The World, the Universe and Us

Want to live 20 percent longer? Well, it may be possible in the future thanks to a new discovery. A life-extending mutation has been found in mice, and the team explains how its benefits can be transferred by transplanting blood stem cells. But will it work in humans? Cows’ burps are a big problem for global warming - but could kangaroo poo be the solution? We hear about a novel new idea to replace the bacteria in cows’ stomachs. A special kind of particle that can remember its past has been created using a quantum computer. The team explains the mind-bending qualities of this non-Abelian anyon, and how its creation could serve as a building block for advanced quantum computers. A new study has linked irregular sleeping patterns with an increased risk of death. The team finds out what’s going on. Climate change may have broken a link between desert grasslands and the Pacific Ocean. We learn how this severed connection is impacting biodiversity in North America’s Chihuahuan desert. On the pod are Chelsea Whyte, Sam Wong, Michael Le Page, James Dinneen, Alexandra Thompson and Alex Wilkins. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: newscientist.com/wondersofspace Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this bonus episode of the podcast we present a guide on how to think about some of the most important and mind-bending concepts in science, from artificial intelligence to mental health, from nutrition to virtual particles. It all comes from a special How To Think About issue of New Scientist that is out now – the team discuss some of the things it covers. Other topics include consciousness, wormholes, ageing, origins of life, quantum gravity, and even happiness. Make yourself happy subscribing to our podcast and by checking out the special issue. On the show this week are New Scientist journalists Rowan Hooper, Dan Cossins, Cat de Lange, Abby Beal and Clare Wilson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lab-grown meat may be cruelty free, but is it really better for the environment? Not at the moment. In fact, the team finds out how it’s up to 25 times worse than normal meat. And with prices still astronomically high, will it ever become a viable replacement? Are we waking up the sleeping Arctic ocean? Melting sea ice from rising global temperatures is having a knock on effect on one of the Arctic’s major ocean currents, the Beaufort Gyre. Rowan speaks to earth scientists Harry Heorton and Michel Tsamados of University College London, authors of a new paper looking at the changes to the gyre. Rowan asks them whether we’re approaching a climate tipping point where changes become self-perpetuating and irreversible. In the unlikely event that you have ever wondered what a church organ would sound like if it was played on another planet - wonder no more! Thanks to Timothy Leighton, professor of ultrasonics at the University of Southampton, we get to hear a church organ as it would sound on Mars, Jupiter and Venus. The team explains how this work might come in handy during future missions to these planets. When it comes to sharing their food, chimps are just like 4 year-old kids. The team finds out about a new study which clues us into the evolution of altruism in apes. Vitamin D supplementation has been the subject of a lot of controversy. Do we need to take them or not? The team highlights a new kind of study which shows how vitamin D can help fight off certain diseases. And the team signs off the show by playing a genius entry to this year’s Eurovision song contest - EuroFISHion, a track recorded with hydrophones at the SeaLife London Aquarium. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Clare Wilson and Alice Klein. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: newscientist.com/spacetelescope Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spinal cord stimulation has, for the first time, been shown to help two people with upper body paralysis due to stroke regain some arm movement. To find out how this groundbreaking technology works, New Scientist health reporter Grace Wade speaks to two researchers who helped conduct this research - Nikhil Verma at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Erynn Sorensen at the University of Pittsburgh. She also speaks to Heather, one of the study’s participants, who explains the emotional moment when she was able to open and close her hand for the first time in a decade. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From bright lights at the end of a tunnel, to hearing dead loved ones, there are many common sensations related to near death experiences. But what’s going on in the brain to cause them? The team hears about a signal measured in the brains of people just before they died. Aliens may make contact with Earth as early as 2029. That’s the theory at least. The team explains how some of NASA’s deep space spacecraft could be used to beam back messages from distant planets. For the first time an organism has been discovered with seven entirely distinct genomes inside it. The team finds out about this record breaking cryptomonad alga. Covid-19 could be wreaking havoc on our gut microbiome, explaining why so many people experience gastrointestinal symptoms while infected. The team finds out how the disease is interacting with the gut, and whether there are any long term effects. Alpha male elephant seals with the largest harems die younger than those with fewer females. Listen to the sounds of their territorial grunts as the team finds out what’s going on. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Clare Wilson, Alexandra Thompson and Michael Le Page. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: newscientist.com/rewilding newscientist.com/universeweekend Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As humans are responsible for the devastation of the world’s forests, surely it’s our job, then, to step in and make things right? Well, not according to German forester and best-selling author Peter Wohlleben. In his latest book ‘The Power of Trees’, he argues that forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests is ecologically disastrous, and that trees and forests need to be left to heal themselves. In this episode of CultureLab, New Scientist culture and comment editor Alison Flood asks Peter about the book, and why he believes forests have the capacity to deal with climate change on their own. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With SpaceX’s Starship blowing up, and ispace’s lander crashing into the moon, in the last week two of the most exciting missions of the year have failed. The team finds out what went wrong, and how long it’ll be until these missions can try again. Fish farts and genital stridulation - the team shares a beautiful underwater soundscape of British ponds, recorded using a hydrophone. They learn about the daily acoustic activity cycles of ponds, and find out why researchers are collecting these sounds. Hypnosis is becoming a more mainstream part of surgery, with patients being eased into operations with suggestive language and calming phrases. The team finds out how it’s helping to supplement normal anaesthetics, reducing pain and anxiety. 2024 may be the year we breach 1.5 degrees of global warming. Despite dramatic weather events over the last few years, the Earth has actually been in a cooling period called La Niña. So as we enter an El Niño, a period of warming, the team says we should brace for more intense, record-breaking heat. It comes as ocean warming hits new, and very concerning highs. Was Rosalind Franklin really the “wronged heroine” of DNA? Did Francis Crick and James Watson really swindle her out of her share of the credit for the breakthrough discovery of DNA’s double helix structure? That’s what Watson’s famous book ‘The Double Helix’ would have you believe. But Rowan speaks to biologist Matthew Cobb who sheds new light on what really happened. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Leah Crane, Madeleine Cuff and Clare Wilson. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Great Mysteries of Physics Royal College of Anaesthetists self-hypnosis scripts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever stopped to think about what life underwater sounds like? Well, now is your chance to hear it first-hand as multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Cosmo Sheldrake, has released a collection of music composed entirely out of recordings from our oceans and the animals that inhabit them. 