Governments globally are taking serious measures to halt the spread of the covid-19 coronavirus, from shutting schools to cancelling major events. On the panel for this special episode dedicated to the disease are New Scientist journalists Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet and Donna Lu. The team is joined by Adam Kucharski, associate professor in epidemiology at t ... Show More
Yesterday
Scientists Mapped Earth's Vast Fungal Network - And It's Critical For The Climate
Episode 376 For the first time, scientists have mapped Earth’s vast underground fungal network - and it’s bigger than anyone imagined. Beneath our feet, plants and fungi have a hidden symbiotic relationship, sharing nutrients through fine fungal threads called hyphae. With these ... Show More
26m 16s
Jul 2021
Breakthrough Infections, Explained
<p>For the past couple of weeks, some Americans have reported a curious phenomenon: They have caught the coronavirus despite being vaccinated.</p><p>Vaccines are still doing their job by protecting against serious illness and hospitalization, but the frequency of so-called breakt ... Show More
22m 43s
Oct 2021
The Evidence: When misinformation kills
A maelstrom of misinformation and its sinister cousin, disinformation, have been swirling all around us about Covid-19. The rumours and conspiracy theories have raced around the globe as fast as the virus itself.Untruths, half-truths, misunderstandings and deliberate mischief-mak ... Show More
50m 35s
Mar 2020
#190 — How Should We Respond to Coronavirus?
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about the coronavirus pandemic. They discuss the likely effects on society, proactive vs reactive school closures, community transmission, false comparisons between coronavirus and flu, the imperative o ... Show More
1h 18m
Apr 2021
Coronavirus: How Scary Are the Variants?
UPDATE 4/13/21: Since this episode published, there has been some evidence linking the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine to rare blood clots. As of April 13, there were six cases in the U.S. out of more than 6.8 million doses, and one person had died. The CDC and FDA have rec ... Show More
33m 54s
May 2020
Coronavirus R number, genome study of Covid-19 survivors and using aircraft messages to assess aviation
R seems to have found its way into the newspapers and on Radio 4 as if it’s a word, or a letter, that we should all be familiar with and understand. As part of the government’s briefing on Sunday, it appeared in a pseudo-equation, the infographic - 'COVID alert level = R + number ... Show More
32m 35s