Science Weekly
Twice a week, the Guardian brings you the latest science and environment news
Everything you need to know about Covid this autumn – podcast
Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, the Guardian’s science editor and Science Weekly co-host, to answer the questions we are all asking about Covid this autumn, from what is going on with the new variant XEC to how to get a vaccine and what scientists think the government should be doing differently
Is the ocean becoming too acidic to sustain life? – podcast
Industrial civilisation is close to breaching a seventh planetary boundary, and may already have crossed it, according to scientists who have compiled the latest report on the state of the world’s life-support systems. They say ocean acidification is close to critical threshold, posing a threat to marine ecosystems and global liveability. Ian Sample speaks to Prof Helen Findlay, a biological oceanographer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, to find out why the oceans have reached this state, and whether there is anything we can do to reverse the damage.
Are the world’s oldest people really that old? – podcast
Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Saul Newman, an interdisciplinary researcher at University College London and the University of Oxford, who has just won an Ig Nobel prize – given to scientific research that ‘first makes people laugh, and then makes them think’ – for his work showing that many claims of people living extraordinarily long lives come from places with short lifespans, no birth certificates, and where clerical errors and pension fraud abound
Live episode: will AI make a good companion? – podcast
In a special episode recorded live at the British Science Festival, Madeleine Finlay and guests explore the question: will AI make a good companion? Madeleine is joined by the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample; Tony Prescott, a professor of computational robotics at Sheffield University; and Dr Mhairi Aitken, an ethics fellow at the Alan Turing Institute and visiting senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London
The sweeping reorganisation of the brain in pregnancy, and why it matters – podcast
Ian Sample talks to Dr Laura Pritschet, a postdoctoral fellow of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, about her research using precision scans to capture the profound changes that sweep across the brain during pregnancy. She explains what this new work reveals about how the brain is reorganised in this period, whether it could it help us better understand conditions like pre-eclampsia and postnatal depression, and why women’s brains have often been overlooked by neuroscience
From dementia to heart disease: could weight-loss jabs transform chronic conditions? – podcast
Study after study seems to suggest drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy could have all sorts of health benefits, leading some scientists to hail them a breakthrough that could transform many chronic diseases of ageing. Nicola Davis tells Madeleine Finlay what is known so far
Transparent skin, bird flu, and why girls’ brains aged during Covid: the week in science – podcast
Ian Sample and science correspondent Hannah Devlin discuss some of the science stories that have made headlines this week, from a new technique that uses food colouring to make skin transparent, to the first case of bird flu in a person with no known contact with sick animals, and a study looking at premature brain ageing in young people during Covid
Into the abyss beneath Greenland’s glaciers – podcast
Environment editor Damian Carrington tells Madeleine Finlay about his recent trip to Greenland on board a ship with a group of intrepid scientists. They were on a mission to explore the maelstrom beneath Greenland’s glaciers, an area that has never been studied before, and were hoping to find answers to one of the world’s most pressing questions – how quickly will sea levels rise?
The arrest of Telegram’s founder, and what it means for social media – podcast
The arrest of Telegram’s founder and CEO in Paris last month has thrown the spotlight on the messaging app and its approach to content moderation. Madeleine Finlay hears from Russian affairs reporter Pjotr Sauer and technology journalist Alex Hern about how the case could influence how social media companies approach problematic content on their platforms
What’s happened to all the butterflies? – podcast
Phoebe Weston speaks to Dr Richard Fox, head of science for the charity Butterfly Conservation, and to Matthew Hayes, who is part of the Banking on Butterflies project, about what’s going on with butterflies and how we can all play a role in helping them survive extreme weather
Secrets of ageing: making our last years count – podcast
In the final episode of a special Science Weekly three-part mini-series on ageing, Ian Sample meets Dr Rachel Broudy, medical director at Pioneer Valley Hospice and faculty lead of eldercare at Ariadne Labs, to find out how we can stop fearing our old age, and perhaps even make it fun.