Benjamin Thompson

United Kingdom

Host at Nature Podcast

Journalist at Nature

Journalist @nature, host of the @naturepodcast. I like music, old video games and people like you.

Featured in: Favicon

nature.com Favicon

rsc.org

pubs.rsc.org

Articles

Hundreds of physicists on a remote island: we visit the ultimate quantum party

1 week ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Elizabeth Gibney

Download the Nature Podcast 13 June 2025 According to legend, physicist Werner Heisenberg formulated the mathematics behind quantum mechanics in 1925 while on a restorative trip to the remote North Sea island of Heligoland. To celebrate the centenary of this event, several hundred researchers have descended on the island to take part in a conference on all things quantum physics. Nature reporter Lizzie Gibney was also in attendance, and joined us to give an inside track on the meeting.
This stretchy neural implant grows with an axolotl's brain

1 week ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Nick J. Howe

Download the Nature Podcast 11 June 2025In this episode:00:45 A flexible neural-implant that grows with the brainResearchers have developed a soft electronic implant that can measure brain activity of amphibian embryos as they develop. Understanding the neural activity of developing brains is a key aim for neuroscientists, but conventional, rigid probes can damage growing brains.
Trump wants to put humans on Mars: what scientists think of the plan

2 weeks ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson

Download the 06 June 2025 Podcast Extra In this Podcast Extra, we examine President Donald Trump's calls for NASA to land humans on Mars. Although the White House has proposed spending some US$1 billion in 2026 on Mars plans, critics say the final cost will likely be hundreds of billions of dollars spread over a number of years.
Male mice can grow female organs - if their mothers lack iron

2 weeks ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Nick J. Howe

Download the Nature Podcast 5 June 2025In this episode:00:45 Iron’s role in mice sex determinationIron deficiency in mice mothers can sometimes result in their offspring developing female sex organs despite having male sex genes, according to new research.
Audio long read: Three ways to cool Earth by pulling carbon from the sky

3 weeks ago | nature.com | Jeff Tollefson |Benjamin Thompson

Download the 30 May 2025 long read podcastWith the world looking likely to blow past the temperature targets laid out in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a growing number of voices are saying that carbon removal technologies will be necessary if humanity is to achieve its long-term climate goals. If these approaches succeed, they could help nations and corporations to meet their climate commitments — and help the world to halt global warming.
How to transport antimatter - stick it on the back of a van

1 month ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Shamini Bundell

Download the Nature Podcast 14 May 2025In this episode:00:46 An antimatter delivery van takes its first road tripResearchers have developed a portable antimatter containment device and tested it by putting it in a truck and driving it around CERN. Their system could represent a big step forward in efforts to take particles made at CERN’s ‘antimatter factory’ and transport them to other labs, something currently impossible due to antimatter being destroyed upon contact with matter.
NSF terminates huge number of grants and stops awarding new ones

1 month ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Dan Garisto

Download the 12 May 2025 Podcast ExtraIn this Podcast Extra, we examine recent developments US National Science Foundation, which has seen significant numbers of research grants terminated. In addition, there have been freezes on funding for new grants and any additional money to existing ones. We also discuss US President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, which calls for disproportionately large cuts to federal science funding.
The dismantling of US science: can it survive Trump 2.0?

1 month ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Shamini Bundell

Download the Nature Podcast 30 AprilIn this episode: 00:46 What will be left of US science after Trump 2.0? 100 days into his term, President Donald Trump and his administration have already caused the biggest shakeup in modern scientific history, slashing funding, bringing large swathes of US research to a standstill and halting many clinical trials. But many fear these actions are just the beginning.
Audio long read: Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health?

1 month ago | nature.com | Helen Pearson |Benjamin Thompson

Download the 25 April long read podcastResearch shows that, over the past two decades, rates of mental illness have been increasing in adolescents in many countries. While some scientists point to soaring use of smartphones and social media as a key driver for this trend, others say the evidence does not show a large effect of these technologies on teenagers’ psychological health.
A brand-new colour created by lasers, a pig-liver transplant trial gets the green light, and a nugget-sized chunk of lab-grown meat

1 month ago | nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Shamini Bundell |Elizabeth Gibney

Download the Nature Podcast 25 April 2025In this episode: 00:27 Five people see ‘olo’, a brand-new colourUsing a laser system to activate specific eye cells, a team has allowed five study participants to perceive a vibrant blue-greenish hue well outside the natural range of colours seen by humans.