Best Springer Nature Podcasts (2024)

1
Collection on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder 17:29

20h ago17:29

17:29

In this episode, Geoff Marsh speaks to Dr. Stephanie Ford about our Collection on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.Access the full collection here: https://www.nature.com/collections/fccidiefbiBy Springer Nature

1
Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter 1:00:34

33m ago1:00:34

1:00:34

Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023), by Johns Hopkins University instructor Jamie Zvirzdin, is a guide for writing about science—from the subatomic level up! Subatomic Writing teaches that the building blocks of language are like particles in physics. These particles, combined and arranged, fo…

1
This AI powered 'tongue' can tell Coke and Pepsi apart 38:46

2h ago38:46

38:46

00:55 Graphene Tongue Researchers have developed a graphene ‘tongue’ that uses AI to tell the subtle differences between drinks. Graphene has long been sought after as a chemical sensor, but tiny variations between devices have meant that it couldn’t be used very reliably. The team behind the ‘tongue’ got around this problem by training an AI to te…

1
Transnational Communicative Care 52:55

3d ago52:55

52:55

How do families care for each when they are divided over generations by powerful geopolitical forces beyond their control? In this episode, Hanna Torsh speaks with Lynnette Arnold about her new book Living Together Across Borders: Communicative Care in Transnational Salvadoran Families (Oxford University Press, 2024). Lynnette also shares her tips …

1
Strange gamma-ray flickers seen in thunderstorms for the first time 30:55

7d ago30:55

30:55

00:46 Physicists spot new types of high-energy radiation in thunderstorms Physicists have identified new forms of γ-ray radiation created inside thunderclouds, and shown that levels of γ-ray production are much higher on Earth than previously thought. Scientists already knew about two types of γ-ray phenomena in thunderclouds — glows that last as l…

1
Naomi Seidman, "In the Freud Closet: Psychoanalysis and Jewish Languages" (Stanford UP, 2024) 1:13:30

7d ago1:13:30

1:13:30

There is an academic cottage industry on the "Jewish Freud," aiming to detect Jewish influences on Freud, his own feelings about being Jewish, and suppressed traces of Jewishness in his thought. In Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish (Stanford University Press, 2024), Naomi Seidman takes a different approach, turning …

1
Audio long read: A day in the life of the world’s fastest supercomputer 20:19

12d ago20:19

20:19

The world's fastest supercomputer, known as Frontier, is located at the Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. This machine churns through data at record speed, outpacing 100,000 laptops working simultaneously. With nearly 50,000 processors, Frontier was designed to push the bounds of human knowledge. It's bein…

1
Police First Responders Interacting with Domestic Violence Victims 33:56

12d ago33:56

33:56

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Tazin Abdullah speaks with Dr. Kate Steel, Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of the West of England, in Bristol, UK. Tazin and Kate discuss discursive management in the context of police first responders and domestic violence victims, focusing on Kate’s research in her 2024 paper ‘“Can I …

1
What do editors do? 15:17

13d ago15:17

15:17

Even non-academics hear a lot these days about the peer review process, but how does this work behind the scenes? In this episode we meet another new associate editor, Sebastian Ramos Onsins. We also find out what editors do at the journal from Co-editor-in-chief Sara Goodacre and editorial assistant Sandra Huettenbuegel.…

1
Ep 16: w/ Vicki-Jo Russell AM & Jill Woodlands | South Australia's Nature Festival + nature events + careers in conservation + biodiversity advocacy + horticulture + community engagement + resilience in ... 47:42

13d ago47:42

47:42

On this episode, we’ll be talking the Nature Festival! The Nature Festival is returning for its fifth year, with over 400 nature-inspired events across South Australia, from 28 Sept until 13 Oct. The pod is joined by the co-founders of the Nature Festival, the Festival Chair Vicki-Jo Russell AM, and Nature Curator Jill Woodlands, to chat how it cam…

