<p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><h2></h2><h2>00:45 Why are humans so helpful?</h2><p>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.</p><p><em>Research article: </em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07077-w" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Efferson et al.</em></a></p><p><em>News and Views: </em><a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00308-0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Why reciprocity is common in humans but rare in other animals</em></a></p><h2></h2><h2>10:55 Research Highlights</h2><p>The discovery of an ancient stone wall hidden underwater, and the fun that apes have teasing one another.</p><p><em>Research Highlight: </em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00409-w" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Great ‘Stone Age’ wall discovered in Baltic Sea</em></a></p><p><em>Research Highlight: </em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00410-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>What a tease! Great apes pull hair and poke each other for fun</em></a></p><h2></h2><h2>13:14 The DVD makes a comeback</h2><p>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.</p><p><em>Research Article: </em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06980-y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Zhao et al.</em></a></p><h2>20:10 Briefing Chat</h2><p>The famous fossil that turned out to be a fraud, and why researchers are making hybrid ‘meat-rice’.</p><p><em>Ars Technica: </em><a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/its-a-fake-mysterious-280-million-year-old-fossil-is-mostly-just-black-paint" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>It’s a fake: Mysterious 280 million-year-old fossil is mostly just black paint</em></a></p><p><em>Nature News: </em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00398-w" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Introducing meat–rice: grain with added muscles beefs up protein</em></a></p><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/briefing/signup?utm_source=podcast-organic&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=briefing-signup&utm_content=shownotes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong><em>Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.</em></strong></a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

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Why are we nice? Altruism's origins are put to the test

Nature Podcast