'Wild Wet World' has been a decade in the making and features the sounds of humpback whales singing, oyster toadfish grunting and haddock drumming. In this episode of the CultureLab podcast from New Scientist, Bethan Ackerley speaks to Cosmo about some of the complexities of piecing together the album and how he hopes it will help to raise awareness about the impact of noise pollution on our oceans. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film, the new six-part TV series Dead Ringers tells the story of identical twin doctors - played by Rachel Weisz - as they explore innovations in childbirth and fertility. In this bonus episode of the podcast, our TV columnist Bethan Ackerley speaks to the show's lead writer, Alice Birch, about how she took on Cronenberg’s twisted tale, why it was important to include graphic and realistic depictions of birth in the series, and about the emerging medical technologies that play a part in the show. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With action on climate change moving so slowly, is it time for more radical activism? Have we been left with no option but to use sabotage and property destruction as a way to protect our planet? Those are the questions a new film, How To Blow Up A Pipeline, aims to get you thinking about. Based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Swedish academic Andreas Malm, the film leaves viewers questioning whether sabotaging an oil pipeline is a logical form of climate activism. In this bonus episode of the podcast, host Rowan Hooper speaks to the film’s director Daniel Goldhaber, lead actor/co-screenwriter Ariela Barer, and the movie editor Daniel Garber. Rowan’s interview with Andreas Malm can be heard here. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve all seen the moths gather around the kitchen light or campfire flame at night, but have you ever wondered why they’re drawn to it? Well, there are loads of theories, but the team explores a brand new one which suggests insects don’t come seeking the light, but are instead imprisoned by it. Life finds a way. Even amid the vast swathe of plastic and junk in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, creatures have set up home, thousands of miles from their natural habitats. Is this a reassuring sign of adaptability, or do we need to be worried? Our cyborg future is upon us. It may be early stages, but the team finds out about a new experiment which has, for the first time, printed conductive material inside a living organism. This material may one day be used to create working circuits and implants inside the body. The ocean is a massive carbon sink - but can we enhance its effects? The team discusses a concept called ocean alkalinisation, which aims to boost carbon storage by dumping a load of alkaline material into the sea. An experimental project is set to test the theory soon - but is it safe? With the rise of AI large language models like GPT-4 and Bard, will we begin to see them rival human level intelligence - or will an entirely new type of intelligence emerge? As a taste of New Scientist’s special issue on the AI Revolution, we hear from Melanie Mitchell, professor of complexity at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Madeleine Cuff, Michael Le Page and Alex Wilkins. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Lyma: Laser therapy research Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How many people can we physically feed on Earth? As the global population is predicted to reach 11 billion by the end of the century, do we have enough land to feed all those mouths? The team discusses the safest ways to feed the world, and finds out the absolute limit of Earth’s capacity. You know those fetching tunics Stone Age people wore? Well, we may have figured out how they stitched them together. The team discusses the discovery of a 40,000 year old horse (or bison) bone, and what it tells us about a vital tipping point in human cultural evolution. An unhackable quantum internet is being constructed in New York City. While this isn’t the first quantum network ever built, the team explains how this particular experiment is bringing us closer than ever before to a quantum internet we can all use. This episode goes live on launch day of the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - JUICE. The mission will stop by Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, and the team explains what they’ll be looking for. Sadly you’ll have to wait 8 years before you can check back into the podcast for the next update though… And we hear a report from Abby Beall who’s been stargazing in the Atacama Desert in Chile on a New Scientist Discovery tour. She speaks to Elke Schulz, who runs stargazing tours nearby and is trying to get her valley recognised as a dark sky sanctuary. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Leah Crane, Madeleine Cuff, Alison George, Karmela Padavic Callaghan and Abby Beall. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: New Scientist Live early bird tickets: newscientist.com/nspodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How long can a human live for? The world record is 122 years, and while some people believe our bodies aren’t capable of surpassing that, a new theory suggests we could see the record broken in a decade’s time. The team explains how this could be possible. An upgraded version of the classic double-slit experiment has observed how light interacts through differences in time rather than space. Researchers used a special type of material in the experiment, which the team says could be used to make time crystals. Nutritional deficiencies, tuberculosis and self harm - child asylum seekers in Australian detention centres have experienced dire living conditions. The team finds out about the impact of these centres on their health and lessons that other countries could learn. The incredible kākāpō is our life form of the week. The team explains how researchers are trying to save this endangered, flightless bird by looking at the preserved poo of their ancestors. And it’s been discovered that giving your brain a good work-out can ramp up its waste disposal system - something we thought only happened when we sleep. The team explains how this finding may be useful for preventing neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s. On the pod are Penny Sarchet, Sam Wong, Leah Crane, Alice Klein and Clare Wilson. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Use the code NEWSCIENTIST at historyhit.com to get a free month’s subscription. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sea otters, American bison and grey wolves are among nine groups of animals that could help fight climate change. The team discusses the various attributes that make these groups particularly impactful, and they explain what we’d need to do to help populations grow. An ancient supermassive black hole that formed in the early moments of the universe has been spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope. The team explains how it might’ve formed so early into the universe’s existence - and they discuss the mind-boggling prospect of black holes that are older than the universe. An immense sauropod dinosaur, Patagotitan mayorum, the largest known land-animal of all time, is currently towering above visitors to London’s Natural History Museum. Rowan went to see the incredible beast up close, and asks palaeontologist Paul Barrett how sauropods got so big. A newly discovered “hat” has mathematicians all excited. For the first time, researchers have found a single shape that can be used to cover a surface without ever creating a repeating pattern. The team explains the shape, which apparently looks like a hat, and what it might be used for. Many of the problems we face in the world today are caused by our inability to think about the long-term future. But in this modern world where we’re forced to think short-term, how do we escape this trap? Rowan asks Richard Fisher for help - he’s just released a book titled The Long View: Why we need to transform how the world sees time. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Chelsea Whyte, Alex Wilkins and Sam Wong. