They’re a couple: JWST is first to spot pair of mysterious ‘Y dwarfs’
Two extremely cool examples of ‘failed stars’ called brown dwarfs are found orbiting each other.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – May 11, 2023
Tag Archives: Nature Magazine
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – May 4, 2023
Is the world ready for ChatGPT therapists?
The current landscape of mobile mental-health apps is the result of a 70-year search to automate therapy. Now, advanced AIs pose fresh ethical questions.
Since 2015, Koko, a mobile mental-health app, has tried to provide crowdsourced support for people in need. Text the app to say that you’re feeling guilty about a work issue, and an empathetic response will come through in a few minutes — clumsy perhaps, but unmistakably human — to suggest some positive coping strategies.
Fish on dry land hint at why we blink
Insights from mudskippers suggest that blinking is an adaptation to emerging from the sea.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – April 27, 2023
Massive mosquito factory in Brazil aims to halt dengue
Facility will produce up to five billion bacteria-infected mosquitoes per year
The non-profit World Mosquito Program (WMP) has announced that it will release modified mosquitoes in many of Brazil’s urban areas over the next 10 years, with the aim of protecting up to 70 million people from diseases such as dengue. Researchers have tested the release of this type of mosquito — which carries a Wolbachia bacterium that stops the insect from transmitting viruses — in select cities in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Vietnam. But this will be the first time that the technology is dispersed nationwide.
Rewilding the planet
An archipelago constructed of sand and mud is bringing new life to a dead lake but can this bold experiment have a lasting impact
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – April 20, 2023
Is Africa’s Great Green Wall project withering?
The plan to re-green a 7,000-kilometre swathe south of the Sahara is at risk of losing its pan-African vision and ambition.
A glacier’s catastrophic collapse is linked to global warming
Eleven hikers died after weeks of unusually warm weather led to melting of the Marmolada Glacier in the Alps.
Sunshine is transformed into green hydrogen on an ambitious scale
Prototype facility smashes record for converting solar power to hydrogen for its technology category.
Book Reviews: ‘On The Origin Of Time – Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory’
Like his mentor and colleague Stephen Hawking, Thomas Hertog has never shied away from being ambitious in theorizing about the universe. This sweeping book provides an accessible overview of both what we know about cosmology, and some audacious ideas for moving into the unknown. It is an introduction to Hawking’s final theory, but also a glimpse into even grander theories yet to come.
Professor Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – April 13, 2023
World’s biggest butterfly is low on genetic diversity
An endangered butterfly, found only in Papua New Guinea, has had a small population for a million years.
Three ways to solve the plastics pollution crisis
Researchers are studying how more-sophisticated policies, smarter recycling and new materials could stem the tide of waste.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – April 6, 2023
Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution — we need to change the narrative
Drastically reduce emissions first, or carbon dioxide removal will be next to useless.
Bird-flu virus makes itself at home in Canada’s foxes and skunks
The virulent H5N1 strain now sweeping across the world is adapting to its mammalian hosts in northern North America.
Conquering Alzheimer’s: a look at the therapies of the future
Researchers are looking to drug combinations, vaccines and gene therapy as they forge the next generation of treatments for the condition.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – March 30, 2023
A gem of a material could provide a shield for spacecraft
Material that includes carbon with the same structure as diamond could be used to protect satellites from space radiation.
It’s bad! Awful! Negative headlines draw more readers
People scrolling online news are 1% less likely to click on an article for each positive word in its title.
GPT-4 is here: what scientists think
Researchers are excited about the AI — but many are frustrated that its underlying engineering is cloaked in secrecy.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – March 23, 2023
South Pacific plankton go berserk after minor cyclone
The biggest phytoplankton bloom ever recorded in the South Pacific Ocean was triggered by a small but lingering storm.
Planet or failed star? A mysterious object blurs the line
A body classified as an exoplanet has been shown to nurture thermonuclear fusion of heavy hydrogen — a trait of objects called brown dwarfs.
Gigantic map of fly brain is a first for a complex animal
Fruit fly ‘connectome’ will help researchers to study how the brain works, and could further understanding of neurological diseases.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – March 9, 2023
Sims-style ‘digital twin’ models can tell us if food systems will weather crises
From COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine, virtual models could inform global food policy before emergencies unfold.
Big bats fly towards extinction with hunters in pursuit
Human hunt at least 19% of bat species worldwide — especially flying foxes, which can have wingspans of 1.5 metres.
Large tropical bats with narrow home ranges are disproportionately likely to be hunted by humans, according to a global analysis of 1,320 bat species — nearly all of the 1,400 known to science1.
How to stop the bird flu outbreak becoming a pandemic
From tracking the disease’s spread in wild birds to updating human vaccines, there are measures that could help keep avian influenza in check.
Fears are rising about bird flu’s potential to spark a human pandemic, as well as its destruction of wildlife and farmed birds. An 11-year-old girl tragically died in Cambodia last week after catching avian influenza. That followed reports earlier this year of the virus spreading from mammal to mammal through a mink farm, and causing mass mortality in Peruvian birds and sea lions. Since the beginning of 2022, more than 50 million poultry birds in the United States, and a similar number in Europe, have either died of the disease or been killed in efforts to stem its spread. Can bird flu be stopped, and if yes, how?
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