Download the Nature Podcast 19 March 2025
In this episode:
00:46 Microsatellite makes messaging secure
A tiny satellite has enabled quantum-encrypted information to be sent between China and South Africa, the farthest distance yet achieved for quantum communication. Using a laser-based system, a team in the city of Hefei was able to beam a ‘secret key’ encoded in quantum states of photons, to their colleagues more than 12,000 km away. This key allowed scrambled messages to be decrypted — including one containing a picture of the Great Wall of China. The team’s system is drastically smaller and cheaper that previous attempts, and they think it represents a big step towards the creation of a global network of secure, quantum communication.
Research Article: Li et al.
News: Mini-satellite paves the way for quantum messaging anywhere on Earth
09:53 Research Highlights
How storms known as ‘atmospheric rivers’ could replenish Greenland’s ice, and a prosthetic hand that can distinguish objects by touch almost as well as a human.
Research Highlight: Mega-storm dumps 11 billion tonnes of snow ― and builds up a melting ice sheet
Research Highlight: Robotic fingers can tell objects apart by touch
12:27 An AI that gives other AIs helpful feedback
Researchers have created an AI system called TextGrad which can provide written feedback on another AI’s performance. This feedback is interpretable by humans, which could help researchers tweak the incredibly complicated, and sometimes inscrutable models that underpin modern AIs. “Previously optimising machine learning algorithms requires quite a lot of human engineering,” says James Zou, one of the team behind this work, “but with TextGrad, now the AI is able to self-improve to a large extent.”
Research Article: Yuksekgonul et al.
20:55 How the Trump administration’s cuts are affecting science
The first two months of Donald Trump’s presidency has seen swingeing cuts to US federal funding for research, particularly to research associated with DEI. We hear the latest on these cuts and their impact from reporter Max Kozlov.
Nature: ‘My career is over’: Columbia University scientists hit hard by Trump team’s cuts
Nature: How the NIH dominates the world’s health research — in charts
Nature: ‘Scientists will not be silenced’: thousands protest Trump research cuts
Nature: Exclusive: NIH to terminate hundreds of active research grants
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