Viral spread: how rumours surged in revolutionary France
Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 27 August 2025
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In this episode:
00:48 How the eighteenth-century ‘Great Fear’ spread across rural France
In the late 1700s, rural France was beset with rapidly spreading rumours of aristocratic plots to suppress revolutionary ideas. But how, and why, these rumours were able to spread so quickly has puzzled historians. Now, using modern epidemiological modelling, a team suggests that a combination of high wheat prices, income and literacy level drove this period of French history known as the Great Fear.
Research Article: Zapperi et al.
News: An abiding mystery of the French Revolution is solved — by epidemiology
12:40 Research Highlights
An unorthodox explanation for dark energy — plus, and how a tiny marsupial predator overcame near extinction.
Research Highlight: Does dark energy spawn from black holes? Could be a bright idea
Research Highlight: Tiny Australian predator defies drought to recover from near-extinction
15:13 The quantum interpretation quiz
Physicists differ widely in their interpretations of quantum mechanics, and so do Nature readers, according to our Cosmo-inspired quiz. The quantum world is notoriously difficult to explain, with interpretations of the mathematical foundations ranging from the epistemic, which only describes information, to the realist, where equations map onto the real world. The quiz suggests that many readers prefer the realist, even if that is difficult to mesh with the physics itself.
Feature: Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02749-7
This story originally appeared on: Nature - Author:Benjamin Thompson
