Hunting ancient viruses in the Arctic, and how ants build their nests to fight disease

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News Commentary, News, Science

4.2 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt takes a trip to Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where ancient RNA viruses may lie buried in the permafrost. He talks with host Sarah Crespi about why we only have 100 years of evolutionary history for viruses such as coronavirus and influenza, and what we can learn by looking deeper back in time. Next on the show, Nathalie Stroeymeyt, senior lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol, joins freelancer producer Elah Feder to talk about how humans aren’t the only species that takes public health measures to stop outbreaks. To keep their colonies healthy when threatened with infectious disease, ants socially distance and even make architectural changes to their nests’ organization. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is supported by the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the academic arm of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, and one of America's leading research medical schools.
0:11.1	What are researchers on heart health working on to transform patient care and prolong lives?
0:16.6	Find out in a special supplement to Science magazine prepared by the Icon School of Medicine
0:21.4	at Mount Sinai in partnership with science. Visit our website at www.combe.combe
0:26.3	science.org and search for Frontiers of Medical Research, dash heart. The icon school
0:32.7	of medicine in Mount Sinai, we find a way. This podcast is supported by Jian Zhao Tong, Liverpool University,
0:39.4	where East meets West to redefine the future of learning and discovery. We're turning 20 in
0:45.6	26. Celebrate with us as we honor two decades of breakthroughs, cross-cultural exchange, and
0:52.3	world-changing research. Curious about how we're making waves, join the party at www.xjtl.org.
1:00.3	Dot-E-D-U.C-N. slash E.N.
1:05.7	This is a science podcast for October 16th, 2025.
1:09.5	I'm Sarah Crespi. First this week, contributing correspondent
1:12.2	Kai Cooper Schmidt takes a trip to Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where ancient RNA viruses
1:18.1	may lie buried in permafrost. He talks about why we only have about 100 years of evolutionary
1:23.5	history for viruses like coronavirus and influenza and what we can learn by looking deeper back in time.
1:31.0	Next on the show, researcher Natalie Strohmett joins freelance producer Ella Fedder to talk about
1:36.1	how humans aren't the only species that uses public health measures to stop outbreaks.
1:41.4	To keep their colonies healthy when threatened with infectious disease, ants socially
1:46.1	distanced, and even make architectural changes to their nests.
1:56.4	This probably isn't common knowledge, but for biologists, the conventional wisdom has
2:00.8	always been that RNA is more fragile than DNA.
2:03.8	There are just enzymes all over the place that degrade RNA, any chance they get.
	...

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