Episode 273

The mystery of “Well Man”, an ancient cold case, has just been solved. A Norse saga tells that in 1197, in the midst of a Viking raid, warriors dumped a body in a well inside a castle. Over 800 years later, archeologists recovered a body from that very well – but didn’t have the technology to show it was the man from the saga… until now.

Some welcome good news about the climate. Energy imbalance, a key measure of global warming, has been rising fast, sparking fears that warming is accelerating faster than models predicted. But new findings suggest those fears are overblown and that there is hope yet.

Birth control pills may shrink your brain (a small amount). After experiencing mood and physical changes after coming off the pill, one neuroscientist discovered very little had been done to understand the impact of hormonal birth control on the brain. So she scanned her own brain 75 times over several months while on and off the pill. The results are in.

Hosts Rowan Hooper and Chelsea Whyte discuss with guests James Woodford, Michael Martin, Michael Le Page, Ben Sandersen, Grace Wade and Carina Heller.

To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/

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