Naked Scientists Podcast: Engineered Bacteria for Kidney Stones, Dinosaurs Diet Clues, and Ant Inspired Robotic Grips

Overview

This Naked Scientists episode covers three science breakthroughs and a week’s question. A biotech team engineers a gut microbe to reduce the risk of calcium oxalate kidney stones by breaking down oxalate in the gut. A paleobiology study analyzes fossilized sauropod teeth to infer diet and resource partitioning across environments. An Edinburgh lab showcases Antgrip, a two finger robot gripper inspired by ant hairs to achieve slim yet robust gripping. The episode closes with a Question of the Week about aircraft contrails formed from engine exhaust in saturated upper atmosphere.

• Engineered bacteria target enteric hyperoxaluria to lower urine oxalate
• Sauropod teeth wear patterns reveal diet specialization and possible migration
• Ant inspired biomimetic grippers enhance robot gripping in tight spaces
• Contrails arise from atmospheric saturation and water vapor in jet exhaust

Introduction

The Naked Scientists podcast presented by Rhys James navigates through a suite of recent scientific advances, starting with a biotech approach to a common kidney problem, moving to dinosaur ecology through tooth wear analysis, then to robotics inspired by insects, and finally a meteorology based question of the week.

Engineered gut microbes to prevent kidney stones

The first story examines enteric hyperoxaluria, a disease where oxalate from the diet is absorbed in the gut and concentrated in the kidneys, contributing to calcium oxalate stones. A collaboration involving Wes Whitaker at Novoam Biotechnologies and Stanford University School of Medicine engineered a common gut bacterium, Bocdater vulgatus, to enhance oxalate breakdown. The researchers focused on reliability of gut colonization by introducing a nutrient using porphyrin, a compound found in red algae but not in terrestrial plants, to selectively feed their engineered bacteria. They also made the bacteria porphyrin dependent so essential genes fail in the absence of porphyrin, increasing containment and safety. Five oxalate degrading genes were added to empower rapid breakdown of oxalate in the gut.

Clinical data from a small patient set showed a reduction in urinary oxalate by about 20 to 25 percent, suggesting a potential reduction in stone risk for patients with recurrent stones. The team acknowledges the need for larger trials to confirm efficacy and clinical significance. There is discussion of oxalate absorption in the colon versus the small intestine and evidence that the native Oxalobacter species in the colon is linked to disease risk, supporting the gut focused approach.

The work is framed as a potential platform for adding defined therapeutic activities to the gut with the possibility of swapping the oxalate pathway for other therapeutic activities, such as toxin binding or inflammatory diseases, thereby opening a path for broader microbiome based therapies.

Mice infer opponent rank through chemosensory cues

The next segment reports on a Crick Institute study where mice can determine the social rank of unfamiliar mice using chemosensory signals. The tube test provides a simple binary readout of hierarchy. Experiments with complete strangers possessing established hierarchies showed that mice could infer and act according to the rank of unknown opponents. The researchers eliminated vision as the primary cue by performing tests in total darkness with night vision equipment. They then tested two major chemosensory systems: the olfactory system for volatile signals and the vomeronasal system for non volatile, contact cues. Removal of either system did not impair performance, but removing both made performance random, indicating that either system alone can support the rank inference.

The study also explored the cues themselves. Experiments using urine from alpha males applied to lower ranked mice boosted the lower ranked mouse status, while the reverse did not lower the alpha's status, suggesting a scalable dominance cue. The exact chemical identities remain unknown, with future work aimed at identifying the specific volatile and non volatile cues and their neural processing. This research illuminates how social information can be mediated by chemical signals and brain circuits in a social species.

Sauropod tooth wear reveals dietary niche partitioning

Daniel Winkler of Keele University discusses a study using well preserved sauropod teeth to infer diet and feeding behavior in Jurassic environments. Teeth, with micro wear scratches, record the food textures and plant types sauropods fed on. The team analyzed specimens from three distinct ecosystems: the modern United States, Portugal, and Tanzania. They discovered that Camarasaurids in both the US and Portugal showed a very narrow, specialized diet, with wear patterns indicating seasonally shifting preferred foods. This specialization implies potential vulnerability to environmental changes, especially when resources shift or disappear, which could drive migration patterns to track food sources.

Interestingly, the Tanzania sample displayed a distinct wear pattern consistent with a desert dust rich environment, suggesting sand contamination when feeding in nearby arid belts. The researchers connect these wear signatures to historical climate conditions and dust transport, implying that fossilized tooth wear can be a proxy for ancient climate and habitat conditions. The findings emphasize that dinosaur communities might have partitioned resources to coexist, with fine scale dietary differences mediating competition among Camarasaurids and other contemporaries.

Ant inspired gripping technology

In Edinburgh, the Antgrip project seeks to improve robot grasping by mimicking ant mandibles. Barbara Webb and her team have implemented tiny sensory hairs in a thermoplastic polyurethane TPU material to create slim yet highly controllable grippers. The two finger design remains compact while achieving high friction through hair like structures, allowing objects to be grasped with minimal physical pads. The hairs deform to accommodate cylindrical objects and provide tactile feedback through contact sensors. The gripper design aims to excel in automation settings such as warehouse picking, where slim fingers can access tight spaces in boxes and shelves, improving performance without adding bulk.

The researchers note potential future directions, including varying hair angles and densities, exploring thousands of grip cycles, and integrating tactile sensing into a subset of hairs. They also highlight using the insect model for broader bio inspired robotics, including how ants position themselves during grasp and how their antennae provide contextual information for manipulation.

Question of the Week: Aircraft contrails

The episode ends with a Question of the Week about a long faint tube shaped cloud observed after dusk. Meteorologist Keith Schein Regis explains contrails arise when water vapor from jet engines mixes with atmospheric water vapor at high altitude. The air at cruising height is saturated, and the exhaust reduces temperatures quickly, forming tiny ice crystals. Contrails form not from exhaust alone but from water vapor condensing onto existing atmospheric aerosols and ice crystals in very cold, moist air. This creates elongated clouds that persist depending on atmospheric conditions. The segment demonstrates how everyday aviation interacts with atmospheric physics.

Closing

The Naked Scientists wrap up with contact information and a tease for future topics, emphasizing the program is produced in association with Spitfire and sponsored music. The show continues to explore science at the intersections of biology, ecology, technology and climate science.