Nature Podcast (Springer Nature Limited)

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Researchers uncover how grid cells fire in a 3D space to help bats navigate, and a fabric that switches between being stiff and flexible.

In this episode:

00:47 Mapping a bat’s navigation neurons in 3D

Grid cells are neurons that regularly fire as an animal moves through space, creating a pattern of activity that aids navigation. But much of our understanding of how grid cells work has involved rats moving in a 2D plane. To figure out how the system works in a 3D space, researchers have mapped the brain activity of bats flying freely around a room.

Research Article: Ginosar et al.

07:44 Research Highlights

How a ‘toxin sponge’ may protect poison dart frogs from themselves, and the world’s oldest known coin foundry has been found.

Research Highlight: An absorbing tale: poison dart frogs might have a ‘toxin sponge’

Research Highlight: Found: the world’s oldest known mint and its jumbo product

09:59 A flexible fabric that transforms from soft to rigid (and back again)

Researchers have created a ‘tunable’ fabric, inspired by medieval chainmail, that when compressed changes from flexible to rigid. The stiffened structure can hold 30 times its own weight, and the team behind it suggest this material could be used to build temporary shelters or have medical applications.

Research article: Wang et al.

16:33 Stark warning from the IPCC’s latest report

This week the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its long awaited report detailing compiling the latest climate science data. Nature’s Jeff Tollefson joins us to discuss the report and the warnings it contains for our warming world.

News: IPCC climate report: Earth is warmer than it’s been in 125,000 years

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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This week, restoring function in dead pig brains, spring science books, and the structure of lightning.

If you have any questions about the partly-revived brains study, then the reporters at Nature are keen to answer them. You can submit them at the bottom of the article, here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01216-4

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This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.

Earthquakes, volcanoes, the formation of mountains; we understand all these phenomena in terms of plate tectonics (large-scale movements of the Earth’s crust). But when a German geologist first suggested that continents move, in the 1910s, people dismissed it as a wild idea. In this podcast, we hear how a ‘wild idea’ became the unifying theory of Earth sciences. In the 1960s, data showed that the sea floor was spreading, pushing continents apart. Fred Vine recalls the reaction when he published these findings in Nature.

This episode was first broadcast in September 2013.

From the archive

Magnetic Anomalies Over Oceanic Ridges, by Vine & Matthews

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Nick Sireau’s sons have a rare genetic disease called alkaptonuria, which can lead to body tissues becoming brittle, causing life long health issues.

In this Podcast Extra, Geoff Marsh speaks to Nick and to the physician Dr Lakshminarayan Ranganath about their search for a treatment for alkaptonuria.

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been many open questions about how COVID-19 could impact pregnant people and their babies – confounded by a lack of data.

But now, studies are finally starting to provide some answers. While it does seem that pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of hospitalisation, babies appear to be spared from severe illness in most cases.

In this week’s Coronapod we talk about these findings, and the questions that remain – including whether vaccines are safe to give to pregnant people.

News: Pregnancy and COVID: what the data say

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This episode was first broadcast in July 2013.

This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.

During the Second World War, scientists worked on secret projects such as the development of radar. Their efforts were hinted at in the pages of Nature but the details, of course, couldn't be published. In this episode, historian Jon Agar explains how war work gave physicists a new outlook and led to new branches of science. We also hear from the late John Westcott, whose wartime job was to design radar systems.

From the archive

Nature Volume 150 Issue 3794, 18 July 1942

Sound effects courtesy of daveincamas, piet.candeel@pandora.be, guitarguy1985 and acclivity at freesound.org

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New fossil finds and new techniques reveal evidence that early animals were more complex than previously thought.

The Cambrian explosion, around 541 million years ago, has long been regarded as a pivotal point in evolutionary history, as this is when the ancient ancestors of most of today’s animals made their first appearances in the fossil record.

Before this was a period known as the Ediacaran – a time when the world was believed to be populated by strange, simple organisms. But now, modern molecular research techniques, and some newly discovered fossils, are providing evidence that some of these organisms were actually animals, including ones with sophisticated features like legs and guts.

