Nature Podcast

In 2026, NASA aims to send humans back to the Moon's surface, as part of the Artemis III mission. In preparation, astronauts have been performing moonwalking simulations to ensure that they are able to make the most of their precious time on the lunar surface. In one dress rehearsal, a pair of astronauts took part in a training exercise in an Arizona volcanic field, working with a science team to practice doing geology work in difficult conditions designed to mimic some that will be experienced at the lunar south pole.This is an audio version of our Feature: How NASA astronauts are training to walk on the Moon in 2026Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for Nature Podcast is available too.

00:31 How open are ‘open source’ AI systems?Many of the large language models powering AI systems are described as ‘open source’ but critics say this is a misnomer, with restricted access to code and training data preventing researchers from probing how these systems work. While the definition of open source in AI models is yet to be agreed, advocates say that ‘full’ openness is crucial in efforts to make AI accountable. New research has ranked the openness of different systems, showing that despite claims of ‘openness’ many companies still don’t disclose a lot of key information.Nature News: Not all ‘open source’ AI models are actually open: here’s a ranking06:12 Why longer freight trains are more prone to derailmentIn the US, there are no federal limits on the length of a freight train, but as companies look to run longer locomotives, questions arise about whether they are at greater risk of derailment. To find out, a team analysed data on accidents to predict the chances of longer trains coming off the tracks. They showed that replacing two 50-car freight trains with one 100-car train raises the odds of derailment by 11%, with the chances increasing the longer a train gets. While derailments are uncommon, this could change as economic pressures lead the freight industry to experiment with ever-longer trains.Scientific American: Longer and Longer Freight Trains Drive Up the Odds of Derailment11:44 How historic wheat could give new traits to current cropsGenes from century-old wheat varieties could be used to breed useful traits into modern crops, helping them become more disease tolerant and reducing their need for fertiliser. Researchers sequenced the genomes of hundreds of historic varieties of wheat held in a seed collection from the 1920s and 30s, revealing a huge amount of genetic diversity unseen in modern crops. Plant breeding enabled the team to identify some of the areas of the plants’ genomes responsible for traits such as nutritional content and stress tolerance. It’s hoped that in the long term this knowledge could be used to improve modern varieties of wheat.Science: ‘Gold mine’ of century-old wheat varieties could help breeders restore long lost traitsSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

00:46 How light touches are sensed during sex150 years after they were discovered, researchers have identified how specific nerve-cell structures on the penis and clitoris are activated. While these structures, called Krause corpuscles, are similar to touch-activated corpuscles found on people’s fingers and hands, there was little known about how they work, or their role in sex. Working in mice, a team found that Krause corpuscles in both male and females were activated when exposed to low-frequency vibrations and caused sexual behaviours like erections. The researchers hope that this work could help uncover the neurological basis underlying certain sexual dysfunctions.News: Sensory secrets of penis and clitoris unlocked after more than 150 yearsResearch article: Qi et al.News and Views: Sex organs sense vibrations through specialized touch neurons07:03 Research HighlightsAstronomers struggle to figure out the identity of a mysterious object called a MUBLO, and how CRISPR gene editing could make rice plants more water-efficient.Research Highlight: An object in space is emitting microwaves — and baffling scientistsResearch Highlight: CRISPR improves a crop that feeds billions09:21 How fish detect the source of soundIt’s long been understood that fish can identify the direction a sound came from, but working out how they do it is a question that’s had scientists stumped for years. Now using a specialist setup, a team of researchers have demonstrated that some fish can independently detect two components of a soundwave — pressure and particle motion — and combine this information to identify where a sound comes from.Research article: Veith et al.News and Views: Pressure and particle motion enable fish to sense the direction of soundD. cerebrum sounds: Schulze et al.20:30: Briefing ChatAncient DNA sequencing reveals secrets of ritual sacrifice at Chichén Itzá, and how AI helped identify the names that elephants use for each other.Nature News: Ancient DNA from Maya ruins tells story of ritual human sacrificesNature News: Do elephants have names for each other?Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

00:48 Short-haul spaceflight's effect on the human body.A comprehensive suite of biomedical data, collected during the first all-civilian spaceflight, is helping researchers unpick the effects that being in orbit has on the human body. Analysis of data collected from the crew of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission reveals that short duration spaceflight can result in physiological changes similar to those seen on longer spaceflights. These changes included things like alterations in immune-cell function and a lengthening of DNA telomeres, although the majority of these changes reverted soon after the crew landed.Collection: Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) across orbits12:13 Research HighlightsResearchers have discovered why 2019 was so awash with Painted Lady butterflies, and the meaning behind gigantic rock engravings along the Orinoco river.Research Highlight: A huge outbreak of butterflies hit three continents — here’s whyResearch Highlight: Mystery of huge ancient engravings of snakes solved at last14:55 The benefits of working from home, some of the timeA huge trial of hybrid working has shown that this approach can help companies retain employees without hurting productivity. While a mix of home and in-person working became the norm for many post-pandemic, the impacts of this approach on workers’ outputs remains hotly debated and difficult to test scientifically. To investigate the effects of hybrid working, researchers randomly selected 1,612 people at a company in China to work in the office either five days a week or three. In addition to the unchanged productivity, employees said that they value the days at home as much as a 10% pay rise. This led to an increase in staff retention and potential savings of millions of dollars for the company involved in the trial.Research article: Bloom et al.Editorial: The case for hybrid working is growing — employers should take note25:50: Briefing ChatGermany balks at the $17 billion bill for CERN’s new supercollider, and working out when large language models might run out of data to train on.Nature News: CERN’s $17-billion supercollider in question as top funder criticizes costAssociated Press: AI ‘gold rush’ for chatbot training data could run out of human-written textSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Subscribe to Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics

