About this episode
Episode 337
As we reach the end of the year, catch up on some of New Scientist’s most exciting and thought-provoking features of the past twelve months.
For decades we’ve got autism in girls all wrong. Symptoms present quite differently in girls to boys, meaning they often go undiagnosed. So why have we failed to see the differences - and why are girls so often neglected by autism research? We review a feature written by Gina Rippon - one of the scientists studying autism who admits to getting it wrong for years.
If you’re interested in living a longer life, you may have heard the name Bryan Johnson. He’s the tech millionaire who’s doing everything in his power to live as long as possible. From a 6.5 hour morning routine, to experimental gene treatments and hypoxia therapy - we dig into the life of the man whose slogan is “Don’t Die”.
There is no space, no time, no particles. This is the radical new quantum vision of reality proposed by physicist Vlatko Vedral. He argues that our current lens for looking at reality is full of problems, especially concerning observers - this idea that reality is somehow contingent on us looking at it. So what really lies beyond quantum theory?
Over tens of thousands of years, waves of Homo sapiens set out across Europe and Asia, only for their societies and cultures to mysteriously vanish. At last, ancient DNA from fossils is revealing why. We shed light on the lives of the LRJ people, a group of a few hundred ancient humans who roamed across Europe 43,000 years ago.
There are new hints that the fabric of space-time may be made of "memory cells" that record the whole history of the universe. If true, it could explain the nature of dark matter and much more. But how could pure emptiness ever remember, or store information? We discuss how Florian Neukart, the feature writer, has tested this theory inside a quantum computer.
Most of us see body fat as something we need to attack or get rid of. But we’re beginning to figure out just how important fat is for shaping our health and mind. The fat in ou
