#103: How covid affects brain function; glacier loss on Svalbard; start of the Anthropocene; hottest life on Earth

Covid-19 can have profound consequences for the brain, and now we’re beginning to understand why. The team explains how the virus causes issues from strokes to muscle-weakness and brain-fog.  We have names for all of Earth’s geological phases, and right now we’re in the Anthropocene… or are we? The epoch hasn’t actually been officially named, but the team says researchers are working on it.  Rowan returns home from Norway with a story about melting glaciers in the Arctic circle. He speaks to Norwegian Polar Institute scientist Jack Kohler about the impact of climate change in Svalbard.  Samples from the deep sea Nankai Trough off Japan have shown for the first time that some microbes are able to withstand heats we previously thought were too extreme for life, which the team says could change the way we look for life elsewhere in the universe. Finally we hear about the mysteries of consciousness from the philosopher David Chalmers, famous for his work on the so-called ‘hard problem of consciousness’. On the pod are Rowan Hooper, Tiffany O’Callaghan, Michael Le Page, Adam Vaughan and Richard Webb. To read about these stories and much more, subscribe at newscientist.com/podcasts.  Thanks to our sponsor Brilliant - remember the first 200 people to sign up using this link http://brilliant.org/newscientist will get 20% off unlimited access to all the courses on Brilliant for a whole year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices