Nature Podcast

This week, lizards change sex in the heat, a complex eye in a single celled creature, and teaching robots to be ethical  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Geoff Marsh reads you his favourite from June, Heart worm, by J. J. Roth  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Antarctica’s surprising biodiversity, trends in heatwaves and coldsnaps, and a new way to diagnose cancer early  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Three of Nature’s biggest paleontology fans sink their teeth into Jurassic World, which premiered this month. The team also discuss the importance of ‘dinomenclature’: why species names matter and how they are devised. Plus, DNA from an ancient human found in Washington State in the 1990s throws up questions of heritage.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, positive memories help fight depression, plant intelligence and measuring the mass of exoplanets  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, the US military’s biology arm, a clutch of Bronze Age genomes, and protection from a deadly disease in a community in Papua New Guinea  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, how the immune system deals with the brain, the latest in gene editing, and the mystery of Greenland’s disappearing lakes.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Robots that can recover from injury by themselves, naughty scientists faking or baking their data, and the weirdest places to look for much-needed new antibiotics.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Futures is Nature's weekly science fiction slot. Geoff Marsh reads you his favourite story from May, Tempus omnia revelat, by Tian Li.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, the ethics of killer robots, laser weapons become a reality, and the subtleties of temperature.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Are the sounds of the past lost forever? In the 1960s, an American engineer proposed that sound could be recorded into clay pots and paintings as they were created. This episode explores the science behind resurrecting the sounds of the past.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The oldest stone tools yet found, making opiates from yeast and sugar, and the perks of sex… for beetles.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, the latest result from the Large Hadron Collider, a memoir from neurologist and adventurer Oliver Sacks, and India’s scientific landscape.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, brain-inspired computers, scientists soldiering on past retirement age, and the origins of complex cells deduced from deep-sea samples.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, a tiny bat-like dinosaur, a competitor for graphene, and the best new science books this spring.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Will we ever be able to talk to animals? In this episode, Geoff Marsh meets a variety of researchers and animals who persevere at the communication barrier in the name of science.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, a new treatment for Ebola, the making of the Tibetan plateau, and could bees be addicted to pesticides?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The periodic table’s fuzzy edges, the nuances of reporting on animal research, and Richard gets charged up about some overhyped coverage of a new battery.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, how oxytocin affects the brain, self- experimentation in science, and the wedding rings that went to Hubble.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, the Moon and her sister, the Sun and its personality, and the latest wonder material to hit the big-time.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.