Hosted by Kevin Davies, PhD, GuidePost is an exciting podcast series featuring candid conversation with the pioneers and practitioners of CRISPR and gene editing research. Guests have included luminaries Emmanuelle Charpentier, Francisco Mojica, Rodolphe Barrangou, Virginijus Siksnys, Sylvain Moineau, and Jakob Sherkow, among others. GuidePost is produced by The CRISPR Journal, the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the science and applications of gene editing.
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The Nature Podcast brings you the best stories from the world of science each week. We cover everything from astronomy to zoology, highlighting the most exciting research from each issue of the Nature journal. We meet the scientists behind the results and provide in-depth analysis from Nature's journalists and editors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Can ageing be stopped? A biologist explains
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For millennia, humanity has obsessed about halting ageing and, ultimately, preventing death. Yet while advances in medicine and public-health have seen human life-expectancy more than double, our maximum lifespan stubbornly remains around 120 years. On the latest episode of Nature hits the books, Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan joins us to discus…
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AI can't learn new things forever — an algorithm can fix that
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00:46 Old AIs can’t learn new tricks An algorithm that reactivates dormant ‘neurons’ in deep learning based AIs could help them overcome their inability to learn new things and make future systems more flexible, research has shown. AIs based on deep learning struggle to learn how to tackle new tasks indefinitely, making them less adaptable to new s…
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The mystery of Stonehenge's central stone unearthed
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00:48 The mystery of Stonehenge’s Altar Stone Stonehenge’s central stone came from Northern Scotland, more than 600 miles away from the monument, according to a new analysis of its geochemistry. It is commonly accepted that many of the rocks that make up the iconic neolithic monument came from Wales, 150 miles from the site. Previously, it had been…
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ChatGPT has a language problem — but science can fix it
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AIs built on Large Language Models have wowed by producing particularly fluent text. However, their ability to do this is limited in many languages. As the data and resources used to train a model in a specific language drops, so does the performance of the model, meaning that for some languages the AIs are effectively useless. Researchers are awar…
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Where weird plants thrive: aridity spurs diversity of traits
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00:48 Plant trait diversity in drylands A study reveals that, unexpectedly, plants display a greater diversity of traits in drier environments. Trait diversity is a measure of an organism's performance in an environment and can include things like the size of a plant or its photosynthetic rate. Whilst there are good data on this kind of diversity i…
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How light-based computers could cut AI’s energy needs
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00:45 Increasing the energy efficiency of light-based computers Computer components based on specialised LEDs could reduce the energy consumption of power hungry AI systems, according to new research. AI chips with components that compute using light can run more efficiently than those using digital electronics, but these light-based systems typica…
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Audio long read: Hope, despair and CRISPR — the race to save one woman’s life
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In India, a group of researchers raced to develop a CRISPR-based genome editing therapy to save the life of a young woman with a rare neurodegenerative disease. Despite a valiant effort, the pace of research was ultimately too slow to save her life. While many are convinced that these therapies could offer hope to those with overlooked genetic cond…
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Rapid sepsis test identifies bacteria that spark life-threatening infection
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00:48 A rapid way to identify serious bacterial infections A newly-developed method that can rapidly identify the type of bacteria causing a blood-infection, and the correct antibiotics to treat it, could save clinicians time, and patient lives. Blood infections are serious, and can lead to the life-threatening condition sepsis, but conventional di…
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The plastic that biodegrades in your home compost
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01:04 A gel to safely transport proteins A gel that encases proteins could be a new way to safely transport medicines without requiring them to be kept cold, according to new research. To test it, the team behind the work posted themselves a protein suspended in this gel, showing that it was perfectly preserved and retained its activity, despite be…
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Breastfeeding should break down mothers' bones — here's why it doesn't
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00:45 In situ editing of the gut microbiome Researchers have developed a method to directly edit the genes of specific bacteria in the guts of live mice, something that has previously been difficult to accomplish due to the complexity of this environment. The tool was able to edit over 90% of an E. coli strain colonising mice guts, with other work …
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These frog 'saunas’ could help endangered species fight off a deadly fungus
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00:47 Searching for dark matter in black holes Researchers have been scanning the skies looking for black holes that formed at the very beginning of the Universe — one place where elusive and mysterious dark matter is thought to be located. If these black holes did contain dark matter, they would be especially massive and so researchers would be ab…
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Audio long read: How NASA astronauts are training to walk on the Moon in 2026
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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 Arizo…
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Why ‘open source’ AIs could be anything but, the derailment risks of long freight trains, and breeding better wheat
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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, advoc…
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How do fish know where a sound comes from? Scientists have an answer
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00:46 How light touches are sensed during sex 150 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 …
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Hybrid working works: huge study reveals no drop in productivity
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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…
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Twitter suspended 70,000 accounts after the Capitol riots and it curbed misinformation
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In this episode: 00:46 Making a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate For 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 preve…
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How AI could improve robotics, the cockroach’s origins, and promethium spills its secrets
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In this episode: 00:25 What the rise of AI language models means for robots Companies 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, …
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How mathematician Freeman Hrabowski opened doors for Black scientists
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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 o…
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Audio long read: How does ChatGPT ‘think’? Psychology and neuroscience crack open AI large language models
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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 vers…
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Fentanyl addiction: the brain pathways behind the opioid crisis
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00:45 The neuroscience of fentanyl addiction Research 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 …
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Lizard-inspired building design could save lives
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In this episode: 00:45 A recyclable 3D printing resin from an unusual source Many 3D printers create objects using liquid resins that turn into robust solids when exposed to light. But many of these are derived from petrochemicals that are difficult to recycle. To overcome this a team has developed a new type of resin, which they’ve made using a bo…
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Alphafold 3.0: the AI protein predictor gets an upgrade
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In this episode: 00:45 A nuclear timekeeper that could transform fundamental-physics research. Nuclear clocks — based on tiny shifts in energy in an atomic nucleus — could be even more accurate and stable than other advanced timekeeping systems, but have been difficult to make. Now, a team of researchers have made a breakthrough in the development …
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Talking about sex and gender doesn't need to be toxic
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Ever since scientific enquiry began, people have focused mainly on men, or if studies involve animals, on male mice, male rats or whatever it may be. And this has led to gaps in scientists’ understanding of how diseases, and responses to treatment, and many other things might vary between people of different sexes and genders. These days, mainly th…
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Dad's microbiome can affect offsprings' health — in mice
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In this episode: 00:46 Using genomics to explain geographic differences in cancer risk The risk of developing cancer can vary hugely depending on geographic region, but it’s not exactly clear why. To get a better idea, a team has compared the genomes of kidney cancers taken from people around the globe. They reveal a link between geographical locat…
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Audio long read: Why loneliness is bad for your health
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Many people around the world feel lonely. Chronic loneliness is known to have far-reaching health effects and has been linked to multiple conditions and even early death. But the mechanisms through which feeling alone can lead to poor health is a puzzle. Now, researchers are looking at neurons in the hopes that they may help explain why health issu…
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