Dr Urmila Chadayammuri
@uchadaya.bsky.social
Astronomy & Astrophysics Editor at Nature, very invested in better life on Earth. Views my own.
3I/ATLAS, the third-known interstellar visitor to pass through our Solar System, may have formed in an ancient planetary system around 12 billion years ago. The evidence presented in Nature shows that the object has a composition unlike anything else in the Solar System. go.nature.com/4aPZYVF 🔭🧪
The world’s highest 10% of spenders are responsible for environmental damage estimated to be worth US $1.7–5.7 trillion (at 2017 values) each year, according to research in Communications Sustainability. go.nature.com/43KAHIz #econsky 🌎🧪
Your Prime Day reminder that half of Amazon warehouse workers struggle with food & housing costs. A third have had to rely on government assistance like SNAP — which was gutted last year. If Bezos can spend $500M on a yacht, Amazon can afford to treat its workers with dignity.
A paper in Nature identifies the wave component of the gravitational-wave signal produced from the collision between two black holes. Observations of the binary black hole merger event called GW250114 provides information about the remnant black hole event horizon. go.nature.com/4vqAMNJ ⚛️🔭🧪
More than once I have heard techies in the EU lament that we are going to "lose the AI race". When I ask how that's measured, they say "Isn't it obvious?" No, it's not. Forcing the tech dev to slow down to consider the human and societal implications is a win. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good
Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities of physicians and software engineers, studies show.
nature.com
If AI is going to take the jobs (which it is), then the businesses profitting from them should cover the income taxes lost from job cuts. The point of technology is to make life easier for us *as a society*.
AI has entered the workforce: tax tech profits, not people
As machines replace human labour, welfare states built on salary-linked taxation will need fundamental redesign.
nature.com
This vlogger quit his PhD to dedicate himself to science communication. Since then, he has unveiled data fabrication in several high-profile papers, and discusses how these are only to be expected in a publish-or-perish culture.
‘Student Geng’ ignites research-integrity scandal in China after calling out senior academics
Video blogger’s viral accusations of data manipulation in Nature journals have sparked intense debate and speedy institutional investigations.
nature.com
Spain’s electricity bills have decreased due to its commitment to renewable energy, reducing the influence of fossil fuels on electricity prices.
Why Spain’s electricity bills have fallen during an energy crisis
Homes and business are benefitting from Spain's commitment to clean energy.
euronews.com
“We used to think language was this diffuse, whole-network phenomenon,” says Ziv Williams, a neurosurgeon [...] and co-author of the study. “But it turns out you have specific neurons that only care if a word is a noun, or only care if a phrase is ending.”
Magdalena Skipper@magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 2mo agoWhat happens in the frontotemporal cortex during language production? Turns out distinct neurons represent detailed grammatical relationships between words & others track the sentences’ higher-order syntactic structure, phrase transitions & sequence @nature.com 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Book review: Why and how we can actively shape our economies rather than passively reacting to them.
Why people should work together to shape the economy
An economist sets out how communities can direct economic decisions and not just endure their consequences.
nature.com
Excellent reporting as always by @castelvecchi.bsky.social: Humans outperform AI at this highly rigorous mathematics test www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Humans outperform AI at this highly rigorous mathematics test
A new benchmark pitting AI against previously unseen maths problems shows that systems still fall short of top human expertise.
nature.com
NASA’s Juno observations show relativistic electron acceleration at the bow shock of Jupiter and establish a universal scaling law linking shock size to maximum cosmic ray energy, according to a paper in Nature. go.nature.com/49ArfuL 🔭🧪
Book review 📚 Criminals are made, not born: how when you live shapes whether you will break the law go.nature.com/4dyVl2T
Criminals are made, not born: how when you live shapes whether you will break the law
An analysis of what makes young people more likely to commit crimes tears down the influential assumption that character is the main factor.
go.nature.com
Although led by NASA, Artemis II wasn’t just a US achievement; the mission was a collaborative effort. Long may such cooperation continue go.nature.com/3OdoKXU
Stop the ‘space race’: space exploration must be a shared human endeavour
Nature - Although led by NASA, Artemis II wasn’t just a US achievement; the mission was a collaborative effort. Long may such cooperation continue.
go.nature.com
I am not excited about Artemis. I remember the day the mission got approved overnight because of Trump‘s jingoisms, while we astronomers were wrapping up decades of work proposing scientifically useful missions for the NASA 2020 Decadal Survey. 1/n
Reminder: you don't have to publish Gold Open Access if your paper is accepted at Nature or a Nature Research Journal. AND we allow you to self-archive your work, e.g. on the ArXiv. The pre-review version can go up any time, and the post-review version can go up 6 months after publication date.
FYI for authors: we have a LaTeX template for papers in the Springer Nature portfolio. Should make your life a wee bit easier. www.springernature.com/gp/authors/c...
