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
Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Gaia Vince on how climate change will shape where people live
Mysterious fluid from ant pupae helps feed colony
Audio long read: Science and the World Cup — how big data is transforming football
The satellite-free alternative to GPS
How a key Alzheimer's gene wreaks havoc in the brain
Audio long read: She was convicted of killing her four children. Could a gene mutation set her free?
Molecular cages sift 'heavy' water from near-identical H2O
Audio long read: The controversial embryo tests that promise a better baby
Flies can move their rigid, omnidirectional eyes – a little
Racism in Health: the harms of biased medicine
Ancient DNA reveals family of Neanderthals living in Siberian cave
Human brain organoids implanted into rats could offer new way to model disease
Virtual library of LSD-like drugs could reveal new antidepressants
Nature's Take: How the war in Ukraine is impacting science
Audio long read: What scientists have learnt from COVID lockdowns
A trove of ancient fish fossils helps trace the origin of jaws
Huge dataset shows 80% of US professors come from just 20% of institutions
Complex synthetic cells bring scientists closer to artificial cellular life
Missing foot reveals world’s oldest amputation
Audio long read: Hybrid brains – the ethics of transplanting human neurons into animals
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free