In this episode:
00:49 The search for animals’ magnetic sense sufferers a potential setbackExactly how animals sense Earth’s magnetic field has long eluded researchers. To understand it, many have turned to the fly model Drosophila melanogaster, long thought to be able to detect magnetic fields. However, a recent Nature paper has raised questions about this ability, a finding that could have repercussions for scientists’ efforts to understand the mechanism behind magnetic sensing, one of the biggest questions in sensory biology.
Research article: Bassetto et al.
News & Views: Replication study casts doubt on magnetic sensing in flies
The world’s first filter feeder, and human-caused climate change in the Bronze Age.
Research Highlight: This ancient reptile wanted to be a whale
Research Highlight: Bronze Age deforestation changed Europe’s climate
This week the famed Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico shut down. The facility’s main telescope collapsed in 2020 and the site has since been battered by storms and pandemic-related shutdowns. Now, with funding exhausted and no clear plan in place, scientists are wondering what will become of the site.
Nature News: Closing down an icon: will Arecibo Observatory ever do science again?
This time, the Standard Model of physics still isn't dead according to new measurements of muons' magnetic moment, and finding the most diverse habitat on Earth under your feet.
Nature News: Dreams of new physics fade with latest muon magnetism result
The Guardian: More than half of Earth’s species live in the soil, study finds
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Coronapod: A whistle-blower’s quest to take politics out of coronavirus surveillance
Audio long-read: Rise of the robo-writers
Coronapod: How to define rare COVID vaccine side effects
Antimatter cooled with lasers for the first time
Coronapod: the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine - what you need to know
Network of world's most accurate clocks paves way to redefine time
Coronapod: Why COVID antibody treatments may not be the answer
The AI that argues back
Coronapod: COVID and pregnancy - what do we know?
The smallest measurement of gravity ever recorded
Coronapod: COVID's origins and the 'lab leak' theory
COVID, 2020 and a year of lost research
Coronapod: Google-backed database could help answer big COVID questions
The quark of the matter: what's really inside a proton?
Audio long-read: Thundercloud Project tackles a gamma-ray mystery
Coronapod: our future with an ever-present coronavirus
A mammoth discovery: oldest DNA on record from million-year-old teeth
Coronapod: Is mixing COVID vaccines a good idea?
Human Genome Project - Nature’s editor-in-chief reflects 20 years on
Coronapod: Variants – what you need to know
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