Scientists discovered a 100,000-year-old organism; Breakthrough brain implant uses AI to treat pain; How climate change leads to revolutions

科学家发现了一种十万年前的生物;突破性脑植入术利用人工智能治疗疼痛;气候变化如何导致革命

New Scientist Podcasts

2025-08-29

25 分钟
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Episode 318 An ancient organism has been discovered that has been alive for at least 100,000 years. Found in the Siberian permafrost, this lifeform doesn’t appear to have just remained dormant - but instead has actually been growing extremely slowly. Our understanding of life is already quite fuzzy, and this finding adds to the idea that life itself is a fuzzy state of being.  A breakthrough method of treating previously untreatable chronic pain is showing promise. An intuitive form of deep brain stimulation, guided by machine learning, has provided targeted relief to patients in a small trial. The method also improved various other conditions and may even help with weight loss. Find out how it works. Throughout history, dramatic changes in the climate often coincide with major revolutions and rebellions. Rapid warming or cooling often have a cascading effect on food production, leading to shortages and rising prices. As the effect of climate change increase today, will we see a repeat of history? Chapters: (00:00) Intro (00:22) 100,000-year-old organism (10:37) Brain implant treats chronic pain (18:02) How climate change leads to revolutions Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Alexandra Thompson, James Dinneen and Karen Lloyd. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • Welcome to The World, The Universe and Us, the weekly news podcast from New Scientist.

  • I'm Dr Rowan Hooper.

  • And I'm Dr Penny Sarche.

  • On today's show,

  • we look at a new study linking 140 different revolutions and rebellions to historical changes or disturbances in the climate and the environment.

  • And we hear about a new form of deep brain stimulation technology that could improve the way we treat a range of conditions.

  • We're going to start with the discovery of an organism that's able to live for astonishingly long periods of time and it's so long I think it begins to challenge really the concept the meaning of what it is to be alive well that's exciting so I'm thinking Stone pines live for a couple of thousand years.

  • Are we talking that kind of thing?

  • More.

  • 5,000?

  • 8,000?

  • 100,000 years.

  • 100,000?

  • This is a microbe found in the permafrost in Siberia that's stayed alive for at least 100,000 years.

  • And so this isn't a colony of things growing that sometimes you get very long-lived colonies of things.

  • This is an individual cell.

  • individual cells that have managed to stay alive through this long without dividing.

  • That's amazing.

  • I guess I have a lot of questions.

  • Is it frozen?