe the environment

    In this episode:
    00:48 Bumblebees can learn new tricks from each otherOne behaviour thought unique to humans is the ability to learn something from your predecessors that you couldn’t figure out on your own. However, researchers believe they have shown bumblebees are also capable of this ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ approach to learning. Bees that were taught how to complete a puzzle too difficult to solve on their own, were able to share this knowledge with other bees, raising the possibility that this thought-to-be human trait could be widespread amongst animals.
    Research article: Bridges et al.
    News and Views: Bees and chimpanzees learn from others what they cannot learn alone
    16:55 Research HighlightsWhy the Krakatau eruption made the skies green, and the dining habits of white dwarf stars.
    Research Highlight: Why sunsets were a weird colour after Krakatau blew its top
    Research Highlight: This dying star bears a jagged metal scar
    19:28 The fish that collectively, electrically senseMany ocean-dwelling animals sense their environment using electric pulses, which can help them hunt and avoid predators. Now research shows that the tiny elephantnose fish can increase the range of this sense by combining its pulses with those of other elephantnose fish. This allows them to discriminate and determine the location of different objects at a much greater distance than a single fish is able to. This is the first time a collective electric sense has been seen in animals, which could provide an ‘early-warning system', allowing a group to avoid predators from a greater distance.
    Research Article: Pedraja and Sawtell
    27:54 Briefing ChatThe organoids made from cells derived from amniotic fluid, and the debate over the heaviest animal.
    Nature News: Organoids grown from amniotic fluid could shed light on rare diseases
    The New York Times: Researchers Dispute Claim That Ancient Whale Was Heaviest Animal Ever
    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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    • 36 min
    Could this one-time ‘epigenetic’ treatment control cholesterol?

    Could this one-time ‘epigenetic’ treatment control cholesterol?

    In this episode:
    00:49 What caused the Universe to become fully transparent?Around 13 billion years ago, the Universe was filled with a dense ‘fog’ of neutral hydrogen that blocked certain wavelengths of light. This fog was lifted when the hydrogen was hit by radiation in a process known as reionisation, but the source of this radiation has been debated. Now, researchers have used the JWST to peer deep into the Universe’s past and found that charged particles pouring out from dwarf galaxies appear to be the the main driver for reionization. This finding could help researchers understand how some of the structures we now see in the Universe were formed.
    Research article: Atek et al.
    08:46 Research HighlightsAncient inscriptions could be the earliest example of the language that became Basque, and how researchers etched a groove… onto soap film.
    Research Highlight: Ancient bronze hand’s inscription points to origins of Basque language
    Research Highlight: Laser pulses engrave an unlikely surface: soap films
    11:05 Controlling cholesterol with epigeneticsTo combat high cholesterol, many people take statins, but because these drugs have to be taken every day researchers have been searching for alternatives. Controlling cholesterol by editing the epigenome has shown promise in lab-grown cells, but its efficacy in animals was unclear. Now, researchers have shown the approach can work in mice, and have used it to silence a gene linked to high cholesterol for a year. The mice show markedly lowered cholesterol, a result the team hope could pave the way for epigenetic therapeutics for humans.
    Research Article: Cappelluti et al.
    18:52 The gene mutation explaining why humans don’t have tailsWhy don’t humans and other apes have a tail? It was assumed that a change must have happened in our genomes around 25 million years ago that resulted in the loss of this flexible appendage. Now researchers believe they have pinned down a good candidate for what caused this: an insertion into a particular gene known as TBXT. The team showed the key role this gene plays by engineering mice genomes to contain a similar change, leading to animals that were tail-less. This finding could help paint a picture of the important genetic mutations that led to the evolution of humans and other apes.
    Nature News: How humans lost their tails — and why the discovery took 2.5 years to publish
    Research Article: Xia et al.
    News and Views: A mobile DNA sequence could explain tail loss in humans and apes
    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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    • 26 min
    Audio long read: Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them

    Audio long read: Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them

    The phenomenon of animals catching diseases from humans, called reverse zoonoses, has had a severe impact on great ape populations, often representing a bigger threat than habitat loss or poaching.
    However, while many scientists and conservationists agree that human diseases pose one of the greatest risks to great apes today there are a few efforts under way to use a research-based approach to mitigate this problem.
    This is an audio version of our Feature Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them

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    • 24 min
    How whales sing without drowning, an anatomical mystery solved

    How whales sing without drowning, an anatomical mystery solved

    The deep haunting tones of the world's largest animals, baleen whales, are iconic - but how the songs are produced has long been a mystery. Whales evolved from land dwelling mammals which vocalize by passing air through a structure called the larynx - a structure which also helps keep food from entering the respiratory system. However toothed whales like dolphins do not use their larynx to make sound, instead they have evolved a specialized organ in their nose. Now a team of researchers have discovered the structure used by baleen whales - a modified version of the larynx. Whales like Humpbacks and Blue whales are able to create powerful vocalizations but their anatomy also limits the frequency of the sounds they can make and depth at which they can sing. This leaves them unable to escape anthropogenic noise pollution which occur in the same range.
    Article: Evolutionary novelties underlie sound production in baleen whales
    Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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    • 14 min
    Why are we nice? Altruism's origins are put to the test

    Why are we nice? Altruism's origins are put to the test

    In this episode:
    00:45 Why are humans so helpful?Humans are notable for their cooperation and display far more altruistic behaviour than other animals, but exactly why this behaviour evolved has been a puzzle. But in a new paper, the two leading theories have been put the test with a model and a real-life experiment. They find that actually neither theory on its own leads to cooperation but a combination is required for humans to help one another.
    Research article: Efferson et al.
    News and Views: Why reciprocity is common in humans but rare in other animals
    10:55 Research HighlightsThe discovery of an ancient stone wall hidden underwater, and the fun that apes have teasing one another.
    Research Highlight: Great ‘Stone Age’ wall discovered in Baltic Sea
    Research Highlight: What a tease! Great apes pull hair and poke each other for fun
    13:14 The DVD makes a comebackOptical discs, like CDs and DVDs, are an attractive option for long-term data storage, but these discs are limited by their small capacity. Now though, a team has overcome a limitation of conventional disc writing to produce optical discs capable of storing petabits of data, significantly more than the largest available hard disk. The researchers behind the work think their new discs could one day replace the energy-hungry hard disks used in giant data centres, making long-term storage more sustainable.
    Research Article: Zhao et al.
    20:10 Briefing ChatThe famous fossil that turned out to be a fraud, and why researchers are making hybrid ‘meat-rice’.
    Ars Technica: It’s a fake: Mysterious 280 million-year-old fossil is mostly just black paint
    Nature News: Introducing meat–rice: grain with added muscles beefs up protein
    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.

    • 30 min

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5
159 Ratings

159 Ratings

Fabrizio.Alberti ,

Good way to get the latest scientific updates

Thank you for keeping the main podcast and the Coronavirus podcast separate!

.Psamathe ,

Too Many Ads

Content is OK and commercial podcasts need ads/money but over time this podcast has gone OTT on ads to the point where it’s a real nuisance, to the point where I’m about to give-up on it.

Ladybird166 ,

Shallow

Only just tried this podcast and a couple of episodes were interesting but interspersed with others tackling subjects in a superficial and very inadequate way. The episode on Long Covid in third world countries was the last straw and I have unsubscribed. A pity, it could be good with the minimum of effort.

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