A mystery satellite has been jamming GPS in Europe
From Science In Action by BBC World Service
October 2, 2025 · 36 min
About this episode
The episode discusses a mysterious satellite jamming GPS signals in Europe, the implications of AI in synthetic DNA design, and wildlife behavior in Polish forests.
Scientists detect for the first time an unknown source of GPS interference coming from space. Also, as AI begins to design more and more DNA sequences being manufactured synthetically, how can those manufacturers be sure that what their customers are asking for will not produce toxic proteins or lethal weapons? And… how camera traps in polish forests reveal that the big bad wolf is more scared of humans than anything else. For that last few years instances of deliberate jamming and interference of GNSS signals has become an expected feature of the wars the world is suffering. Yet this disruption of the signals that all of us use to navigate and tell the time nearly always emanate from devices on the ground, or maybe in the air. But in ongoing research reported recently by Todd Humphreys of University of Texas at Austin and colleagues around the world is beginning to reveal that since 2019 an intermittent yet powerful signal has been causing GPS failures across Europe and the North Atlantic. The episodes have been thankfully brief so far, but all the signs suggest it comes not from soldiers or aeroplanes, but from a distantly orbiting satellite somewhere over the Baltic Sea. It…
Topics covered
- GPS interference
- synthetic DNA
- AI design
- environmental science
- wildlife behavior
Keywords
- GPS
- satellite
- AI
- synthetic DNA
- wildlife
- interference
- Europe
- Baltic Sea
- Microsoft
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: University of Texas at Austin, Microsoft
Books & works: Science
Places: Europe, Baltic Sea, North Atlantic
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