Physicists finally observe strange isotope Oxygen 28 – raising fundamental questions
In this episode:00:47 First observation of oxygen 28Oxygen 28 is an isotope of oxygen with 20 neutrons and eight protons. This strange isotope has long been sought after by physicists, as its proposed...
30 Aug 202329min
Audio long read: Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials. How many studies are faked or flawed?
Investigations suggest that, in some fields, at least one-quarter of clinical trials might be problematic or even entirely made up. Faked or unreliable trials are dangerous, as they could end up being...
25 Aug 202326min
Brain-reading implants turn thoughts into speech
In this episode:00:47 The brain-computer interfaces that help restore communicationPeople with certain neurological conditions can lose the ability to speak as a result of facial paralysis. This week,...
23 Aug 202329min
Fruit flies' ability to sense magnetic fields thrown into doubt
In this episode:00:49 The search for animals’ magnetic sense sufferers a potential setbackExactly how animals sense Earth’s magnetic field has long eluded researchers. To understand it, many have turn...
16 Aug 202331min
Racism in health: the roots of the US Black maternal mortality crisis
A perfect storm of factors has led to huge racial disparities in maternal healthcare. In the USA, as abortion clinics continue to close, this inequity is projected to widen. In this podcast from Natur...
10 Aug 202344min
How welcome are refugees in Europe? A giant study has some answers
In this episode:00:46 A measure of refugees’ welcome in EuropeWith repeated humanitarian crises displacing millions of people, researchers have been considering how this might affect acceptance of ref...
9 Aug 202325min
How to get more women in science, with Athene Donald
In the latest episode of Nature hits the books, physicist Athene Donald joins us to discuss her book Not just for the boys, why we need more women in science. We discuss how science has historically e...
2 Aug 202332min
Audio long read: Lab mice go wild — making experiments more natural in order to decode the brain
Neuroscientists are creating more naturalistic experiments that they hope will provide a more nuanced understanding of animal — and human — behaviour.These set-ups differ from the classic laboratory e...
31 Juli 202315min
