Nature Podcast6 Dec 2023

The world’s smallest light-trapping silicon cavity

In this episode:

00:48 A gap for trapping light

Confining photons within materials opens up potential applications in quantum computing and telecommunications. But capturing light requires nanoscale cavities, which are difficult to make. This week, a team has created the smallest silicon gap yet for this purpose, just two nano-metres wide, by exploiting the intermolecular forces that are usually an obstacle when creating such small structures. They show this gap can trap light effectively, but they also believe that their method could be used to create tiny cavities for use in a range of different fields.

Research Article: Babar et al.

News and Views: Self-assembling structures close the gap to trap light

07:28 Research Highlights

Researchers head into the wilderness to search for dark matter, and the discovery that bottlenose dolphins can sense weak magnetic fields.

Research Highlight: The hunt for dark-matter particles ventures into the wild

Research Highlight: Dolphins have a feel for electric fields

09:54 The environmental cost of tackling poverty

Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than US$2.15 a day, affects around 10% of the world’s population. In the past, economic growth has generally been seen as key to reducing poverty; however, such growth has also led to an increase in climate-warming emissions. To find out whether poverty can be tackled without costing the planet, a team of researchers modelled how different levels of economic growth would affect global emissions. They found that ending poverty has only a negligible impact on emissions, which could be lowered even further by decarbonising energy production.

Research Article: Wollburg et al.

News and Views: Tackling extreme poverty around the world need not impede climate action

News: Catastrophic change looms as Earth nears climate ‘tipping points’, report says

News: Scientists skip COP28 to demand climate action at home

18:36 Briefing Chat

Scientists create a robotic octopus arm that you can control with a finger, and how disruptive science seems to elude farflung teams.

Nature News: How does it feel to have an octopus arm? This robo-tentacle lets people find out

Nature News: ‘Disruptive’ science: in-person teams make more breakthroughs than remote groups

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(926)

Briefing Chat: The Bunsen burner myth that turns out to be just hot air

Nature staff discuss an AI tool that can assess the impact of nine billion mutations — plus, how the Bunsen burner’s reputation for sterilization may be based on tradition alone.00:21 Deepmind’s new t...

11 Sep 15min

Phone tutoring boosts math scores when schools are forced to close

In this episode:00:46 How telephone teaching could boost education during school shutdownsNature: Pick up the phone! Phone calls with tutors keep kids learning when schools shut down11:42 Research Hig...

9 Sep 21min

Briefing Chat: How 1,000 pairs of buried underpants helped measure soil health

In this episode:00:21 Our picks of this year’s Ig Nobel prizesNature: Buried underpants and a new definition of kissing win 2026 Ig Nobel prizes07:47 Massive xenon experiment detects tantalizing hint ...

4 Sep 12min

Audio long read: Could mending damaged DNA prolong life?

Scientists are amassing evidence that unrepaired or poorly repaired DNA damage underlies many of the hallmarks of ageing. This has led to research into whether boosting DNA repair can keep people heal...

2 Sep 18min

Briefing Chat: How Dolly Parton left her mark on science

In this episode:00:18 Researchers celebrate Dolly Parton's contributions to scienceNature: Dolly Parton dies aged 80 — researchers celebrate her contributions to science08:40 Phase III trial of melano...

28 Aug 14min

Highest-ever ocean temperatures recorded as El Niño intensifies

Why extreme temperatures are expected to weaken ocean carbon sinks — plus, how mitochondrial injections could treat vision loss.00:46 The world’s oceans reach a record temperatureNature: Ocean tempera...

26 Aug 19min

Briefing Chat: New narcolepsy drug could unlock host of novel brain therapies

Nature staff discuss how an FDA-approved drug for narcolepsy could have promise beyond the condition, and the longest-lived human brain organoids yet.00:28 The promise of a new narcolepsy drugNature: ...

21 Aug 12min

A black hole's spin could finally be measured by a high-speed star

Star orbiting close to Sagittarius A* could reveal its spin — plus, how exoskeletons might change the way humans move.00:46 The star that could reveal a black hole’s spinResearch article: Dayem et al....

19 Aug 29min