This week, getting a handle on global deaths from air pollution.

It's much higher than HIV age.

And science in the theatre, how a new play is tackling the global food crisis.

We need to find ways of engaging with generalists or audiences about the importance of what

we're doing. Plus, tiny camouflage nanoparticles fool the immune system. This is the Nature

podcast for September the 17th, 2015. I'm Noah Baker. And I'm Adam Levy.

I'm standing on the Euston Road in London. It's just around the corner from H.H.Q.

It's also one of the most polluted places in all of the UK. And air pollution isn't just about inconvenience. Tiny particles in the air can get into our lungs, causing illness and even death.

But just how bad a problem is it?

Well, it's hard to say, because although we have reliable on the ground measurements of pollution

in places like the Euston Road, the data is far from complete in developing countries and more remote areas.

Now, a group of researchers has set out to create a more global picture.

I called up Yoss Lelyfeld of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany

to find out what his team did differently.

Well, in order to get a global overview and to be able to compare different countries with each other, we used a simulation model that simulates the weather and also the climate, and

then added on processes that simulate air quality.

So it's a combined global simulation system of weather and air quality

that can be used to calculate concentrations near the ground that people are inhaling.

And so that model tells us how bad the pollution is in different parts of the world. concentrations near the ground that people are inhaling.

And so that model tells us how bad the pollution is in different parts of the world based on different pollutants.

How exactly do you translate that into the number of deaths in different regions?

There have been many studies to collect data on human health and also on air pollution.

...