Hi listeners, Benjamin here. Here we are at the start of 2026. We're feeling our way slowly into the light of a new year. And as is traditional round these parts, we like to spend the first episode just having a look

back at some of the fun stories that you might have missed that were covered in the nature briefing.

And we've been doing this for a few years now. And joining me over those last few years is

editor of the nature briefing, Flora Graham. Flora, thank you once again for being here.

It's my pleasure. And making his debut in this start of the year's show is Nick Petrich How. Nick, how are you getting on? I'm doing well, thank you. I'm excited to start 2026 with you both. Well, let's talk about a few things that have caught our eye then. Flora, why don't you go first this year? What's the story you'll bring into this podcast?

Well, I was very excited to read this story in science earlier in December. And it's about how

researchers have taken advantage of undersea optical cables to detect seismic activity.

And I saw this one too, and this is neat because this is reappropriating existing

technology. It made me think of, I guess, using the Voyager probes for a different thing they were originally planned for,

or what, turning coal mines into big physics detectors. So getting new use out of existing stuff.

Exactly. I mean, you could imagine it'd be very expensive to install hundreds and hundreds of seismic

detectors all over the sea floor, but it's information that we would love to have.

And this idea has been around for maybe around a decade, the idea that you could shoot a laser

down these cables, and by detecting what reflects back from the optical fibers, you can detect

whether it be earthquakes or

other seismic negativity. But the really tough part was doing it, of course, while the cable's in use

for something else. And so how did they overcome this challenge? How did they actually manage to get

it to work? Well, what they did was they have managed to design a device that when you shoot a laser down the cable, it's actually

on a different wavelength from what it's being used for communications. And inside the cable,

there's going to be naturally very, very tiny imperfections just as part of the manufacturing

process. And when there's seismic waves,

as you can imagine, these cables very, very, very slightly move and shift. And these tiny, tiny imperfections also move and shift. And that actually affects how the laser is reflected back. And so

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