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1 week ago | 
nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Nick J. Howe
Download the Nature Podcast 18 June 2025We’d like to learn more about our listeners, please help us out by filling in this short survey. In this episode:00:45 The tiny moths that use the stars to navigateBogong moths use the stars to help them navigate during their enormous migration across Australia, according to new research. Every year, billions of these nocturnal moths travel up to 1,000 km to cool caves in the Australian Alps, despite having never been there before.
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2 weeks 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.
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3 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.
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1 month ago | 
nature.com | Shamini Bundell |Nick J. Howe |Elizabeth Gibney
Download the Nature Podcast 28 May 2025In this episode:00:33 Was a boom in papers driven by AI? A spike in papers formulaically analysing a public data set has sparked worries that AI is being used to generate low-quality and potentially misleading analyses.
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1 month ago | 
nature.com | Nick J. Howe |Shamini Bundell
Download the Nature Podcast 07 May 2025In this episode:00:46 How fishing activity altered the migration pattern of HerringSelective fishing of older herring has resulted in a large shift in the migration pattern of these fish, according to new research. For years, herring have visited sites on the south coast of Norway to spawn, but in 2020 a rapid shift was seen, with the fish instead visiting areas hundreds of kilometres to the north.
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2 months ago | 
nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Nick J. Howe
Download the Nature Podcast 16 April 2025In this episode:00:46 A potato pangenomeResearchers have created a ‘pangenome’ containing the genomes of multiple potato types, something they believe can help make it easier to breed and sequence new varieties. The potato’s complicated genetics has made it difficult to sequence the plant’s genome, but improvements in technology have allowed the team to combine sequences, allowing then to look for subtle differences in between varieties.
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Mar 19, 2025 | 
nature.com | Shamini Bundell |Nick J. Howe
Download the Nature Podcast 19 March 2025In this episode:00:46 Microsatellite makes messaging secureA tiny satellite has enabled quantum-encrypted information to be sent between China and South Africa, the farthest distance yet achieved for quantum communication. Using a laser-based system, a team in the city of Hefei was able to beam a ‘secret key’ encoded in quantum states of photons, to their colleagues over 12,000 km away.
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Mar 5, 2025 | 
nature.com | Nick J. Howe |Shamini Bundell
Download the Nature Podcast 5 March 2025In this episode: 00:46 Ancient humans made bone tools 1.5 million years ago A 1.5-million-year-old cache of animal-bone tools reveals that ancient humans systematically crafted with this material much earlier than previously thought. Researchers uncovered 27 bone artefacts in Tanzania honed into sharp tools almost 40 cm long.
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Feb 26, 2025 | 
nature.com | Benjamin Thompson |Nick J. Howe
Download the Nature Podcast 26 February 2025In this episode:00:47 A ‘smart’ way to quickly detect cardiac arrestGoogle researchers have developed an AI for a smartwatch that will call for help if its wearer is having a cardiac arrest. Trained, in part, on data gained when patients had their hearts deliberately stopped during a medical procedure, the team’s machine-learning algorithm can automatically detect the telltale signs of cardiac arrest.
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Feb 19, 2025 | 
nature.com | Nick J. Howe |Shamini Bundell
Download the Nature Podcast 19 February 2025In this episode:01:14 A simple switch to reduce racist ratingsA study of almost 70,000 ratings showed that racial discrimination could be eliminated from an online platform by switching from a five-star rating system to a thumbs up or down.
