Babbage from The Economist

By The Economist

News & Politics Tech News

What's Babbage from The Economist about?

Named after Charles Babbage, a 19th-century polymath and grandfather of computing, Babbage is a weekly podcast on science and technology. Host Alok Jha talks to our correspondents about the innovations, discoveries and gadgetry making the news. Published every Tuesday by Economist Podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4.8

377 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Babbage: The private Moon race

01.25.2023

Three firms are racing to become the first private company to land on the Moon. The potential commercial opportunities range from mining lunar resources to establishing a human base with communications infrastructure. But the commercialisation of the Moon raises tricky ...

Babbage from The Economist episodes:

01.25.2023 Babbage: The private Moon race Three firms are racing to become the first private company to land on the Moon. The potential commercial opportunities range from mining lunar resources to establishing a human base with communications infrastructure. But the commercialisation of the Moon raises tricky ...
01.18.2023 Babbage: How to detect a deepfake Digital fakery, from the latest generation of deepfakes to lower-tech trickery, threatens to erode trust in societies and can prevent justice from being served. But how can technology be used to both detect deepfakes and authenticate real images? Patrick Traynor, ...
01.11.2023 Babbage: How Elon Musk’s satellites could change warfare forever SpaceX’s Starlink was designed to provide off-grid high-bandwidth internet access to civilians. But the mega-constellation of satellites has become more famous for its role in Ukraine. In 2022, it became vital to the country’s war effort, revealing the military potential ...
01.04.2023 Babbage: BioNTech's founder on the future of mRNA technology Since covid-19 emerged three years ago, mRNA vaccines have taken the world by storm. How will they keep up with new variants of the coronavirus, and where does the mRNA revolution go from here? Natasha Loder, The Economist’s health policy ...
12.27.2022 Babbage: The tech behind ChatGPT—an episode from our archive ChatGPT is just one example of a new type of artificial intelligence, which could become the next major general-purpose technology. This week, we revisit one of our favourite episodes of 2022, which explains why "foundational AI" promises to be so ...
12.20.2022 Babbage: Untangling quantum mechanics with Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger In 2022, the Nobel prize for physics was awarded to a trio of scientists for their work on the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. This week, host Alok Jha asks one of the laureates, Anton Zeilinger, how he proved Einstein wrong ...
12.13.2022 Babbage: What causes long covid? Soon after the pandemic began, another health crisis started to emerge. Long covid now affects millions of people around the world. But finding the causes of the condition—and how to treat it—has been a challenge. Three years after the SARS-CoV-2 ...
12.06.2022 Babbage: The surprising ineffectiveness of Russia’s cyber-war When Russia invaded Ukraine, for the first time ever, two mature cyber-powers began to fight over computer networks in wartime. But while Russia’s cyber-war may have been intense, its impact has been modest. Has the country’s cyber prowess been overrated? ...
11.29.2022 Babbage: How to cure type-1 diabetes A new drug for type-1 diabetes has been licensed in America. Teplizumab is the first treatment for the condition since insulin began being used a century ago. It targets one of the root causes of this type of diabetes and ...
11.22.2022 Babbage at COP27: Part four—“Africa’s COP” concludes COP27 was an arduous summit, with mixed results. A landmark agreement to create a new “loss and damage” fund was a historic achievement. But many delegates were disappointed by the lack of progress on decarbonising energy systems. In the final ...
11.15.2022 Babbage at COP27: Part three—the energy crisis COP27 takes place amid war in Ukraine and an energy crisis. In the third episode of our series covering the summit, we explore how energy-security concerns are affecting efforts to decarbonise. Niklas Höhne of the NewClimate Institute says the energy ...
11.08.2022 Babbage at COP27: Part two—adapting to a changing climate COP27 has kicked off in Egypt, and adaptation is high on the agenda. In the second episode of our series covering the conference, we explore how to step up global efforts to adapt to a changing climate. Edward McBride, The ...
11.01.2022 Babbage at COP27: Part one—the new climate realism This week, the COP27 climate summit will begin in Egypt. In the first of four episodes, we consider the themes set to dominate the conference. After a year lacking in climate action, do lofty targets need a dose of realism? ...
10.25.2022 Babbage: How to use the pandemic to tackle TB The pandemic shattered global efforts to control tuberculosis, which was the most lethal infectious disease in the world until covid-19 took its crown. Now, with deaths rising, TB is set to reclaim that dubious honour. But the covid era also ...
10.18.2022 Babbage: What are tactical nuclear weapons? The war in Ukraine has raised the nuclear threat to its highest level since the Cuban missile crisis. What types of nuclear weapons could be used in Ukraine, and how much damage could they do? Cheryl Rofer, a former nuclear ...
