In this episode:
Humans are notable for their cooperation and display far more altruistic behaviour than other animals, but exactly why this behaviour evolved has been a puzzle. But in a new paper, the two leading theories have been put the test with a model and a real-life experiment. They find that actually neither theory on its own leads to cooperation but a combination is required for humans to help one another.
Research article: Efferson et al.
News and Views: Why reciprocity is common in humans but rare in other animals
The discovery of an ancient stone wall hidden underwater, and the fun that apes have teasing one another.
Research Highlight: Great ‘Stone Age’ wall discovered in Baltic Sea
Research Highlight: What a tease! Great apes pull hair and poke each other for fun
Optical discs, like CDs and DVDs, are an attractive option for long-term data storage, but these discs are limited by their small capacity. Now though, a team has overcome a limitation of conventional disc writing to produce optical discs capable of storing petabits of data, significantly more than the largest available hard disk. The researchers behind the work think their new discs could one day replace the energy-hungry hard disks used in giant data centres, making long-term storage more sustainable.
Research Article: Zhao et al.
20:10 Briefing ChatThe famous fossil that turned out to be a fraud, and why researchers are making hybrid ‘meat-rice’.
Ars Technica: It’s a fake: Mysterious 280 million-year-old fossil is mostly just black paint
Nature News: Introducing meat–rice: grain with added muscles beefs up protein
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Audio long read: Can giant surveys of scientists fight misinformation on COVID, climate change and more?
‘Tree islands’ give oil-palm plantation a biodiversity boost
JWST shows an ancient galaxy in stunning spectroscopic detail
Nature's Take: Can Registered Reports help tackle publication bias?
‘Pangenome’ aims to capture the breadth of human diversity
Menopause and women’s health: why science needs to catch up
Audio long read: Conquering Alzheimer’s — a look at the therapies of the future
How Rosalind Franklin’s story was rewritten
A smarter way to melt down plastics?
How to battle misinformation with Sander van der Linden
Octopuses hunt by 'tasting' with their suckers
Giant black-hole pair from the early Universe gives clues to how galaxies form
Audio long read: What Turkey’s earthquake tells us about the science of seismic forecasting
Bacterial ‘syringes’ could inject drugs directly into human cells
How to make driverless cars safer — expose them to lots of dangerous drivers
How to build a virus-proof cell
How the Australian wildfires devastated the ozone layer
How an increased heart rate could induce anxiety in mice
Nature's Take: How Twitter's changes could affect science
Audio long read: How your first brush with COVID warps your immunity
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