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Flies can move their rigid, omnidirectional eyes – a little
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.
08:54 Research Highlights
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
11:11 Calls to mandate militaries’ emissions reporting
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
19:07 Briefing Chat
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
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Briefing Chat: ‘Zombie cells’ resurrected with new genes
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22:42|00:44 Why insects aren’t massiveResearch Article : Snelling et al.11:39 Research HighlightsNature: Faster ticking of ‘biological clock’ predicts shorter lifespanNature: Mighty mini-magnet is low in cost and light on energy use14:05 CRISPR creates CAR-T cancer therapy inside miceResearch Article: Nyberg et al.News & Views: A gene-editing method generates immunotherapeutic CAR T cells in the bodyNature: CRISPR makes enhanced cancer-fighting immune cells inside miceSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.
Briefing Chat: Are scientists funny? The evidence is in — and it's no joke
09:52|In this episode:00:22 Exploring how gut microorganisms contribute to ageingNature: Memory loss is fuelled by gut microbes in ageing mice04:30 How good jokes are in short supply during academic conferencesNature: Knock knock, no one’s there. Study finds scientists’ jokes mostly fall flatSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Botanical mystery solved: how plants make a crucial malaria drug
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Briefing chat: ‘Can it run Doom?’ — why scientists got brain cells and a satellite to play the classic game
10:34|00:26 Why researchers keep using Doom in their researchNature: How the classic computer game Doom became a tool for scienceSubscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.This fish shouldn’t exist — the weird genetics of clonal vertebrates
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Briefing chat: What Galileo’s scribbled margin notes reveal about his scientific journey
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