Naturebang

Aug 02 2024 31 ep. 14 mins 533

Naturebang Podcast artwork

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight make sense of what it means to be human by looking to the natural world... Science meets storytelling with a philosophical twist.

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Underground Fungi and the Market Economy

Aug 02 2024 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight dig deep into the underground web of plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi networks. Here lies a 400 million year old market economy, founded on the trading of resources. Nutrients are traded for carbon. Carbon is traded for nutrients. And the exchange rate between the two is constantly in flux, to level supply with demand. This highly-evolved symbiosis be

Crafty Cuttlefish and Theory of Mind

Aug 01 2024 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight explore whether we can ever know what others know, and how we figure out if they're telling fibs. Beneath the surface of the ocean, darting around in the dappled sunlight of the reef, you can find some of nature's most prolific liars. The cephalopods. Squid, octopus and cuttlefish; filthy con artists, the lot of them. They communicate with each other,

Burying Beetles and the Politics of Parenting

Jul 31 2024 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight tackle a topic we love to fight about: parenting. How should we raise our kids? How much love is too much?Good parenting begins at home. And 'home', in this case, is a decomposing mouse corpse, rolled into a ball and buried 5 inches beneath the soil of the forest floor. Naturally. This is the home of one of nature's most diligent little parents, the bl

Dr Orangutan and the Evolution of Medicine

Jul 30 2024 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight explore the art and science of medicine: What makes you sick? What makes you well again? And how on earth do we (and animals) tell the difference?Deep in the rainforest of Sumatra, one clever orangutan called Rakus has pretty much got it figured out. Astonished researchers spotted him making and then applying a sophisticated plant-based medicinal paste

Rainbowfish and the Mysteries of Memory

Jul 29 2024 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight dive into the watery world of rainbowfish to confront the age-old myth that fish have bad memories. In actual fact, they are much more intelligent than we like to think, with an incredible capacity for learning and memory, as seen in almost all fish species. Their ability to remember complex things over a long period of time means they can build social

Drunk Moose and the Drive to Get Loose

Sep 22 2023 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight tackle a serious question. One of supreme scientific importance: do animals get wasted?From drunk moose stuck in trees, to wasted wallabies asleep in opium fields, to dippy dolphins puffing on toxic pufferfish; stories abound about animals who seem to be using their free time to get sloshed. But do these stories, delightful as they are, stand up to scr

Zebra Finches and Learning a Language

Sep 21 2023 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight find out what it takes to learn the language of your people, with the help of some extremely chatty little birds.The song of the zebra finch has been compared to a 90's dial-up modem running triple-speed, or an alien fax machine. But to a female zebra finch, it's a song of irresistible seduction. The males learn their song in a very similar way to the

Buff Geese and Gym Rats

Sep 20 2023 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight investigate physical fitness in the animal kingdom, and ask why animals never seem to have to go to the gym.Consider the Barnacle Goose, getting ready for one of the most phenomenal physical challenges of the animal world: the annual migration. They leave their sedentary summer life, floating about eating reeds, and take off to fly 2,700 miles. And wha

Killer Whales and the Mystery of the Menopause

Sep 19 2023 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight dive into the underwater world of killer whales, where tight-knit family pods are led by the eldest post-reproductive matriarch, to better understand why we have a menopause. Matriarchal killer whales usually stop being able to reproduce in their thirties or forties, but continue to live for decades longer. This phenomenon of having a long post-reprodu

Chuckling Chimps and the Evolution of Laughter

Sep 18 2023 14 mins

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the giggles and guffaws of the animal kingdom to ask where human laughter has come from. At least 65 species have been identified as making 'play vocalisations', a sort of animal version of laughter, according to a recent UCLA paper studying animals at play. Rats giggle in ultrasound, elephants have a play-specific trumpet, and kia parrots cack