Sorry, Beyoncé, it turns out microbes rule the world. Microbiologist Peter Girguis explains how to conceptualize just how many microbes are on Earth… and how understanding this helps us look for life on other worlds.

For more, check out the extended interview with Peter Girguis.

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Scientists have discovered the oldest DNA ever found: tiny fragments hidden in the dirt. The idea that soil could hold genetic traces from creatures that vanished millions of years ago seemed impossible – until one researcher had the wild idea to go and look. But how did he find DNA that most scientists thought could never survive? What forgotten worlds can this buried DNA reconstruct? And what might these revelations tell us about our own future on a rapidly changing planet?

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Growth rings on trees can measure time, allowing scientists to date things from the deep past. But, paleobotantist Dr. Kirk Johnson explains why, in the tropics, some trees have no rings.

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Nature has been solving problems for billions of years. Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll reveals why scientists still turn to evolution’s inventions for life-saving breakthroughs, from GLP-1 drugs to statins.

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Science's most astonishing breakthroughs, from whale evolution and thawing permafrost to black holes and quantum entanglement, to the hidden chambers of the Great Pyramid. NOVA Remix transforms decades of award-winning storytelling into immersive audio adventures. Discoveries that don't just change science, they change how you see the world. Whether you're a diehard nerd or just curious by nature, subscribe and hear it like never before.

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In 2024, scientists claimed they achieved the unthinkable: the birth of dire wolf pups, reviving a species that vanished thousands of years ago. Now, those pups are growing—and changing. Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro reveals what it’s like to watch these predators mature into modern beasts.

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Is AI coming for your job? AI Expert Hany Farid breaks down how AI is taking jobs once considered “future-proof” and shares his advice to prepare young people for the future.

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What does it feel like to make one of the biggest discoveries in physics? Adam Riess knows — because his work revealed that the universe isn’t just expanding, it’s accelerating. In this episode, the Nobel Prize–winning astrophysicist takes us behind the scenes of the moment that changed cosmology forever. How did his team use exploding stars as “standard candles” to measure the cosmos? Why did the data point to a mysterious force now called dark energy, making up nearly 70% of the universe? And what’s behind today’s biggest cosmic puzzle: the Hubble tension? Plus, Adam shares what new telescopes could uncover — and why the next decade might rewrite the laws of physics all over again.

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Guest Bio:

Adam Riess is an astrophysicist, professor at Johns Hopkins University, and a distinguished astronomer at Space Telescope Science Institute. In 2011, he was named as a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the discovery that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating. Since then, he has continued refining measurements of cosmic expansion and the Hubble constant, aiming to find and measure the most distant type Ia supernovae known, to probe the origin of cosmic acceleration.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:03:16) What Is a Type Ia Supernova?

(00:10:52) The Discovery of Dark Energy

(00:44:39) What Is the Hubble Tension?

(00:58:59) Winning a Nobel Prize

(01:15:32) Credits