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: New Scientist Fermilab event: newscientist.com/fermilab Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As countries continue dragging their feet on emissions reductions, the latest synthesis report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is another call to arms, warning of catastrophic impacts of climate change. The team digs into the report and asks whether the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C is now beyond reach. ChatGPT’s successor GPT-4 is here, and excitement is brewing as the language model has begun to demonstrate signs of artificial general intelligence, when machines demonstrate flexible ability to tackle different tasks. From passing law examinations to coding entire websites, the team explains what GPT-4 is capable of, and why it may have begun a paradigm shift in the world of machine learning. For Lifeform of the Week, the team hear that garden dormice glow in the dark. After shining UV light on some dormice, researchers have found they emit a bright red glow, and their feet and nose shine blue-green. The team finds out what’s going on and why they might have evolved this skill. It’s no surprise that it’s harder to read the emotions of people who’ve had Botox. What is surprising is that people who’ve had Botox find it harder to read other people’s emotions, too. The team explains how this could come down to something called the ‘facial feedback hypothesis’. Despite being ridiculously cold to the point where chemical reactions struggle to get going, Saturn’s moon Titan may still be able to develop life thanks to a strange quantum phenomenon. The team learns about the bizarre effect of quantum tunnelling. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Michael Le Page, Alex Wilkins, Alice Klein and Leah Crane . To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: New Scientist Tours: newscientist.com/tours Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode, join host Rowan Hooper as he ventures to Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the far north, just 1000 km from the North Pole. The Arctic is warming far faster than any other region on the planet, making Svalbard an incredible natural laboratory to study climate change, and particularly, melting glaciers. Svalbard is also home to a large population of the world’s largest land carnivore, the polar bear. Rowan speaks with Jon Aars of the Norwegian Polar Institute about the fate of this spectacular predator. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brainoids - tiny clumps of human brain cells - are being turned into living artificial intelligence machines, capable of carrying out tasks like solving complex equations. The team finds out how these brain organoids compare to normal computer-based AIs, and they explore the ethics of it all. Sickle cell disease is now curable, thanks to a pioneering trial with CRISPR gene editing. The team shares the story of a woman whose life has been transformed by the treatment. We can now hear the sound of the afterglow of the big bang, the radiation in the universe known as the cosmic microwave background. The team shares the eerie piece that has been transposed for human ears, named by researchers The Echo of Eternity. Artificial intelligence can now read our minds…under a very specific set of circumstances. The team looks at a mindblowing new study which feels very sci-fi. Pop legend and environmentalist Feargal Sharkey makes a cameo to highlight the campaign New Scientist is running in collaboration with the i newspaper, to draw attention to the shocking state of Britain’s rivers. Great apes like to twirl around like ballerinas. As the team finds out, it turns out it’s not just humans who like to spin around and make themselves dizzy, it’s fun for many other species of ape too. Bonnie Garmus, author of the bestselling novel Lessons In Chemistry, speaks to comment and culture editor Alison Flood about the success of her debut novel. She explains the inspiration behind her protagonist and why she made her a chemist. And she discusses fan-favourite character Six-Thirty the dog and the intelligence of animals. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Michael Le Page and Alison Flood. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: NS JWST Event: newscientist.com/jwt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether it’s on the Moon, Mars or somewhere even more distant, we may see human settlements in space in our lifetime. But when we do, will we be prepared? Alongside all the concerns of whether we should even be considering moving out to space, there are a lot of ethical considerations that need to be thought about too. How do you govern the new societies you’re forging? How do you hold the leaders accountable? How do we learn from and avoid the mistakes we’ve made on Earth? In this bonus episode of the podcast, Leah Crane speaks to astrophysicist Erika Nesvold, who tackles these issues in her new book Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matter we’ve long thought missing from galaxies has finally been found. Great news…except there’s one catch. It turns out that perhaps this matter should be missing, based on our understanding of the way young galaxies form. So what’s going on? The team finds out where and how this matter was found, and what it means for our understanding of galaxies. A life-saving trial is sequencing the entire genomes of extremely sick babies. The team learns how the trial worked, and hears from one mother whose son made a remarkable recovery after being born with a rare life-threatening disease. You know that low creaky sound you make when you drop your voice low? That’s called vocal fry, and it turns out some whales can do it too. The team shares the sounds of a sperm whale using vocal fry during echo location, which explains how they’re able to make these sounds in deep water. Norovirus is spreading rapidly in the UK, with reported cases higher in England than they’ve been in a decade. The team finds out what’s caused this spike in cases of the ‘winter vomiting bug’. Horse riding may have begun as far back as 5000 years ago. New bone evidence suggests that the earliest known horse riders may have been members of the Yamnaya tribe. The team discusses whether horse riding may have been behind the success of the Yamnaya, who expanded across Europe around this time. On the pod are Penny Sarchet, Chelsea Whyte, Alexandra Thompson, Clare Wilson, Leah Crane and Alice Klein. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Inside the future of epilepsy therapy article: newscientist.com/epilepsy NS Discovery tour: newscientist.com/tours Fermilab event: https://www.newscientist.com/science-events/solving-the-mysteries-of-matter-and-energy-space-and-time/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As millions of people around the world suffer from long covid, research into how viruses trigger chronic health conditions is getting a lot more focus. The team explores the role of viruses in both chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, and touch on our latest understanding of long covid. Our understanding of how galaxies form could be entirely wrong. Huge young galaxies seen by the James Webb Space Telescope seem far too massive to have formed so early on in the universe’s history. The team explains how this could completely upend our models of the universe. Sharpshooter insects shoot so much urine out of their “anal catapult” they can make it rain. The team explains why this extraordinary species of leafhopper has developed this unusual superpower. Erythritol, a sweetener found in many low calorie food products, has been linked to blood clots and heart attacks. The team examines various studies that show these links, and asks whether we need to avoid eating the sweetener all together. Calls are growing for more research into solar geoengineering to stave off climate change. This week 67 researchers signed an open letter calling for more research on the potential methods. Rowan speaks to Jim Haywood, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Exeter, about ways to reduce the amount of sunlight getting to the planet, including stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud brightening. Jim is one of the authors of a new UN Environment Program Report called One Atmosphere: An Independent Expert Review on Solar Radiation Modification Research and Deployment. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Clare Wilson, Jacob Aron, Sam Wong and Mike Marshall. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Instant Expert Brain event newscientist.com/yourbrain Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this bonus episode of the podcast, host Rowan Hooper sits down with New Scientist magazine editor Cat de Lange, and science journalist Sally Adee to talk about the wonders of the electrome: the natural electricity that courses through our bodies. Most of us know that we rely on bioelectricity in our brains and nervous systems, for processing information and sending signals to and from the brain, but bioelectricity also plays vital roles how we develop in the womb and how our bodies heal after injury. Bioelectricity is linked to various illnesses, and if it goes wrong, deformity and cancer can result. On the pod, Sally talks about how we can learn to control this bioelectricity. Sally has written this week’s magazine cover story, The amazing ways electricity in your body shapes you and your health, and her book, We Are Electric, The New Science of Our Body’s Electrome, has just been published. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While testing samples in the Atacama desert, a region of Earth with very similar rocks to those on Mars, astrobiologists have discovered a mysterious “dark biome” of organisms we’ve never seen before. With sample missions taking place on Mars itself, the team discusses what we might find. Bow and arrows were first used in Europe much earlier than we thought. 54,000 year old arrowheads have been discovered in a rock shelter in the south of France. The team finds out what they were used for, and about the ingenious way researchers confirmed these stone points were actually arrowheads. A new trick could allow quantum computers to run programs that should be too big for them. The team explains the method that could let small quantum computers run AI programs that would usually require too much computing power for them to handle. To cope with the looming threat of sea level rise, residents of the 1190 islands of the Maldives may need to huddle on just 2 islands in the near future. The team explains how they’d need to build high-rise apartment blocks and skyscraper offices to cope with climate change. From violent suppression of protest to the rise of the surveillance state, many stories from Judge Dredd, the future cop from British comic 2000AD, have proved eerily prophetic. Rowan speaks to writer and comics journalist Michael Molcher about his new book ‘I Am The Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future’, in which he argues key Dredd stories from the last 45 years provide a unique wake up call about our gradual slide towards authoritarian policing. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Leah Crane, Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, Michael Le Page and Madeleine Cuff. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Fermilab event: newscientist.com/fermilab Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Venice, Italy, is often voted the world’s most beautiful city. Built across 120 small islands in a shallow lagoon, it’s been an important financial and cultural centre for over a thousand years. But it faces an existential threat from sea level rise caused by climate change. Rowan Hooper visits the city’s new water defence system – a €6 billion sea barrier designed to defend Venice against high tides. But what does the barrier mean for the ecology of the lagoon, and what about people living on coasts around the world who don’t have the protection of a sea wall or barrier? In a special episode of the podcast, Rowan discusses these issues with Ignazio Musu, professor of environmental economics at Venice International University, and Swenja Surminski, professor of climate adaptation at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The UK’s rivers are in a dire state. Full of sewage, chemicals and prescription drugs, life in our rivers is suffering. New Scientist has teamed up with the i newspaper to launch the Save Britain’s Rivers campaign to raise awareness of the issue and get changes in the law. The team explores the problem, which includes question marks over illegal activity, and explains the aims of the campaign. UFOs are on our radar, quite literally, as US fighter jets have suddenly been tasked with blowing them out of the sky over North America. But why now? The team explains how this hunt for flying objects was started by a suspicious Chinese balloon. Can love be measured? While we may never figure out exactly what it is, a team of researchers has come up with a way of measuring where in the world people are most loved-up. From a list of 45 countries, the team shares the official winners and losers. Did you know there may be an evolutionary advantage to having curly hair? The team shares the findings of the first study to examine hair type from an evolutionary perspective. Why do some women get cravings for certain foods during their period? The team discuss a study of cis-women suggesting that inflammation could key us into what’s going on, and why cravings vary. Also, don’t miss our investigation of the vaginal microbiome - what an ecosystem! On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Graham Lawton, Alice Klein, Jeremy Hsu, Alexandra Thompson and Daniel Capurro. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: US Online Event: newscientist.com/health3 New Scientist tours: newscientist.com/tours Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hear the chattering sounds of a narwhal, the surprisingly tuneful tones of singing sea ice, and the alarming crashes of ice shelves collapsing in this special bonus episode of the podcast. These rare noises, captured by hydrophones in the Arctic and Antarctic, paint a fascinating image of two of our planet’s lesser-known regions. Rowan Hooper catches up with Stuart Fowkes, the founder of Cities and Memory, one of the world’s biggest sounds projects, which has joined forces with scientists and musicians to present these sounds, and to interpret them. To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The continuing avian flu epidemic is devastating bird populations. And now there are concerns over increasing numbers of mammals becoming infected. As reports rise, the team finds out whether this strain of bird flu may begin to pose a bigger threat to humans. Everyone’s jumping on the AI chat bandwagon. As ChatGPT continues to make headlines, two big companies have just announced their contributions to the field. The team explains how both Google and Baidu are looking to change search engines as we know them with their AI models Bard and Ernie. A new discovery has advanced our understanding of consciousness. It turns out that our brains produce less entropy when we’re asleep than when we’re awake. The team explains what’s going on. Mysterious sunquakes may be caused by weird beams of electrons from solar flares. It’s long been debated whether flares could cause these ripples on the Sun’s surface, but the team looks at new research on the connection between the two. A collection of rarely heard sounds recorded in the Arctic and Antarctic have been released as part of a project called Cities and Memories. The team shares the Clanger-like whistles of weddell seals and the chain-sawing sounds of crabeater seals. If you like what you hear, there’s a bonus episode coming up with loads more sounds. On the pod are Penny Sarchet, Timothy Revell, Matt Sparkes, Madeleine Cuff and Karmela Padavic-Callaghan. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: February sale: newscientist.com/febsale2023 New Scientist tours: newscientist.com/tours Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The immune system is the intricate constellation of cells and molecules in our bodies that defends us against disease and on this special bonus episode of New Scientist Weekly we delve into the latest science on how the immune system works. Why do some people never seem to get ill? What was the effect of covid lockdowns on our immune system? Is it really possible to boost your immune system through eating certain foods? Do you have a naturally strong or weak immune system? And how can we engineer the immune system to seek and destroy cancers that have evaded treatment? Discussing these issues are New Scientist journalists Rowan Hooper, Helen Thomson, Penny Sarchet and Michael Le Page. These stories and much more are explored in a special edition of New Scientist magazine, also available to download on our app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An ancient and debunked method of searching for water leaks is still being used by some of the UK’s water companies. The team finds out why water dowsing is still in practice, despite being scientifically discredited. But they also find out how it might actually work - just not in the way you think. People have sometimes complained that the chimps in the various Planet of the Apes films have unrealistic eyes - because they have whites around the iris, like humans. But it turns out real chimps actually do have whites too. We thought this white sclera was only a human thing - but as Rowan finds out, we were wrong. An artificial intelligence called ProGen has designed bacteria-killing synthetic proteins, some of which actually work when inserted into cells. The team suggests this is a “short-cut to evolution” and is very promising for the development of new antibiotics. Asteroid mining tech is being tested in space in April by satellite construction company AstroForge. Rowan speaks with their co-founder to hear what they’re hoping to achieve, and discusses the company’s second mission planned for later this year, when they’ll be doing a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid to look for platinum. If you look up at the sky you may just see a rare green comet flying by. Comet C/2022 only heads this way every 50,000 years, so the team explains how you can seize the opportunity to see it for yourself. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Matt Sparkes, Abby Beal and Karmela Padavic-Callaghan. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: January sale: newscientist.com/jansale2023 Secrets of the Large Hadron Collider event: newscientist.com/lhc Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new HBO series The Last of Us is making waves, raking in a steady stream of high reviews. Based on a game of the same name, it’s set in a world where a parasitic fungus called Cordyceps has mutated to infect and zombify humans. In this bonus episode of the podcast, Bethan Ackerley asks if this could actually happen in real life. She’s joined by fungal pathogens expert Professor Matthew Fisher of Imperial College London. To read about these subjects, Beth’s review of The Last of Us, and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A vaccine for the respiratory virus RSV may be ready this year. In fact, after decades of efforts, successful vaccines have arrived like buses, with three of them on the way. As a particularly devastating virus for young children and the elderly, the team explains just how impactful these new vaccines will be. You may have read headlines that Earth’s core is changing direction - but the team explains why it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. They also bring less-than-thrilling news for the existence of life in the universe, as we may have been overestimating how many planets are out there that have the right conditions for life. Following intense rainfall, floods and disaster declarations, California finally has a dry forecast. But, the team asks, has all this water helped ease the State’s worst-in-a-century drought? And will we see more of these dramatic swings in weather as climate change worsens? Science has shown what most people who take antidepressants already know - that they blunt both bad and good emotions. The team explores the implications of this new study. You may be noticing a few bonus episodes popping up in your feed lately. The team shares a teaser of the latest ones, including a discussion about ‘tipping points’ with climate scientist Tim Lenton, and a chat with fungal pathogen expert Mat Fisher about the new fungal horror TV show The Last of Us. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, James Dinneen, Michael Le Page and Leah Crane. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: January sale: newscientist.com/jansale2023 RSC new publishing platform rsc.li/books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special episode of the show, host Rowan Hooper and environment reporter Madeleine Cuff chat with climate scientist Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter. Tim has just contributed to a research paper that suggested governments could trigger a mass shift to plant-based diets, simply by serving more vegan burgers in schools and hospitals. We discuss with Tim the power of leveraging so-called positive tipping points to bring about large-scale change. Topics in a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion include: green hydrogen, better fuel for ships, James Lovelock and negative tipping points. These are processes such as the drying of the Amazon rainforest or the melting of the Western Antarctic ice shelf, that, if triggered, would become irreversible and self-perpetuating and that would certainly speed up climate change. One such tipping point that Tim highlights is the Atlantic ocean conveyor belt, and in particular, the deep convection in the Labrador Sea. If the tipping point for this is reached, and models suggest it could happen at the warming we are now seeing, then Europe would shift to a far more seasonal climate, with extremes in both winter and summer. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode of the podcast, hear Rowan Hooper’s extended interview with Assaad Razzouk, author of Saving the Planet Without the Bullshit: What they don’t tell you about the climate crisis. For a refreshing take on the climate crisis, find out why Assaad believes we need to feel less guilty about our personal actions when it comes to tackling climate change. In this episode he argues things like going vegan and flying less are just distractions, and explains where he believes the real battle lies. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A cure for ageing, without the price-tag? It might sound too good to be true, but the team digs into new evidence that shows low-frequency ultrasound may rejuvenate cells in our body which are thought to cause age-related diseases. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is missing half of its matter - and the team asks where it’s all gone. They also discuss NASA’s ShadowCam which has taken pictures of Shackleton Crater on the south pole of the Moon, a region of particular interest if humans are to settle on the Lunar surface. Despite dramatic heat waves over the past few years, the Earth has actually been in a cooling period, known as La Niña, for the last three years. So with an El Niño on the way - a period of warming - the team finds out about the coming climate impacts, and how we might breach 1.5 degrees of global heating. Oyster mushrooms eat nematodes - who knew? And as the team finds out, they even do it in a pretty gruesome way, using a sort of nerve gas. The question is, can they still be considered vegan? For a unique take on the climate crisis and the personal responsibility we feel in tackling it, Rowan chats to Assaad Razzouk, author of Saving the Planet Without the Bullshit: What They Don't Tell You About the Climate Crisis. He explains why we shouldn’t worry about going vegan or cutting down on flying, and reveals the real things we should be angry about when it comes to climate change. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Madeleine Cuff, Michael Le Page and Leah Crane. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: newscientist.com/tours Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode of the podcast, hear an extended interview with Cassie Lynch, a descendent of the Noongar people of south west Australia who’s been studying their storytelling tradition. Find out how ancient accounts of rising sea levels from the end of the ice age around 7000 years ago have been passed down through aboriginal stories. And discover what we can learn from the events of the past in surviving the current climate crisis. Interviewing Cassie is writer and theatre maker David Finnigan. Find out more about the study by Patrick Nunn and Nicholas Reid here. