Our podcast on science and technology. Researchers have only recently learned how complex breast milk is. Can their discoveries help improve infant formula?

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Milk is a baby’s first source of water and nutrients, providing everything that’s needed to grow for the first six months of life. Mothers can provide this milk themselves, through breastfeeding, or by giving their babies carefully-curated formula milk. But it’s only recently that scientists have started to discover that human breast milk is way more complex than previously thought. And that’s prompted researchers to find ways to improve formula milk too.

Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Emilie Steinmark, science correspondent at The Economist; Cat Bohannon, author of “Eve”; Sharon Donovan, a professor of paediatric nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign; Laura Katz, founder and ceo of the company Helaina; Victoria Slaughter of the company BIOMILQ; Shyam Sharan of the National Cancer Institute in Maryland; Emily Winup, midwife and mother of Alex; Esme, mother of Tallulah.