Shamini Bundell

London

Senior Multimedia Editor and Journalist at Nature

A 'joyfully energetic nerd' | Science documentary maker for @Nature | Mixes DnD & Scicomm for @RPGeeksDnD | TTRPG performer, improviser & storyteller | She/her

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Articles

AI linked to boom in biomedical papers, infrared contact lenses, and is Earth’s core leaking?

1 week 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.
These contact lenses let humans see invisible infrared light

2 weeks ago | nature.com | Elizabeth Gibney |Shamini Bundell

These contact lenses give people infrared vision — even with their eyes shut Ever thought about having super-human vision? Researchers in China have developed a way to make contact lenses that convert infrared wavelengths into visible light. It’s based on nanoparticles embedded in the lenses that let participants see infrared LED lights and invisible messages.
How to transport antimatter - stick it on the back of a van

3 weeks 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.
How quickly do humans mutate? Four generations help answer the question

1 month ago | nature.com | Shamini Bundell |Dan Fox

Nature Video 08 May 2025 DNA sequencing of a family from children to great-grandparents reveals more mutations than previously seen. You have full access to this article via your institution. Human de novo mutation rates from a four-generation pedigree reference The DNA of each child that is born contains entirely new mutations, not found in either of their parents.
Herring population loses migration 'memory' after heavy fishing

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.
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.
This is not the new colour that scientists have created

1 month ago | nature.com | Elizabeth Gibney |Shamini Bundell |Dan Fox

The colours we see are interpreted by our brains based on signals from different types of cells in our eyes. So what if you could activate those cells without any ‘real’ colour existing at all? Brand-new colour created by tricking human eyes with laserScientists have used laser light to activate a specific type of cone cell in the retina and create the perception of a colour that falls way outside the spectrum of what humans can normally see.
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.
Microplastic pollution found in insect casing from 1971

1 month ago | nature.com | Shamini Bundell

Half a century of caddisfly casings (Trichoptera) with microplastic from natural history collectionsTiny particles of plastic are everywhere today, but a discovery in a museum collection proves that this isn’t a new phenomenon. While combing through drawers of caddisfly specimens, researchers found evidence of microplastic particles being used as a building material by caddisfly larvae as far back as the 1970s and 1980s.
Long-awaited ape genomes give new insights into their evolution - and ours

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

Download the Nature Podcast 09 April 2025In this episode:00:46 Complete sequencing of ape genomesResearchers have sequenced the complete genomes of six ape species, helping uncover the evolutionary history of our closest relatives and offering insights into what makes humans human. The genomes of chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan and siamang have been sequenced end-to-end, filling in gaps that have long eluded researchers. Research Article: Yoo et al.