Glow in the Dark Sharks

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A paper in frontiers in marine science describes the largest yet known luminous vertebrate o cay. The bialuminescent cells on their body are almost all on the on their underneath, on the belly,. Not entirely, which is interesting, but more on the bottom than on the top. In this twilight zone it is not completely dark, which means that if you're swimming around and something is underneath you, you're going to be silhouetted against the light from the surface. They don't want things to see them, but actually glowing a bit is a way to do that.

Physicists examine the gravitational pull between two tiny masses, and how fossil lampreys could shake-up the field of vertebrate evolution.

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00:47 Gravity, on the small scale

This week, researchers have captured the smallest measurement of gravity on record, by measuring the pull between two tiny gold spheres. This experiment opens the door for future experiments to investigate the fundamental forces of nature and the quantum nature of gravity.

Research Article: Westphal et al.

News and Views: Ultra-weak gravitational field detected

07:37 Research Highlights

Research shows that people often don’t know when a conversation should end, and the cuttlefish that show remarkable self control.

Research Highlight: How long should a conversation last? The people involved haven’t a clue

Research Highlight: Arms control: cuttlefish can pass the ‘marshmallow test’

10:18 Lamprey evolution

The larval stage of lamprey growth has long been thought to resemble the kind of early animal that all vertebrates evolved from. However, new research looking at the fossils of lamprey species suggests that this popular hypothesis may be incorrect.

Research Article: Miyashita et al.

17:38 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, glow-in-the-dark sharks, and scientists’ reflections on the nuclear industry 10 years on from Fukushima.

The Guardian: 'Giant luminous shark': researchers discover three deep-sea sharks glow in the dark

Nature Comment: Nuclear energy, ten years after Fukushima

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

Video: Deep-sea soft robots

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