Episódios

  • Briefing chat: Spinosaurs with salt glands could have lived in marine environments
    Jun 5 2026

    In this episode:



    00:23 Fossil evidence that spinosaurs had an aquatic lifestyle

    Science: Some spinosaurs cried salty tears to thrive in brackish waters



    04:57 The explosive immune cells that kill in minutes

    Nature: Bang! Exploding immune cells splatter potent toxins everywhere


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

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    11 minutos
  • Your phone can use tiny skin-colour changes to measure your heart rate
    Jun 3 2026

    In this episode:



    00:57 How your smartphone’s camera could measure your heart rate

    Research article: Liao et al.



    08:55 Research Highlights

    Nature: A star gone rogue tears through the Galaxy

    Nature: Gold keeps glittering courtesy of surface chemistry



    11:04 Should you try something new in a restaurant? Maths has the answer

    Nature: Feynman solved the ‘restaurant dilemma’ 50 years ago — now a study confirms his mathematics


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

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    18 minutos
  • Briefing Chat: When to trust eyewitness memory – according to science
    May 29 2026

    In this episode:


    00:21 When witnesses identify suspects from police line-ups, confidence matters

    Nature: Memory on trial: the new science of when to trust eyewitness testimony


    07:15 Registered Reports: how this ‘double peer review’ process could benefit scientists and their results

    Nature: Nature is expanding Registered Reports to all the fields in which we publish


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    17 minutos
  • Major Ebola outbreak is escalating: what happens next
    May 22 2026

    On 17 May the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an ongoing Ebola outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Centred on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the outbreak has seen mounting numbers of suspected cases and deaths linked to the rare Bundibugyo species of Ebola virus.


    In this podcast we hear what's currently known about the outbreak and the efforts of clinicians, researchers and public health officials to halt its progress.


    Nature: Ebola outbreak is a global health emergency: what happens next

    Nature: Race begins to trial Ebola drugs amid current outbreak

    Nature: Ebola outbreak spirals out of control: how might it have started?

    Nature: Will this Ebola outbreak be the biggest yet?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    12 minutos
  • AI ‘scientists’ promise to accelerate research — how do they work?
    May 20 2026

    In this episode:



    00:46 Meet the AI scientists designed to accelerate research

    Research article: Ghareeb et al.

    Research article: Gottweis et al.

    Nature: Teams of AI agents boost speed of research

    Editorial: Why AI cannot do good science without humans

    Nature: Do you hate or love AI? Take Nature’s poll



    13:25 Research Highlights

    Nature: Dried to survive: desiccated tardigrades tolerate high heat

    Nature: Pristine Antarctic ice records the Solar System’s travels



    15:35 Using LiDAR to look around corners

    Research article: Somasundaram et al.


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

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    28 minutos
  • Briefing Chat: Hantavirus — what this outbreak reveals about the disease
    May 15 2026

    In this episode:



    00:34 What questions remain about the hantavirus outbreak?

    Nature: Hantavirus outbreak exposes uncertainty about how disease spreads

    Nature: There is no vaccine for deadly hantavirus: what that means for future outbreaks


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

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    10 minutos
  • Red-light therapy is all the rage — does it work?
    May 13 2026

    In this episode:



    00:42 Is red-light therapy all hype?

    Disclaimer: The opinions and assertions expressed herein by Juanita Anders are those of the speaker and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences or the Department of War.

    Nature: The surprising science behind red-light therapy — and how it really works



    10:52 Research Highlights

    Nature: Trafficked pangolins can be traced to their source by DNA — even to a specific forest

    Nature: A wispy wrapper for a chilly, Pluto-like world



    13:11 The complex story of global obesity rates

    Research article: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration


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

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    22 minutos
  • Audio long read: The air is full of DNA — here’s what scientists are using it for
    May 11 2026

    Although scientists have long been able to gather DNA from water and soil, it's only recently that they've started to see the air as a source of genetic information.

    Airborne DNA is already being used to monitor individual species, but researchers hope its abundance could have multiple uses, including judging the success of conservation efforts or attacks with biological weapons.


    However, there remains much to understand, such as how far DNA travels in the air, and the ethics involved in the potential identification of a person's genetic information.


    This is an audio version of our Feature: The air is full of DNA — here’s what scientists are using it for

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    19 minutos