Hiya Nature readers, would you prefer to get this Briefing in your inbox free each day? Enroll right here.
Credit score: Petr Horalek/Astronomy Photographer of the Yr
Bioluminescent plankton emit an otherworldly glow underneath the celebs of the Southern Cross constellation on this picture taken by astrophotographer Petr Horálek within the Maldives. “As you walked on the seaside, the plankton lit up like small torches, caught to your legs and toes,” he stated in his entry for the Astronomy Photographer of the Yr competitors. “You might swim within the lagoon and see your actions illuminated by the plankton within the water. When a brand new wave hit the shore, it regarded like blue lava.”
See extra of the month’s sharpest science pictures, chosen by Nature’s photograph crew.
9 individuals have died in an outbreak of Marburg virus, a extremely lethal relative of Ebola virus, in Rwanda. There aren’t any authorized remedies or vaccines for Marburg; nonetheless most outbreaks are small and rapidly contained. If the Rwanda outbreak continues, the plan is to trial a minimum of one experimental vaccine in a method generally known as ring vaccination, which includes immunizing contacts of an contaminated particular person. “The Rwandan well being authorities are exceptionally succesful, and I hope that they are going to be capable to quickly include this outbreak,” says Mark Feinberg of the vaccine-research non-profit IAVI. “The dangers of extension of the outbreak to adjoining international locations isn’t insignificant and the results of this could possibly be extreme.”
A brand new massive language mannequin (LLM) from the developer of ChatGPT, referred to as OpenAI o1, has impressed researchers with its science data. Scientists who examined a preview model of the mannequin famous that it spent extra time in sure phases of studying, and ‘thinks’ about its solutions for longer, making it slower, however extra succesful. The crowning achievement of o1 was beating PhD-level students on the toughest sequence of questions in a check referred to as the Graduate-Stage Google-Proof Q&A Benchmark, making it the primary LLM to take action. Nevertheless, testers additionally famous that o1 appears to make up incorrect solutions extra usually than its predecessors.
The longer somebody continues their doctoral research, the extra they want entry to mental-health providers and medicines corresponding to antidepressants and sedatives. A research of greater than 20,000 Swedish PhD college students discovered that, by their fifth yr of research, PhD candidates have been 40% extra more likely to be prescribed psychiatric medicine in contrast with the yr earlier than they began finding out. After the common size of a PhD, their uptake of mental-health providers by college students drops once more.
Reference: SSRN preprint (not peer reviewed)
Supply: Ref. 1
Options & opinion
Individuals with Alzheimer’s illness are attempting a remedy that includes rhythmic clicking and flashing lights, tuned to repeat 40 occasions a second. Scientific trials began after scientists noticed that the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s are poor in ‘gamma waves’ — electrical patterns that oscillate at round 40 hertz — in contrast with wholesome brains. In mice, rhythmic visible and auditory cues appear to behave just like the drum main of a marching band, getting gamma waves in tune once more, with optimistic results on cognition and mind well being. For some critics, this all appears too good to be true — and hype has ignited an explosion of unproven ‘wellness’ devices linked to the concept.
Reference: PNAS paper & Nature paper
One yr in the past, biogeochemist Maya Bhatia misplaced her life when she was swept right into a moulin — a vertical shaft — whereas accumulating samples on a slippery glacier. Tragedies corresponding to this are a part of why environmental scientist Sarah Boon is looking for in-depth security programs for these enterprise fieldwork in distant, hazardous environments such because the Arctic. Supervisors must also have management coaching for emergency conditions, and researchers who’re too drained or pressured to function safely needs to be supported, argues Boon.
Synthetic intelligence (AI) will help to cease pure hazards corresponding to storms and floods from changing into human disasters. AI instruments will help to make sooner and extra correct climate forecasts, broaden entry to early-warning programs and hold infrastructure corresponding to telecommunications up and working. However such instruments may additionally endure from bias, for instance as a result of they are typically skilled largely on knowledge from wealthier international locations, and a scarcity of interoperability. Twelve contributors to an evaluation of AI functions in catastrophe prediction and mitigation name for the event of worldwide requirements and extra transparency from AI builders.
The International Initiative on Resilience to Pure Hazards by AI Options, led by the Worldwide Telecommunication Union, will kick off in November. To get entangled, specialists in AI and in catastrophe administration are invited to contact the main focus group and initiative’s secretariat at tsbfgai4ndm@itu.int.
Picture of the week
Astronauts are one step nearer to with the ability to print steel instruments and spare components in area. In August, a 3D printer aboard the Worldwide House Station squirted out some cylindrical stainless-steel check specimens — the first-ever steel issues efficiently 3D printed in area. These will probably be in contrast with samples produced on Earth to see what weirdness might need occurred in microgravity. (VoxelMatters | 7 min learn) (Airbus/ESA)
Don’t do this at dwelling: researchers have found a tree frog that, throughout its total tadpole part, doesn’t poop. This uncomfortable-sounding skill advanced, recommend scientists, as a result of the little fellas spend their complete childhoods in tiny swimming pools of water trapped within the hollows of vegetation.
Don’t maintain in your opinion on this text. Please ship your suggestions to briefing@nature.com.
Thanks for studying,
Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing
With contributions by Jacob Smith and Sarah Tomlin
Need extra? Signal as much as our different free Nature Briefing newsletters:
• Nature Briefing: Careers — insights, recommendation and award-winning journalism that will help you optimize your working life
• Nature Briefing: Microbiology — essentially the most ample residing entities on our planet — microorganisms — and the position they play in well being, the atmosphere and meals programs.
• Nature Briefing: Anthropocene — local weather change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering
• Nature Briefing: AI & Robotics — 100% written by people, in fact
• Nature Briefing: Most cancers — a weekly publication written with most cancers researchers in thoughts
• Nature Briefing: Translational Analysis — covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma
