A new-year round-up of the science stories you may have missed
Nature Podcast
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4.4 • 859 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the Nature Podcast, we catch up on some science stories from the holiday period by diving into the Nature Briefing.
00:53 The retraction of a controversial COVID study that promoted unproven treatment
A much-critiqued study demonstrating the now-disproven idea that hydroxychloroquine can treat COVID-19 has been retracted — more than four-and-a-half years after it was published.
Nature: Controversial COVID study that promoted unproven treatment retracted after four-year saga
09:10 The skin’s unexpected immune system
Researchers have discovered that healthy skin — once thought to be a passive barrier — can actually produce antibodies that fight off infections. It’s hoped that the finding could one day lead to the development of needle-free vaccines that can be applied to the skin.
Nature: The skin’s ‘surprise’ power: it has its very own immune system
13:02 Researchers fear Europa’s icy crust may be much thicker than thought
New estimates, based on data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, suggest that the ice on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may be significantly thicker than previously thought. If these estimates prove accurate it could reduce the chances of Europa being habitable for extraterrestrial life.
Science: Surprisingly thick ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa complicates hunt for life
20:11 Modelling the running prowess of our ancient relatives
3D computer simulations of Australopithecus afarensis — an ancient hominin that lived more than three million years ago — reveals that while our relatives could run on two legs, they likely did so at a far slower pace than modern humans.
Nature: Humans evolved for distance running — but ancestor ‘Lucy’ didn’t go far or fast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Benjamin here. It's our second show of 2025. And as we kind of stare blinkingly into the new year, |
| 0:18.8 | we're going to continue our tradition now, three years running, maybe four, |
| 0:22.5 | actually, of talking about some of the science stories you may have missed over the past few weeks. |
| 0:28.2 | And joining me once again to do so are Noah Baker. Noah, how are you? |
| 0:32.3 | I'm very well, thank you, ready for the new year, excited to look back on the very end of last year. |
| 0:36.8 | Excellent. And senior editor of the nature briefing, Flora Graham, Flora, hi. |
| 0:40.5 | Hi, thanks so much for having me. Not at all. Happy New Year to you both. Now, we got a few |
| 0:45.4 | stories to talk about today. We're going to sort of cover quite a lot of ground, I think. But, Noah, |
| 0:50.8 | why don't you go first? What have you got to talk about today? So I'm currently |
| 0:54.5 | sitting in my partner's family home, which is where I was almost five years ago when the word |
| 1:00.3 | hydroxychloroquine first came into my lexicon when we were producing CoronaPod many, many years ago |
| 1:05.6 | from a duvet fort. And I find myself in the same place now, post holidays, before going back to my own |
| 1:10.6 | home. |
| 1:11.3 | And the story I have is about a retraction. |
| 1:14.6 | In fact, the retraction of the hydroxychloricum paper that first kicked off this in many, many people's consciousness, |
| 1:20.7 | which was four and a half years ago that was published. |
| 1:22.7 | And whilst that retraction has happened, there's various milestones to note. |
| 1:26.0 | This is the second highest cited paper |
| 1:27.7 | ever to be retracted. And there's a whole load of extra knock-on effects that have happened as a |
| 1:33.7 | result of this retraction and as a result of these investigations about other things published in this |
| 1:37.7 | journal and other things published specifically by the lead author on this, Didierryl, |
| 1:41.6 | to investigate ethics concerns around publishing from this |
... |
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