Nature Podcast

Photobombing satellites could ruin the night sky for space telescopes

00:46 HOW SATELLITE MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS COULD RUIN SPACE-BASED ASTRONOMY The ability of space-based telescopes to image the distant Universe could be in peril, according to new research investigating the impacts of light-pollution from future satellites. Streaks of reflected light from satellites currently in low-Earth orbit are already seen in telescope images, and planned launches could raise the number of satellites from around 15,000 to over half-a-million. Computer modelling revealed that this drastic increase would result in images taken by instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope becoming unusable by astronomers. The team propose a series of strategies to help mitigate these impacts, preventing this future becoming reality. Research Article: Borlaff et al. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09759-5] Nature: Satellite swarms set to photobomb more than 95% of some telescopes’ images [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03953-1] 11:08 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS How researchers have sped up the trapping of antimatter atoms — plus, how hydrogen fuel emission benefits vary considerably from sector to sector. Research Highlight: Laser cooling traps more antimatter atoms than ever before [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03696-z] Research Highlight: Hydrogen fuel isn’t always the green choice [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03697-y] 13:41 THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF VIDEO CALL GLITCHES Glitches in video calls are an annoying feature of everyday life, but these brief interruptions could have serious real-world impacts, according to analysis from a team of researchers. In one experiment, the team found that video calls with glitches decreased the likelihood of someone being hired for a job. Analysis of other data suggested glitchy calls were associated with lower chances of individuals being granted parole. The team behind the work think that these visual errors break the illusion that a video call is a real face-to-face conversation, potentially impairing judgements about the quality of the information discussed. Research article: Brucks et al. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09823-0] Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday. [https://www.nature.com/briefing/signup] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Audio long read: Faulty mitochondria cause deadly diseases — fixing them is about to get a lot easier

CRISPR-based gene editing has revolutionized modern biology, but these tools are unable to access the DNA that resides inside mitochondria. Researchers are eager to access and edit this DNA to understand more about the energy production and the mutations that can cause incurable mitochondrial diseases. Because CRISPR can’t help with these problems, researchers have been looking for other ways to precisely edit the mitochrondrial genome. And the past few years have brought some success — if researchers can make editing safe and accurate enough, it could eventually be used to treat, and even cure, these genetic conditions. This is an audio version of our Feature: Faulty mitochondria cause deadly diseases — fixing them is about to get a lot easier [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03307-x] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

This is what lightning on Mars sounds like

00:46 MARTIAN ‘MICRO-LIGHTNING’ The sounds of ‘micro-lightning’ have been recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover, ending a long search for the phenomenon on Mars. A lack of suitable equipment has made it difficult to gather evidence of lightning on the red planet, but a team of researchers realized that a microphone on Perseverance should be able to pick up the characteristic sounds of electrical discharges. In total they found 55 such examples, along with signs of electrostatic interference indicative of the phenomenon. They dubbed the electric bursts ‘micro-lightning’, as they are far smaller than the lighting seen on Earth, due to the thin Martian atmosphere. The team believe this finding could help better understand Martian chemistry and how best to design equipment to explore the planet’s surface. Research Article: Chide et al. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09736-y] News and Views: Is there lightning on Mars? [http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03590-8] 11:03 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS How the biology of male seahorses’ brood pouches appears similar to mammalian pregnancy— plus, why Neanderthals’ jaws were so beefy. Research Highlight: The origin of male seahorses’ brood pouch [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03696-z] Research Highlight: Neanderthal DNA reveals how human faces form [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03697-y] 13:36 THE KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM COP30 The UN’s climate conference, COP30, came to a close last week in Brazil. Nature reporter Jeff Tollefson tells us what was and wasn’t agreed during the final negotiations. Nature: What happened at COP30? 4 science take-homes from the climate summit [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03802-1] 22:27 WHY WOMEN MAY RETRACT LESS THAN MEN A new analysis suggests that female authors retract fewer medical science papers than their male counterparts. Women are known to be underrepresented in the medical sciences, but even accounting for this an AI-tool revealed that female authors featured on far fewer retracted research articles. Reporter Jenna Ahart has been investigating and told us why this might be, and what it means for research more broadly. Nature: Women seem to retract fewer papers than men — but why? [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03796-w] Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday. [https://www.nature.com/briefing/signup] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Insulin cream offers needle-free option for diabetes

00:45 A MOLECULE THAT DELIVERS INSULIN THROUGH THE SKIN Researchers have developed a skin-permeable polymer that can deliver insulin into the body, which they say could one day offer an alternative to injections for diabetes management. The skin’s structure presents a formidable barrier to the delivery of large drugs but in this work a team show that their polymer can penetrate though the different layers without causing damage. Insulin attached to this polymer was able to reduce blood glucose levels in animal models for diabetes at a comparable speed to injected insulin. While further research is required on the long-term safety of this strategy, the team hope it could offer a way to non-invasively deliver other large-molecule drugs into the body. Research Article: Wei et al. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09729-x] 09:23 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS How extreme drought may be humanity’s biggest challenge after a huge volcanic eruption — plus, turning a bacterium into a factory for a colour-changing pigment Research Highlight: Volcano mega-eruptions lead to parched times [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03662-9] Research Highlight: Dye or die: bacterium forced to make pigment to stay alive [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03663-8] 11:42 HOW LANGUAGE LIGHTS UP THE BRAIN, WHATEVER THE TONGUE The human brain responds in a similar way to both familiar and unfamiliar languages, but there are some key differences, according to new research — a finding that may explain why learning a language can be difficult. A study looking involving 34 people showed that listening to an unfamiliar language triggers similar neural activity to listening to their native tongue. The finding implies that human speech triggers a common reaction in the brain regardless of understanding. However, there were subtle differences when listening to a known language that may help explain how people actually understand words. Research Article: Bhaya-Grossman et al. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09748-8] Neuron: Zhang et al [https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(25)00792-5] Sounds used under CC BY 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] 27:18 BRIEFING CHAT Signs that greenhouse-gas emissions may peak around 2030 — plus, evidence of dog breeding by ancient humans. Nature: Global greenhouse-gas emissions are still rising: when will they peak? [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03618-z] Nature: How ancient humans bred and traded the first domestic dogs [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03755-5] Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday. [https://www.nature.com/briefing/signup] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

‘Malicious use is already happening’: machine-learning pioneer on making AI safer

Yoshua Bengio, considered by many to be one of the godfathers of AI, has long been at the forefront of machine-learning research . However, his opinions on the technology have shifted in recent years — he joins us to talk about ways to address the risks posed by AI, and his efforts to develop an AI with safety built in from the start.  Nature: ‘It keeps me awake at night’: machine-learning pioneer on AI’s threat to humanity [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03686-1] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.