#59: Vaccine success; hibernation and anti-ageing; world’s first computer

We’re tantalisingly close to resuming normal life, as promising news from Israel has shown that vaccines are swinging the fight against covid-19 in our favour. But we’re not out of the woods yet - the team explains why it’s still too risky to completely lift restrictions. They also discuss great news if you love your beauty sleep! It turns out when marmots hibernate the ageing process slows down dramatically, which is going to be useful as we develop ways to put humans into hibernation. The pod also tackles the mystery of the Antikythera mechanism, a 2000-year-old cosmos decoding device often called the world’s first computer. And they explain how mushrooms might be the answer to our clean energy needs, and chat to author and podcaster Dr Helen Scales about her new book ‘The Brilliant Abyss’. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Tiffany O’Callaghan, Jo Marchant, Eleanor Parsons and Michael Le Page. To read more about the stories, subscribe at newscientist.com/podcasts.

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