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The World, the Universe and Us

From the evolution of intelligent life, to the mysteries of consciousness; from the threat of the climate crisis to the search for dark matter,The world, the universe and usis your essential weekly dose of science and wonder in an uncertain world. Hosted by journalists Dr Rowan Hooper and Dr Penny Sarchet and joined each week by expert scientists in the field, the show draws onNew Scientist’s unparalleled depth of reporting to put the stories that matter into context. Feed your curiosity with the

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All Episodes

16:18

Dead Planets Society #3: Gravitational Wave Apocalypse

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/08/14

As if burrowing through a planet and blowing up the sun weren’t enough… This time, Chelsea and Leah hope to harness the power of gravitational waves to destroy everything we know and love.Christopher Berry at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) explains how they could create their own gravitational waves using a bespoke black hole machine, and helps them understand how to control such a device for their nefarious purposes…Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes

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25:51

Weekly: Ultra-processed foods not so bad?; Another...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/08/11

#210Ultra-processed foods are bad for us and we should avoid them at all costs – right? Well, it’s actually not as clear cut as that.The foods may actually form a much more important part of healthy diets than we release.Nuclear fusion, which could some day offer a low-waste source of clean power, is one step closer to becoming viable. Last year scientists managed to get more power out of a fusion reactor than they put in – a huge breakthrough for the technology. And this year they’ve done one

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19:55

CultureLab: Adventures of a prehistoric girl – Alice...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/08/07

Scientist and broadcaster Alice Roberts has written her first children’s book. The fictional tale follows prehistoric girl Tuuli, and captures the story of her encounter with a strange boy who leads her on a great adventure.Inspired by her own experiences trekking through the arctic, the book imagines what life would’ve been like for humans of the time, how they might’ve interacted with neanderthals and grapples with questions like: how were the first wolves domesticated?In this episode of

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32:32

Weekly: Surprise superconductor claims put to the...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/08/04

#209The saga of the room-temperature superconductor continues. The creators of a new material called LK-99 maintain that it perfectly conducts electricity at room temperature and pressure and so other scientists are racing to try to test it for themselves. If the findings are true it would be transformative to science and technology. It’s not just researchers, however, who are testing the material, citizen scientists are also trying to create it at home. Early results are now in.There’s a plan to

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21:17

Dead Planets Society #2: Punch A Hole in a Planet

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/31

In this episode of Dead Planets Society, Leah and Chelsea embark on a boring journey… no, as in they literally try to bore through a planet! With the help of planetary scientists, Baptiste Journaux of the University of Washington and Konstantin Batygin of the California Institute of Technology, our hosts drill down into the science of achieving this momentous task, discussing which planets are perfect for perforation, how to deal with melting drill bits, and catapulting a whale to outer space…Tune

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27:27

Weekly: Cheaper cures for many diseases; How to...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/28

New Scientist Weekly #208Better and cheaper treatments for everything from sickle cell disease to ageing should come as a result of a new technique for delivering mRNA to blood stem cells. The technique has been adapted from the technology in mRNA covid-19 vaccines and could even be used for doping in sport.Controversial claims of a superconductor that works at room temperature and pressure have ignited heated discussion this week. Such a finding would be revolutionary, with implications for

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25:22

CultureLab: Oppenheimer – The rise and fall of the...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/24

First J. Robert Oppenheimer created the weapon, then he fought for years to warn of its dangers. During the second world war, the so-called “father of the atomic bomb”, led a team of scientists in the US in a race against Nazi Germany to create the first nuclear weapon. Then it was used to kill thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.In Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s new 3-hour blockbuster, the film focuses on the years that followed and how the physicist’s campaigning ultimately led to his

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30:02

Weekly: How to measure consciousness; Nature-made...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/21

New Scientist Weekly #206A major theory of consciousness is being put to the test with brain scans. Integrated information theory proposes a value called "phi" to represent consciousness and in a new experiment, it seems to work. Does the discovery bring us any closer to solving the elusive “hard problem” of neuroscience?Graphene has been hailed as a super material since its synthesis in 2004. But, unbeknownst to us, nature has long-been producing graphene, right under our noses. Understanding

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19:44

Dead Planets Society #1: Kill The Sun

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/17

The sun is the centre of our solar system, the parent body to all the planets, unquestionably the most important cosmic objectforlife on Earth. But what if we were to destroy it?It turns outthat iseasier said than done. In the premier episode of the Dead Planets Society podcast, our hosts Leah Crane and Chelsea Whyte resort to extreme methods in their quest to put out the sun. They learn that adding a giant ball of water to the equation will only provide more fuel for the fire, stretching the sun

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29:14

Weekly: JWST’s amazing year; Giant sloth jewellery;...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/14

New Scientist Weekly #205Following a year of incredible, awe-inspiring images from deep space, the team is celebrating the 1st birthday of the James Webb Space Telescope. They reflect on the amazing discoveries so far, and look at how JWST will alter our understanding of the universe.From this summer, the International Seabed Authority will be considering licences for deep sea mining, despite the fact that no set of rules has been agreed upon to govern it. At this critical time, the team explores