1
Children with Down's syndrome are more likely to get leukaemia: stem-cells hint at why 21:58

14d ago21:58

21:58

In this episode: 00:46 Unravelling why children with Down’s syndrome are at a higher risk of leukaemia Children with Down’s syndrome have a 150-fold increased risk of developing leukaemia than those without the condition. Now, an in-depth investigation has revealed that changes to genome structures in fetal liver stem-cells appear to be playing a k…

1
Remembering Barbara Horvath: A Discussion with Livia Gerber 53:11

19d ago53:11

53:11

The sociolinguistics community, particularly in Australia and the US, mourns the recent passing of pioneering sociolinguist Barbara Horvath. To honor her memory, we bring you an oral history interview that Livia Gerber did with Barbara in 2017. The interview was commissioned by the Australian Linguistic Society as part of a larger oral history proj…

1
Colossal 'jets' shooting from a black hole defy physicists' theories 34:06

21d ago34:06

34:06

In this episode: 00:45 The biggest black hole jets ever seen Astronomers have spotted a pair of enormous jets emanating from a supermassive black hole with a combined length of 23 million light years — the biggest ever discovered. Jets are formed when matter is ionized and flung out of a black hole, creating enormous and powerful structures in spac…

1
Zrinka Stahuljak, "Fixers: Agency, Translation, and the Early Global History of Literature" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 1:10:44

22d ago1:10:44

1:10:44

In Fixers: Agency, Translation, and the Early Global History of Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Dr. Zrinka Stahuljak challenges scholars in both mediaeval and translation studies to rethink how ideas and texts circulated in the mediaeval world. Whereas many view translators as mere conduits of authorial intention, Dr. Stahuljak prop…

1
Ancient DNA debunks Rapa Nui ‘ecological suicide’ theory 41:41

28d ago41:41

41:41

In this episode: 00:45 What ancient DNA has revealed about Rapa Nui’s past Ancient DNA analysis has further demonstrated that the people of Rapa Nui did not cause their own population collapse, further refuting a controversial but popular claim. Rapa Nui, also known as Easter island, is famous for its giant Moai statues and the contested idea that …

1
The baseless stat that could be harming Indigenous conservation efforts 14:29

1M ago14:29

14:29

The often repeated claim that "80% of the world's biodiversity is found in the territories of Indigenous Peoples" appears widely in policy documents and reports, yet appears to have sprung out of nowhere. According to a group of researchers, including those from Indigenous groups, this baseless statistic could be undermining the conservation effort…

1
Jinhyun Cho, "English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present" (Springer, 2017) 49:05

1M ago49:05

49:05

Brynn Quick speaks with Dr. Jinhyun Cho, Senior Lecturer in the Translation and Interpreting Program of the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Her research interests are primarily in the field of sociolinguistics and sociolinguistics of translation & interpreting. Jinhyun's research focuses on intersections betw…

1
Long-sought 'nuclear clocks' are one tick closer 31:24

1M ago31:24

31:24

In this episode: 00:45 Why a 'nuclear clock' is now within researchers’ reach Researchers have made a big step towards the creation of the long theorized nuclear clock, by getting the most accurate measurement of the frequency of light required to push thorium nuclei into a higher energy state. Such a timekeeper would differ from the best current c…

1
August/Senior Investigator: Conversation with Tina Cheng 12:45

1M ago12:45

12:45

This episode features a conversation with Senior Investigator Tina Cheng, who has held several leadership positions over her career, including her current roles as Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, and Director of the Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation. Her clinical work and research work have had a long and lasting impact…

1
Audio long read: So you got a null result. Will anyone publish it? 17:44

1M ago17:44

17:44

The 'file-drawer problem', where findings with null or negative results gather dust and are left unpublished, is well known in science. There has been an overriding perception that studies with positive or significant findings are more important, but this bias can have real-world implications, skewing perceptions of drug efficacies, for example. Mu…

1
Ep 15: RE-RUN w/ Geoff Williams | Platypus Reintroduction to River Torrens + Australian Platypus Conservancy + career in wildlife conservation + platypus + urban adaptability + conservation strategies 46:28