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scientists working for oil giant Exxon between 1977 and 2003 accurately predicted the pace and scale of climate change and warned of the harm of burning fossil fuels, while firm’s executives played down the risk. Now Exxon’s quantitative climate projections have been assessed for the first time. On this special episode of the podcast, host Rowan Hooper discusses the Exxon science with New Scientist environment reporter Madeleine Cuff, and climate scientist Peter Stott. Peter is the author of Hot Air, The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial and is a specialist in climate attribution at the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre. There is also a contribution from climate scientist Michael Mann. The panel discuss ExxonMobil’s response to the new study, and talk about what we can take from it in terms of not being beguiled by vested interests when pushing for a fast transition to a world free from fossil fuels. The team also reacts to the news that the head of one of the world's biggest oil companies will be president of the COP28 climate summit later this year. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will artificial intelligence replace lawyers in the future? The team learns about a new, chat-bot style bit of tech that fights your legal battles for you, and is about to be tested in a real court room. But is it ethical, or even legal? Gibbons love to sing, but what we’ve just learnt is male and female gibbons also enjoy belting out synchronised musical duets. The team plays some of these delightful sounds, and finds out what this tells us about the evolution of rhythmic capabilities in humans. There’s good news for those of us who are getting on a bit. The team finds out about the very welcome news that some parts of our brains actually speed up when we age. Wind turbines today are already pretty massive - some as high as 250 metres tall. But a new type of turbine has been dreamt up that would rival the tallest skyscrapers. The team discusses the type of engineering that will go into this mega wind turbine, if its inventor can find the $1 billion needed to fund its creation. Stories passed down through aboriginal cultures may provide a roadmap on how to survive the current climate crisis. The writer and theatre-maker David Finnigan speaks to Cassie Lynch, a descendant of the Noongar people of Australia, who’s been studying their storytelling tradition. She reveals ancient knowledge from thousands of years ago, usually only shared among indigenous people. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Madeleine Cuff and Matt Sparkes. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: newscientist.com/lhc Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To see in the New Year, host Rowan Hooper and the team look ahead to their science and cultural highlights for the coming months. We start with 2 big planetary science missions due for launch in 2023. JUICE, which will be visiting Jupiter to study some of its moons, and Psyche, which is making a journey to an asteroid made completely of iron. With covid still causing a huge burden of disease around the world, we find out how treatment of the disease is set to evolve this year, and what we can expect from the development of new vaccines. 2023 also looks to be the year of deep-sea mining, as we search for more minerals to fuel the green-revolution. But will countries regulate the industry in time, before it turns into a new wild west? And the team explains how our understanding of pregnancy and the earliest stages of life is set to change this year thanks to work that will accelerate the creation of synthetic embryos. In cultural news, the team looks ahead to an exciting roster of new books coming out this year, including The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, In Ascension by Martin MacInnes, Saving Time by Jenny Odell, and Breathe: Tackling the Climate Emergency by Sadiq Khan. In film and TV they discuss Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Dune Part 2, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and the TV adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons In Chemistry. There is particular anticipation for the Netflix adaptation of Cixin Liu’s extraordinary book, The Three-Body Problem. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Alison Flood, Madeleine Cuff, Jason Murugesu, Michael Le Page and Leah Crane. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: newscientist.com/arcticevent Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A holiday special of the podcast and a free-gift giveaway this week, as we celebrate five of New Scientist’s best front-page features of 2022. As well as discussing the features and why they chose to tackle them, the team chats about the beautiful cover artwork for each story. First up is the news that AI is helping to decode the lost stories of ancient Mesopotamia, revealing the secrets of ancient cuneiform texts - the world’s first known writing. Next are the blips recorded by the Large Hadron Collider which have hinted at a potential new force of nature - a discovery which could change physics forever. The most popular feature story of the year was ‘The Longevity Diet: How knowing what to eat and when can help you stay young’. Real news-you-can-use, this feature highlights a new research-based diet that could increase your life expectancy by up to 20 years. If you’ve ever struggled with insomnia, you’ll want to read our feature on its causes, which shows that the sleep disorder is now a solvable problem. And finally is a story which asks, is there a place for consciousness in our understanding of the universe? The team explains the idea that physics needs to embrace subjective experience in order to fully describe and explain the universe. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Cat de Lange, Dan Cossins and Alison George. These premium features are usually only available to subscribers, but as a holiday gift they’ll be free to read from the 25th December to the end of the year. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recorded live online for New Scientist subscribers, in this holiday special the team takes you through their stand out moments of the year, the funniest stories to hit the headlines, and their hopes for 2023 - and they answer questions from the audience too. For stand-out highlights of 2022, the team discusses Deepmind and its transformative AI AlphaFold which predicted the structures of most known proteins. They celebrate the successes of the James Webb Space Telescope and a recent nuclear fusion experiment that has, for the first time ever, generated more power than it requires to run. They also chat about advances in organ transplants and the amazing discovery of ants which have evolved the ability to treat the wounds of their nest mates. For their funniest picks of the year, they highlight the story of a fish that evolved to stand up on land then thought “nah”, and went back to living in water. Then there’s the news of researchers who wanted to find out if covid-related loss of smell correlated with negative reviews of scented candles on Amazon. And they discuss North America’s invasion by alien earthworms. After audience questions, the team looks to the future. From the scientific discoveries spurred on by the covid pandemic, to developments in quantum computing, new innovative ways of producing food in more environmentally friendly ways, advancements in gene replacement therapies and the future of space travel, they discuss the stories they’re most looking forward to next year. On the panel are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Alexandra Thompson, Anna Demming and Sam Wong. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Climeworks: www.climeworks.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s been an exciting breakthrough in nuclear fusion. For the first time on Earth, a controlled fusion reaction has generated more power than it requires to run, bringing us closer than ever before to a viable way of producing clean energy for the world. So, what’s the catch? The team finds out. The New Scientist team reports from a worryingly quiet COP15. It’s hoped the biodiversity conference will be an opportunity to set ambitious global goals for nature, to reach the goal of restoring it by 2030. But with a distinct lack of world leaders in attendance, can this vital conference deliver? We now know how to spot alien spacecraft whizzing through space at warp speed…assuming some advanced civilisation has figured out how to stretch the fabric of spacetime of course. The team finds out about this new research which involves LIGO and gravitational waves. Shakespeare lived through an intense period of deforestation and climate change, and he referenced a lot of this in his work. Think back to Titania’s speech in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” about the changing seasons, and when Gloucester in Henry IV part 2 says “the seasons have changed their manners”. Shakespeare even described the energy transition from wood to coal as a fuel source. Rowan chats with Shakespearean scholar Randall Martin from the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and auditions for the part of Queen of the Fairies. Acclaimed science fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky discusses his latest book, Children of Memory, the story of a fragile human colony on a far flung outpost – and some corvids, which may or may not be sentient. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Matt Sparkes, Madeleine Cuff, James Dinneen and Alison Flood. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Print-only deal: newscientist.com/printsale Climeworks: www.climeworks.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An extinct species of ancient human may have been much more advanced than we first realised. First discovered 10 years ago, Homo neladi had a brain about a third the size of ours and yet it may have done complex things like burying its dead and controlling fire. The team learns about the latest finding from the Rising Star cave near Johannesburg. Mars has long been described as geologically dead, but new evidence shows it may still be volcanically active. The team learns about a new theory which might explain what created the mysterious trenches in the Cerberus Fossae region of the planet. The largest complete map of the connections between neurons inside a brain has been made - but it’s not of a human brain. This whole-brain connectome is that of a Drosophila larva - the larva of a fruit fly. The team finds out about this massive undertaking - a stepping stone to describing the brains of more complex animals. Are penguins self-aware? When we try to answer this question in any animal, we tend to use the controversial mirror method - and that’s exactly what a group of researchers have done. But does it actually work, and can we trust the new findings? The remains of the last known thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) have been found, 80 years after they went missing. Self-described Australian mammal nerd Jack Ashby of Cambridge University tells the team how this curious mystery was solved. As the author of Platypus Matters, Jack also shares a story about Platypuses, and the “cocktail of misery” in the animal’s poisonous sting. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Leah Crane, Alison George and Michael Marshall. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Half price deal: newscientist.com/halfprice22 Climeworks: www.climeworks.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following repeated delays, the COP15 biodiversity conference is finally going ahead. On December 7th representatives from most of the countries in the world will meet to reach an agreement on how to address the global biodiversity crisis. There’s already a draft agreement in place, and the team explains the ambitions it lays out. But is this event likely to move the needle? A species of rat which should have gone extinct has somehow managed to keep going - and now we know why. In a story worthy of Margaret Atwood, the team finds out how the Amami spiny rat continues to survive despite losing its Y chromosome, the one which makes males. There’s a genuine space race going on, with multiple companies hoping to become the first private firm to land on the Moon. The Japanese mission ispace has hit a delay, but the team explains how a viable lunar economy is now a serious prospect. Newborn female mice who sniff the urine of other female mice live longer - considerably so in fact. The team finds out what’s going on, and whether the finding applies to humans too… And Rowan chats with Henry Gee, senior editor at the journal Nature, who has won the 2022 Royal Society science book Prize. He describes his book, ‘A Very Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 billion years in 12 chapters’, as a bedtime story for adults, that tells the greatest story ever - the whole saga of life on Earth. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Chelsea Whyte, James Dinneen, Michael Le Page and Leah Crane. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Cyber Monday deal: www.newscientist.com/cybermonday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The southwestern US is currently in the midst of a megadrought - the worst in 1200 years. And it has put the Colorado River in crisis, an essential source of water for more than 40 million people. Can it be saved? Chelsea Whyte investigates. The team unveils the fun new names that have been chosen to define incomprehensibly massive and incredibly tiny numbers. These prefixes describe measurements that have more than 27 zeroes, created as part of the International System of Units. Like mac and cheese but hate the faff of making a roux? You’re in luck. Sam Wong shares a science-based one-pot mac hack, that’ll save you time and up the flavour too. Was COP27 in Egypt a success or a flop? Madeleine Cuff describes it as a mixed bag. After returning from the climate summit in Sharm El-Sheik, she reports on the progress that was made, and the vital issues that must be addressed over the next 12 months. Have you ever wondered how to move an elephant? Well, Ugandan wildlife vet Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has done it, andit’s a struggle. She was given the task early on in her career, working at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, and she shares her experience. On the pod are Penny Sarchet, Chelsea Whyte, Alex Wilkins, Madeleine Cuff, Graham Lawton and Sam Wong. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. For New Scientist’s in depth series on the US megadrought, visit newscientist.com/megadrought. Events and discount codes: Black Friday deal: www.newscientist.com/blackfriday New Scientist Business: newscientist.com/b2bsurvey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cheering greeted Brazil’s president-elect, Lula da Silva, when he appeared at COP27 this week. Madeleine Cuff brings us a report from the climate conference in Egypt, where Lula has made bold promises to protect the Amazon. She also tells us what we can expect from this year’s draft treaty - and why the text has been causing quite a stir. There’s plenty going on in Space, with NASA’s Artemis mission now finally launching to the Moon. And the news that we may be able to look for wormholes (if they exist). These are different to black holes because they are traversable - handy if you happen to be an interstellar traveller looking for a fast route across the universe. Our ancestors may have begun using sophisticated cooking methods as long as 780,000 years ago. The team explains how fish teeth have been discovered near hearths at an ancient settlement in Israel. And X-ray analysis suggests they may have been cooked in some sort of earthen oven. Rowan visits a colony of leaf-cutter ants, who use an incredible method of farming fungi that evolved between 45 and 65 million years ago. David Labonte at Imperial College London explains how this complex and decentralised society operates. And have you ever wondered why some poos float and others sink? Too much fat in your diet? Fibre maybe? Or is it gas? Well, new research has lifted the toilet lid on this age-old question, and the team shares the results. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Madeleine Cuff, Leah Crane, Alice Klein and Sam Wong. