The world, the universe and us

• Is this the first step to cyborg brains? How drones are reshaping warfare forever; New Vera Rubin observatory goes live

  Episode 307 Using new “ultrasoft” electronics, researchers at Harvard have effectively created tadpole cyborgs. A soft bioelectronic device has been implanted into their brains - one which grows with them as they develop into frogs. This neural implant is a first step in helping us better understand the inner workings of the brain. But could this work in mammals…or humans? Discussing just that, the Royal Society held a meeting this week called Cyborg Futures. How soon until humans become one with machines? A small fleet of cheap drones has been deployed by Ukraine’s security service, causing $7 billion of damage to Russian air power. Just 117 drones were able to take out a third of Russia’s nuclear bomb force. Difficult to catch, hard to jam and nearly impossible to shoot down - are drones a paradigm shift in warfare? The Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile has just opened, promising to carry out a legacy survey of space and time. US editor Chelsea Whyte visited the newly operational telescope to see how it will map out the night sky in never-before-seen detail. Learn how it hopes to answer some of the biggest mysteries about dark matter and dark energy - and find out about the legacy of Vera Rubin, the astronomer the telescope is named after. Think net-zero climate action is costing us way too much, driving up living costs and damaging the economy? Think again. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has taken on all of the misinformation circulating about our goal to achieve net zero emissions, showing that raising climate ambition would actually boost the global economy. Find out why. Chapters: (00:32) Frogs with cyborg brains…are humans next? (11:25) How drones are reshaping warfare (16:16) Vera Rubin observatory opens (24:59) How net zero will boost the global economy Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Alexandra Thompson, Chelsea Whyte, Jonathan Rossiter, Tamar Makin, Robert Bunker and Simon Evans. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• $1 trillion of platinum on the moon; how your brain distinguishes between reality and imagination; rise of the hyperworm

  Episode 306 It’s been discovered that the moon is probably home to $1 trillion worth of platinum. Researchers suggest nearly 6500 of the Moon’s craters were made by asteroids containing commercial quantities of platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium. Does that mean space companies are going to head out on mining missions imminently…and should they? Hear the reasons for and against mining on the Moon. When you imagine something in your mind, how does your brain know that it’s not real? Certain brain regions have been identified in a new experiment which help keep reality and make-believe separate. This finding could tell us a lot about conditions like schizophrenia - or what’s going on when we dream. It may even answer that question; are we living in a simulation? Read our imagination special here: https://www.newscientist.com/issue/3545/  A newly discovered emergent behaviour has been found in nematode worms - the world’s commonest animal. These millimetre long worms are able to merge to form superorganisms, creating tentacles or towers that can straddle long distances. Learn about this collective behaviour and how it's coordinated.  Chapters: (00:16) Platinum on the moon (08:44) How your brain distinguishes between reality and imagination  (18:05) Rise of the hyperworm - nematodes merge to form superorganism Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Carissa Wong, Jayanth Chennamangalam, Steve Fleming and Serena Ding. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• The real threat of AI - ethics, exploitation and the erosion of truth

  Episode 305 As artificial intelligence grows into more and more aspects of our lives, it seems we’re just at the beginning of the boom. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being pumped into advancing AI capabilities, making it the best funded area in science. But, just like the dot-com revolution, is it a bubble waiting to burst? In this special episode of the podcast, we explore the growing promise of AI - and also the existential threat it poses. Despite the amount of money going into AI, chatbots are still making glaring mistakes, plagued with hallucinations. All the while students are relying on them to do their homework for them, and others are using them to replace very human tasks, like writing wedding speeches. So we hear from two authors who have been thinking hard about AI and machine learning - and what that means for the future. We also get into the idea of AGI, artificial general intelligence - and its cousin, artificial superintelligence, which may already exist in certain areas. With many researchers concerned about AI overthrowing humanity, is it even worth worrying about? We dig into whether AGI is even possible and who would want to develop it. This discussion has to include some mention of the human and environmental costs of these technologies, too. Energy demands are expected to skyrocket over the next few years - can the planet keep up with the demand? And alongside that, there’s a lot of human exploitation going on to help fuel these machines - a little-known fact that has to be tackled. Finally, is superintelligent AI a threat to the existence of humankind - will they want to wipe us out when they get smart enough? Or is the threat more insidious, one where we watch the slow erosion of truth and democracy? Chapters: (02:49) How chatbots and LLMs came to dominate (15:50) Superintelligent AI (18:18) What does $500 billion buy? (19:30) The high energy demand of AI (20:56) The murky ethics of the AI race (25:15) How AI is being thrust upon us (26:48) The existential threat of AI (29:57) Is AI a bubble waiting to burst? Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Sophie Bushwick, with guests Alex Wilkins, Adam Becker and Emily Bender.To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Are smartphones really causing mental illness in teens?; More evidence of alien life; Digital oak trees

  Episode 304 It seems the world is on heightened alert about the impact smartphones are having on our children’s brains. But are we right to be worried? Jonathan Haidt’s book the Anxious Generation has played a big role in this debate, with many researchers agreeing smartphones cause harm and action needs to be taken. But is there actually any scientific evidence to back all of these claims up? The “strongest evidence” for alien life was announced just a few weeks ago - but not everyone was happy with this discovery and it came under quite a lot of fire. The team that discovered this alien signal were analysing data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Now other researchers have looked at the same data and have come to different conclusions. But rather than proving critics right, it seems the evidence for aliens just got stronger. A digital oak tree is on display at Kew Gardens in London. Of the Oak is an immersive installation by art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast in collaboration with ecologists, biologists and researchers. The aim is to show the inner workings of the oak, to allow people to connect more deeply with it and to tune into “tree time”.  Chapters: (00:32) Are smartphones causing mental illness in teens? (05:58) More evidence for alien life (13:28) Of the Oak display at Kew Hosted by Timothy Revell and Madeleine Cuff, with guests Jacob Aron, Alex Wilkins, Rowan Hooper, Ersin Han Ersin and Ruth Mitchell.To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• China’s carbon emissions fall; norovirus vaccine; chaotic breakup of the solar system

  Episode 303 China is becoming a de facto leader in the fight against climate change. Right now it’s the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, but after years of keeping its emissions steady, they have finally begun to fall. And this is all while China’s power demands have increased - suggesting its efforts to build clean energy are paying off. But is this enough to make a realistic dent on curbing global warming? And how will the uncertainty of President Trump’s administration impact this trend? A vaccine for the dreaded norovirus is in the works - and it’s already proving effective. Known as the winter vomiting bug, this nasty gastrointestinal illness affects 685 million people a year. Thanks to a company in San Francisco and some heroic people who served as test subjects, we may be closer than ever to staving it off. At some point, in a few billion years, our solar system may break up in the most spectacular fashion, simply because of random chaos and instability. But now researchers have found a bigger threat to the survival of our solar system - passing stars. Less random and chaotic, stars actually pass by our sun fairly regularly, and could dislodge planets like Pluto, flinging them out of orbit and impacting the other planets. Do you find yourself teary eyed when cutting onions? Well, you’re in luck. Scientists have found the perfect way to cut an onion without crying. We provide a live demonstration for your amusement. Chapters: (00:47) Decline of China’s carbon emissions (11:05) Norovirus vaccine (17:52) Catastrophic break-up of our solar system (23:26) Scientific way to cut an onion without crying Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests James Dinneen, Carissa Wong, Alex Wilkins, Lauri Myllivirta, Chris Packham and Sean Raymond. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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