Resurrection plants, Project Hail Mary, and the trouble with sycophantic AI

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

First up on the podcast, Deputy News Editor Martin Enserink talks about so-called resurrection plants. These specialized plants can survive up to 95% water loss, whereas most plants struggle when their water levels dip below 60%. We also hear from Jill Farrant, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town, about her work dissecting the desiccation survival pathways in resurrection plants and how they might be repurposed to protect crop plants from drought. Next on the show, we’ve all heard of chatbots praising their users for asking the most basic of questions. This bias toward sycophancy extends beyond pleasantries into relationship advice the artificial intelligence (AI) doles out to users. Myra Cheng, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Stanford University, joins the show to talk about how this tendency for AIs to be agreeable can lead users to have more confidence in their opinions, to the detriment of their relationships with others. Warning, this last segment contains spoilers for the movie and book Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. If you’ve seen the movie or don’t mind a bit of extra context, you will hear an analysis of planetary science in the film with astrophysicist and associate curator at the American Museum of Natural History, Jacqueline Faherty. Read the full film review. 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, an international leader in research, education, and patient care.
0:07.9	The medical and graduate school is part of the Mount Sinai Health System, one of the largest academic medical systems in New York City.
0:15.6	Ranked among the top recipients of NIH funding, researchers at Mount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries advancing the health of patients.
0:23.7	Here, clinicians and scientists push the boundaries in cardiology, cancer, immunology,
0:29.6	neuroscience, genomics, geriatrics, environmental medicine, and artificial intelligence.
0:35.2	The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way.
0:38.6	How do we know what's normal?
0:40.5	In the early 1950s, the U.S. National Institutes of Health set out to do something unprecedented.
0:45.8	They wanted to start studying normal humans on a grand scale.
0:49.0	They had pretty much everything in place.
0:52.0	They had the building.
0:52.9	They had recruited all these amazing researchers.
0:55.6	It was the healthy human bodies that they didn't have. Starting April 7th, the Science Podcast
1:00.8	will be releasing a new three-part limited series called The Normals. We'll hear from some of the
1:07.1	original NIH Normals, follow the program through the decades,
1:11.0	and see what's happening with normals today.
1:13.7	Visit science.org slash podcast to listen.
1:19.6	This is a science podcast for March 26, 2020.
1:22.9	I'm Sarah Crespi.
1:24.3	First up, Deputy News Editor Martin Ensuring
1:27.1	talks about resurrection plants.
1:29.0	These specialized plants can survive up to 95% water loss, whereas most struggle when their
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