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19:54

CultureLab: Earth’s Deep History: Chris Packham on...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/11

Our world has led a long, sometimes tumultuous, and always complicated life. Over the last four billion years, Earth’s geology has changed radically and dramatically.Earth, a new five-part BBC documentary narrated by naturalist Chris Packham, tells the story of this change by looking at significant moments in the planet’s history - from the dramatic moment when nearly all life on Earth was wiped out, to the end of the dinosaurs and the rise of humanity.In this episode, Chris explains why he was

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24:19

Weekly: Earth breaks heat records; Quantum LiDAR for...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/07/07

New Scientist Weekly #203July has become a record-busting month. In fact, this month has seen the hottest global average temperatures ever recorded on Earth. With heat waves hitting the US and the UK coast, the team finds out what’s driving temperatures to such extremes.Driverless cars could someday go quantum. LiDAR, a light-detection device used in driverless cars to help them navigate, could be replaced by quantum light, or photons. The team explains how this would make driverless cars better at

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30:15

Weekly: New era in gravitational astronomy; Upending...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/30

New Scientist Weekly #202In a potentially era-defining scientific breakthrough, we are now able to detect some of the biggest objects in the cosmos. Researchers have figured out how to use gravitational waves and dead stars to locate supermassive black holes. The team says this discovery could revolutionise our understanding of the origins of the universe.It’s often assumed that men in hunter-gatherer societies did the hunting, and women did the gathering. But that’s just plain wrong. Archaeological

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29:39

Weekly: The truth behind the orca uprising; Earth...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/22

New Scientist Weekly #201A new therapy is being used to treat a rare genetic disorder in babies, before they’ve even been born. The condition, called X-linked ectodermal dysplasia, which only affects boys, leaves them with few teeth, sparse hair and no sweat glands. The team learns about a groundbreaking technique which delivers a key protein to the fetus through the amniotic fluid.With extreme marine heatwaves currently hitting the UK and Ireland - and as temperatures climb with the arrival of El

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22:07

Weekly: Claims that secret alien technology is held...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/15

New Scientist Weekly #200Always trust your gut! A recent study shows that the composition of our gut microbiome may be directly linked to our overall intelligence, with certain bacteria, perhaps, influencing brain size; other bacteria, not so much. Alexandra Thompson discusses these remarkable findings with the team.Cephalopods have some extraordinary capabilities, and new research conducted by Joshua Rosenthal at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts reveals that they can even

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18:14

#199 Being Human: Lewis Dartnell on how our biology...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/13

Are humans the product of their environment, or do we shape the world around us? Lewis Dartnell, author of a series of books which explores this very question, sits down with culture and comment editor Alison Flood to discuss his most recent publication, Being Human.Lewis delves into the extraordinary role played by our biology in driving our behaviours and shaping our history. By re-examining elements of our daily lives that we commonly accept without question, he offers a fresh perspective,

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20:52

#198 Giant: An opera about the legacy of the ‘Irish...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/08

Welcome to CultureLab, from New Scientist podcasts. In this episode, culture and comment editor Alison Flood speaks with composer Sarah Angliss.Sarah has written a new opera called Giant, which is based on the true story of the 18th-century “Irish giant” Charles Byrne, who had an undiagnosed benign tumour of his pituitary gland which caused him to grow to be 2.31m tall. Byrne’s corpse was stolen and later put on public display by the surgeon John Hunter, despite his explicit wishes to be buried at

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29:07

#197 Ancient human Homo naledi had advanced culture;...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/08

A species of ancient human with a brain the size of a chimpanzee’s is upending what we thought we knew about human cognition and culture. Recent findings from Lee Berger and his team of palaeontologists suggest our extinct relative, Homo naledi, may have engraved symbols on cave walls and deliberately buried its dead. These people lived some 300,000 years ago and the team discusses the dramatic new findings.Air quality across northern parts of the United States, including New York City, has reached

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28:19

#196 Animal Liberation Now: Peter Singer on eating...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/05

What does it mean to eat and live ethically in today’s world?In 1975, Australian philosopher Peter Singer published his landmark book Animal Liberation, in which he advocated for a vegan diet and the improved treatment of animals, sparking a global movement for animal rights.Almost 50 years on, amid scientific and ethical advancements, Singer has released an updated version of his book: Animal Liberation Now.New Scientist reporter Madeleine Cuff asks Singer how his views on eating ethically have

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23:50

#195 Breakthrough in suspended animation; treatment...

The World, the Universe and Us ·

2023/06/01

Suspended animation - the stuff of science-fiction, or a real-world solution to surviving long voyages into deep space? Actually it’s neither, but researchers have now successfully induced hibernation in mice and rats, suggesting that the same may be possible for humans... The team explores what this could mean for future medical treatments.Sand martins – known as bank swallows in North America - have returned to their breeding grounds. Ornithologist Bill Haines takes Rowan under his wing at the

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