Nature Podcast
Nature Podcast
Jul 22, 2020
When did people arrive in the Americas? New evidence stokes debate
Play • 42 min

New evidence may push back the date on human arrival to the Americas, and an examination of science’s flaws.


In this episode:


00:59 Ancient Americans

Two papers suggest that humans were present in the Americas thousands of years before many people have thought. We examine the evidence. Research Article: Ardelean et al.Research Article: Becerra-Valdivia and HighamNews and Views: Evidence grows that peopling of the Americas began more than 20,000 years ago


10:44 Coronapod

We discuss the latest results from vaccine trials around the world, and controversy in the US as COVID-19 data collection moves out of the CDC. News: Coronavirus vaccines leap through safety trials — but which will work is anybody’s guess


24:38 Research Highlights

How being green makes things easy for some frogs, and how waves will be affected by climate change. Research Highlight: How frogs became green — again, and again, and againResearch Highlight: Extreme Arctic waves set to hit new heights


27:11 How can science improve?

A new book highlights some of the flaws of how science is done. We caught up with the author to find out his thoughts on how science can be cleaned up. Books and Arts: Fraud, bias, negligence and hype in the lab — a rogues’ gallery


35:54 Briefing Chat

We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we discuss a puzzling new insight into the expansion of the Universe, and an update to Plan S that will allow open-access research to be published in any journal. Nature News: Mystery over Universe’s expansion deepens with fresh dataNature News: Open-access Plan S to allow publishing in any journal


Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.



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