#117: US threat to women’s health; saving the world with bacteria; Darwinian feminism and primate gender; invasion of the earthworms

Women’s abortion rights are under threat in the US. Leaked documents suggest the Supreme Court is on the verge of overturning the landmark Roe v Wade decision that protects the right to abortion. The team discusses the dramatic impact this move could have on women’s health.

Eating microbes could save the world. The team examines a new study which found that substituting just a fifth of the meat in our diets with microbial proteins would more than halve global deforestation rates and related carbon emissions.

While we fight to protect the environment on Earth, a lot less is done to safeguard space. Professor of astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, Andy Lawrence, hopes that is about to change. He tells Rowan why space needs to be a protected ecosystem, subject to the same sort of regulations as the oceans and the atmosphere.

The earthworm invasion is upon us. Large parts of North America have been without earthworms for 12,000 years, but in the last 200 years they’ve begun their slow and undramatic takeover. The team discusses a new study which looks at the effect this is having on plant and aboveground arthropod communities.

And primatologist Frans de Waal joins the pod to discuss the under-studied topic of sexuality, gender and biological sex differences in our closest relatives, chimps and bonobos.

On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Penny Sarchet and Tiffany O’Callaghan. To read about these stories and much more, subscribe at newscientist.com/podcasts.

Events and discount codes:

newscientist.com/pod20

newscientist.com/nslivewin

newscientist.com/azores

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices