Social media addiction, and the famous honeybee dance

The Naked Scientists Podcast

Dr Chris Smith

Science Radio, Engineering, Naked Scientists, Natural Sciences, Technology, Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Science

4.6 • 957 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week: social media's role in user harm and the plausibility of app addiction, a sunken Soviet sub revealing how nuclear materials behave deep underwater, a hidden "magnetic shadow" on the Moon that could improve space travel safety, and the science behind the famous "waggle dance" performed by honeybees.... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Transcript

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0:00.0	All engine running.
0:03.4	Absolutely genius.
0:04.2	Welcome.
0:05.1	Welcome.
0:06.0	This is the show where we bring you science.
0:07.8	What that essentially means is...
0:09.4	Discovery is...
0:09.9	Advances.
0:11.0	Research.
0:11.6	Technology.
0:12.6	Unbelievable.
0:13.5	Without further ado, this is the Naked Scientists.
0:16.7	Hello, welcome to the Naked Scientist podcast, the program that brings you the biggest
0:20.7	breakthroughs and talks to the major movers and shakers in the worlds of science, technology,
0:25.5	and medicine with me, Chris Smith. And coming up this week, Instagram and YouTube were
0:30.4	designed to be addictive to young users without concern for their mental health, a landmark
0:35.5	trial finds. But can an algorithm really be addictive?
0:40.3	Also, scientists returned to the Soviet-era nuclear-arm sub that sank off Norway decades ago to assess the radiation risk
0:47.7	and why honeybees perform a 10 out of 10 waggle dance, but only in front of the right audience.
1:03.1	Up first this week, a US jury has found that social media giants, meta and YouTube,
1:08.7	were partly responsible for harm to a young user caused by
1:11.7	addictive features in their platforms, including infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations.
	...

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