Episodios

  • How mRNA vaccines teach your body to kill cancer; Grim state of climate action; Why birds sing the dawn chorus

    How mRNA vaccines teach your body to kill cancer; Grim state of climate action; Why birds sing the dawn chorus
    Oct 24 2025
    Episode 328 Not only has the mRNA covid vaccine saved 14 million lives, it may also help our bodies fight off cancer. A study of cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy treatment showed those who received an mRNA vaccine lived nearly twice as long - and this effect was discovered by accident. In a trial of cancer vaccines, Elias Sayour’s team at the University of Florida used standard mRNA vaccines as a control - they weren’t meant to do anything. Except they did - and the effect was huge. It’s still early days, but as we await more trial results, people are beginning to speculate how this might transform cancer treatment. Ahead of COP30, the World Resources Institute has published the State of Climate Action 2025 report - and it doesn’t make for good reading. It finds that we have failed to meet any of the goals laid out in the Paris agreement to avoid breaching 1.5°C of global warming. From deforestation to coal use, we’re not moving fast enough on anything. Hear from the authors of the report, who offer an important message of hope. Why do birds sing the dawn chorus? Many theories exist - 11 in fact - but a new one has emerged, after scientists were studying zebra finches in the lab. Hear their conclusion while enjoying the serenity of birdsong, recorded at some of the RSPB’s nature reserves. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (00:34) How mRNA vaccines fight cancer (10:00) State of Climate Action report (21:13) Why birds sing the dawn chorus Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Michael Le Page, Clea Schumer and Sophie Boehm. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about Yakult at www.yakult.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    29 m
  • First climate tipping point triggered; Man controls another person's body by brain implant; health worries over sumo wrestlers

    First climate tipping point triggered; Man controls another person's body by brain implant; health worries over sumo wrestlers
    Oct 17 2025
    Episode 326 The world’s first major climate tipping point has been triggered. The decimation of warm water coral populations caused by rising temperatures is now irreversible - passing the point of no return. The global consequences of widescale coral dieback could be catastrophic, so experts are sounding the alarm. But is anyone listening? A man with paralysis has telepathically controlled the hands of another person. Keith Thomas is unable to move or feel through his hands. But thanks to a new advancement, using brain and muscle electrodes, he was able to control the hands of a non-paralysed woman using his thoughts alone. Could this one day lead to Avatar-like body control technology? For only the second time in its 1,500-year history, professional Sumo wrestling has left Japan. A Grand Sumo Tournament is being held at London’s Albert Hall, where over 40 elite wrestlers are competing in a five day tournament. Sumo writer John Gunning discusses the physics of sumo, the incredible diets of the wrestlers and the worrying consequences of the sport on their longevity. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:34) Coral tipping point (11:23) Avatar brain implant (22:10) The longevity of sumo wrestlers Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Madeleine Cuff, Carissa Wong and John Gunning. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about Yakult at www.yakult.co.uk Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    34 m
  • Space 2075: How Humanity Will Live, Work and Make Drugs off-planet | Live Recording at the Royal Society

    Space 2075: How Humanity Will Live, Work and Make Drugs off-planet | Live Recording at the Royal Society
    Oct 13 2025
    A special episode all about the future of space exploration, recorded in front of a live audience at the Royal Society in London. Earlier this year, the Royal Society published ‘The Space: 2075 report’, which recognises the huge changes we’re seeing in space exploration, and urges for action to be taken to make sure the next 50 years of activity in space is sustainable and benefits all of humanity. We brought together a panel of space experts to discuss the accelerated advances we’re seeing. Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, blasted off Earth on a Soyuz rocket in 1991. She explains what it’s like to journey into space, the various ways it impacts the body and why humans still have the edge over robots for certain missions. Irene Di Giulio is a Biomedical Engineer at King's College London. She explores her work helping to get the first disabled astronaut to space and why it’s critical we push towards making space flight accessible. And Katie King is Co-Founder and CEO of BioOrbit, a pharmaceutical company which plans to make drugs in space. Discover why space is the perfect place to create drugs - potentially bringing at-home cancer treatments to the market. Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Abby Beall. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    54 m
  • How Jane Goodall changed the world; How the universe ends; How “selfish sperm” affect male fertility

    How Jane Goodall changed the world; How the universe ends; How “selfish sperm” affect male fertility
    Oct 10 2025
    Episode 324 The legendary primatologist Jane Goodall died last week aged 91, leaving behind a remarkable legacy. Her work studying tool use in chimpanzees completely reshaped the way we view animal intelligence. Fiercely protective of the natural world, she was also responsible for a huge amount of advocacy during her life. Primatologist Alejandra Pascual-Garrido worked directly with Jane and shares the story of her life and work. Will the universe end with a bang, or a quiet whimper? Katie Mack is a cosmologist, science communicator and best-selling author of The End of Everything. She explores why she’s fascinated by how the universe might end, the most likely scenarios for how it happens and why it’s an exciting time for both physics and cosmology. She also offers her thoughts on the recently announced Nobel Prize in Physics - and teases her upcoming book How To Build A Universe. Older fathers may have a bigger impact on the health of their offspring than we realised. We know that sperm accumulates mutations as men age, but a study sheds new light on the risks. Men aged 70 are twice as likely to have children with serious genetic disorders. And it’s all to do with “selfish sperm”. Chapters: (00:51) Jane Goodall’s legacy (20:52) Kate Mack on the end of the universe (38:47) Selfish sperm Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, Katie Mack and Michael Le Page. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about Yakult at www.yakult.co.uk Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 m
  • Emergency in Antarctica; How movement changes the brain; Why women live longer than men