This is an audio version of our feature: These bizarre ancient species are rewriting animal evolution

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Research groups around the world are exploring new ways of protecting coral reefs from climate change.

This is an audio version of our feature: These corals could survive climate change — and help save the world’s reefs, written by Amber Dance and read by Kerri Smith.

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In 2015, after a nine-and-a-half-year journey, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft raced past Pluto, beaming images of the dwarf planet back to Earth.

Five years after the mission, researchers are poring over images of Pluto’s far-side, which was shrouded in shadow during New Horizon’s flypast. They hope that these images will help give a better understanding of how Pluto was born and even whether a hidden ocean resides beneath the world’s icy crust.

This is an audio version of our feature: Pluto’s dark side spills its secrets — including hints of a hidden ocean

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The surprising structure of protons, and a method for growing small intestines for transplantation.

In this episode:

00:45 Probing the proton’s interior

Although studied for decades, the internal structure of the proton is still throwing up surprises for physicists. This week, a team of researchers report an unexpected imbalance in the antimatter particles that make up the proton.

Research Article: Dove et al.

News and Views: Antimatter in the proton is more down than up

07:08 Research Highlights

How an inactive gene may help keep off the chill, and Cuba’s isolation may have prevented invasive species taking root on the island.

Research Highlight: Impervious to cold? A gene helps people to ward off the chills

Research Highlight: Marauding plants steer clear of a communist-ruled island

09:48 A new way to grow a small intestine

Short Bowel Syndrome is an often fatal condition that results from the removal of the small intestine. Treatment options are limited to transplantation, but donor intestines are hard to come by and can be rejected by the body. Now researchers may have developed a method to grow a replacement small intestine using stem cells and a small section of colon.

Research Article: Sugimoto et al.

15:50 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the landing of Perseverance on Mars, and the researchers speaking with lucid dreamers.

Nature News: Mars video reveals Perseverance rover’s daring touchdown

Nature News: Touch down! NASA’s Mars landing sparks new era of exploration

Nature News: The hunt for life on Mars: A visual guide to NASA’s latest mission

Science: Scientists entered people’s dreams and got them ‘talking’

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up...

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2019 will likely go down as a pivotal year for public discourse on climate change. It was the year of Greta Thunberg, the climate school strikes, and Extinction Rebellion. The global activist movement has gained support from a range of influential people, including renowned environmental lawyer Farhana Yamin.

In this Podcast Extra, Nature's Chief Opinion Editor Sara Abdulla meets with Farhana to discuss why she ditched resolutions in favour of activism. This is an extended version of an interview originally broadcast in September.

Comment: Why I broke the law for climate change

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Two new anti-viral pills have been shown to be safe and effective against COVID in clinical trials, according to recent press releases. The drugs, molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer both appear to significantly reduce hospitalisation in people with early COVID. Some researchers are quietly hopeful that these new weapons in the anti-COVID arsenal could have a big impact, in particular in parts of the world where vaccines are still not widely available, but there are a number of caveats. In this episode of Coronapod, we open the pill boxes and pick through the contents - asking how the drugs work, what side effects we might see and how, if at all, they might change the course of the pandemic.

News: COVID antiviral pills: what scientists still want to know

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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Early vaccine trials did not include pregnant or breastfeeding people which left some people asking whether COVID vaccines are safe and effective for those who are breastfeeding. The latest data suggests that they are and in this episode of Coronapod we dig into the questions scientists have been asking. Could the vaccine make it into breastmilk? Can COVID antibodies be transferred to a breastfeeding child? And if so, how?

News Feature: COVID vaccines and breastfeeding: what the data say

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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Reassessing 24,000 years of global temperatures, and on the ground at COP26.

In this episode:

01:21 Reassessing Earth’s climate over the past 24,000 years

The ~20,000 year period from the Last Glacial Maximum to the pre-industrial era saw huge changes to the Earth’s climate. But characterising how temperatures changed during this time has been difficult, with different methods producing different results. Now, a team have combined two techniques, which they hope will provide new insights into the past, and future, of Earth’s climate.

Research article: Osman et al.

News and Views: Global temperature changes mapped across the past 24,000 years

09:53 COP26 Briefing Chat

The United Nations’ climate change conference COP26 continues this week. In this special edition of the Briefing Chat, we head over to the conference to hear the latest on what’s been happening, and the measures being discussed to tackle future warming.

Collection: COP26: Inside the science

Video: Your COP26 questions answered: carbon capture

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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In a quickly developing story a new variant, first detected in Botswana, is triggering rapid action among researchers. The variant - currently named B.1.1.529 has more than 30 changes to the spike protein - and the concern is that these mutations may result in increased transmissibility, severity of disease or even antibody evasion.

In this episode of Coronapod, we discuss what we know so far, how scientists are searching for answers and what this could mean for the pandemic.

News: Heavily mutated coronavirus variant puts scientists on alert

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Science and politics are not easy bedfellows - "Stick to the science" is a three part series which aims to find out why.

In this episode we're asking how politics shapes the life of a working scientist. Be it through funding agendas, cultural lobbies or personal bias, there's a myriad of ways in which politics can shape the game; influencing the direction and quality of research, But what does this mean for the objective ideals of science?

Tell us what you think of this series: https://go.nature.com/2HzXVLc

This episode was produced by Nick Howe, with editing from Noah Baker and Benjamin Thompson. it featured contributions from many people, including: Mayana Zatz, Shobita Parthasarathy, Michael Erard, Peg AtKisson, Susannah Gal, Allen Rostron, Mark Rosenberg, and Alice Bell.

Further Reading

Brazil’s budget cuts threaten more than 80,000 science scholarships

Move to reallocate funds from scientific institutions in São Paulo

Backlash to “Shrimps on a treadmill”

Explanation of the Dickey Amendment

After over 20 years the CDC can now fund gun violence research

Spirometer use “race-correction” software

Black researchers less likely to get funding from the National Institutes of Health in the US

Black researchers may get less funding from the National Institutes of Health due to topic choice

Black researchers fill fewer academic roles in the UK

Clinical trials use mostly white participants

The Received Wisdom Podcast, with Shobita Parthasarathy

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Smouldering fires lay dormant before bursting back into flame in spring.

In this episode:



00:56 The mysterious overwintering forest fires

Researchers have shown that fires can smoulder under snow in frozen northern forests before flaring up the following spring. Understanding how these so-called ‘zombie’ fires start and spread is vital in the fight against climate change.

Research Article: Scholten et al.

07:39 Research Highlights

Aesthetic bias means pretty plants receive the most research attention, and ancient tooth gunk reveals the evolution of the mouth microbiome.

Research Highlight: Flashy plants draw outsize share of scientists’ attention

Research Highlight: Microbes in Neanderthals’ mouths reveal their carb-laden diet

10:04 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, Voyager 1 detects a faint interstellar ‘hum’, and a trove of Neanderthal bones found in an Italian cave.

Reuters: Faraway NASA probe detects the eerie hum of interstellar space

The Guardian: Remains of nine Neanderthals found in cave south of Rome

Video: Hawaii’s surprise volcanic eruption: Lessons from Kilauea 2018

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This week, how setting an out-of-office email could help promote a kinder academic culture.

In this episode:

00:47 Being truly out of office

Last year, a viral tweet about emails sparked a deeper conversation about academics’ work-life-balance. Could email etiquette help tip the balance? Careers Article: Out of office replies and what they can say about you

09:35 Research Highlights

Finding the ‘greenest’ oranges, and the benefits of ‘baby talk’. Research Article: Bell and Horvath; Research Highlight: Babies benefit when Mum and Dad are fluent in ‘baby talk’

12:06 News Chat

Updates on the novel coronavirus, assessing Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and the potential impacts of Brexit on UK research. News: Coronavirus: latest news on spreading infection; News: How quickly can Iran make a nuclear bomb?; News: Brexit is happening: what does it mean for science?



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This year, Nature celebrates its 150th birthday. To mark this anniversary we’re rebroadcasting episodes from our PastCast series, highlighting key moments in the history of science.

Over 60 years ago, James Watson and Francis Crick published their famous paper proposing a structure for DNA. Everyone knows that story – but fewer people know that there were actually three papers about DNA in that issue of Nature. In this podcast, first broadcast in April 2013, we uncover the evidence that brought Watson and Crick to their conclusion, discuss how the papers were received at the time, and hear from one scientist who was actually there: co-author of one of the DNA papers, the late Raymond Gosling.

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As COVID-19 vaccine roll-outs continue, attentions are turning to one group: children. While research suggests that children rarely develop severe forms of COVID-19, scientists still believe they could play a key role in transmission and a plan needs to be in place for the longer term. But clinical trials in children are more complicated than those in adults as different ethical and practical concerns need to be taken into account.

In this episode of Coronapod, we discuss the ongoing clinical trials to test vaccines in young children, and ask what scientists want to know about safety, and how effective these vaccines might be at preventing disease and transmission.

News: COVID vaccines and kids: five questions as trials begin

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Episode 4

Ali interviews for a critical grant. While she is waiting for the result, the pandemic throws their labs into chaos. Then comes a personal crisis.

Read a written version of Starting up in science

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The self-supporting structures that snap into place, and how a ban on fossil-fuel funding could entrench poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

In this episode:



00:45 Self-supporting, foldable structures

Drawing inspiration from the art of origami, a team of researchers have demonstrated a way to design self-supporting structures that lock into place after being inflated. The team hope that this technique could be used to create arches and emergency shelters that can be quickly unfolded from flat with minimal input.

Research Article: Melancon et al.

News and Views: Large-scale origami locks into place under pressure

Video: Origami-inspired structures could be deployed in disaster zones

07:32 Research Highlights

Nocturnal fluctuations cause scientists to underestimate rivers’ carbon emissions, and the ‘island rule’ of animal size-change is seen around the world.

Research Highlight: Rivers give off stealth carbon at night

Research Highlight: Animals around the world follow the ‘island rule’ to a curious fate

09:55 Banning fossil-fuel funding will not alleviate poverty

A ban by wealthy nations on the funding of overseas fossil-fuel projects would do little to reduce the world’s climate emissions and much to entrench poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, argues economist Vijaya Ramachandran.

World View: Blanket bans on fossil-fuel funds will entrench poverty

17:17 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the first powered flight on another world, and estimating how many Tyrannosaurus rex ever lived.

News: Lift off! First flight on Mars launches new way to explore worlds

Video: Flying a helicopter on Mars: NASA’s Ingenuity

News: How many T. rex ever existed? Calculation of dinosaur’s abundance offers an answer

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in...

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01:38 Trump vs the WHO

President Trump has given the WHO an ultimatum in a tweet, threatening to pull out of the organisation within 30 days unless unclear demands are met. We discuss what this means for the pandemic, the USA and the future of international health cooperation.

12:06 Where are we with vaccines?

The first results from vaccine trials are in and they are encouraging, but scientists are still urging caution. We hear the lowdown on the types of vaccines being developed and what hope there is of rolling them out any time soon. 

News: Coronavirus vaccine trials have delivered their first results — but their promise is still unclear

News: The race for coronavirus vaccines: a graphical guide

News: If a coronavirus vaccine arrives, can the world make enough?

25:20 One good thing

Our hosts pick out things that have made them smile in the last week, including hopeful antibody research, at-home sketch comedy and printable board games.

News: Potent human antibodies could inspire a vaccine

Video: Whiskers R we - SNL

Video:The wild affordable world of 1 Player Print’n’Play Games

Video:MORE of the Very Best Solitaire Print'n'Play Games

Video: Marble run league

Video: BBC goals at home (Only available in the UK)

30:04 The latest coronavirus research papers

Noah Baker takes a look through some of the key coronavirus papers of the last few weeks.

News: Coronavirus research updates

medRxiv: Saliva is more sensitive for SARS-CoV-2 detection in COVID-19 patients than nasopharangel swabs

Nature: Effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions to contain COVID-19 in China

Science: Changes in contact patterns shape the dynamics of the COVID-19 outbreak in China

New England Journal of Medicine: 

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This week, a record-breaking magnetic field, and aerosols’ potential effects on the atmosphere.

In this episode:

00:45 Making massive magnets

Researchers have created the world’s strongest direct current magnetic field. 

Research article: S. Hahn et al.

08:38 Research Highlights

Macaques’ musicality and human consumption of microplastics. 

Research Article: Divergence in the functional organization of human and macaque auditory cortex revealed by fMRI responses to harmonic tones; 

Research Highlight: What a bottled-water habit means for intake of ‘microplastics’

10:55 Aerosols’ impacts on the climate

There’s a still a lot to learn about how aerosols affect the climate. 

Comment: Soot, sulfate, dust and the climate — three ways through the fog

17:03 News Chat

The launch of an X-ray space telescope, and a Russian researcher’s plans to CRISPR-edit human embryos. News:Space telescope to chart first map of the Universe in high-energy X-rays; News: Russian biologist plans more CRISPR-edited babies

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On this week’s podcast, life lessons from poker, and keeping things civil during peer review.

In this episode:

00:44 Deciding to play poker

When writer Maria Konnikova wanted to better understand the human decision making process, she took a rather unusual step: becoming a professional poker player. We delve into her journey and find out how poker could help people make better decisions. Books and Arts: What the world needs now: lessons from a poker player

09:12 Research Highlights

A sweaty synthetic skin that can exude useful compounds, and Mars’s green atmosphere. Research Highlight: An artificial skin oozes ‘sweat’ through tiny pores; Research Highlight: The red planet has a green glow

11:21 Developing dialogues

The peer-review process is an integral part of scientific discourse, however, sometimes interactions between authors and reviews can be less than civil. How do we tread the fine line between critique and rudeness? Editorial: Peer review should be an honest, but collegial, conversation

18:47 Briefing Chat

We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we talk about research into racism, and a possible hint of dark matter. Nature News: What the data say about police brutality and racial bias — and which reforms might work; Nature News: Mathematicians urge colleagues to boycott police work in wake of killings; Quanta: Dark Matter Experiment Finds Unexplained Signal

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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In recent days, the number of coronavirus cases have surged in South Korea.

In this Podcast Extra Nick Howe speaks to Bartosz Gryzbowski, a researcher based in the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, which is just 60km away from epicentre of the South Korean outbreak. He explains how the outbreak has affected his research and what the atmosphere is like there at the moment.

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As part of Nature's 150th anniversary celebrations, Nick Howe dives into the topic of epigenetics.

Since its origin in 1942, the term 'epigenetics' has been repeatedly defined and redefined. There's always been hype around the field, but what actually is epigenetics and how much does it influence our genes?

In this Podcast Extra, Nick Howe speaks to Edith Heard, Director General of the EMBL, and Giacomo Cavalli, from the Institute of Human Genetics, to guide us through these questions and find out about the history and future of epigenetics.

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Scientists have finally confirmed the existence of a CNO cycle fusion reaction in the Sun, and why women’s contraception research needs a reboot.

In this episode:

00:47 Detection of CNO neutrinos

Since the 1930s it has been theorised that stars have a specific fusion reaction known as the CNO cycle, but proof has been elusive. Now, a collaboration in Italy report detection of neutrinos that show that the CNO cycle exists.

Research article: The Borexino Collaboration

News and Views: Neutrino detection gets to the core of the Sun

08:48 Coronapod

We discuss the search for the animal origin of SARS-CoV-2, with researchers raiding their freezer draws to see if any animals carry similar viruses, and the latest vaccine results.

News: Coronaviruses closely related to the pandemic virus discovered in Japan and Cambodia

News: Why Oxford’s positive COVID vaccine results are puzzling scientists

19:32 Research Highlights

How sleep patterns relate to ageing, and a solar-powered steam sterilizer.

Research Highlight: For better health, don’t sleep your age

Research Highlight: Technology for sterilizing medical instruments goes solar

21:50 Getting women’s contraception research unstuck

Since the 1960s there has been little progress on research into women’s contraceptives. This week in Nature, researchers argue that this needs to change.

Comment: Reboot contraceptives research — it has been stuck for decades

29:35 Briefing Chat

We discuss a highlight from the Nature Briefing. This time, a tool to summarise papers.

Nature News: tl;dr: this AI sums up research papers in a sentence

Try the TLDR tool yourself!

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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This week, a new advance in silicon based quantum computing and experiences of how to recover when disaster strikes.

In this episode:

00:45 Quantum logic

A fast and accurate two-qubit logic gate has been designed in silicon. 

Research article: Simmons et al.

07:52 Research Highlights

Teaching a computer to solve a Rubik’s cube and immigration in Chichén Itzá. 

Research Highlight: AI solves the Rubik’s cube; Research Highlight: Death as a human sacrifice awaited some travellers to a Mayan city

10:43 Coping with calamity

Researchers share how they are recovering from catastrophe. 

Career Feature: Explosions, floods and hurricanes: dealing with a lab disaster; News Feature: The battle to rebuild centuries of science after an epic inferno

19:04 News Chat

A campaign to open up the world’s research, and dinosaur egg-laying clubs. 

News: The plan to mine the world’s research papers; News: Ancient Mongolian nests show that dinosaurs protected their eggs

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For much of the pandemic, the greatest burden of disease has been felt by older generations. But now, for the first time, vaccine roll outs are starting to skew the average age of those infections towards the young. This has led many researchers to ask what this might mean for the future of the pandemic. In this episode of Coronapod we discuss what we know and what we don't know about this change in the demographic profile of COVID infections. We ask how this might impact global vaccination efforts, disease transmission and the health and wellbeing of young people.

News: Will COVID become a disease of the young?

News: How kids’ immune systems can evade COVID

Podcast: Coronapod: counting the cost of long COVID

Podcast: Coronapod: Kids and COVID vaccines

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.



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Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been allegations that SARS-CoV-2 could have originated in a Chinese lab. A phase one WHO investigation concluded that a 'lab-leak' was "extremely unlikely" and yet, the theory has seen a resurgence in recent weeks with several scientists wading into the debate.

In this episode of Coronapod, we delve into what scientists have been saying and ask how and why the 'lab-leak' hypothesis has gained so much traction. We ask if the way we communicate complex and nuanced science could be fuelling division, and what the fallout could be for international collaboration on ending the pandemic.

News: Divisive COVID ‘lab leak’ debate prompts dire warnings from researchers

Science: Investigate the origins of COVID-19

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Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker, and Amy Maxmen discuss the labs struggling to get involved in diagnostic testing, and should you be wearing a mask?

In this episode:

02:07 A drive to diagnose

Many research labs are pivoting from their normal work to offer diagnostic testing for COVID-19. We discuss how to go about retooling a lab, the hurdles researchers are facing and why, in some cases, tests are not being taken up.

News: Thousands of coronavirus tests are going unused in US labs

14:18 Masking the issue?

There has been conflicting advice on whether people should wear masks to protect themselves during the pandemic. We look at some of the take home messages from the debate.

Research article: Leung et al.

News: Is the coronavirus airborne? Experts can’t agree

18:36 One good thing this week

Our hosts pick out things they’ve seen that have made them smile in the last 7 days, including a local superhero, and a caring choir who have release their first song.

Reuters: Spider-Man to the rescue! Superhero jogger cheers kids in England

Video: The Isolation Choir sing Wild Mountain Thyme

22:08 Accelerating vaccine development

Around the world, research groups are rushing to create a vaccine against the coronavirus. We hear about one group’s effort, and how vaccine development is being sped up, without sacrificing safety steps.

News: If a coronavirus vaccine arrives, can the world make enough?

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This week, evidence of ancient hominin DNA in modern human genomes, and the origin of a snowman-shaped object at the edge of the solar system.

In this episode:

00:45 Intermixing of ancient hominins

By combing through the DNA of over 27,000 modern day Icelanders, researchers have uncovered new insights about the ancient hominin species who interbred with Homo sapiens. Research Article: Skov et al.

08:05 Research Highlights

The scent of lemur love, a hidden Viking trade route, and ‘gargantuan’ hail. Research Highlight: Lemurs’ love language is fragrance; Research Highlight: Vikings’ lost possessions mark a long-hidden early trade route; Research Highlight: Enormous hailstones inspire a new scientific size category: ‘gargantuan’

11:44 The origin of Arrokoth

In 2019, the New Horizon Spacecraft took images of Arrokoth - an unusual, bi-lobal object found in the Kuiper belt. Now, researchers believe they’ve figured out how it formed. Research Article: Grishin et al.

17:29 Pick of the Briefing

We pick some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This week we discuss why the Universe may be lopsided, and why water could actually be two different liquid states. Scientific American: Do We Live in a Lopsided Universe?; Chemistry World: The weirdness of water

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Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker and Traci Watson discuss some of 2020's most significant coronavirus research papers.

In the final Coronapod of 2020, we dive into the scientific literature to reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have discovered so much about SARS-CoV-2 – information that has been vital for public health responses and the rapid development of effective vaccines. But we also look forward to 2021, and the critical questions that remain to be answered about the pandemic.

Papers discussed

A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019 - New England Journal of Medicine, 24 January

Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China - The Lancet, 24 January

A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin - Nature, 3 February

A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China - Nature, 3 February

Temporal dynamics in viral shedding and transmissibility of COVID-19 - Nature Medicine, 15 April

Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the Icelandic Population - New England Journal of Medicine, 11 June

High SARS-CoV-2 Attack Rate Following Exposure at a Choir Practice — Skagit County, Washington, March 2020 - Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, 15 August

Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks - Nature Medicine, 3 April

Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1 - New England Journal of Medicine, 13 April

Projecting the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 through the postpandemic period - Science, 22 May

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The global burden of COVID-19 has predominantly been measured using metrics like case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths. But the long term health impacts are more difficult to capture. In this episode of Coronapod we discuss one way that public health experts are trying to get to grips with the problem using metrics such as disability adjusted life years (DALYs) and quality adjusted life years (QALYs).

As new data suggests that COVID could leave millions with lasting disability or ill-health, we ask how changing the lens through which we asses the impacts of COVID could change public health policies, the perception of risk and even the behaviour of individuals.

News Feature: The four most urgent questions about long COVID

Comment: Count the cost of disability caused by COVID-19

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This week, how new species may form by sexual imprinting, and a previously unknown way for mosquitoes to migrate.

In this episode:

00:43 New species by sexual imprinting?

A Central American frog chooses mates resembling its parents, a possible route for new species to form. 

Research Article: Yang et al.; News and Views: Leapfrog to speciation boosted by mother’s influence

09:58 Research Highlights

A light-based pacemaker, and the mathematics of the best place to park. 

Research Article: Mei et al.; Research Highlight: Maths tackles an eternal question: where to park?

11:43 Gone with the wind

Researchers show that malaria mosquitoes may travel hundreds of kilometres using wind currents. 

Research Article: Huestis et al.; News and Views: Malaria mosquitoes go with the flow

19:28 News Chat

Eradication of Guinea Worm pushed back, and researchers report ‘pressure to cite’. 

News: Exclusive: Battle to wipe out debilitating Guinea worm parasite hits 10 year delay; News: Two-thirds of researchers report ‘pressure to cite’ in Nature poll

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Lake Kivu, nestled between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, is a geological anomaly that holds 300 cubic kilometres of dissolved carbon dioxide and 60 cubic kilometres of methane.

The lake has the potential to explosively release these gases, which could fill the surrounding valley, potentially killing millions of people.

Researchers are trying to establish the likelihood of such an event happening, and the best way to safely siphon the gases from the lake.

This is an audio version of our feature: How dangerous is Africa’s explosive Lake Kivu?

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The pros and pitfalls of collaboration, with insights from researchers and beyond.

This week, Nature has a special issue on collaborations, looking at the benefits to science and society that working together can bring. In this collaboration-themed edition of the podcast, we’re joined by Nature’s David Payne to discuss the issue, and the state of research collaborations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this episode:

02:49 How are research collaborations changing?

To answer the biggest questions, research teams are coming together in larger numbers than ever before. But the scientific enterprise hasn’t been set up to support or reward team efforts. We look at how funding systems and methods for giving research-credit need to adapt, to match the reality of modern science.

Feature: How the COVID pandemic is changing global science collaborations

Careers Feature: The authorship rows that sour scientific collaborations

Careers Feature: ‘We need to talk’: ways to prevent collaborations breaking down

16:45 Community-research collaborations

In order to do research that can help communities, scientists need to develop relationships with community members. Creating these bonds can be fraught with difficulty, so we examine how to make them work using the example of Flint, Michigan in the US.

Comment: Community–academic partnerships helped Flint through its water crisis

Nature Video: China and the UK: Making an international collaboration work

Take Nature’s 2021 International Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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In this episode:

00:44 A global media collaboration

This week, Nature is taking part in the Covering Climate Now project. What is it, and why has Nature joined? Editorial: Act now and avert a climate crisis

05:49 ‘Climate change’ vs ‘climate emergency’

In early 2019, The Guardian changed the wording they use when covering climate stories. Our panel discusses the importance of phrasing, and how it evolves. The Guardian: Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment

13:40 Choosing climate images

What makes a good image for a climate change story? What do they add to a written news story?

This episode of the Backchat is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 media outlets to highlight the issue of climate change.

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This week, a milestone in quantum computing, and rethinking early mammals.

In this episode:

00:43 A quantum computing milestone

A quantum computer is reported to have achieved ‘quantum supremacy’ – performing an operation that’s essentially impossible for classical computers. 

Research Article: Arute et al.; News and Views: Quantum computing takes flight; Editorial: A precarious milestone for quantum computing; News: Hello quantum world! Google publishes landmark quantum supremacy claim

08:24 Research Highlights

The world’s speediest ants, and the world’s loudest birdsong. 

Research Highlight: A land-speed record for ants set in Saharan dunes; Research Highlight: A bird’s ear-splitting shriek smashes the record for loudest song

10:19 The mammals that lived with the dinosaurs

Paleontologists are shifting their view of the Mesozoic era mammals. 

News Feature: How the earliest mammals thrived alongside dinosaurs

18:00 News Chat

A Russian researcher’s plans to edit human embryos, and ‘prime editing’ - a more accurate gene editing system. 

News: Russian ‘CRISPR-baby’ scientist has started editing genes in human eggs with goal of altering deaf gene; News: Super-precise new CRISPR tool could tackle a plethora of genetic diseases

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How water chemistry is shifting researchers' thoughts on where life might have arisen, and a new model to tackle climate change equitably and economically.

In this episode:

00:46 A shallow start to life on Earth?

It’s long been thought that life on Earth first appeared in the oceans. However, the chemical complexities involved in creating biopolymers in water has led some scientists to speculate that shallow pools on land were actually the most likely location for early life.

News Feature: How the first life on Earth survived its biggest threat — water

07:44 Coronapod

The COVID-19 pandemic has massively shifted the scientific landscape, changing research and funding priorities across the world. While this shift was necessary for the development of things like vaccines, there are concerns that the ‘covidization’ of research could have long-term impacts on other areas of research.

News: Scientists fear that ‘covidization’ is distorting research

20:45 Research Highlights

The Hayabusa2 mission successfully delivers a tiny cargo of asteroid material back to Earth, and a team in China claims to have made the first definitive demonstration of computational ‘quantum advantage’.

Nature News: Physicists in China challenge Google’s ‘quantum advantage’

22:38 Calculating carbon

Limiting carbon emissions is essential to tackling climate change. However, working out how to do this in a way that is fair to nations worldwide is notoriously difficult. Now, researchers have developed a model that gives some surprising insights in how to equitably limit carbon.

Research Article: Bauer et al.

News and Views: Trade-offs for equitable climate policy assessed

29:08 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, bioluminescent Australian animals, and the collapse of the Arecibo telescope.

ABC News: Biofluorescent Australian mammals and marsupials take scientists by surprise in accidental discovery

Nature News: Gut-wrenching footage documents Arecibo telescope’s collapse

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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