Coronapod: Uncertainty and the COVID 'lab-lea...

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 of dark matterNature: Is this the first glimpse of dark matter? Data point excit ...  Show more

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 healthy for longer.This is an audio version of our Feature: Could mending damaged DN ...  Show more

Three years after the start of Covid, the central mystery of the pandemic — how exactly it began — remains unsolved. But recently, the debate about the source of the coronavirus has re-emerged, this time in Congress.

The Energy Department has concluded, with “low confide ...

Will we ever find out how the pandemic started? In the past few months, the theory that Covid-19 actually came from a lab in Wuhan (instead of jumping from a bat to a human in a food market) has been back in the spotlight. But is all this chat being led by science or politics? Ca ...  Show more

Science writer Philip Ball has followed the relationship between government and its scientific advisors throughout the pandemic. He discusses the role of scientific advisors in the light of conflicting information following the leak of a number of former Health Minister Matt Hanc ...  Show more

Scientists from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan say the novel coronavirus did not leak from there, adding that science and international cooperation should play their roles in finding the source of the virus. Researchers from the lab have shared their insights into the origin ...  Show more