In this episode:
To understand when, and how, the Milky Way formed, researchers need to know when its stars were born. This week, a team of astronomers have precisely aged nearly a quarter of a million stars, revealing more about the sequence of events that took place as our galaxy formed.
Research article: Xiang and Rix
News and Views: A stellar clock reveals the assembly history of the Milky Way
Archaeologists reveal an ancient lake was actually a ritual pool, and how the Moon’s phase affects some birds' altitude.
Research Highlight: Ancient ‘harbour’ revealed to be part of fertility god’s lavish shrine
Research Highlight: These birds fly high when the full Moon hangs in the sky
Yellowstone National Park’s iconic geothermal geysers and volcanic landmarks are well studied, but very little was known about the ‘plumbing system’ that feeds these features. Now a team of researchers have mapped the underground hydrothermal system, showing the specific faults and pathways that supply the park.
Research article: Finn et al.
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, 0why an Australian university has been suspended from winning a research foundation’s fellowships, and the ongoing debate about the cause of ‘COVID toes’.
Nature: Funder bars university from grant programme over white-male award line-up
Nature: Are ‘COVID toes’ actually caused by the coronavirus?
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Coronapod: Kids and COVID vaccines
Meet the inflatable, origami-inspired structures
Coronapod: could COVID vaccines cause blood clots? Here's what the science says
The sanitation crisis making rural America ill
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
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