Hello and welcome to Backchat. If the Nature podcast is a stern meeting with your PhD supervisor,

then Backchat is drowning your sorrows in a pub with your lab mates. This month, the endless

quest to make energy from fusing atomic nuclei, virtual reality, and of course the biggest story of the month,

a boat gets given a name. I'm Adam Levy and chatting back today

we have Dan Cressy. Hello, I'm Daniel Cressy. I'm one of the senior reporters here at nature and I am here to rant about a boat.

We have Andrea Toroni. Hello, I'm Andrea Toroni, the chief editor of nature physics.

And last but not least, we have Davidey Castilevec. Hi Adam, I'm Davide. I am senior virtual reality correspondent.

Coming up this month, we ask how hard it can really be to fuse some nuclei and power the

world, how virtual reality can affect research, and how a research ship's name became the most

controversial question in science.

First up to virtual reality, Davidae.

You took a little break from actual reality recently, right?

Yes, in fact, it was a very fun story to report.

It was an article about how these very much hyped new virtual reality headsets

are attracting interest not only from serious gamers, but also from

researchers who can use them as an experimental tool and also as a lab tool for their own use.

And you actually tried one of these headsets out? What was your experience like?

I get to try the Oculus Rift, which is made by this company, owned by now, owned by Facebook.

And I have to say, it was a lot more fun than I expected.

And I almost didn't want to come back to a real reality.

You know, when I took off this thing, I turned around and I was like, wait a minute,

this is a lot more boring now.

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