nature video
How a worm showed us the way to open science
updated
From age, gender and even location Kerri Smith breaks down how to increase your chance of becoming a laureate.
Read the full article at nature.com/immersive/d41586-024-02897-2/index.html
Scientists already knew about two types of gamma-ray phenomena in clouds — long glows and momentary flashes. Now, by flying a plane over a storm, researchers have shown that these gamma-rays are much more common than we thought.
Find out more in the Nature Podcast youtube.com/watch?v=y9vrBdHhmSQ
Research in Alzheimer's is progressing rapidly, opening up more interventions and treatments, but there are concerns that not everywhere in the world will benefit from such advances. In fact, most of the dementia cases in the world are in low- and middle-income countries, a number that will only increase as their populations age. The new research will identify the best interventions to try and prevent the progression of Alzheimer's in Africa and allow better brain ageing for all.
Read more about Alzheimer's disease nature.com/collections/adgggicdca
Read the paper: alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.079009
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different species.
Researchers were able to observe 13 instances of cross-species group hunting, in which a big
blue octopus worked with different fish species to capture prey. Each species was shown to
take on a different role. For example, goatfish, especially blue goatfish, were often seen
exploring different areas and encouraging the group to follow suit. However, octopuses
seemed to help the group decide whether to move or not. Thanks to their eight arms,
octopuses were able to suss out hidden prey, and encourage the group to stay in place.
The researchers also found that certain fish species, such as blacktip groupers were seen as
opportunistic. They would join the hunting group without supporting the group's efforts.
When this happened, the octopuses weren’t afraid to tell them off with a quick punch
Read the full article at nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03127-5
Reporter: Helena Kudiabor
Shuheng Wang and Bote Zhao worked on a long term study tracking these changes. The team took samples from participants' cerebrospinal fluid, imaged their brain and carried out cognitive assessments over a 20 year period. They found one biomarker (amyloid-beta 42) began to differ, compared to participants who didn't go on to develop the disease, 18 years prior to diagnosis and many others would deviate in the years preceding. It's hoped these findings will lead to early diagnosis and intervention for those with Alzheimer's disease.
Read more about Alzheimer's disease nature.com/collections/adgggicdca
Read the paper: nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2310168?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
This Nature Video is editorially independent. It is produced with third party financial support. Read more about Supported Content here: partnerships.nature.com/commercial-content-at-nature-research
And for people with Alzheimer's disease, some of the changes he and his colleagues have identified are at the genetic level - with one modification to T cells potentially leading to an abnormal inflammatory response in the brain. Now he thinks that understanding and targeting these changes could be a route to treating the disease.
Read more about Alzheimer's disease nature.com/collections/adgggicdca
Read the paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38340719
This Nature Video is editorially independent. It is produced with third party financial support. Read more about Supported Content here: partnerships.nature.com/commercial-content-at-nature-research
This wasp species, named Syntretus perlmani, was discovered by chance in an infected fruit fly collected in a Mississippi backyard. Only a couple of millimetres long, it lays its eggs inside adult fruit flies. These eggs develop into larvae which grow and feast inside the host before bursting out to continue their lifecycle.
Despite being new to science, genomic analysis suggests its widespread across much of the US.
youtube.com/watch?v=cvQVh5vnDQw&t=1170s
To put that another way, if you take the Milky Way as being 100,000 light years across then that's like 233 milky way galaxies stacked on top of each other end to end. That is a full six and a half million light years bigger than the maximum size astronomers theorised these jets to be.
youtube.com/watch?v=V2Bx91IG0xA
Emmy Noether was a mathematician who changed physics with her discovery that symmetries are at the heart of physical laws.
But new geochemical analysis of the Altar Stone, a partially buried slab of sandstone at the centre of the stone circle, suggests that this stone originally came from the Orcadian Basin in Scotland over 700 kilometres away.
Read the full article at nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07652-1
However, an ancient stone bridge in a flooded cave may call that timeline into question. By dating mineral deposits in the cave scientists have given a new window for when they suggest humans actually reached the island — at least 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01584-4
But physicists are also exploring entirely different techniques to detect gravitational waves. These strategies, which range from watching pulsars to measuring quantum fluctuations, hope to catch a much wider variety of gravitational waves, with frequencies in the megahertz to nanohertz range.
