In this episode:
Skyrmions are tiny whirlpools of magnetic spin that some researchers believe have useful properties that could unlock new kinds of computing. However getting skyrmions to perform useful computational tasks has been tricky. Now researchers have developed a method to create and manipulate skyrmions in a way that is compatible with existing computing technology, allowing them to read and write data at a fraction of the energy cost of conventional systems. The team think this shows that skyrmions could be a viable part of the next generation of computers.
Research Article: Chen et al.
News and Views: Magnetic whirlpools offer improved data storage
How robotically-enhanced, live jellyfish could make ocean monitoring cheap and easy, and how collective saliva tests could be a cost-effective way of testing for a serious infant infection.
Research Highlight: These cyborg jellyfish could monitor the changing seas
Research Highlight: Pooling babies’ saliva helps catch grave infection in newborns
Male songbirds often develop elaborate songs to demonstrate their fitness, but many birds only learn a single song and stick with it their entire lives. How female birds judge the fitness between these males has been a long-standing puzzle. Now, using an AI-based system a team has analysed the songs of male zebra finches and shown that some songs have a hidden factor that is imperceptible to humans. Although it’s not clear exactly what this factor is, songs containing it were shown to be harder to learn and more attractive to females. The researchers hope that this AI-based method will allow them to better understand what makes some birdsong more attractive than others.
Research article: Alam et al.
News and Views: Birds convey complex signals in simple songs
How H5N1 avian influenza is threatening penguins on Antarctica, and why farmed snake-meat could be a more environmentally-friendly way to produce protein for food.
Nature News: Bird-flu threat disrupts Antarctic penguin studies
Scientific American: Snake Steak Could Be a Climate-Friendly Source of Protein
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Fruit flies' ability to sense magnetic fields thrown into doubt
Racism in health: the roots of the US Black maternal mortality crisis
How welcome are refugees in Europe? A giant study has some answers
How to get more women in science, with Athene Donald
Audio long read: Lab mice go wild — making experiments more natural in order to decode the brain
Facebook ‘echo chamber’ has little impact on polarized views, according to study
AI-enhanced night-vision lets users see in the dark
Disrupting snail food-chain curbs parasitic disease in Senegal
ChatGPT can write a paper in an hour — but there are downsides
Even a 'minimal cell' can grow stronger, thanks to evolution
Audio long read: ‘Almost magical’ — chemists can now move single atoms in and out of a molecule’s core
Do octopuses dream? Neural activity resembles human sleep stages
Why bladder cancer cells that shed their Y chromosome become more aggressive
What IBM's result means for quantum computing
A brain circuit for infanticide, in mice
AI identifies gene interactions to speed up search for treatment targets
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?
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