New Scientist Weekly

Episode 277

Chimps are an intelligent species, capable of using tools and developing culture - so why have humans surpassed them to such a huge extent? How is it that we are busy exploring space while chimps remain stuck in the Stone Age? It’s long been thought it’s because their culture doesn’t evolve cumulatively, but that assumption has just been challenged. Hear from Cassandra Gunasekaram, the lead author of a paper that shows chimp culture develops in a more complex way than we realised. We also hear from primatologists Andrew Whiten from the University of St Andrews and Andrea Migliano of the University of Zurich.

How often do you check the calories of your meal, before ordering at a restaurant? In 2020 in the UK it became mandatory for many restaurants to print calories on their menus, as part of an anti-obesity campaign - the question is, has it been effective or a complete waste of time? We dig into new research and the results may surprise you. We also explore why 85 per cent of overweight or obese people who lose a significant amount of weight end up putting it all back on again within a year.

In a Black Mirror-like development, computer scientists have managed to create simulated replicas of 1000 real people. These digital twins were created using the model behind ChatGPT and can accurately simulate their personalities. The method is surprisingly simple to recreate - so should we be worried?

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Episode 276

Are the COP climate summits doing enough to help us avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change, or are they not fit for purpose, and designed to fail? COP29 is underway in petrostate Azerbaijan, headed by a CEO who was secretly filmed making oil and gas deals. Despite this, the team finds reason for optimism. They also hear from climate philosopher and activist Rupert Read, who runs the Climate Majority Project. He argues the COP process was designed to fail, that 1.5 degrees is dead and that adaptation - not mitigation - is the way to go. What do you think?

Bird migration is an extraordinary feat of evolution - but how exactly do they do it? We know the Earth’s magnetic field has something to do with it, but we’ve only just discovered the astonishing level of detail birds are able to get from it. Raising questions about bird intelligence, the team also hears how birds evolved from dinosaurs.

Gophers have an incredible capacity to shape their landscape. Gophers are small, burrowing rodents with long front teeth. And a decades-long study has shown that just one day of work by a gopher can completely revitalise soil in an area, changing its microbial diversity and preventing disease. Gopher productivity surely puts humans to shame.

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet discuss with guests Madeleine Cuff and Sophie Bushwick.

To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/

Learn about the Climate Majority Project here.

Find Rupert Read’s book here.

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Episode 275

The origins of the world’s oldest known writing system are being uncovered. Cuneiform was invented around 3200 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, but before it came a much simpler form of writing called proto-cuneiform. Researchers are now shedding light on how writing began along with the cultural factors that spurred on its invention.

Just as the rather disappointing COP16 biodiversity conference comes to a close, another COP is nearly upon us. The famous climate conference is in its 29th year and is taking place in Azerbaijan. It’s fair to say the stakes are extremely high. With global emissions cuts still not happening fast enough, the existence of some countries hanging in the balance and Donald Trump returning to the White House, can COP29 move the needle?

Pando, a quaking aspen in Utah, is the world’s largest tree – and it’s very, very old. Until now its exact age has been hard to pinpoint, but researchers have now found it is among the oldest organisms on the planet, alive during the time of the woolly mammoth. But just how old is it?

Did you know vampire bats can… run? And they’re pretty fast too. Researchers stuck some of these bats on treadmills to learn about their unusual diets. How exactly do they survive only eating fresh blood?

Hosts Penny Sarchet and Timothy Revell discuss with guests Michael Marshall, Madeleine Cuff, Rowan Hooper, James Woodford and Matthew Sparkes.

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Episode 274

World leaders are in Colombia for the COP16 biodiversity summit. As delegates hash out a path forward, have we actually made any progress to protect global biodiversity since they last gathered? 

What would a Trump presidency mean for the climate? With the US election taking place on 5th November, two climate experts weigh in with their concerns. Leah Stokes works on climate policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Naomi Oreskes is a professor of earth and planetary science at Harvard.

