The gut microbiome – or the amalgamation of bacteria, fungi, archaea and viruses that reside in the digestive tract of living beings – is receiving a lot of attention from the scientific community. Many researchers say it holds important clues to human health, decoding which has led to its own slew of interventions, including pharmaceutical pills and fecal transplants. But the gut microbiome has undergone its own evolution, whose history is congruent with the enforced lifestyle and cultural...

In 2022, a research paper sounded the alarm – the ocean is losing its memory. The ocean is vast, its memories ancient. Believed to be where life on Earth first originated, this large body of water holds an enormous amount of information. But with human-induced global warming, it’s almost as if the ocean is developing amnesia, according to the researchers who studied this phenomenon. But how does the ocean lose its memory? What does it mean for the ocean to have memory in the first place?...

When NASA released the sound of a black hole in 2022, the internet had varied reactions: shock and awe, with many calling it a ‘cosmic horror.’ The sound captured our imagination and achieved a new pinnacle in space exploration and science. Blind and low-visibility astronomers can now study the universe and learn more insights about it than we already have. Disability scholars have long said that reframing disability not as a lack, but as diversity, can fundamentally change how we create...

The Hydra is a tiny, impassive creature. Cut it in half, and you have two whole Hydra with the same genetic material. Chop off its head, and it simply regrows one. It’s an ability that hasn’t caught the attention of the powerful elite – yet. But if it did, it could show them the futility of a project they’re currently embroiled in. The longtermist project. In this episode, we have Daniel Martinez, who studies hydra, and Emile P. Torres, who studies long termism, who show us how to think...

We were promised an AI revolution, but it didn’t quite pan out. Thinking about how AI perceives gender helps us see the cracks. Here are Sandy Stone and Morgan Klaus, who connect the dots between gender and AI. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science. Credits: Hosts: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Writing and Production: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya...

The monarch butterfly can migrate 3,000 miles. But humans see migration differently – we’ve drawn borders and we control who crosses them, where, and how. What if the little butterfly, through its migration across borders, can fundamentally change how we see the world and who moves through it? We’re speaking to anthropologist Dr. Columba González and conservationist Neha Sinha, who tell us about the connection between monarch butterflies and human migration. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The...

In ‘The Missing Link,’ the Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science.