In this episode:00:46 Making a molecular Bose-Einstein condensateFor the first time, researchers have coaxed molecules into a bizarre form of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate, in which they all act in a single gigantic quantum state. While condensates have been made using atoms for decades, the complex interactions of molecules have prevented them from being cooled into this state. Now, a team has successfully made a Bose-Einstein condensate using molecules made of caesium and sodium atoms, which they hope will allow them to answer more questions about the quantum world, and could potentially form the basis of a new kind of quantum computer.Research article: Bigagli et al. News: Physicists coax molecules into exotic quantum state — ending decades-long quest9:57 How deplatforming affects the spread of social media misinformationThe storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 resulted in the social media platform Twitter (now X) rapidly deplatforming 70,000 users deemed to be sharers of misinformation. To evaluate the effect of this intervention, researchers analysed the activity of over 500,000 Twitter users, showing that it reduced the sharing of misinformation, both from the deplatformed users and from those who followed them. Results also suggest that other misinformation traffickers who were not deplatformed left Twitter following the intervention. Together these results show that social media platforms can curb misinformation sharing, although a greater understanding of the efficacy of these actions in different contexts is required.Research article: McCabe et al.Editorial: What we do — and don’t — know about how misinformation spreads onlineComment: Misinformation poses a bigger threat to democracy than you might think20:14: Briefing ChatA new antibiotic that can kill harmful bacteria without damaging the gut microbiome, and the tiny plant with the world’s biggest genome.News: ‘Smart’ antibiotic can kill deadly bacteria while sparing the microbiomeNews: Biggest genome ever found belongs to this odd little plantSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

In this episode:00:25 What the rise of AI language models means for robotsCompanies are melding artificial intelligence with robotics, in an effort to catapult both to new heights. They hope that by incorporating the algorithms that power chatbots it will give robots more common-sense knowledge and let them tackle a wide range of tasks. However, while impressive demonstrations of AI-powered robots exist, many researchers say there is a long road to actual deployment, and that safety and reliability need to be considered.News Feature: The AI revolution is coming to robots: how will it change them?16:09 How the cockroach became a ubiquitous pestGenetic research suggests that although the German cockroach (Blattella germanica) spread around the world from a population in Europe, its origins were actually in South Asia. By comparing genomes from cockroaches collected around the globe, a team could identify when and where different populations might have been established. They show that the insect pest likely began to spread east from South Asia around 390 years ago with the rise of European colonialism and the emergence of international trading companies, before hitching a ride into Europe and then spreading across the globe.Nature News: The origin of the cockroach: how a notorious pest conquered the world20:26: Rare element inserted into chemical 'complex' for the first timePromethium is one of the rarest and most mysterious elements in the periodic table. Now, some eight decades after its discovery, researchers have managed to bind this radioactive element to other molecules to make a chemical ‘complex’. This feat will allow chemists to learn more about the properties of promethium filling a long-standing gap in the textbooks.Nature News: Element from the periodic table’s far reaches coaxed into elusive compoundSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

Growing up in Alabama in the 1960s, mathematician Freeman Hrabowski was moved to join the civil rights moment after hearing Martin Luther King Jr speak. Even as a child, he saw the desperate need to make change. He would go on to do just that — at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he co-founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, one of the leading pathways to success for Black students in STEM subjects in the United States.Freeman is the subject of the first in a new series of Q&As in Nature celebrating ‘Changemakers’ in science — individuals who fight racism and champion inclusion. He spoke to us about his about his life, work and legacy.Career Q&A: I had my white colleagues walk in a Black student’s shoes for a day

AIs are often described as 'black boxes' with researchers unable to to figure out how they 'think'. To better understand these often inscrutable systems, some scientists are borrowing from psychology and neuroscience to design tools to reverse-engineer them, which they hope will lead to the design of safer, more efficient AIs.This is an audio version of our Feature: How does ChatGPT ‘think’? Psychology and neuroscience crack open AI large language models

00:45 The neuroscience of fentanyl addictionResearch in mice has shown that fentanyl addiction is the result of two brain circuits working in tandem, rather than a single neural pathway as had been previously thought. One circuit underlies the positive feelings this powerful drug elicits, which the other was responsible for the intense withdrawal when it is taken away. Opioid addiction leads to tens of thousands of deaths each year, and the team hopes that this work will help in the development of drugs that are less addictive.Research Article: Chaudun et al.09:16 Research HighlightsHow an ‘assembloid’ could transform how scientists study drug delivery to the brain, and an edible gel that prevents and treats alcohol intoxication in mice.Research Highlight: Organoids merge to model the blood–brain barrierResearch Highlight: How cheesemaking could cook up an antidote for alcohol excess11:36: Briefing ChatWhy babies are taking the South Korean government to court, and Europe’s efforts to send a nuclear-powered heater to Mars.Nature News: Why babies in South Korea are suing the governmentNature News: Mars rover mission will use pioneering nuclear power sourceSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.