💡 The Top Science News

The latest from Nautilus and the wider world of science. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Tuesday, check out the latest from Nautilus and the top science news—plus your free story and question of the day below HISTORY [The Feminist Botanist]( A 19th-century tale of hermaphrodite flowers, Charles Darwin, and women’s right to vote. BY REBECCA BATLEY Lydia Becker sat down at her desk in the British village of Altham, a view of fields unfurling outside of her window. [Continue reading→]( DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week [Spontaneous Eye Movements Reflect the Strange Geometry of Thought]( Where we gaze while thinking—about numbers, for instance—reveals seemingly unrelated yet critical information about our mental processes. [PNAS→]( [How Borderlands 3 Players Are Helping Us Understand the Human Microbiome]( “Integrating a scientific task in a commercial video game from a franchise that sells millions of copies constitutes a risk”—but it paid off big time, improving information on RNA sequences of microbes in our gut. [Nature Biotechnology→]( [A Climate-Change Powered Heat Dome Led to North America’s 2021 Wildfires]( “The strength of the heat dome was 86 percent greater than the same event would have been without background warming.” [Communications Earth & Environment →]( [Disagreement Gets Mistaken for Bad Listening]( We’ve all experienced it: People “believe their views are correct,” which leads them to think that whoever disagrees “must not have been listening very well.” [Psychological Science→]( [NASA Officially Greenlights $3.35 Billion Mission to Saturn’s Moon Titan]( Dragonfly, an eight-bladed rotorcraft lander, will seek out organic molecules, the precursors of life, when it launches in 2028. [Ars Technica→]( [Want to Remember More? Make More Mistakes]( A neuroscientist explains why errors in learning help forge our memories. [The Wall Street Journal→]( [Hyperphantasia and the Quest to Understand Vivid Imaginations]( “I have a second space in my mind where I can create any location.” [The Guardian→]( [The Key Problem with the “Brain in a Vat” Thought Experiment]( Even with the best technology imaginable, you'd probably never be able to exist as a consciously aware brain in a vat. [Big Think→]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... If you were stranded with no possibility of rescue—but had pen and paper—what would you write in the hope that your message would be discovered? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by [“Explore a Digitized Collection of Doomed Everest Climber’s Letters Home.”]() Top Answers to Our Previous Question(On Your Most Memorable Encounter with a Creature of the Sea) • I had a close encounter with a Spotted eagle ray while snorkeling in Belize. One would come to our guide’s boat every day during his morning trip. It would approach us and the guide would give us chum to feed it. After taking a piece, the ray would swim around in a big circle and come back for more. The guide also instructed us to rub its nose, but not touch it anywhere else. It was the strangest feeling, like touching silly putty. Spotted eagle rays are extremely shy, so this opportunity was unique. – Len K. • While scuba diving off Miami, I met an octopus about long on the open reef and spent about ten minutes photographing and videoing up close. I stared, fixated by that eye with the strange W-shaped pupil, in love with the intelligence and curiosity I felt. I wish it had touched me, but I feel so grateful for that experience. – Steven C. • I was scuba diving at night in the Philippines when my tank slipped down through the anchoring straps. As my dive partner struggled to reattach it in the current, I clung to a rock to stabilize myself. In night dives, your flashlight is all you have for bearing and with both hands on the rock, I was without. The tendency is to close one’s eyes, which I did. After several minutes of being jerked around by the current, my dive partner wrestling my tank, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I opened my eyes to see a flashlight pointing to the rock just two inches from my nose, where a deadly cone snail was waving its proboscis at me. Its neurotoxins would have stopped my heart instantly. You can imagine how quickly I let go of that rock… – Dayna B. Your free story this Tuesday! [COMMUNICATION]( [Shakespeare’s Genius Is Nonsense]( What the Bard can teach science about language and the limits of the human mind. BY JILLIAN HINCHLIFFE & SETH FREY You’d be forgiven if, settling into the fall 2003 “Literature of the 16th Century” course at University of California, Berkeley, you found the unassuming 70-year-old man standing at the front of the lecture hall a bit eccentric. [Continue reading for free→]( The Rockstar and the Squid Coming from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in western Washington, musician Katherine “KP” Paul, of Black Belt Eagle Scout, has a deep personal connection to the ocean. That’s why she was the perfect choice to read Alex Riley’s special [story]( about the search for a giant, mysterious, luminous squid—Taningia danae. We love this story because it shows how little we know about our deep oceans, and how even an animal sporting giant, flashing lights, can remain virtually unknown…until now. For the first time, you can listen to a Nautilus story on [YouTube]( or [Spotify](. Check it out and let us know what you think. [WATCH]( [LISTEN]( P.S. William Shakespeare was born on this day in 1564. As a playwright and businessman, the Bard had a serious interest in shielding his audiences from the mechanics of his verse, wrote Jillian Hinchliffe and Seth Frey. It reflected the 16th-century concept of sprezzatura—lightness, ease, the ability to make even the most difficult things look effortless. They agree with the literary critic Stephen Booth that [the poetic experience of Shakespeare’s work]( is “the interaction of barely perceptible mental processes whose delicate, scintillating play is usually washed out by the spotlight of conscious attention.” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading.[Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, if you find our content valuable, consider [becoming a member]( to support our work, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2024 NautilusNext, All rights reserved.You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext360 W 36th Street, 7S,New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Unsubscribe](