Royal Society Publishing

Dolphins have been observed to blow bubble nets when hunting prey. Such bubble nets would confound the best man-made sonar because the strong scattering by the bubbles generates 'clutter' in the sonar image, which cannot be distinguished from the true target. As it seems unlikely that Dolphins would blind their sonar in this way they may have an alternative way of processing signals.

In celebration of Alan Turing's centenary, the Royal Society has published two special issues "The foundations of computation, physics and mentality: the Turing legacy" by S Barry Cooper and Samson Abramsky and "Computability and the Turing centenary" Organized by S. Barry Cooper and Philip Maini. Here we talk to Samson Abramsky about the richness of Alan Turing's intellectual legacy in the modern conception of computation.

Philosophical Transactions B has published a theme issue on "The social network and communicative complexity in animals" which addresses the hypothesis that an important factor influencing the complexity of communicative signals in individuals is the complexity of the social groups of which those individuals are members.

Metacognition can be defined as thinking about thinking and Philosophical Transactions B has just published an issue highlighting the advances being made in research to measure and quantify metacognition, and understand its neural basis. In this podcast guest editors Steven Fleming and Chris Frith discuss what metacognition is.

Most cases of colorectal cancer are linked to mutational inactivation of the Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumour suppressor. In this podcast Mariann Bienz discusses her Open Biology paper 'The Adenomatous polyposis coli tumour suppressor is essential for Axin complex assembly and function and opposes Axin's interaction with Dishevelled' and the role APC plays in the development of colorectal cancer.

In this podcast Paul Barrett and Andrew Smith talk about a Special Feature in Biology letters they have guest-edited which brings together a series of papers that showcase how modelling the past is being applied to advance our understanding across a wide spectrum of current palaeontological endeavours.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is opening the way for the search for new phenomena. The Philosophical Transactions A issue "Physics at the High Energy Frontier - The Large Hadron Collider Project" brings together papers from a discussion meeting that review the present state of knowledge of particle physics and the early results from the experiments at the LHC.

The brood parasitic behaviour of the commoon cuckoo is well known, with observations by Edward Jenner back in the 1780s having been publishing in Philosophical Transactions. The African greater honeyguide chick exhibits rather more brutal adaptations to kill its host siblings and the first detailed observations of this behaviour have been documented in a Biology Letters paper by Claire Spottiswoode and Jeroen Koorevaar.

Philosophical Transactions A has published a theme issue The Complexity of Sleep, which looks at the application of complexity science to studying the complex dynamics of the sleeping brain is a fast. Claire Birch talks to one of the Guest Editors, Thomas Wennekers, about the work presented in this issue.

The Royal Society has launched a new journal, Open Biology, which is a fast, open access journal covering biology at the molecular and cellular level. This selective, online journal will publish original, high-quality, peer- reviewed research articles. In this video, the Editor-in-Chief, Professor David Glover, talks about his visions for the journal.

Claire Birch interviews Dr Jon Agar who has published a paper in Notes and Records which looks at Margaret Thatcher's early career as a scientist, an area of her life often overlooked by biographers. He then discusses how this training may have influenced her political career.

In this video podcast Claire Birch interviews Drs Phil Manning and Roy Wogelius who, along with their colleagues, have published a paper in Proceedings B which describes a new non-destructive method for studying fossilised soft tissue. They have demonstrated that infrared mapping can be used to study fossil reptile skin and in future could provide a valuable insight into the biochemistry of extinct organisms.

Philosophical Transactions B has published a theme issue which showcases the scientific knowledge of the processes involved in the development, physiology and pathology of the ocular lens. In this video podcast Joanna Bolesworth talks to one of the guest editors, Michael Wormstone, about how the unique properties of the ocular lens and how it can act as a model for disease.

Dr Martin Bidartondo, Professor Jeff Duckett and their colleagues have published a paper in Biology Letters which studies the symbiosis between plants and fungi. In this video podcast Charlotte Wray asks them about their findings which suggest that fungi of the Mucoromycotina rather than the Glomeromycota enabled the establishment and growth of early land colonists.

Charlotte Wray reports novel findings in how bumblebees perceive colour in a paper written by 8-10 year old pupils at Blackawton School in Devon under the supervision of scientist Beau Lotto .

Claire Birch talks talks to Drs Hugo Williams, Richard Ambrosi and Nigel Bannister about their paper in Proceedings A which studies the feasibility of building a Mars hopping vehicle.

Wendy Barnaby talks to Dr Mim Bower about her co-authored paper in Biology Letters which traces the origins of Thoroughbred foundation mares.

Wendy Barnaby talks to Professor Tom Daniel and Professor Andrew Biewener about their paper on Control and Dynamics of Animal Movement.

Wendy Barnaby talks to Dr Alex Thornton about the paper he co-authored in Proceedings B which looks at what time meerkats get up in the morning.

Wendy Barnaby interviews Cyril about his article on the history of how flat panel electronic displays were developed.

Wendy Barnaby talks to Richard Ellis about his article on Gravitational Lensing.

Wendy Barnaby talks to Uta and Chris Frith about their article on how the brain affects social interaction and communication.

Wendy Barnaby talks to Sir Partha about his article and how nature should be taken into account when looking at economic development.

Wendy Barnaby talks to Dr Moira Wilson about her article - Dating fired clay ceramics using long term power law rehydroxylation kinetics