Babbage from The Economist

For decades, futurists have promised that robots will transform society, yet that still feels like a distant prospect. In this episode, recorded live at the “Web Summit” technology conference in Lisbon, our guests explain why a robotic revolution is closer than you think—and what they’re doing to make it a reality.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guests: Robert Playter, the boss of Boston Dynamics; and Tye Brady, the chief technologist at Amazon Robotics. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Only 10% of people around the world who need organ transplants actually end up receiving them, due to a shortage of suitable donors and extremely complicated logistics. Some scientists have therefore been looking for more radical solutions: transplanting genetically-modified pig organs into humans. The field has seen rapid progress in recent years—will such procedures become mainstream?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guests: The Economist’s Emilie Steinmark; Leonardo Riella of Massachusetts General Hospital; and Tim Andrews, one of Dr Riella’s patients. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Between 2001 and 2024, a quarter of Madagascar’s native rainforest has vanished. At this rate of destruction, those ecosystems will be entirely wiped out by the end of the century. Could collecting and preserving the seeds of the endangered plants help repair the country’s ancient forests?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guests: The Economist’s Ainslie Johnstone; Henintsoa Razanajatovo and Nomentsoa Randriamamonj of Kew Madagascar; Sharon Balding and Charlotte Lusty of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Two decades ago, Neil Shubin discovered a fish-like fossil which transformed scientists’ understanding of how animals transitioned out of the sea. In this episode, Prof Shubin tells us about hunting for fossils at Earth’s extremes and how he is gearing up for another big challenge: taking the reins of America’s National Academy of Sciences. In his telling, American science is in a “dark age”. Why, then, is he so optimistic?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guest: Professor Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago and the author of “Ends of the Earth”.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

A new class of synthetic opioids is sweeping through illicit drug markets all over the world. Nitazenes can be up to 25 times more potent than fentanyl—and hundreds of times stronger than heroin. How could restrictions on other drugs have fuelled the spread of these dangerous new opioids, and what should governments do about it?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guests: The Economist’s Emilie Steinmark; Phoenix Kellye of Rebel Harm Reduction; George Eze of the University of Sierra Leone Teaching Hospitals Complex. Thanks also to The Economist’s Ore Ogunbiyi. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Since 1901, the Nobel prizes have been the pinnacle of scientific achievement. This week, nine more scientists joined the ranks of Albert Einstein and Marie Curie, as they were recognised for their work in immunology, quantum computing and inventing a new class of materials. Who are the scientists who earned those coveted phone calls from Stockholm?Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guests: The Economist’s Natasha Loder, Geoff Carr and Tim Cross.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

How do you make an object invisible? Professor Sir John Pendry worked out that it involves guiding and bending light in precise ways by changing the structure of the material it is travelling through. His subsequent work on the interactions between light and matter has led to a new class of materials, known as “metamaterials”, which enable seemingly impossible things to happen. In this episode, he tells us how they work and their applications in everything from 5G technology to simulating the conditions around black holes.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guest: Professor Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Scientists at NASA recently announced that they had found “the clearest sign of life” that has ever been discovered on Mars. The “potential biosignature” of ancient microbial life was found in a Martian rock sample. But to find out if it really is a sign of life, the sample needs to be brought back to Earth for further study—a task far more complicated than you might expect.Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guests: Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Sanjeev Gupta of Imperial College London; and The Economist’s Oliver Morton.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.