Read more at nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02003-6
But new geochemical analysis of the Altar Stone, a partially buried slab of sandstone at the centre of the stone circle, suggests that this stone originally came from the Orcadian Basin in Scotland over 700 kilometres away.
Read the full article at nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07652-1
Check out our related podcast for a more in depth look at this topic: youtube.com/watch?v=fxxdO1o9iLM
Now a team of researchers have demonstrated that some fish can independently detect two components of a soundwave — pressure and particle motion — and combine this information to identify where a sound comes from.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07507-9
Micro aerial vehicles or MAVs could have a host of applications from environmental monitoring to search and rescue. But currently, these tiny flying machines have a problem — endurance. MAVs that weigh less than 10 grams are normally limited to around 10 minutes of flying time.
To increase flying time, other types of propulsion have been tested, but these still require bulky power systems on the ground to take off, preventing any craft from freely flying.
One solution could be solar power. But until now no solar powered MAV has been capable of untethered sustained flight in natural sunlight.
So to solve this, researchers have developed CoulombFly, a solar-powered MAV propelled by a new extremely efficient electro-static motor and powered by incredibly light solar panels.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07609-4
But while looking for something else entirely, a team of researchers discovered that a certain peptide will develop unusual bonds with water, allowing it to form into a glass-like structure. What’s more, the unique properties of this peptide glass allow it to self heal if cracked, and act as a strong adhesive between water-loving surfaces.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07408-x
By shooting metal targets with tiny, laser-powered projectiles, this team was able to create incredibly high strain rates. Under these conditions a property called drag strengthening comes into play giving rise to metals that behave in counterintuitive ways, and could inform high speed manufacture or aerospace engineering.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07420-1
Current guidelines suggest extensive structural connectivity within a building is the best way to prevent disaster. This allows for a redistribution of weight should part of a structure be damaged. But in certain circumstances, this interconnectedness can be a building's downfall. With a large enough initial failure, collapsing parts of the building can pull down the rest of the connected structure.
So this team of researchers took a new approach, focusing not only on preventing collapse, but also managing failure if it happens. Their idea is inspired by how some lizards shed their tails to escape being eaten by a predator - a tactical sacrifice.
They call it hierarchy-based collapse isolation, and they tested their theory using an experiment two storeys high.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07268-5
Read more in the feature:
Unlike birds or bats, which evolved wings by adapting existing limbs, insect wings are wholly original appendages, and understanding how the complex hinge that links the insect wing to its body works has been a challenge.
But now a team of researchers have combined cutting edge imaging, machine learning and robotics to build a model that is shedding new light on the structure.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07293-4
Breathable electronics do exist, but the technology is in its infancy. Now though a team of researchers have developed a new breathable platform that could be easily integrated with cutting edge electronics.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07161-1
But scientists are also developing cancer vaccines that could be used as treatments, after cancer has been found.
These vaccines work by teaching the body's immune system to distinguish between healthy cells and abnormal cancer cells. To do this, researchers need to identify proteins that are made by cancer cells but not by healthy cells. These proteins can be used like a barcode. The vaccine teaches the body's immune cells to 'read' the barcode, as a way of identifying the cancer. This video explains how these vaccines are made, and the pros and cons of various types of cancer vaccine.
Read more here: nature.com/collections/cancer-vaccines-outline
This Nature Video is editorially independent. It is produced with third party financial support. Read more about Supported Content here: partnerships.nature.com/commercial-content-at-nature-research
Now a team of researchers have combined RNA sequencing and cutting edge imaging technology to map the heart in more detail than ever before.
They hope that this ‘atlas’ will allow scientists to tackle congenital defects, which are a leading cause of death in infants.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07171-z
One thing thought to distinguish human culture is our ability to do things too complex to work out alone — no one could have split the atom or travel into space without relying on the years of iterative advances that came first.
But now, a team of researchers think they’ve observed this phenomenon for the first time outside of humans, in bumblebees.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07126-4
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06984-8
Previous explanations have included the idea that confused insects are attempting to use the moon to navigate, or that they’re being drawn to the heat rather than the light itself. Now, advances in camera technology have allowed researchers to study the flight of these insects in more detail than ever before, and revealed a new solution to the mystery.
Footage shows that flying insects seem to be twisting to keep their back to the light - a reflex known as a dorsal light response. Rather than being attracted towards it, they find themselves stuck in a loop flying around it…
Read the paper in full nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44785-3
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Read more: nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36376-5
But the stiffer rubber becomes, the more likely it is to crack under stress, which is a tough problem for researchers; the point at which cracks begin to propagate under repeated stress, known as the fatigue threshold, has stayed the same for decades.
But now a team of researchers have created a new type of rubber with a fatigue threshold 10 times higher than before, by entangling polymers in the rubber’s structure.
Read the paper here nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06782-2
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In a plasma electrons separate from atoms and create a soup of charged particles that can be extremely hot and bright. This is particularly useful for manufacturing certain types of high temperature materials - and for experimenting with new materials. But plasmas can be hard to control, and existing methods require specialist equipment. Now a new technique using carbon fibres has been shown to be able to create a stable plasma with a uniform temperature - and the researchers say their kit will be much easier to construct in physics labs around the world.
Read the paper here: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06694-1
This new printer combines inkjet printing technology with error correction guided by machine vision to tackle this challenge and construct sophisticated functional devices.
By scanning and adjusting layer by layer as it prints, it can maintain speed and accuracy while its multiple print heads lay down different materials side by side. And while the researchers behind the technique, called vision-controlled jetting, have started by demonstrating prints with soft and rigid plastics, the machine has the potential to print electronics or even cellular scaffolds for tissue engineering.
Read the research paper here: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06684-3
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Read more:
Read the research paper here: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06669-2
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Using microscopes and glowing fluorescent proteins, researchers have been able to watch zebrafish embryos during this key point in development and examine the process in real time.
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06561-z
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Hai and his colleagues have identified nerves in mice that transmit signals from the brain to modulate production of immune cells, and found a physical stimulus that triggers this response.
They hope that their work could open the door to new drugs designed to enhance the immune system by targeting the brain and nervous system, or even to prescribed thought exercises like meditation or qigong that might improve drug effectiveness.
Learn more about T cells here http://www.nature.com/collections/t-cells-milestones
However, increasing the efficacy of these cells against cancers comes with challenges; if they become too aggressive they could damage the body. So now Lionel's lab is working to fine tune their responses.
Learn more about T cells here: nature.com/immersive/d42859-022-00032-7/index.html
Until now, the lighting reflexes, quick decision-making and complex planning required to race around a track at the standard of elite human racers has proved insurmountable for artificial intelligences.
But this new system, called Swift, combines the simulation training that has allowed other AIs to triumph at chess, or video games, with onboard sensors and computation to outrace its human opponents in the real world.
Read the paper in full nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06419-4
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Read the Stanford University based paper here: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06377-x
Read the University of California San Francisco based paper here: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06443-4
Read a News & Views article about the results here: nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02546-0
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Read more in the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06306-y
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Read more in the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06203-4
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You can read more about M4 in the research paper: nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39018-y
Read the paper here: nature.com/articles/s44172-023-00089-w
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The multi-billion dollar neurotechnology market is predicted to expand by around 75% in the coming years. But as commercial investment grows, so too do commercial failures, abandoning thousands of people, like Markus, who have come to depend on the now unsupported devices.
You can read more on this topic here nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-03810-5/index.html
This video was produced using footage recorded with financial support from FII Institute. Nature retains full responsibility for all editorial content, and is editorially independent of sponsors. Read more about Supported Content here: partnerships.nature.com/commercial-content-at-nature-research
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05944-6
Read the papers:
nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05808-z
nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05822-1
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It happens when the kidneys stop working properly, often because of a change in blood flow due to surgery or an infection. If the kidneys do not recover quickly, it can turn into a chronic condition. Therefore, physicians would like better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat AKI.
In this animation, we explain how risk algorithms, research into biomarkers and new drugs offer hope to patients and physicians.
Learn more about AKI nature.com/collections/acute-kidney-injury-outline
This Nature Video is editorially independent. It is produced with third party financial support. Read more about Supported Content here: partnerships.nature.com/commercial-content-at-nature-research
Read the paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05732-2
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Learn more about T cells here http://www.nature.com/collections/t-cells-milestones
This Nature Video is editorially independent. It is produced with third party financial support. Read more about Supported Content here: partnerships.nature.com/commercial-content-at-nature-research