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: New Scientist Discovery Tours: www.newscientist.com/tours Amazon Future Engineer: www.amazonfutureengineer.co.uk/ayic Black Friday deal: www.newscientist.com/blackfriday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warnings over the world’s mad dash to create new supplies of fossil fuels, discussions about climate loss and damage, and talk about nature-based solutions. COP27 in Egypt is in full swing. Our reporter Madeleine Cuff brings us the latest, direct from Sharm el Sheikh. This week’s Sci-fi alert is the unusual discovery of a star with a solid surface. The team explains how on this magnetar (the dense corpse of an exploded star), gravity would be immense and time would behave really weirdly - that’s if you’d be able to land on the thing. They also discuss how the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica has been able to plot the course of cosmic neutrinos back to their home galaxy. The 15th of November has been chosen by the UN to mark the point that the number of people on the planet passes 8 billion. Despite this, the team explains how the world’s population isn’t accelerating, and is expected to peak sometime this century - sharing surprising statistics from Japan and China. Birds that migrate long distances are more likely to break up with their partners. Usually bird species are pretty much monogamous, so the team finds out why travelling species find it harder to stay together. “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.” The team shares news of the discovery of the oldest readable sentence written using the first alphabet. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Madeleine Cuff, Leah Crane and Michael Le Page. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Half price offer: www.newscientist.com/halfpricedigital The Perception Census: www.perceptioncensus.dreamachine.world Wild Wild Life newsletter: newscientist.com/wildwildlife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a special episode of the podcast, host Rowan Hooper visits Newlands Corner in the North Downs in southern England, the site of one of the oldest and most significant populations of wild yews growing anywhere in the world. Yew trees are familiar from churchyards and are also revered by pagans and shamans. They can live for many hundreds of years. The grove at Newlands Corner is an exceptional ecosystem, with yews over 1000 years old, but they are declining, losing their needles and slowly dying. Rowan meets arboreal scientist Geoff Monck of Treecosystems, who specialises in surveying and restoring arboreal ecosystems. The cause of the decline in ancient yews has many factors, but the impact of nitrates in rainwater and in run-off from crop fields is perhaps the most important. Rowan hears how nitrates are changing the way the wood wide web operates, and how we might be able to fix it. New Scientist podcasts are freely available. Subscribe at newscientist.com/podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spurred on by the war in Ukraine, we’re seeing a worldwide shift to green energy, with the global demand of fossil fuels now expected to peak in 15 years - a dose of optimism ahead of COP27. The climate conference kicks off in Egypt on November 6, and the team brings a round-up of what we can expect. Maddie and Rowan also discuss their recent visit to the London Literature Festival, where they saw Greta Thunberg speak. ‘Marsquakes’ studied by NASA’s InSight lander suggest Mars may still be volcanically active - and it may have a subsurface water table similar to the one on Earth. The team says this is exciting news for the prospect of life existing on the Red Planet. “A victory not only for the region, but for humanity and life itself.” Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has been unseated by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The team explains how Bolsonaro has presided over climate catastrophe, and why this news has sparked celebration - and relief - from environmentalists. Genetically modified mosquitoes have been released in a city in Brazil. The team explains how UK-based biotechnology firm Oxitec have done this in an effort to find ways to eliminate mosquitoes. The insects transmit deadly diseases like malaria, which kills more than 600,000 people a year. And we bring you a controversial ‘Lifeform of the Week’ - everyone’s most hated amphibian, the cane toad. Quite disturbingly, the team explains how new x-ray video footage shows that cane toads lick their own hearts when they swallow prey. Gross. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Madeleine Cuff, Sam Wong, Chris Simms and Alexandra Thompson. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Early bird offer: newscientist.com/earlybird22 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s already been a year since COP26, with its successor COP27 gearing up to begin on 6 November. 12 months on from some big pledges, the team finds out how much action has actually been taken, and whether this next climate conference is set to move the needle further. Quacks, barks and farts; listen out for some intriguing and unexpected animal sounds. The team shares the newly discovered vocalisations of some animals, like turtles and lungfish, that we previously thought were silent. Turmeric has become an increasingly popular supplement, particularly in the US. But reports are coming in that the spice is causing liver injuries and turning people’s skin yellow. The team finds out what’s going on. A quantum watch is a completely new way to measure time. Using quantum interference, this new technique can accurately measure tiny nanoseconds of time. Although its applications are quite niche, the team explains how this technology could be very useful. As a Halloween treat, our Life Form of the Week is the pumpkin and other squashes. The team dives into the surprising origins of these strange, hard-skinned fruits, and how they came to spread worldwide. On the pod are Penny Sarchet, Chelsea Whyte, Michael Le Page, Leah Crane, Sam Wong, Alice Klein and Rowan Hooper. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: Halloween sale: newscientist.com/Halloween22 New Scientist Discovery Tours: newscientist.com/tours Wild Wild Life newsletter: newscientist.com/wildwildlife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An extended bonus episode of the podcast, where we learn more about proposals to slow the rate of ice loss in Greenland - and if it works, in Antarctica - using a local form of geoengineering. Host Rowan Hooper speaks to glaciologist John Moore and environmental social scientist Ilona Mettiäinen, both from the University of Lapland in Finland. They discuss the proposal, which involves building a giant, submerged curtain to stop warm sea water getting underneath the ice sheet. They explore the funding and effort needed to pull off a project as big as this. And they talk about local people’s feelings about preserving the ice, as for any intervention it will be vital to have endorsement from Greenlanders. To read about stories like this, subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wild bird populations have been devastated by an avian flu variant that’s sweeping the UK - and more than 3.5 million captive birds have been culled. It’s expected to be the worst winter on record for avian flu - and the team finds out why. Female robins sing just as much, and just as beautifully, as their male counterparts. It might sound like a no-brainer, but we’ve only just found this out, which the team explains is due to a male bias in ornithology. They share songs from both a male and female robin, and discuss how brutally aggressive these birds can be. New Neanderthal genomes have been sequenced, giving us a glimpse into the lives - and inbreeding habits - of a family that lived in a cave in the Altai mountains. Livers transplanted from older donors can keep working for over 100 years - outliving those given by younger donors. There are some clues that might explain how this is possible, and the team says it could be a game-changer for the future of transplant surgery. If all the ice in Greenland melted, it would raise the sea level by 7.2 metres. Although some melting is already locked in due to climate change, it might be possible to physically slow the rate of ice loss. Following a meeting of the Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland, a team of scientists is investigating a way of slowing the ice melt by stopping warm sea water getting underneath the ice sheet. Rowan speaks to glaciologist John Moore and environmental social scientist Ilona Mettiäinen, both from the University of Lapland in Finland. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet, Carissa Wong, Madeleine Cuff and Michael Le Page. To read about these subjects and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com. Events and discount codes: New Scientist Discovery Tours: newscientist.com/tours New Scientist gift subscription: newscientist.com/earlybird22 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices