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Nature Podcast

Briefing Chat: Penguins pick up PFAS pollution

Nature Podcast

podcast@nature.com

Science, Technology, News

4.5893 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi listeners, Benjamin here. Welcome to the Nature Briefing podcast, the Friday show,

0:08.9

but we talk about a few stories we've read about in the Nature briefing, which is, of course,

0:13.3

nature's daily roundup of the latest science stories. And joining me this week is not one,

0:19.4

but two of the team. We have Charmody Bundell.

0:38.5

Hello, double trouble today. And Marin Hunsberger. Maran, how you doing? Hello, hello. I'm very happy to be here as always. Right. We've got a few stories, as I say. Shamney, why don't you go first this week? What have you got? I've got penguins. I've got penguin detectives. and that is not my wording.

0:40.0

It's not even the article I've read.

0:47.7

It was a direct quote from one of the study co-authors that describes the penguins as our elite team of marine detectives.

0:56.0

Nice. But no, this is a serious story. This is about environmental pollution in the penguins habitat.

0:58.3

And I've been reading this in science.

1:02.5

And it's based on a paper that came out in Earth Environmental Sustainability last month.

1:06.3

I need someone to make an animated film about this with the penguins and little detective hats.

1:07.6

This is just screaming for that, no?

1:08.2

I know.

1:10.4

It'll be a really good kids film. But with an important message about pollution, about these particular compounds,

1:15.2

so the villain of the story is per and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

1:20.1

PFS?

1:20.9

The ever-dreaded P-FAS?

1:22.4

Yeah.

1:22.7

And so these are sometimes known as Forever Chemicals.

1:25.4

They're toxic industrial compounds that just hang around.

1:29.7

So this particular team, they roped the penguins in to help monitor this stuff.

1:34.4

Amazing. I love this.

...

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