Science Weekly Folgen

Scientists are warning that academic publishing needs urgent reform in order to retain trust in the research system. Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay what has gone so wrong, and Dr Mark Hanson of the University of Exeter proposes some potential solutions. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

The Ig Nobel prizes were awarded recently – for science that makes you laugh and then think – and the peace prize was given to a cheeky study testing the link between alcohol and language proficiency. Does a drink really help us to converse more convincingly in another tongue, or does it just give us inflated confidence? To find out, Madeleine Finlay speaks to a member of the winning team, Dr Fritz Renner, a researcher in clinical psychology and psychotherapy at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

In a televised press conference on Monday, Donald Trump and health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr made a series of unproven claims about autism and its links to paracetamol use in pregnant women, and about childhood vaccinations. The comments were immediately refuted by scientists and health agencies around the world, but many expressed concern about the impact of this misinformation being repeated at the highest levels of government. So what does the science really say? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Guardian science editor Ian Sample to factcheck the claims made in the announcement, and find out what decades of scientific research into autism tells us about its causes and why diagnoses are on the rise. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod