Disembodied human brains, immortal bits of sea cucumber, and fame in Galileo’s time

Will AI replace astronomers, how healthy are ultraprocessed foods, and a peek behind the scenes of ‘The Normals’

First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Joshua Sokol talks about the intense discussion happening in the astrophysics community as artificial intelligence and machine learning become increasingly powerful—could “astronomer” stop being a job one day [/doi/10.1126/science.zdk7655]? Next on the show, as the Trump administration makes moves to [/doi/10.1126/science.aef3495]regulate ultraprocessed foods [/doi/10.1126/science.aef3495], host Sarah Crespi talks with Faidon Magkos [https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/faidon-magkos/], a professor in obesity and metabolism in the department of nutrition, exercise, and sports at the University of Copenhagen, about what studies say about their health effects. Finally this week, a behind-the-scenes look at our recent limited series “The normals.” Producer Kevin McLean talks about the experience of joining a study as a healthy subject, and Crespi talks about what didn’t make it into the episodes. Listen to “The normals” here [/topic/tags/normals]. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/].       About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Disembodied human brains, immortal bits of sea cucumber, and fame in Galileo’s time

First up on the podcast, a company is using whole brains [/content/article/not-alive-not-dead-disembodied-human-brains-used-drug-testing]—maintained with specialized life support—to study new drugs. Freelance science journalist Sara Reardon [https://www.sarareardon.com/] joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the advantages and ethical considerations of keeping brains intact but inactive. Next on the show, when some lizards lose their tails, they might regenerate new ones. But what happens to the old tail? Whereas a castoff lizard tail quickly decomposes, this isn’t the case for the castoff tube feet of the sea cucumber, Psolus fabricii. Sara Miller Jobson [https://mercier-lab.ca/people.html], a Ph.D. student at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, describes how these “living” limbs healed after amputation and then survived for more than 3 years in just seawater [/doi/10.1126/sciadv.Aeb1394]. Their survival in such simple conditions, while maintaining a complex tissue with a functioning immune response, could make amputated tube feet a useful model system for studying regeneration. Finally this week, the first in our book series on science biographies. Books host Angela Saini talks with historian Anna-Luna Post [https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/anna-luna-post#tab-1] about her recent book, Galileo’s Fame: Science, Credibility, and Memory in the Seventeenth Century [https://bookshop.org/p/books/galileo-s-fame-science-credibility-and-memory-in-the-seventeenth-century-anna-luna-post/f4b093fb926f1351?ean=9780822948599&next=t&next=t], which explores how fame shaped the scientific fortunes of Galileo Galilei. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast]   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

USAID cuts linked to violence, unexpected parallels between humans and bacteria, and how to rule the world

First up on the podcast, Senior International Correspondent Richard Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the surprising commonalities between our immune systems and the tools bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses. These unexpected parallels have become [/doi/10.1126/science.z0rnda9]rich ground [/doi/10.1126/science.z0rnda9] for researchers investigating new molecular biology tools and model systems for immune research. Next on the show, Dominic Rohner [https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/faculty/dominic-rohner], a professor of economics at the Geneva Graduate Institute and University of Lausanne, talks about the impact of cuts in international aid on violent conflict in Africa [/doi/10.1126/science.aed6802]. His team harnessed the natural experiment of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) work stoppage ordered by the Trump administration in early 2025 to find links between the sudden withdrawal of high levels of aid to increases in conflict. See also Science’s 2025 news series on the impact of USAID cuts on children [/topic/tags/children-at-risk]. Finally, Valerie Thompson, Science’s books and media editor, interviews undergraduate student and author Theo Baker. Baker wrote the book How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University [https://bookshop.org/p/books/how-to-rule-the-world-an-education-in-power-at-stanford-university-theo-baker/8606195fc34942fc?ean=9780593832837&next=t&next=t&affiliate=12476&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=dsa_nonbrand&utm_content=%7Badgroupname%7D&utm_term=dsa-19959388920&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12440232635&gbraid=0AAAAACfld430bgtpNUDTMilPuN4yepHYU&gclid=CjwKCAjw8arQBhB9EiwAfIKdQsmKKH4wA2UCznM1FRT-yensZk5loAaQOq3Q5Hy5_tGk0kRiwcym3hoCPr8QAvD_BwE], which covers the heavy involvement of Silicon Valley investors in Stanford University and his investigation of research misconduct by former Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. See the full review here [/doi/10.1126/science.aei4087]. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Fighting deepfakes, and using bacteria to deliver medicine inside the body

First up on the podcast, Meagan Cantwell produced a segment with Contributing Correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt on the fight against deepfakes [/doi/10.1126/science.zwywkfx]. Kupferschmidt talks with Hany Farid [https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/people/hany-farid], professor at the University of California, Berkeley, about the never-ending battle against fake imagery and why Farid is not giving up. Next on the show, building a tough, bio-compatible [/doi/10.1126/science.aec2071] capsule for engineered bacteria [/doi/10.1126/science.aec2071]. Tetsuhiro Harimoto [https://www.harimotolab.com/] talks about the challenges of keeping living bacteria inside a hydrogel capsule and the advantages of using engineered bacteria as sensors and medicine dispensers inside the body. (Harimoto completed this work as a postdoc at Harvard University and will start as a professor at Cornell University in the fall.) This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

A team effort to save a giant fish, the power of moonlight, and how scientists can navigate a tough political environment

First up on the podcast, along Brazil’s Juruá River, local residents have been working with scientists to manage a giant fish called the arapaima—affecting the land, the people, and the economy. Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about this collaborative effort [/doi/10.1126/science.zp2luo4]. Next on the show, how moonlight affects nocturnal animals. Carlos Camacho [https://ccamachosite.wordpress.com/], a researcher at the Doñana Biological Station, talks about the Moon-inflected habits of a nighttime foraging bird, the red-necked nightjar. His team found that the extra light provided by the full Moon allows these birds to consume more insects at night [/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aed8204]. And the timing of their long-haul migration between Europe and Africa is linked to the cycles of the Moon. Last up this week, Science Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp talks with Timothy Snyder, historian and author of the book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century [https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny]. They discuss the role of institutions, professional ethics, and personal beliefs for scientists in tough political times. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy [https://podigy.co/]. About the [/content/page/about-science-podcast]Science [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Podcast [/content/page/about-science-podcast] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]