Nature Podcast27 Sep 2023

This isn't the Nature Podcast — how deepfakes are distorting reality

In this episode:

00:45 How to tackle AI deepfakes

It has long been possible to create deceptive images, videos or audio to entertain or mislead audiences. Now, with the rise of AI technologies, such manipulations have become easier than ever. These deepfakes can spread misinformation, defraud people, and damage economies. To tackle this, researchers and companies are developing tools to find and label deepfakes, in an attempt to rob them of their potential to wreak havoc.

News Feature: How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science

11:17 Research Highlights

Ultra-accurate measurement of Earth’s day-length using lasers, and the insect that amputates its own legs to survive the cold.

Research Highlight: How lasers detect day-length changes of a few milliseconds

Research Highlight: Snow-loving flies amputate their own legs for survival

14:04 Stacked timbers might be evidence of ancient woodworking

Ancient stone tools are well preserved in the archeological record, and are used by researchers to understand the lives of ancient hominins. But other materials like wood are less common, since they will only preserve under specific conditions. Now researchers have found a trove of wooden artefacts in Zambia dated to be around 476,000 old. In particular, stacked timbers from the site could be the earliest known wooden structure, perhaps implying that ancient hominins had a greater capacity for woodworking than previously thought.

Research article: Barham et al.

News & Views: Hominins built with wood 476,000 years ago

Nature News: These ancient whittled logs could be the earliest known wooden structure

22:00 OSIRIS-REx brings haul of asteroid dust and rock back to Earth

This week, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx successfully landed a capsule containing rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu. We talk with reporter Alex Witze, who was on the ground in Utah when the samples landed, to find out what these ancient rocks could reveal about the origins of the Solar System.

Nature News: Special delivery! Biggest-ever haul of asteroid dust and rock returns to Earth

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