Tag Archives: 3D

Podcasts, Reviews, Science

Science: Mapping A Bat’s Navigation Neurons In 3D, Poison Dart Frogs, Fabrics

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Researchers uncover how grid cells fire in a 3D space to help bats navigate, and a fabric that switches between being stiff and flexible.

In this episode:

00:47 Mapping a bat’s navigation neurons in 3D

Grid cells are neurons that regularly fire as an animal moves through space, creating a pattern of activity that aids navigation. But much of our understanding of how grid cells work has involved rats moving in a 2D plane. To figure out how the system works in a 3D space, researchers have mapped the brain activity of bats flying freely around a room.

Research Article: Ginosar et al.

07:44 Research Highlights

How a ‘toxin sponge’ may protect poison dart frogs from themselves, and the world’s oldest known coin foundry has been found.

Research Highlight: An absorbing tale: poison dart frogs might have a ‘toxin sponge’

Research Highlight: Found: the world’s oldest known mint and its jumbo product

09:59 A flexible fabric that transforms from soft to rigid (and back again)

Researchers have created a ‘tunable’ fabric, inspired by medieval chainmail, that when compressed changes from flexible to rigid. The stiffened structure can hold 30 times its own weight, and the team behind it suggest this material could be used to build temporary shelters or have medical applications.

Research article: Wang et al.

16:33 Stark warning from the IPCC’s latest report

This week the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its long awaited report detailing compiling the latest climate science data. Nature’s Jeff Tollefson joins us to discuss the report and the warnings it contains for our warming world.

News: IPCC climate report: Earth is warmer than it’s been in 125,000 years

Collections, Photography, Technology, Videos, Views, Wildlife

Collections: Viewing Rare Birds In Digital 3-D (Video)

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How close have you ever gotten to a wild bird? Can you remember the details of its plumage or the curvature of its beak? Did it sit in one place long enough for you to really study all of its colors and other characteristics? Probably not—at least if it was alive. The avid birders among us sometimes search their whole life for a glimpse of a particularly rare species. But if you are just a casual observer of the winged creatures around us, the ones you do see likely come and go as flashes of color and sound. For ornithologists, the elusive nature of birds is just part of the job. Beyond fieldwork, though, access to rare or extinct species or those with a limited range can be especially difficult to get. If you were, say, hoping to study the green-headed tanager (a riotously multicolored songbird native to South America) and unable to travel to the northeastern region of the continent where it can be found, you would have to ask a museum to send you a specimen in the mail. Access to rare specimens, such as those of extinct birds, can be especially difficult to get.

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Technology, Videos

Virtual Tours: “Sir John Soane’s Museum – London” – “Spectacular Imagery”

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TAKE A 3D “DIGITAL TOUR” OF “THE SOANE”

Sir John Soane MuseumThe story of the restoration of Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Filmed over a period of 6 years, it traces the research, the discoveries and the skills that made transforming this magical place possible. This third episode reveals the painstaking work that went into restoring artworks within the Museum, and the legacy of the project.