It's long been assumed flies’ eyes don’t move, and so to alter their gaze they need to move their heads. Now, researchers have shown that this isn’t quite true and that fruit flies can actually move their retinas using a specific set of muscles, which may allow them to perceive depth. The team also hope that this movement may provide a window into some of the flies’ internal processes.
Research article: Fenk et al.
How the 80-year-old wreck of a sunken warship is influencing ocean microbes, and tracing an epilepsy-related gene variant back to a single person from 800 years ago.
Research Highlight: A ship sunk during the Second World War still stirs up the seabed
Research Highlight: Families on three continents inherited their epilepsy from a single person
The eyes of the world will be focused on the UN’s upcoming COP27 conference to see what governments will pledge to do to reduce global emissions. But there’s one sector of countries’ carbon outputs that remains something of a mystery: the emissions of their militaries. We speak to Oliver Belcher, one of a group of researchers who have written a Comment article for Nature, calling for better reporting and greater accountability for these military emissions.
Comment: Decarbonize the military — mandate emissions reporting
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time: efforts from Middle East countries to cut greenhouse-gas emissions while still supplying fossil fuels; the upcoming demise of NASA’s InSight spacecraft; and new estimates for how long bacteria could survive on Mars.
Nature News: The Middle East is going green — while supplying oil to others
Nature News: NASA spacecraft records epic ‘marsquakes’ as it prepares to die
New Scientist: Bacteria could survive just under Mars's surface for 280 million years
Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.
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Alphafold 3.0: the AI protein predictor gets an upgrade
Talking about sex and gender doesn't need to be toxic
Dad's microbiome can affect offsprings' health — in mice
Audio long read: Why loneliness is bad for your health
How gliding marsupials got their 'wings'
Living on Mars would probably suck — here's why
Keys, wallet, phone: the neuroscience behind working memory
The 'ghost roads' driving tropical deforestation
Audio long read: Why are so many young people getting cancer? What the data say
Pregnancy's effect on 'biological' age, polite birds, and the carbon cost of home-grown veg
How climate change is affecting global timekeeping
AI hears hidden X factor in zebra finch love songs
Killer whales have menopause. Now scientists think they know why
These tiny fish combine electric pulses to probe the environment
Could this one-time ‘epigenetic’ treatment control cholesterol?
Audio long read: Chimpanzees are dying from our colds — these scientists are trying to save them
How whales sing without drowning, an anatomical mystery solved
Why are we nice? Altruism's origins are put to the test
Smoking changes your immune system, even years after quitting
Why we need to rethink how we talk about cancer
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