And in a special mega feature on the microbiome, take a deep dive into the science of our guts:

First up, we know that antibiotics wipe out good and bad bacteria alike, but until now we didn’t realise just how intense those effects were. Now researchers have uncovered how many species of bacteria in our guts are killed off by antibiotics - and the truth of how long those impacts last.

We also learn how our guts are battlegrounds, where microbes are in a constant state of war, fighting for resources and territory. Most surprising of all is how some microbes are turned traitors and end up killing off their own kind.

And we provide a one-stop shop for all the science-backed ways to care for your gut and learn how the balance of microbes impacts healthy ageing, mental health and inflammation.

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet (yes, she’s back!) discuss with guests James Dinneen, Michael Le Page, Carissa Wong and Alison George.

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Episode 273

The mystery of “Well Man”, an ancient cold case, has just been solved. A Norse saga tells that in 1197, in the midst of a Viking raid, warriors dumped a body in a well inside a castle. Over 800 years later, archeologists recovered a body from that very well – but didn’t have the technology to show it was the man from the saga… until now.

Some welcome good news about the climate. Energy imbalance, a key measure of global warming, has been rising fast, sparking fears that warming is accelerating faster than models predicted. But new findings suggest those fears are overblown and that there is hope yet.

Birth control pills may shrink your brain (a small amount). After experiencing mood and physical changes after coming off the pill, one neuroscientist discovered very little had been done to understand the impact of hormonal birth control on the brain. So she scanned her own brain 75 times over several months while on and off the pill. The results are in.

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Chelsea Whyte discuss with guests James Woodford, Michael Martin, Michael Le Page, Ben Sandersen, Grace Wade and Carina Heller.

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Episode 272

SpaceX has made history with its Starship rocket, the largest rocket ever built and one that’s hoped to eventually take us to Mars. In its fifth test, SpaceX successfully returned the rocket’s booster back to the launchpad and caught hold of it – an engineering feat of great finesse. But how close are we to putting crew on the rocket–- and when will it take humanity to the Red Planet? Leah-Nani Alconcel, spacecraft engineer at the University of Birmingham, joins the conversation.

We might be closer than ever before to bringing Tasmanian tigers (thylacines) back from extinction. That’s if de-extinction company Colossal is right about their latest discovery, of a nearly complete genome of the thylacine. Is this the breakthrough it seems to be? And can we truly bring back thylacines as they once were?  

Brain scans have revealed that bullying has a physical effect on the structure of the brain. Young people who are bullied see changes in various brain regions and it seems to impact male and female brains differently. Are these changes permanent? And is this cause to take bullying more seriously?

The “very fabric of life on Earth is imperilled.” That’s according to the latest annual State of the Climate report. Thirty-five “planetary vital signs” have been assessed by researchers and the outlook is bleak. But among all the worrying climate records we’ve broken there is hope. Hear from study author Tom Crowther of ETH Zurich. 

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Chelsea Whyte discuss with guests Leah Crane, Leah-Nani Alconcel, Michael Le Page, Alexandra Thompson, James Dinneen and Tom Crowther.

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Episode 271

If we overshoot 1.5 degrees of global warming, there is no going back. The hope has long been that if - and when - we blow past our climate goals, we can later reverse the damage. But there’s no guarantee we can bring temperatures back down, according to a paper published in Nature this week. The report suggests it would take decades to get back to normal - and some of the more devastating consequences will be irreversible. Hear from a variety of experts on the problem of climate overshoot.

Living bacteria have been discovered in 2-billion-year-old rocks, making them very, very old. Find out how these primitive microbes survived for so long - and why this discovery is exciting news for the quest to find life on other planets.

Do you think you’ll make it to the ripe old age of 100? Human life expectancy has steadily been going up and up - but now it’s grinding to a halt, looking unlikely to exceed 84 for men and 90 for women. What’s going on? Is there a limit to human ageing, or is something else at play?

