Nature Podcast10 Des 2025

Neanderthals mastered fire — 400,000 years ago

00:46 Evidence of the earliest fire

Baked soil, ancient tools, and materials that could be used to start fires show that Neanderthals were making fire in the UK 400,000 years ago — the earliest evidence of this skill found so far. Ancient humans are known to have used naturally occurring fires, but evidence of deliberate fire-starting has been hard to come by. A new suite of evidence pushes back the date of fire mastery by 350,000 years. The team behind the finding believe it helps create a more nuanced picture of Neanderthals, who perhaps gathered round fires and told stories in ancient Europe.

Research Article: Davis et al.

News and Views: Oldest known evidence of the controlled ignition of fire

11:31 Research Highlights

Machine-learning algorithms can help to identify traces of life in ancient rocks — plus, why paintings containing a vivid green pigment lose their lustre over time.

Research Highlight: AI finds signs of life in ancient rocks

Research Highlight: The mystery of emerald green — cracked

13:55 How AI chatbots can sway voters with ease

Research suggests that artificial-intelligence chatbots can influence voters’ political views and have a bigger effect than conventional campaigning and advertising. One study found that chatbot conversations swung participants’ candidate preferences by up to 15 percentage points, while another revealed that the chatbots’ effectiveness stems from their ability to synthesize a lot of information in a conversational way.

Nature: AI chatbots can sway voters with remarkable ease — is it time to worry?

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