Madeleine Finlay and Guardian science editor Ian Sample discuss three major science stories in the latest edition of the Guardian's science podcast, unpacking new research and its wider implications.
Baby girls and sociability: a clue in the nature-versus-nurture debate
The hosts review a recent study suggesting that newborn girls display a stronger interest in faces than newborn boys. The finding is presented as a potential piece of evidence in the long-running debate over whether early sex differences are innate or shaped by socialisation. The podcast places the study in context, noting that such early behavioural differences, if robust, could help scientists understand how biological and environmental factors interact from the earliest stages of life.
Super El Niño: a forecast of widespread human toll
Finlay and Sample turn to climate, highlighting projections that a super El Niño event could have severe human consequences. The programme discusses estimates that the event may contribute to as many as 450,000 deaths over the next six months, emphasising the climate system's capacity to exacerbate health and humanitarian crises through heat, drought, floods and impacts on food and water supplies.
Explaining the size of the UK's meningitis outbreak
The podcast also addresses new analysis aimed at explaining why the UK's meningitis outbreak earlier this year was unusually large. Finlay and Sample outline the study's conclusions as reported in the episode, exploring factors that researchers believe contributed to the scale of the outbreak and what those findings mean for surveillance and public-health responses going forward.
Across the three segments, the presenters link the research to broader societal and policy questions — from early childhood development and gendered behaviour, to climate-driven mortality risk and the preparedness of health systems for infectious disease surges. The episode frames each story in terms of both the scientific evidence and the real-world consequences that follow from new findings and forecasts.