This week, finally solving the mystery of how thirst works.

Classic studies that suggested some mechanism for the tracking of water consumption were performed almost 100 years ago.

Our recordings in mice from these thirst neurons provide an explanation for how that works.

And ditch the parenting manuals what science says about how children really learn.

What we've discovered is that children are learning a great deal without needing to be taught.

Plus building a programmable quantum computer to handle more than a single algorithm.

This is the Nature Podcast for August 4th, 2016.

I'm Adam Levy. And I'm Noah Baker.

Thirst up, we've... Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Sorry.

Ah, that's much better. Thirsty? Yeah, I was perched, yeah. Quick quiz. What do you think made you thirsty?

Probably all this talking we have to do on the podcast.

Well, maybe, yes.

But how did you know you were thirsty?

And for that matter, how did you know when your thirst was quenched?

I don't know, but I have a feeling you might be about to tell me.

Absolutely. Luckily for you, that's a question which Zachary Knight and his colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco, have been investigating.

You might think that we've discovered how Thirst Works decades ago, and partially you'd be right,

but Zachary's team have been questioning the standard explanation.

There's been a textbook model for how Thirst works that's been around for a long time,

in some aspects, almost 100 years. And the idea is that thirst is controlled by the blood.

So we become thirsty, either because our blood becomes too salty, basically the osmolarity rises,

or because our blood volume falls.

...