1M ago46:28

46:28

You might not know that August is known as Platypus Month. So to celebrate this iconic Australian creature we’ll be re-running our episode all about platypuses and reintroducing them to metro Adelaide with the fun and knowledgeable Geoff Williams from the Australian Platypus Conservatory. I’ll be back with a new ep for the pod next month! This epis…

1
Covert racism in AI chatbots, precise Stone Age engineering, and the science of paper cuts 20:40

1M ago20:40

20:40

In this episode: 00:31 Chatbots makes racist judgements on the basis of dialect Research has shown that large language models, including those that power chatbots such as ChatGPT, make racist judgements on the basis of users’ dialect. If asked to describe a person, many AI systems responded with racist stereotypes when presented with text written i…

1
Genetic simulations with SLiM 21:52

1M ago21:52

21:52

The use of genetic simulations is gaining popularity. In this episode we learn about SLiM (https://messerlab.org/slim/), one of the most popular software packages, from one of its creators - Ben Haller.By Springer Nature

1
Empowering Science Communication through Storytelling, One Quilt at a Time: An Interview with Prof. Laura Guertin, Penn State Brandywine University 28:47

2M ago28:47

28:47

Summary Professor Laura Guertin, a marine geologist and earth science educator, combines her passion for science with quilting to create science storytelling quilts. These quilts serve as a unique and engaging way to communicate scientific data and concepts to non-STEM audiences. By incorporating data sets into the quilts, Laura is able to captivat…

1
Uluğ Kuzuoğlu, "Codes of Modernity: Chinese Scripts in the Global Information Age" (Columbia UP, 2023) 57:37

2M ago57:37

57:37

In the late nineteenth century, Chinese reformers and revolutionaries believed that there was something fundamentally wrong with the Chinese writing system. The Chinese characters, they argued, were too cumbersome to learn, blocking the channels of communication, obstructing mass literacy, and impeding scientific progress. What had sustained a civi…

1
Can ageing be stopped? A biologist explains 30:43

2M ago30:43

30:43

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…

1
GWAS of coffee intake uncover cohort-specific genetic associations 9:39

2M ago9:39

9:39

Researchers are interested in understanding the biology of why some people are more likely to overconsume substances. Some substances are difficult to study—people might not admit to illegal substance abuse or to how much alcohol they drink. But Americans are more likely to accurately recall and share how much coffee they drink—which is related to …

1
AI can't learn new things forever — an algorithm can fix that 19:50

2M ago19:50

19:50

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…

1
He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters 55:32

2M ago55:32

55:32

Schuyler Bailar didn’t set out to be an activist, but his very public transition to the Harvard men’s swim team put him in the spotlight. His choice to be open about his journey and share his experience has evolved into tireless advocacy for inclusion and collective liberation. Today’s book is: He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why it Matte…

1
What's hot in stem cells and regenerative biology? 13:23

2M ago13:23

13:23

Listen to July's Pediapod episode: What's hot in stem cells and regenerative biology? with Atul Malhotra.By Springer Nature

1
The mystery of Stonehenge's central stone unearthed 22:49

2M ago22:49

22:49

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…

1
Iris Berent, "The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason about Human Nature" (Oxford UP, 2020) 56:28

2M ago56:28

56:28

Do newborns think-do they know that 'three' is greater than 'two'? Do they prefer 'right' to 'wrong'? What about emotions--do newborns recognize happiness or anger? If they do, then how are our inborn thoughts and feelings encoded in our bodies? Could they persist after we die? Going all the way back to ancient Greece, human nature and the mind-bod…

1
Gavin Steingo, "Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 58:15

2M ago58:15

58:15

In Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity (U Chicago Press, 2024), music scholar Gavin Steingo examines significant cases of attempted communication beyond the human--cases in which the dualistic relationship of human to non-human is dramatically challenged. From singing whales to Sun Ra to searching for alien life, Steingo cha…

1
ChatGPT has a language problem — but science can fix it 36:50

2M ago36:50

36:50

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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