New Scientist Podcasts

• Weekly: Trump’s war on science; How whale song resembles human language; How to boil the perfect egg with science

  Episode 288 President Trump has launched what’s being described as an all-out assault on science and medicine. Given America’s impact on global science, this affects the entire world. Web pages referencing climate change and global warming are being deleted, words like “transgender” are being banned from medical publications and USAID has been labelled evil. As access to fundamental scientific information is put at risk, we find out how anxiety is rising among US scientists - and what it means for the rest of us. Two studies of whale songs have uncovered striking similarities to the patterns of human language. In one study, researchers analysed and encoded around 150 unique sounds used by the males in their songs, while another study examined the length of whale “words”. What does this say about whale language - will we be able to understand what they’re saying one day? Want to boil the perfect egg? Got 30 minutes to spare? Researchers have been rigorously testing the most scientific way to boil an egg, to ensure perfect consistency of the white and yolk - and it seems they hit the jackpot. Alex Wilkins tests the method for himself and compares it to your regular 7 minute job. The question is, is this new method worth the extra effort? Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Chelsea Whyte, with guests James Dinneen, Grace Wade, Nancy Maclean, Gretchen Goldman, James Woodford and Alex Wilkins. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Weekly: Is DeepSeek really the ChatGPT killer?; alarming scale of ocean warming; dolphin peeing contests

  Episode 287 Chinese AI company DeepSeek unexpectedly stormed onto the scene just a few days ago - a move that has shaken the big US AI companies. The new large language model is similar to ChatGPT, but was developed for a fraction of the cost. How have they achieved this? We dig into the key technological innovations behind DeepSeek. We also discuss the potential climate gains of a more efficient AI model, whether this is the beginning of an AI-fuelled arms race between China and the US and perhaps most importantly - is it safe for you to use? All of this and a chat about the future of AGI - artificial general intelligence. Global ocean temperatures hit record highs for 450 days straight in 2023 and early 2024. This appears to be because the world’s oceans are absorbing heat from the sun at an accelerated rate. As warming hits the highest rates predicted by climate models, what is causing this sudden jump? Amazon river dolphins have been caught shooting pee into their friends’ snouts. A series of amazing images capture these dolphins, or botos, rolling upside-down and shooting a stream of pee into the air in a never-before-seen display. The team discuss why they’re doing it. Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Madeleine Cuff, with guests Alex Wilkins, Jeremy Hsu, Chris Merchant, Gavin Schmidt and Patty Brennan. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Weekly: The Trump impact on climate and global health; the placebo effect’s evil twin; the mystery of dark oxygen

  Episode 286 President Trump has signed executive orders pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement, and out of the World Health Organization. Although he claims that withdrawing from Paris will save the US $1trillion a year, the reality is much less clear. As the world’s second largest emitter and amid bans on renewable energy permits, just how catastrophic is this for global climate action? Leaving the WHO raises concerns too over the future of global health action. You probably know of the placebo effect, but have you heard of the ‘nocebo’ effect? Known as the evil twin of the placebo, this is where being told something won’t work or is inferior can make it less effective or problematic. Find out how researchers have been testing it out. Last year we heard the shock discovery that oxygen is being produced in the deep ocean. Believed to be coming from metallic nodules on the sea floor, the finding could upend accepted wisdom. And now the researchers who discovered this have set out on a 3 year mission for more data. Hear about the planned research and why lead researcher Andrew Sweetman has been subjected to “online bullying”. A new exhibition at Somerset House in London is celebrating the wonder of soil, titled ‘SOIL: The World at Our Feet’. Hear from co-curators of the show, Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy. Hosts Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet discuss with guests James Dinneen, Michael Le Page, Alexandra Thompson and Madeleine Cuff. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Visit: https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/press/soil-the-world-at-our-feet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Weekly: The truth about Iron Age women; Climate whiplash and the LA wildfires; Rebooting the world’s first chatbot

  Episode 285 New archaeological evidence from Iron Age Britain has shaken up long-held beliefs about the role of women in ancient civilisations. By studying the genes of the Durotriges tribe, who lived in Dorset 2000 years ago, researchers have discovered women were the centrepiece of Celtic society - supporting evidence that they had high status across Europe. Rachel Pope, Reader in European Prehistory at the University of Liverpool, explores the “jaw-dropping” findings. We also hear from author and archaeologist Rebecca Wragg-Sykes, who explains why we shouldn’t be surprised that women in prehistory had such power and autonomy. Sudden swings in weather extremes caused by climate change could be to blame for the wildfires spreading across Los Angeles. The effect, known as “climate whiplash”, is becoming increasingly common and has wide-reaching implications, threatening crops, water supplies and more. And with the news that we breached 1.5C of global warming in 2024, we discuss what this all means for our climate goals. The world’s first chatbot, ELIZA, has been resurrected. Created by MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum in the 1960s, it contains just 420 lines of code and is a very basic precursor to the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini. The team demonstrates its (limited) capabilities live on the show. They also discuss news of a woman who has an AI boyfriend on ChatGPT…that she has sex with. Hosts Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet discuss with guests Rachel Pope, Rebecca Wragg-Sykes, James Dinneen and Madeleine Cuff. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Book your place on the Svalbard expedition here: https://www.newscientist.com/tours/new-scientist-arctic-cruise/  Read Maddie’s article on the climate impacts of broken jet streams here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26535264-100-is-a-broken-jet-stream-causing-extreme-weather-that-lasts-longer/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Weekly: Gene-editing to make superhumans; first bird flu death in the US; perfect pasta with physics

  Episode 284 Creating disease-resistant humans may before too long be a reality thanks to advancements in CRISPR gene editing. It’s now possible to make dozens - if not hundreds - of edits to different genes at once. As the field progresses rapidly, a controversial paper published in Nature explores just how powerful this technology could be in protecting against diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes. But how safe is gene-editing? The paper has been criticised amid safety and ethical concerns, as well as the danger this could give rise to eugenics and designer babies. A person in Louisiana has died from bird flu, the first known death related to the H5N1 virus in the United States. Alarms are now being raised that bird flu could mutate and lead to another covid-like pandemic. The virus has evolved to infect many species of mammals, most recently dairy cows. But given we’ve been aware of this disease for decades and have stockpiled vaccines, what are the real concerns here? Hear from experts Meghan Davis and Andy Pekosz from Johns Hopkins University. Italian physicists have been working on an extremely important question related to…pasta. While working in Germany, Ivan Di Terlizzi and Giacomo Bartolucci became frustrated that they couldn’t perfectly recreate one of their favourite pasta meals - cacio e pepe. Thankfully, using their knowledge of phase behaviour, they figured out what was going on…in incredible detail. And bizarrely they suggest the finding may have implications for our understanding of the origins of life. Hosts Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet discuss with guests Michael Le Page and Grace Wade. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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