Hello and welcome to Backchat.

If the Nature podcast is the dedicated student in the library all summer,

Backchat is the undergrad using a pile of textbooks as a drinks table.

This month, a nearby Earth-like planet, places to put your manuscript online,

and the scientific legacy that Obama leaves behind him.

I'm Kerry Smith, and joining me this month in London is you and Calloway.

Oh, hi there. I cover life sciences for nature as a reporter. On the line from the seat of the

US government, Washington, D.C. It's Lauren Morello. Hi, I'm Nature's US News editor. And from

Boulder, Colorado, Alexandra Witsy. Yes, hi. I'm a reporter covering Earth and planetary sciences, among other things.

So coming up then, Barack Obama has just a few months left in office,

and Nature News has been looking back on his two terms and reflecting on his achievements in science.

We'll also be gazing up at the nearest star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri,

where a little planet has been found. And finally, we'll be getting a rundown of all the pre-print servers there are

now serving science and offering up our own pronunciation guide to those confusing servers.

Now, first, let's turn to Barack Obama as he segues neatly out of office, but not until January.

Lauren, is he America's most science-friendly president in recent times?

I think it's a reasonable argument. He certainly has, I think, talked a lot more about the

value of science than any other president in recent memory. He went out big in his inaugural speech in

2009 when he was sworn into office and he pledged to put science in its rightful place, which I

think pretty generally had scientists over here swooning. And what kind of projects has he managed to put his name to while he's

been in office? For most of Obama's presidency, he's had to deal with a Congress that's at best

reluctant to go along with his proposals and at worst kind of outright hostile. It's been hard for

...