Hurricane Milton has caused immense damage across Florida and the death toll is rising. As it draws power from the hot oceans, there’s good reason to believe climate change is to blame for its rapid intensification. Hot on the heels of Hurricane Helene, why are extreme weather conditions picking up again so quickly?

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Chelsea Whyte discuss with guests Michael Le Page, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Joeri Rogelj, Wim Carton, Sam Wong, Carissa Wong and James Dinneen.

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Episode 270

There may be hope for the survival of coral reefs, a vital part of the global underwater ecosystem that is under massive threat from climate change. At 1.5 C degrees of warming we’re at risk of losing 70-90 per cent of coral - and more than 99 per cent is estimated to die off at 2 degrees. But new research suggests corals may be more adaptable and resilient than we thought. Hear from two experts on the matter, Chris Jury of the University of Hawaii and Terry Hughes, director of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia.

A new exoplanet has been discovered in orbit around Barnard’s star - Earth’s closest single stellar neighbour. But could it be home to extraterrestrial life? And in this, the golden age of exoplanet discovery, how close are we to finding one that looks like Earth?

Remarkably preserved remains of a 16 month old toddler have been analysed, painting a detailed picture of life in ancient Italy. Despite being 17,000 years old, DNA samples have shown us the colour of the child’s skin, his eye colour, health conditions and even how closely his parents were related.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been dubbed the “first drone war”. As the war rages on, drone combat has shifted from ad hoc, random encounters to highly strategic and coordinated assaults. With the increasing capabilities of drones and a ramp up in the expertise of operators, is this the future of the war - and is it a good thing?

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Chelsea Whyte discuss with guests Terry Hughes, Chris Jury, Alex Wilkins, Sam Wong and Jacob Aron.

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Episode 269

Could we re-freeze the Arctic… and should we? The Arctic is losing ice at an alarming rate and it’s too late to save it by cutting emissions alone. Geoengineering may be our only hope. A company called Real Ice has successfully tested a plan to artificially keep the region cold - but what are the consequences and will it work on the scale we need?

Octopuses and fish have been found hunting together in packs in an unexpected display of cooperation. Not only do the fish scout out potential prey, they even signal to the octopuses to move in for the kill. And a fish doesn’t prove helpful? They get punched.

The world’s oldest cheese has been found in China - and it’s 3,500 years old. As we get a fascinating look into the fermenting habits of ancient humans, find out how modern day fermentation is being repurposed to help us create biofuels, break down microplastics and more. We hear from Tom Ellis, professor of synthetic genome engineering at Imperial College London.

Our bodies are littered with microplastics - they’re in our livers, kidneys, guts and even our olfactory bulb. How worried should we be? Microplastics have been linked to some pretty serious health consequences - but are they the cause?

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Sophie Bushwick discuss with guests Madeleine Cuff, Michael Le Page and Grace Wade.

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Episode 268

Research has long linked loneliness to surprising health conditions, including diabetes and some cancers. The assumption has been that loneliness in some way causes these issues, perhaps through increased stress or inflammation. But in a study of tens of thousands of people’s biomedical data, that link has gotten more complicated. Where does this leave the relationship between loneliness and health, and the public health programs that are trying to tackle both?

Supermassive black holes are so big and existed so early in the universe’s history that astronomers are unsure how they formed. Dark matter to the rescue? Among the theories of how they formed is “direct collapse,” which a study finds may be possible with some help from decaying dark matter. But a specific type of dark matter is needed to make this theory work…so what’s next?

A photon has been observed travelling in negative time. It was caught leaving a cloud of atoms before it ever entered it. How is this possible? Is this a time travelling photon? Well, somehow, no laws of physics were broken. Obviously some quirky quantum effects are in play – but what exactly is going on?

Plus: How Earth may have once had a ring around it; a pair of black hole jets that are 23 million light years across; how some long-stemmed flowers have evolved to help bats pollinate them; and the discovery of a brand new, teeny tiny chameleon.

Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss with guests Leah Crane, Sophie Bushwick and Karmela Padavic-Callaghan.

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