    Emergency in Antarctica; How movement changes the brain; Why women live longer than men
    Oct 2 2025
    Episode 323 Temperatures in Antarctica have soared by over 35°C. Scientists are concerned about how quickly things are changing on the continent as these warmer temperatures impact the polar vortex. Coupled with record lows in sea ice cover over the last decade, this could be a sign that Antarctic weather patterns have shifted permanently. What’s driving this change - and what happens if we have reached a tipping point of no return? Many mammals, including cats, can pivot their ears to focus on a particular sound. But our ears aren’t quite so flexible. But now it appears that a similar process happens inside our brain - ‘swivelling’ to focus on sounds from different directions. This has only recently been discovered thanks to new portable EEG equipment, as the process only happens when we’re moving. This finding may help us better understand how movement changes the brain - and could even help improve hearing aids. Why do women tend to live longer than men? It could have something to do with the very chromosomes that determine biological sex. By looking at birds, whose sex chromosomes differ from those of mammals, researchers have discovered an intriguing hint at what’s going on. But does their new hypothesis hold up? Alongside all the emerging science, Rowan shares his own theory. And the team discusses the disappearance of the Y chromosome - and what that really means for men. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:04) Emergency in Antarctica (10:46) How movement changes the brain (19:34) Why women live longer than men Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Madeleine Cuff, Edward Doddridge, Caroline Williams and Sam Wong. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about Yakult at www.yakult.co.uk Vote for New Scientist in the Signal Awards: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2025/shows/genre/science Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    31 m
  • Skull rewrites story of human evolution; Autism and Tylenol; discovery of wind coming from black hole

    Skull rewrites story of human evolution; Autism and Tylenol; discovery of wind coming from black hole
    Sep 26 2025
    Episode 322 An ancient skull discovered in China may have just rewritten the story of human evolution. It’s widely accepted that the common ancestor of Homo sapiens, Denisovans and Neanderthals came out of Africa. But this skull upends that assumption - potentially showing human evolution began in Asia. Discover how a new reconstruction of the Yunxian fossil skull could push back human origins by 400,000 years. Tylenol does not cause autism. The US government has made headlines with claims that this common painkiller, also known as paracetamol, is playing a big role in what’s been falsely dubbed the ‘autism epidemic’. As Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr call for pregnant women to avoid Tylenol, we discuss what we know from science, and hear from medical experts of the danger of this new advice. Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, is more active than we thought. Historically our black hole has seemed rather quiet. But a new discovery shows the first clear evidence of winds - streams of hot gas - coming from it. The finding could help us figure out what Sag A* looks like and what it’ll do in the future. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:05) This skull could rewrite the story of human evolution (16:39) Autism and Tylenol (26:26) Black hole discovery Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Michael Marshall, Grace Wade, Alex Wilkins, Chris Stringer, Arthur Caplan and Gretchen Goldman. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Find the New Scientist CoLab episode with Octopus Energy here: https://www.newscientist.com/podcasts/inside-the-uk-s-energy-revolution/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    34 m
  • The evolutionary price we pay for longer lives; the asteroid coming VERY close to Earth; how dinosaurs shaped the ecosystem

    The evolutionary price we pay for longer lives; the asteroid coming VERY close to Earth; how dinosaurs shaped the ecosystem
    Sep 19 2025
    Episode 321 Humans live a lot longer than other primates - and much of that is down to our immune system. But there’s a price we pay for the capacity to fight off infections: inflammation. Chronic inflammation is to blame for a range of health issues, especially those related to older age. And now research has revealed exactly why inflammation is good for longevity but bad for health. Find out how proteins called death-fold domains often malfunction - and what this could mean for the future of drug development. Bigger than the Eiffel Tower and closer than the moon - the asteroid Apophis will skim past Earth in 2029 and will be visible to the naked eye. Don’t worry, astronomers assure us it will NOT hit us. But it could be a good testbed for NASA’s asteroid deflection technology, helping us to prepare for more dangerous space rocks in the future. With two major space agencies due to visit Apophis - what will we find? If you thought there was nothing new to learn about the extinction of the dinosaurs, think again. Something we hadn’t yet considered was the impact dinosaurs had on the ecosystem. Given they were so massive, dinosaurs made wide-ranging changes to the planet’s landscapes, such as shifting rivers. So when they were wiped out, there were huge knock-on effects, which researchers have now been examining. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (00:41) The evolutionary price we pay for longer lives (13:47) The asteroid coming very close to Earth (26:42) How dinosaurs shaped their ecosystem Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Alison George, Alex Wilkins, Sam Wong and Richard Binzel. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    33 m
  • Why we can't announce life on Mars (yet); The Romans' impact on the British economy; Link between exercise and your microbiome

    Why we can't announce life on Mars (yet); The Romans' impact on the British economy; Link between exercise and your microbiome
    Sep 12 2025
    Episode 320 Was Mars once home to alien life? The evidence is stronger than ever, since NASA’s discovery of rocks marked by patterns similar to those made by microbes on Earth. Found in an area now named Bright Angel, these rocks give us a tantalising insight into Mars’ ancient past - but just how definitive is this finding? It’s long been thought that when the Roman Empire withdrew from Britain in the early 400s, the result was chaos and economic collapse. But a new archaeological discovery suggests that’s not the case. Signs show a boom in the ancient metalworking trade around that time. Do we need to rethink this period of our history entirely? We’re constantly discovering more and more ways to boost our microbiome and improve our health – everything from eating more fibre and fermented foods to having pets and embracing dirt. And now there’s something else to add to the list: weight lifting. After being put on a weight training programme, a group of sedentary adults showed a surprising uptick in beneficial gut bugs. But how are the two things connected? Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:19) Strongest evidence for past life on Mars (14:55) The Romans impact on the British economy (23:19) Link between exercise and your microbiome Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Mike Marshall, Mike Tice and Sanjeev Gupta. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    30 m