LaTeX author support | Publish your research | Springer Nature
We want to make your experience of preparing and submitting your research using LaTeX as pain free as possible. To help support you we offer guidance and templates for journal articles, books, and con...
springernature.com
Got to review a book about the history and legacy of Leon Foucault’s pendulum experiment. Here it is, free to read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
If you, like countless others, wonder why GDP numbers look great while your economic experience goes to sh*t, there's a wealth of research explaining why. GDP is simply not a good/complete measure of economic health. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
End GDP mania: how the world should really measure prosperity
The obsession with economic output as a measure of human development puts sustainability on the back burner. Researchers can now help to devise better indicators.
nature.com
Wrote my very first book review! Free for you to read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A portrait of Einstein as an engaged citizen
Nature Astronomy - A portrait of Einstein as an engaged citizen
nature.com
“This isn’t just one of those moments where you say, ‘If it gets bad, I’ll leave'[.] It already has.” www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US brain drain: the scientists seeking jobs abroad amid Trump’s assault on research
Five US-based researchers tell Nature why they are exploring career opportunities overseas.
nature.com
The US administration is eroding the freedoms on which the nation’s success has been based https://go.nature.com/4jRfcfs
US researchers must stand up to protect freedoms, not just funding
Curtailment of freedoms and disregard for the rule of law in the United States is destroying the ability of science to serve the nation’s, and the world’s, interests. Researchers can take action.
go.nature.com
There are lots of great papers out there on the limitations of claiming the existence of "life" from the detection of certain molecules; here is just one. The astrobiology community itself has plenty of nuanced discussions on the defining life beyond Earth. liebertpub.com/doi/full/10....
Is There Such a Thing as a Biosignature? | Astrobiology
The concept of a biosignature is widely used in astrobiology to suggest a link between some observation and a biological cause, given some context. The term itself has been defined and used in several ways in different parts of the scientific community involved in the search for past or present life on Earth and beyond. With the ongoing acceleration in the search for life in distant time and/or deep space, there is a need for clarity and accuracy in the formulation and reporting of claims. Here, we critically review the biosignature concept(s) and the associated nomenclature in light of several problems and ambiguities emphasized by recent works. One worry is that these terms and concepts may imply greater certainty than is usually justified by a rational interpretation of the data. A related worry is that terms such as “biosignature” may be inherently misleading, for example, because the divide between life and non-life—and their observable effects—is fuzzy. Another worry is that different parts of the multidisciplinary community may use non-equivalent or conflicting definitions and conceptions, leading to avoidable confusion. This review leads us to identify a number of pitfalls and to suggest how they can be circumvented. In general, we conclude that astrobiologists should exercise particular caution in deciding whether and how to use the concept of biosignature when thinking and communicating about habitability or life. Concepts and terms should be selected carefully and defined explicitly where appropriate. This would improve clarity and accuracy in the formulation of claims and subsequent technical and public communication about some of the most profound and important questions in science and society. With this objective in mind, we provide a checklist of questions that scientists and other interested parties should ask when assessing any reported detection of a “biosignature” to better understand exactly what is being claimed.
liebertpub.com
It took an extension to the extension of the extension, but after more than 3 years of negotiations, governments around the globe—but notably, not the United States—have finally agreed on a treaty to improve how the world prevents, prepares for, and responds to future pandemics. scim.ag/4lDYcLe
Global pandemic treaty finalized, without U.S., in ‘a victory for multilateralism’
Three years in the making, the accord aims to increase equity and avoid errors of the COVID-19 pandemic
scim.ag
Can't believe we have to be writing about this in 2025, but here you go.
Nature Portfolio@natureportfolio.nature.com · last yr.Public-health specialists worry that misinformation and funding cuts could affect vaccination rates. To illustrate the impact of vaccines, Nature examines the millions of lives that they have saved through these five charts. #medsky 🧪
Most people still trust science, but most also believe it is increasingly politicised, which drives them to non-institutional sources and riskier behaviour. What we can do about it: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Science’s big problem is a loss of influence, not a loss of trust
Evidence shows that science and scientists remain highly trusted. But genuine scientific voices are not shouting loud enough over the noise to hold sway.
nature.com
Editorial: The skies are a shared resource. We spend public money and push the limits of technology to look into the depths of the Universe - but now often see private communication satellites instead. Solutions exist, but regulation and enforcement are lacking. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Cleaning up space: how satellites and telescopes can live together
Satellites connect people around the world but they also interfere with astronomers’ views of the cosmos. There are ways to reduce these tensions.
nature.com
Space debris is not an abstract or distant problem - it crash-lands in or right next to human settlements around the world. And with tens of thousands of launches every year, this is not getting any better unless we fundamentally change both design and regulation. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Space debris is falling from the skies. We need to tackle this growing danger
Why failing to control defunct satellites leaves everyone at risk from their impacts.
nature.com
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