10.11.2022 Babbage: The gene-therapy revolution Gene therapies border on the miraculous, transforming lives in a single shot. The treatments offer hope to millions around the world who live with genetic diseases, and could also help the fight against cancer and HIV. This year, four new ...
10.04.2022 Babbage: How snooping on sewage could save lives During the pandemic, wastewater monitoring became a valuable tool in spotting covid-19 infection waves and the arrival of new variants. But sewage surveillance can help track the spread of all kinds of diseases—and measure a population’s consumption of everything from ...
09.27.2022 Babbage: How psychedelics could fix the brain Psychedelic drugs—such as LSD and psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms—may be coming to the medicine cabinet. Research into their use to treat mental-health conditions was long blocked by law and stigma. But in recent years, there has ...
09.20.2022 Babbage: How science can save the world During the pandemic, scientists gained greater prominence in the lives of ordinary people than ever before. And while covid-19 highlighted the importance of the field to humanity, it also raised questions about the role of scientists in modern life. Host ...
09.13.2022 Babbage: Will Ethereum’s merge transform crypto? A monumental shift is about to take place in the crypto world. One of the most important blockchain projects, Ethereum, is set to change the way it secures its network—from the energy-intensive “proof-of-work” system to the greener “proof-of-stake” method. Known ...
09.06.2022 Babbage: From our archive—the James Webb Space Telescope In recent months, the world has been astounded by cosmic images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. By gazing deep into space, it can see billions of years back in time, and promises to transform human understanding of the ...
08.30.2022 Babbage: The open-source intelligence war Six months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine. It is arguably the most transparent conflict ever, thanks to publicly available satellite data and social media. How has open-source intelligence (OSINT) shaped the war? The Economist’s defence editor Shashank Joshi examines ...
08.23.2022 Babbage: NASA’s newish rocket NASA’s giant new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will soon embark on its maiden journey to lunar orbit. The launcher is designed to send humans back to the Moon, but was built on old technology, and is years late ...
08.16.2022 Babbage: Could artificial intelligence become sentient? A debate has been raging in technology circles, after an engineer at Google claimed in June that the company’s chatbot was sentient. Host Kenneth Cukier explores how to define “sentience” and whether it could be attained by AI. If machines ...
08.09.2022 Babbage: The child hepatitis mystery Since April a mysterious outbreak of hepatitis in children around the world has baffled doctors. Some children have required liver transplants and more than 20 have died. Recent findings may link the spike in cases to covid-19 lockdowns. We examine ...
08.02.2022 Babbage: How AI cracked biology’s biggest problem DeepMind’s artificial-intelligence system AlphaFold has predicted the three-dimensional shape of almost all known proteins. The company’s boss Demis Hassabis tells us how the AI was able to solve what was, for decades, biology’s grand challenge. Plus, Gilead Amit, The Economist’s ...
07.26.2022 Babbage: Can technology personalise your diet? Digital tools and sophisticated wearable devices are being combined with the latest knowledge on metabolic science to build personalised eating plans. Slavea Chankova, The Economist’s health-care correspondent, explores the future of nutrition. Data from new nutrition technology can also be ...
07.19.2022 Babbage: How to keep secrets in the age of quantum computing The age of quantum computing is coming closer, presenting both an opportunity and a risk for individuals, companies and governments. Host Alok Jha explores why quantum computers threaten to crack the codes that keep data and communications secure over the ...
07.12.2022 Babbage: How did humans evolve? The evolutionary journey that created modern humans was once thought to be relatively linear. But new technology is revealing a far more complex picture. The Economist’s Dylan Barry travels to South Africa to trace the story of our evolution, and ...
07.05.2022 Babbage: How to unlock the secrets of the universe—beyond the Standard Model This week, the Large Hadron Collider returned to life after a three-year upgrade. By recreating conditions as close as possible to the Big Bang, it might provide answers to some of physics’s greatest mysteries. Recent findings have shown chinks in ...
06.28.2022 Babbage: How to go green amid an energy crisis The energy shock threatens to derail action on climate change. Which technologies will enable the green transition, while ensuring energy security, too? Vijay Vaitheeswaran, The Economist's global energy & climate innovation editor, describes the pathway to a decarbonised future. How ...
06.21.2022 Babbage: The short-sightedness epidemic Short-sightedness, known as myopia, was once a rare condition. But in East Asia, it is becoming ubiquitous, with rates increasing in the rest of the world, too. For decades, researchers thought the condition was mostly genetic. But the scientific consensus ...
06.14.2022 Babbage: Is ketamine the next antidepressant? In America and Europe, a growing number of clinics are offering ketamine to treat depression. The anaesthetic—also used illegally as a party drug—can provide rapid relief from the condition where traditional treatments, such as antidepressant drugs, have failed. We investigate ...
06.07.2022 Babbage: Artificial intelligence enters its industrial age A new type of artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly emerging as a candidate to become the next major general-purpose technology. "Foundational AI" will inject itself into many human endeavours—from writing to coding to drug discovery. We explore why foundation models ...
05.31.2022 Babbage: Corals vs climate change Coral reefs are increasingly under threat from global heating, but some species appear to be resistant to warmer sea temperatures. How can scientists harness these findings and revive these important pieces of marine life? Alok Jha hosts. For full access ...
05.24.2022 Babbage: How to unlock the secrets of the universe—part two In part two of our visit to the Large Hadron Collider on the Franco-Swiss border, Alok Jha asks whether the machine’s next iteration can take the field of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. We also investigate the long-term future ...
05.17.2022 Babbage: How to unlock the secrets of the universe—part one The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is restarting after a three-year break for maintenance and upgrades. In the first of two episodes, host Alok Jha travels to the Franco-Swiss border to find out what the particle accelerator could reveal about the ...
05.10.2022 Babbage: An app a day keeps the doctor away Wearable devices, such as fitness trackers and smartwatches, can measure a growing array of health indicators. Machine learning can filter that torrent of data to reveal a continuous, quantified picture of you and your health. But wearables linked to health ...
05.03.2022 Babbage: Bill Gates's plan to prevent the next pandemic New diseases are inevitable, but pandemics are not. As the threat from covid-19 recedes, how can the world stop new pathogens from becoming health emergencies? Business leader and philanthropist Bill Gates has long warned of the risk that a novel ...
04.26.2022 Babbage: Editing the code of life In 2012, the discovery of the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 revolutionised scientists’ ability to modify DNA. Ten years on, host Alok Jha speaks to Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel laureate who pioneered the technology. She explains how CRISPR could transform healthcare and ...
04.19.2022 Babbage: A new age of nuclear power? The war in Ukraine is causing countries to rethink their dependence on Russian energy. Some governments are turning to nuclear power. While unpopular, it is one of the safest and most sustainable forms of energy—and an essential weapon in the ...
04.12.2022 Babbage: Can the 1.5°C climate target survive? In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the window to fulfil UN climate targets is vanishing. Emissions must peak by 2025 if the world is to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Decisions made this year ...
04.05.2022 Babbage: How do you solve a problem like malaria? Squashing malaria could, over the next three decades, save as many lives as covid-19 has taken. We explore new ways to fight infections: from the introduction of the first malaria vaccines, to genetically modified mosquitoes. What would it take to ...
03.29.2022 Babbage: How to communicate in a war zone Destroying an opponent’s ability to communicate is an elementary military tactic. We examine the technologies helping Ukraine to stay connected: from SpaceX’s satellite-internet service, to shortwave radio. Also, what role is social media playing on the front line and in ...
03.22.2022 Babbage: The pandemic, two years on Two years after a pandemic was declared, the coronavirus crisis is far from over. Host Alok Jha speaks to Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's largest medical research foundations. Sir Jeremy has been ...
03.15.2022 Babbage: The fountain of youth Billions of dollars are being pumped into technologies that hope to reduce the effects of ageing. Host Alok Jha explores the latest research in the field—from regenerating organs to rejuvenating cells—and whether these efforts could help to conquer debilitating human ...
03.08.2022 Babbage: Can tech improve your sleep? A sleep deficit in the rich world has led to a boom in the sleep-tech industry. This week, we investigate the products designed to help consumers monitor and improve their slumber. And, what innovations could transform sleep in the future? ...
03.01.2022 Babbage: The threat of cyber-warfare The conflict in Ukraine has brought renewed fear of a global cyber-war. We explain the technology behind the digital threat and its role in modern warfare. And, why hasn’t Russia carried out large-scale cyber-attacks so far? Alok Jha hosts. Keep ...
02.22.2022 Babbage: Rise of the robots Relations between people and robots are being reset. Host Alok Jha explores why the pace of automation is likely to accelerate, and what it means for societies and jobs. We also ask how advancements in AI and robotics can improve ...
02.15.2022 Babbage: A Starship is born Elon Musk’s rocketry firm SpaceX has announced that its monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship rocket will soon be ready for its maiden voyage into orbit. Host Alok Jha explores the project’s potential impact on space travel, scientific discoveries and human connectedness on ...

Older episodes