In this episode:
00:48 Bumblebees can teach each other new tricksOne behaviour thought unique to humans is the ability to learn something from your predecessors that you couldn’t figure out on your own. However, researchers believe they have shown bumblebees are also capable of this ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ approach to learning. Bees that were taught how to complete a puzzle too difficult to solve on their own, were able to share this knowledge with other bees, raising the possibility that this thought-to-be human trait could be widespread amongst animals.
Research article: Bridges et al.
News and Views: Bees and chimpanzees learn from others what they cannot learn alone
Why the Krakatau eruption made the skies green, and the dining habits of white dwarf stars.
Research Highlight: Why sunsets were a weird colour after Krakatau blew its top
Research Highlight: This dying star bears a jagged metal scar
Many ocean-dwelling animals sense their environment using electric pulses, which can help them hunt and avoid predators. Now research shows that the tiny elephantnose fish can increase the range of this sense by combining its pulses with those of other elephantnose fish. This allows them to discriminate and determine the location of different objects at a much greater distance than a single fish is able to. This is the first time a collective electric sense has been seen in animals, which could provide an ‘early-warning system', allowing a group to avoid predators from a greater distance.
Research Article: Pedraja and Sawtell
The organoids made from cells derived from amniotic fluid, and the debate over the heaviest animal.
Nature News: Organoids grown from amniotic fluid could shed light on rare diseases
The New York Times: Researchers Dispute Claim That Ancient Whale Was Heaviest Animal Ever
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Audio long-read: How ancient people fell in love with bread, beer and other carbs
Coronapod: the latest on COVID and sporting events
How the US is rebooting gun violence research
Coronapod: Does England's COVID strategy risk breeding deadly variants?
How deadly heat waves expose historic racism
Coronapod: Will COVID become a disease of the young?
Food shocks and how to avoid them
Coronapod: the biomarker that could change COVID vaccines
The scientist whose hybrid rice helped feed billions
Audio long-read: How COVID exposed flaws in evidence-based medicine
Coronapod: should you have a COVID vaccine when breastfeeding?
Quantum compass might help birds 'see' magnetic fields
CureVac disappoints in COVID vaccine trial
Communities, COVID and credit: the state of science collaborations
Coronapod: Counting the cost of long COVID
Google AI beats humans at designing computer chips
Coronapod: Uncertainty and the COVID 'lab-leak' theory
On the origin of numbers
New hope for vaccine against a devastating livestock disease
Audio long-read: How harmful are microplastics?
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