On The Radar

The pick of the news in science

Vikings link to honeybees

What do Vikings and honeybees have in common? Possibly the use of polarised light to find their way around.

In the current issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, one paper describes how bees could learn to find their way through a maze of tunnels if guided by polarised light on the ceilings, lending weight to the theory that the insects can use scattered, polarised light in the sky as a navigational cue.

Another paper in the same issue looks at evidence for the theory that seafaring Vikings also plugged into the method by using polarising crystals to locate the invisible sun in foggy weather, in what the editorial calls “a likely unintentional example of biomimicry”.

Arentine ant genome draft

Researchers in the US have published a draft genome of the Argentine ant. The invasive pest is one of three ant species whose genetics are aired in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesonline.

But using that information to tackle the pest will take more work, according to reseacher Christopher D Smith from San Francisco State University. “In reality, the genome is really just information; we now have to put that into action, and in order to do that, we must genetically manipulate ants to confirm if a target gene does what we think it does. Having a genome is like being handed a big book with a bunch of words we don’t understand. Now we have to figure out the grammar and syntax.”

Green light for Trinity projects 

Two scientists from Trinity College Dublin have secured prestigious European Reseach Council advanced grants, which support well-established researchers around the world to work on frontier or ‘blue-sky’ research. Prof Luke O’Neill will use his award to look at how microRNA molecules fine-tune the immune system, while Prof Ken Wolfe will be examining genomic rearrangements during the evolution of yeast species.