{"id":225948,"date":"2026-01-07T20:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/225948\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:24:16","slug":"a-mysterious-ancient-fingerprint-and-a-lemon-shaped-planet-the-stories-youve-missed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/225948\/","title":{"rendered":"A mysterious ancient fingerprint and a lemon-shaped planet \u2014 the stories you\u2019ve missed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-nature-box__text\" data-test=\"access-message\">\n                You have full access to this article via your institution.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms-resources.apps.public.k8s.springernature.io\/springer-cms\/rest\/v1\/content\/51917480\/data\/v3\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/cms-resources.apps.public.k8s.springernature.io\/springer-cms\/rest\/v1\/content\/51917480\/data\/v3\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Download the Nature Podcast 07 January 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In this episode:<\/p>\n<p>00:54 Turning an undersea cable into a seismic detector<\/p>\n<p>Researchers have shown that they can piggyback a signal on a 4,400-kilometer-long telecom cable that runs from California to Hawaii, allowing it to act like 44,000 separate seismic-activity detectors. Their method takes advantage of impurities found in glass fibre-optic cables, which reflect light differently when they are stretched and distorted by the pressure of seismic waves.<\/p>\n<p>Science: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/seafloor-telecom-cable-transformed-giant-earthquake-detector\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/seafloor-telecom-cable-transformed-giant-earthquake-detector\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seafloor telecom cable transformed into giant earthquake detector<\/a><\/p>\n<p>04:17 The origin of an ancient boat<\/p>\n<p>Chemical analysis of the caulking found on the wood an ancient boat has helped researchers identify the origins of the vessel, that sank off the coast of Denmark 2,400 years ago. The team\u2019s analysis suggests it voyaged from much farther away that had been thought \u2014 perhaps coming from the Baltic Sea region. The team also found a fingerprint left in the caulk, although who it belonged to is unknown.<\/p>\n<p>LiveScience: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/archaeology\/fingerprint-of-ancient-seaborne-raider-found-on-scandinavias-oldest-plank-boat\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/archaeology\/fingerprint-of-ancient-seaborne-raider-found-on-scandinavias-oldest-plank-boat\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fingerprint of ancient seaborne raider found on Scandinavia&#8217;s oldest plank boat<\/a><\/p>\n<p>08:29 How heating up helps some plants pollinate<\/p>\n<p>Some plants called cycads (Zamia spp.) heat up to attract the beetles that pollinate them. These beetles have heat-seeking sensors in their antennae, which they use locate the plants. Male cycads warm up around 3 hours before females, meaning that beetles head to them before first carrying pollen over to the females.<\/p>\n<p>Science: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/heat-seeking-beetles-drawn-plants-glow-infrared\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/heat-seeking-beetles-drawn-plants-glow-infrared\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Heat-seeking beetles drawn to plants that glow in infrared<\/a><\/p>\n<p>13:08 The exoplanet shaped like a lemon<\/p>\n<p>The discovery of exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b reveals how unusual other worlds can be. This exoplanet takes just 7.8 hours to orbit an ultra-dense pulsar whose intense gravity pulls PSR J2322-2650b into a lemon shape.<\/p>\n<p>New Scientist: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2508929-strange-lemon-shaped-exoplanet-defies-the-rules-of-planet-formation\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2508929-strange-lemon-shaped-exoplanet-defies-the-rules-of-planet-formation\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Strange lemon-shaped exoplanet defies the rules of planet formation<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/briefing\/signup\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/briefing\/signup\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/nature-podcast\/id81934659\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/nature-podcast\/id81934659\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2MydwKJpiKwiNRdxIzvFIt\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2MydwKJpiKwiNRdxIzvFIt\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/channel\/UCdbyeEGP-NPfOoL4R8TfDsg\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/channel\/UCdbyeEGP-NPfOoL4R8TfDsg\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube Music<\/a> or your favourite podcast app. <a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.acast.com\/public\/shows\/0185cea5-9e3b-4b82-a887-26f91f92765f\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/feeds.acast.com\/public\/shows\/0185cea5-9e3b-4b82-a887-26f91f92765f\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast<\/a> is available too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You have full access to this article via your institution. Download the Nature Podcast 07 January 2026 In&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2520,4068,85,46,4069,6825,141,121173],"class_list":["post-225948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-archaeology","tag-humanities-and-social-sciences","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-multidisciplinary","tag-plant-sciences","tag-science","tag-solid-earth-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}