Researchers have developed two compounds that can kill malaria-causing parasites within mosquitoes, an approach they hope could help reduce transmission of the disease. The team showed that these compounds can be embedded into the plastics used to make bed nets, providing an alternative to insecticide-based malaria-control measures, which are losing efficacy in the face of increased resistance.

Research article: Probst et al.

The sunlight-powered device that can harvest drinkable water from desert air, and evidence that the world’s richest people are disproportionately responsible for climate impacts.

Research Highlight: Atacama sunshine helps to pull water from thin air

Research Highlight: The world’s richest people have an outsized role in climate extremes

Researchers have found specific genetic mutations that can lead to pregnancy loss. It’s known that errors, such as the duplication of chromosomes, can lead to nonviable pregnancies but less has been known about non-chromosomal genetic errors. The new work identifies DNA sequence changes that can lead to a non-viable pregnancy. This may offer clinicians the ability to screen embryos for these changes to help avoid pregnancy loss.

Research article: Arnadottir et al.

Bespoke CRISPR-based therapy treats baby boy with devastating genetic disease, and the ‘anti-spice’ compounds that can lower chillies’ heat.

Nature: World’s first personalized CRISPR therapy given to baby with genetic disease

New Scientist: Chemists discover 'anti-spice' that could make chilli peppers less hot

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Researchers have developed a portable antimatter containment device and tested it by putting it in a truck and driving it around CERN. Their system could represent a big step forward in efforts to take particles made at CERN’s ‘antimatter factory’ and transport them to other labs, something currently impossible due to antimatter being destroyed upon contact with matter. The team showed the feasibility of their approach by using the system to safely transport particles of matter and are now looking to adapt it to ferry antimatter particles.

Research article: Leonhardt et al.

How a tradition of female diving on a South Korean island might have shaped the genomes of the island’s population, and a poison-dart frog that curiously seems to be monogamous.

Research Highlight: How Korea’s female divers have adapted to cold plunges

Research Highlight: A ‘hidden gem’ of the Amazon is a frog with odd habits

Physicists have tackled a longstanding problem in physics — understanding how two black holes gravitationally interact as they fly past each other — which could help with future detections of the gravitational waves that would be created by these events. Rather than repeatedly running expensive computer simulations to approximate the answer to this problem, a team of theorists have come up with a mathematical formula to describe a black hole fly-by, which can be run in a matter of seconds. Their results could be used to identify the tell-tale signatures of these events when they actually occur.

Research article: Driesse et al.

How physicists turned lead into gold, for a microsecond and at tremendous cost, and the genetics of the skunk cabbage’s foul odour.

Nature: Physicists turn lead into gold — for a fraction of a second

Video: Scientists turn lead into gold

Nature: How skunk cabbages and other smelly plants brew their foul odour

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In this Podcast Extra, we examine recent developments US National Science Foundation, which has seen significant numbers of research grants terminated. In addition, there have been freezes on funding for new grants and any additional money to existing ones. We also discuss US President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, which calls for disproportionately large cuts to federal science funding.

News: Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones

News: Trump proposes unprecedented budget cuts to US science

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

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Selective fishing of older herring has resulted in a large shift in the migration pattern of these fish, according to new research. For years, herring have visited sites on the south coast of Norway to spawn, but in 2020 a rapid shift was seen, with the fish instead visiting areas hundreds of kilometres to the north. Researchers have concluded that too many older fish have been removed from these waters, preventing the knowledge of the best spawning grounds being passed to younger, less experienced fish. This finding shows how human activity can affect animal migration, which could have serious consequences for the delicately balanced ecosystems built around them.

Research article: Slotte et al.

Archaeologists have identified tools that the ancient Maya may have used for tattooing, and the self-assembling stable structures that may help ‘forever chemicals’ persist in nature.

Research Highlight: Tattoo-making tools used by ancient Maya revealed

Research Highlight: ‘Forever’ molecules bunch themselves into cell-like structures

AI companions — apps where humans build relationships with computers — are hugely popular, with millions of people around the world using them. But despite increased social and political attention, research investigating how these systems can affect users has been lacking. We find out about the latest research in this space.

News Feature: Supportive? Addictive? Abusive? How AI companions affect our mental health

A technique that lets researchers directly edits proteins within living cells, and how a fibre-rich, low-fat diet could help replenish populations of gut microbes ravaged by antibiotics.

Nature: Powerful protein editors offer new ways of probing living cells

Nature: How to fix a gut microbiome ravaged by antibiotics

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In this episode:

100 days into his term, President Donald Trump and his administration have already caused the biggest shakeup in modern scientific history, slashing funding, bringing large swathes of US research to a standstill and halting many clinical trials. But many fear these actions are just the beginning. We look at what the long-term impacts of these decisions might be for science in the United States and the world.

Nature: Will US science survive Trump 2.0?

A distant planet that orbits two stars, at a right angle, and how fringe-lipped bats’ hearing helps them find palatable amphibians.

Research Highlight: ‘Tatooine’-like planet orbits two stars ― but at a weird angle

Research Highlight: For these bats, eavesdropping is a valuable learnt skill

The first skeletal evidence from bones that Roman gladiators fought lions, and scientists finally pinpoint the genes responsible for three of the pea traits studied by Gregor Mendel.

BBC News: Bites on gladiator bones prove combat with lion

Nature: Century-old genetics mystery of Mendel’s peas finally solved

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Research shows that, over the past two decades, rates of mental illness have been increasing in adolescents in many countries. While some scientists point to soaring use of smartphones and social media as a key driver for this trend, others say the evidence does not show a large effect of these technologies on teenagers’ psychological health.

At the heart of the dispute is a large, complex and often conflicting body of research that different researchers interpret in different ways. This has left parents unsure what to do.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health?

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Using a laser system to activate specific eye cells, a team has allowed five study participants to perceive a vibrant blue-greenish hue well outside the natural range of colours seen by humans. Although the setup required to accomplish this feat is currently complicated, this finding could provide more understanding about how the brain perceives colour and could one day help boost the vision of people with colour blindness.

Nature News: Brand-new colour created by tricking human eyes with laser

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first trial to test whether genetically modified pig livers can be used safely to treat people with organ failure. In the initial phase of the trial, four people with severe liver failure will be temporarily connected to an external pig liver that will filter their blood. Participants will then be monitored for a year for safety and changes in liver function. The organs have been genetically modified to make them more compatible with humans.

Nature News: Pig livers for people: US regulator greenlights first safety trial

Using a designer ‘circulatory system’, a team of researchers have created what they think is the largest piece of meat grown in the laboratory yet. One of the challenges to producing larger pieces of lab-grown meat has been providing cells with sufficient oxygen and nutrients, something the team’s new setup helps overcome. They used it to grow a chunk of chicken muscle about the size of a nugget, but multiple challenges remain before meat produced in this way could make it to market.

Nature News: Winner, winner, lab-made dinner! Team grows nugget-sized chicken chunk

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Categorizing things is central to science. And there are dozens of systems scientists have created to name everything from the trenches on the sea bed to the stars in the sky.

But names have consequences. What’s in a name is a series exploring naming in science and how names impact the world. We look at whether the system of naming species remains in step with society, how the names of diseases can create stigma, and how the names chosen by scientists can help, or hinder, communication with the public.

In episode three, we're looking at how the names chosen for concepts in physics can inadvertently send researchers down very specific research avenues while distracting them from others. In this podcast we hear five stories about the importance of names and how much can be lost in translation when physicists try and label the unknown.

For a list of sources and music used, please visit the podcast show notes

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