Naked Scientists: UK MPOX Case, Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions, Lost Maya City via Lidar and Paleo Robotics

Podcast snapshot

The Naked Scientists episode surveys four interlinked science stories: a first UK case of MPOX with public health implications, breakthroughs in tackling antimicrobial resistance through antibodies and phage therapy, the unexpected discovery of a lost Maya city using lidar technology, and a look at paleo inspired robotics to understand ancient fish evolution. The program also includes a question of the week about dinosaurs and a listener cancer screening query.

• UK MPOX case and clinical features
• Antibodies and phage therapy as antimicrobial strategies
• lidar enabled Maya urbanism study
• Robotics that simulate extinct fish locomotion

Mpox in the UK and public health response

The podcast begins with news of MPOX, a Monkeypox virus variant, detected in the UK. The host interviews Michael Marks from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who explains the virus's two main families, clade 1 and clade 2, and how clade 1B has now appeared in the UK. He describes the prodromal flu like symptoms and the evolution of a rash, noting most mpox cases are mild and self-limiting while some progress to more extensive disease. The discussion covers managing cases through supportive care, isolation, contact tracing, and vaccination strategies, including pre exposure vaccination for high risk groups such as gay and bisexual men. Staff protection relies on universal precautions and vaccination, while public risk in Western countries is considered relatively low.

Antimicrobial resistance and innovative strategies

The second major thread focuses on the antimicrobial resistance crisis, highlighting Acinetobacter baumannii as a particularly troublesome pathogen. Steve Baker of the University of Cambridge describes a antibody based strategy that targets bacterial components to enlist the immune system in destroying bacteria, with prophylactic use in mice demonstrating potential for instant immunity. A Hungarian team pursues a complementary phage therapy approach, mapping global bacterial subtypes to tailor bacteriophage cocktails to local strains, while acknowledging regulatory barriers to phage therapies in some regions. The conversation also touches on how bacteriophages face challenges of strain specificity and the need for continuous genomic surveillance to stay ahead of evolving bacteria.

lidar reveals a lost Maya city

Elizabeth Graham from University College London explains how lidar imagery, originally acquired for an environmental survey, revealed dense Maya urban structures beneath the jungle canopy, including a city named Valeriana. The lidar technique, which penetrates vegetation to map ground surface, allows archaeologists to identify patios, plazas and building layouts that point to organized urban centers. The discussion covers the earliest Maya dates around 2000 BC and the population collapse around 800–900 AD, leading to a landscape dotted with smaller settlements before Spanish contact. Graham emphasizes that such discoveries open doors to understanding Maya urbanism, inscriptions, and governance during a key period in Mesoamerican history.

Robotics and the evolution of fish

In Cambridge, Will Tingle reports on bio inspired robotics that aim to infer how early vertebrates moved from water to land. Michael Ishida explains that robots can fill gaps left by fossil records, modeling how fins and limbs might have functioned in ancient walking fish. The episode outlines a structured approach to robotics: build simplified representations to test specific questions while acknowledging that exact replication of ancient tissue is impossible. The discussion links to paleo robotics, offering a platform to test counterfactual morphologies and environments that never existed in nature.

Question of the week and listener inquiry

The episode closes with a counterfactual question about dinosaurs, discussed with Cambridge experts, and a listener's query about cancer screening tests that detect many cancers but have limited early stage detection. The hosts invite questions from listeners, pointing to the Naked Scientists as a hub for curiosity and rigorous science discussion.