Nature

The lack of adequate sanitation in parts of the rural US, and physicists reassess muons’ magnetism.In this episode:00:45 How failing sanitation infrastructure is causing a US public health crisisIn...

Rick Bright exposed former president Trump's political meddling in the US COVID response. Now he is championing a new privately funded initiative to track viral spread and combat new variants. We...

In 2020, the artificial intelligence (AI) GPT-3 wowed the world with its ability to write fluent streams of text. Trained on billions of words from books, articles and websites, GPT-3 was the...

From a sore arm to anaphylaxis, a wide range of adverse events have been reported after people have received a COVID-19 vaccine. And yet it is unclear how many of these events are actually caused...

Laser-cooled antimatter opens up new physics experiments, and the staggering economic cost of invasive species.In this episode:00:44 Cooling antimatter with a laser focusAntimatter is annihilated...

Since the beginning of the pandemic the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been plagued by confusion and controversy. The vaccine has been authorised in over 100 countries, tens of millions of doses...

A web of three optical atomic clocks show incredibly accurate measurements of time, and the trailblazing astronomer who found hints of dark matter.In this episode:00:44 Optical clock networkOptical...

In the early days of the pandemic, researchers raced to identify the most potent antibodies produced by the immune system in response to SAR-COV-2 infection and produce them in bulk. The resulting...

A computer that can participate in live debates against human opponents.In this episode:00:43 AI DebaterAfter thousands of years of human practise, it’s still not clear what makes a good argument....

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...

Physicists examine the gravitational pull between two tiny masses, and how fossil lampreys could shake-up the field of vertebrate evolution.In this episode:00:47 Gravity, on the small scaleThis...

Where did the SARS-CoV-2 virus come from? As a team of researchers from the WHO prepares to report on its investigation into the origins of the virus, we discuss the leading theories, including the...

The pandemic's unequal toll on the research community, and a newly discovered mitochondria-like symbiosis.In this episode:00:48 The pandemic's unequal toll on researchersAlthough 2020 saw a huge...

A repository with millions of data points will track immunity and variant spread.To answer the big questions in the pandemic, researchers need access to data. But while a wealth has been collected,...

The surprising structure of protons, and a method for growing small intestines for transplantation.In this episode:00:45 Probing the proton’s interiorAlthough studied for decades, the internal...

Researchers in Japan are trying to understand why thunderstorms fire out bursts of powerful radiation.Gamma rays – the highest-energy electromagnetic radiation in the universe – are typically...

What’s the endgame for the COVID-19 pandemic? Is a world without SARS-CoV-2 possible, or is the virus here to stay?A recent Nature survey suggests that the majority of experts expect the virus to...

Researchers sequence the oldest DNA ever recovered, and the people bringing art and science together.In this episode:00:46 Million-year-old mammoth DNAThis week, researchers have smashed a...

The science behind how and when to give vaccines doses.As vaccines are rolled out, massive logistical challenges are leading scientists and policymakers to consider alternative dosing...

Looking back at the publication of the human genome, and how macrophages mend muscle.In this episode:00:45 The human genome sequence, 20 years onThis week marks the 20th anniversary of a scientific...