You have full access to this article via your institution.
Download the Nature Podcast 17 December 2025
In this episode:
00:46 The gifts that sparked a love of science
Nature put a call out for readers to tell us about memorable presents that first got them interested in science, or mementos of their life in research. These include telescopes, yeast-themed wedding rings, and… cows’ eyes.
Nature: The gift that shaped my career in science
08:12 “I am the Very Model of a Miniature Tyrannosaur”
In the first of our annual festive songs celebrating the science of the past year, we tell the story of a diminutive dinosaur that turned out to be its own species.
Nature Podcast: Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species
Nature Video: Hotly debated dinosaur is not a tiny T. rex after all
I Am the Very Model of a Miniature Tyrannosaur
I am the very model of a miniature tyrannosaur
A very different species from the T. rex that you knew before,
And though you may have thought I was a child, a small T. rex offspring,
I stand before you almost fully grown, a pocket-sized short king
For some of you this finding could be rather controversial.
As experts and debate have been at times quite adversarial
But this new study is quite clear, in fact it’s almost trivial
That now Nanotyrannus stands before you unequivocal
My cousin T. rex is an icon palaeontological
But youngsters have been missing from the record prehistorical
So when I was discovered some researchers said it’s crystal clear,
“It’s similar, but miniature! We found our baby T. rex here!”
For decades there were arguments and scientists did not agree
Until a team from Carolina took another look at me
They published careful measures of a fossil here for all to see
So now I get my very own tyrannosaur taxonomy
Their measurements were thorough with analysis of every bone
And counting rings of growth revealed that I was nearly fully grown
And so this study changes lots of data that you thought were known
I’m not a baby T. rex, but a species of my very own!
My teeth are many more in number than T. rex has in its roar
And my arms are longer than the king of lizards’ tiny claw,
In short, in matters predatory, Cretaceous and dinosaur
I am the very model of a miniature tyrannosaur
I am the Very Model of a Miniature Tyrannosaur was performed by Luke Thomas, with backing vocals by Kellie Lucken, Michael Broom, Mario Satchwell, Rachelle Schaum, Adam Pickles, Katy Roper, James Harvey and Catriona Clarke. That song was written by Dan Fox, with editing by Nick Petrić Howe and Shamini Bundell, and the music was performed by Phil Jackson with sound mixing by Jonathan Armitage.
11:43 A very scientific quiz
An all-star cast competes for the glory or being the winner of the Nature Podcast’s 2025 festive quiz.
Nature: Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species
Nature: This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started
Nature Podcast: 3D-printed fake wasps help explain bad animal mimicry
Nature Video: ‘Aqua tweezers’ manipulate particles with water waves
Nature Podcast: Sapphire anvils squeeze metals atomically thin
Nature Video: Vesuvius volcano turned this brain to glass
Nature Podcast: Ancient viral DNA helps human embryos develop
Nature Video: Magnetic fibres give this robot a soft grip
Nature: These contact lenses give people infrared vision — even with their eyes shut
Nature Video: Is this really the world’s largest mirror? Researchers put it to the test
Nature Podcast: World’s tiniest pacemaker could revolutionize heart surgery
Nature Podcast: Earth’s deepest ecosystem discovered six miles below the sea
Nature Podcast: Nature goes inside the world’s largest ‘mosquito factory’ — here’s the buzz
Nature Podcast: Apocalypse then: how cataclysms shaped human societies
Nature Podcast: Honey, I ate the kids: how hunger and hormones make mice aggressive
25:21 “Hard the Hydrogel is Stuck”
Our second festive song is an ode to a rubber duck that was stuck to a rock, thanks to a newly designed, super-adhesive hydrogel.
Nature Podcast: Underwater glue shows its sticking power in rubber duck test
Nature Video: Why did researchers stick a duck to a rock? To show off their super glue
Hard the Hydrogel is Stuck
Hard the hydrogel is stuck
Firmly to this rubber duck
Piece of rock and duck stuck tight
Firm against the ocean’s might
Hydrogels made now sticky
Waterproof in salt and sea
With some proteins to inspire
And AI as amplifier
Hard the glue is sticking
Firmly to the small duckling
Gel, with mollusc protein trick
Glue, with everlasting stick
Won’t in water come unstuck
Tested on this rubber duck
Sticking for eternity
Until someone pulls it free
Diverse data trained it well
Making now this hydrogel
Hard the gel sticks well
Stronger than a mollusc shell
Hail the science-born prince of glues
Hail the duck with stickiness
More than gluing that which quacks
They’ll fix submerged pipes and cracks
One and eighty proteins trialled
From the creatures of the wild
Then refined with AI tools
Then ducks sit in rocky pools
Hard the hydrogel is stuck
Firmly to this rubber duck
Hard the Hydrogel is Stuck was performed by Catriona Clarke, with Luke Thomas, Kellie Lucken, Michael Broom, Mario Satchwell, Rachelle Schaum, Adam Pickles and Katy Roper. That song was written by Nick Petrić Howe, with editing by Shamini Bundell, and the music was performed by James Harvey with sound mixing by Jonathan Armitage.
28:42 Nature’s 10
Each year, Nature’s 10 highlights some of the people who have helped shape science over the past 12 months. We hear about a few of the people who made the 2025 list, including: a civil servant who stood up for evidence-based public-health policy; the science sleuth who revealed a retraction crisis at Indian universities; and the baby whose life was saved by the first personalized CRISPR therapy.
Nature: Nature’s 10
Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too.