Nature - Insects at risk (2024)

Rwanda 30 years on: understanding the horror of genocide

Researchers must support and elevate the voices of Rwanda’s scholars and survivors.

AI-fuelled election campaigns are here — where are the rules?

Political candidates are increasingly using AI-generated ‘softfakes’ to boost their campaigns. This raises deep ethical concerns.

• Rumman Chowdhury

Smallest known starquakes are detected with a subtle shift of colour

An unusual technique picks up the slow vibration of a faint star.

Green space near home has an antidepressant effect

People who had the most vegetation near their residences were the least likely to report depression and anxiety.

Advanced CRISPR system fixes a deadly mutation in cells

Applying a ‘base editor’ allows cells to crank out increased levels of a vital metabolic enzyme.

Baseball-sized hail in Spain began with a heatwave at sea

Climate change is partly to blame for a storm that pounded Girona province with record-breaking hailstones.

Is IVF at risk in the US? Scientists fear for the fertility treatment’s future

An Alabama court ruling that human embryos outside the uterus should be regarded as children has raised concerns among doctors and scientists.

• Mariana Lenharo

How papers with doctored images can affect scientific reviews

Scientists compiling a review scan more than 1,000 papers and find troubling images in some 10%.

• Sumeet Kulkarni

Climate change has slowed Earth’s rotation — and could affect how we keep time

The effect of melting polar ice could delay the need for a ‘leap second’ by three years.

• Elizabeth Gibney

Journal editors are resigning en masse: what do these group exits achieve?

Editorial rebellions seem to be on the rise, as researchers seek more control over scholarly communication.

• Katharine Sanderson

This super-Earth is the first planet confirmed to have a permanent dark side

Convincing evidence of 1:1 tidal locking had been absent until a new analysis of the exoplanet LHS 3844b.

• Joseph Howlett

Right- or left-handed? Protein in embryo cells might help decide

Gene that codes for structural protein could determine the dominant side of the human brain.

• Sumeet Kulkarni

Scientists made a six-legged mouse embryo — here’s why

A rodent with two extra limbs instead of genitals shows the crucial role of a gene pathway in determining the fate of a primordial structure.

• Sara Reardon

mRNA drug offers hope for treating a devastating childhood disease

Drug trial results show that vaccines aren’t the only use for the mRNA technology behind the most widely used COVID-19 jabs.

• Elie Dolgin

After the genocide: what scientists are learning from Rwanda

Thirty years after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Nature met with researchers who are gaining insights that could help to prevent other atrocities and enable healing.

• Nisha Gaind

The rise of eco-anxiety: scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change

Researchers want to unpick how climate change affects mental health around the world — from lives that are disrupted by catastrophic weather to people who are anxious about the future.

• Helen Pearson

Survival of the nicest: have we got evolution the wrong way round?

How humans, animals and even single-celled organisms cooperate to survive suggests there’s more to life than just competition, argues a cheering study of evolutionary biology.

• Jonathan R. Goodman

The comings and goings of ants: how are social skills shaped in an ever-changing world?

A colourful study of the natural history of ants that takes in dry deserts and lush forests aims to show that sociality is shaped by, and changes with, the environment.

• Seirian Sumner

AI can help to tailor drugs for Africa — but Africans should lead the way

Computational models that require very little data could transform biomedical and drug development research in Africa, as long as infrastructure, trained staff and secure databases are available.

• Gemma Turon
• Mathew Njoroge
• Kelly Chibale

Declining postdoc numbers threaten the future of US life science

• Anastasia Gromova
• Steven F. Grieco

How to break big tech’s stranglehold on AI in academia

• Michał Woźniak
• Paweł Ksieniewicz

Use fines from EU social-media act to fund research on adolescent mental health

• Christian Montag
• Benjamin Becker

Brazil’s postgraduate funding model is about rectifying past inequalities

• Lucindo J. Quintans-Júnior

Ready or not, AI is coming to science education — and students have opinions

As educators debate whether it’s even possible to use AI safely in research and education, students are taking a role in shaping its responsible use.

• Sarah Wells

‘Without these tools, I’d be lost’: how generative AI aids in accessibility

A rush to place barriers around the use of artificial intelligence in academia could disproportionately affect those who stand to benefit most.

• Amanda Heidt

Digging in: last chance to save a native forest

Dario Sandrini hikes, plants and digs to save a threatened and diminishing ecosystem.

• James Mitchell Crow

Nanoscale scythe cuts molecular tethers using mechanical forces

Nanoscale systems that release small molecules have potential therapeutic and industrial uses, but can result in low numbers of molecules reaching their target. A release system triggered by mechanical force offers a fresh approach.

• Iwona Nierengarten

Climate change predicted to exacerbate declines in bee populations

What effects will climate change have on insect communities? Analyses of data collected over decades robustly document consequences specific to bee populations, and this evidence might aid future conservation efforts.

• Nicole E. Miller-Struttmann

Mammalian cells repress random DNA that yeast transcribes

In experiments dubbed the Random Genome Project, researchers have integrated DNA strands with random sequences into yeast and mouse cells to find the default transcriptional state of their genomes.

• Sean R. Eddy

Melting ice solves leap-second problem — for now

Humans’ effect on the polar ice sheets is slowing Earth’s rotation, posing challenges for its alignment with the official time standard. Two researchers discuss the science behind the slowdown and the impact it has on timekeeping.

• Patrizia Tavella
• Jerry X. Mitrovica

Whittling down the bacterial subspecies that might drive colon cancer

Understanding the factors that drive formation of particular types of cancer can aid efforts to develop better diagnostics or treatments. The identification of a bacterial subspecies with a connection to colon cancer has clinical relevance.

• Cynthia L. Sears
• Jessica Queen

A massive galaxy that formed its stars at z ≈ 11

A massive galaxy observed with the JWST indicates that the bulk of its stars formed within the first 500 million years of the Universe.

• Karl Glazebrook
• Themiya Nanayakkara
• Angel Chandro-Gomez

An optical tweezer array of ultracold polyatomic molecules

An optical tweezer array of individual polyatomic molecules is created, revealing the obvious state control in the tweezer array and enabling further research on polyatomic molecules with diverse spatial arrangements.

• Nathaniel B. Vilas
• Paige Robichaud
• John M. Doyle

Direct observation of a magnetic-field-induced Wigner crystal

A magnetic-field-induced Wigner crystal in Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene was directly imaged using high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy and its structural properties as a function of electron density, magnetic field and temperature were examined.

• Yen-Chen Tsui
• Minhao He
• Ali Yazdani

Phase-change memory via a phase-changeable self-confined nano-filament

We present a device that can reduce the phase-change memory reset current while maintaining a high on/off ratio, fast speed and small variations, representing advances for neuromorphic computing systems.

• See-On Park
• Seokman Hong
• Shinhyun Choi

Dopant-additive synergism enhances perovskite solar modules

A synergistic dopant-additive combination strategy using methylammonium chloride as the dopant and a Lewis-basic ionic-liquid additive is shown to enable the fabrication of perovskite solar modules achieving record certified performance and long-term operational stability.

• Bin Ding
• Yong Ding
• Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin

Triple-junction solar cells with cyanate in ultrawide-bandgap perovskites

Triple-junction solar cells with cyanate in ultrawide-bandgap perovskites exhibit enhanced defect formation energy and substantially decreased non-radiative recombination.

• Shunchang Liu
• Yue Lu
• Yi Hou

Metal telluride nanosheets by scalable solid lithiation and exfoliation

Fast and scalable synthesis of a variety of transition metal telluride nanosheets by solid lithiation and hydrolysis is demonstrated and several interesting quantum phenomena were observed, such as quantum oscillations and giant magnetoresistance.

• Liangzhu Zhang
• Zixuan Yang
• Hui-Ming Cheng

Force-controlled release of small molecules with a rotaxane actuator

A rotaxane-based mechanochemical system enables force-controlled release of multiple cargo molecules that are appended to its molecular axle.

• Lei Chen
• Robert Nixon
• Guillaume De Bo

Couple-close construction of polycyclic rings from diradicals

A couple-close approach used to build semisaturated ring systems from dual radical precursors allows sampling of regions of underexplored chemical space, leading to an annulation that can be used for late-stage functionalization of pharmaceutical scaffolds.

• Alice Long
• Christian J. Oswood
• David W. C. MacMillan

A global timekeeping problem postponed by global warming

Increased melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica, measured by satellite gravity, has decreased the angular velocity of Earth more rapidly than before and has already affected global timekeeping.

• Duncan Carr Agnew

Projected decline in European bumblebee populations in the twenty-first century

A quantitative study of past, present and future ecological suitability of Europe for bumblebees finds that for 38–76% of species now considered non-threatened, suitable territory could decrease by at least 30% by 2061–2080.

• Guillaume Ghisbain
• Wim Thiery
• Simon Dellicour

Heat and desiccation tolerances predict bee abundance under climate change

A 16-year dataset of abundance patterns of a diverse assemblage of bees in New Mexico, USA predicts declines for many bee species and indicates that drought-tolerant taxa will prevail in a warming and drying climate.

• Melanie R. Kazenel
• Karen W. Wright
• Jennifer A. Rudgers

Weather explains the decline and rise of insect biomass over 34 years

Insect biomass data covering 27 years were reanalysed using sample-specific information on weather conditions during sampling and weather anomalies during the insect life cycle, finding that biomass is driven by complex weather conditions.

• Jörg Müller
• Torsten Hothorn
• Annette Menzel

Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes

Results from 316 Bombus terrestris colonies at 106 agricultural sites across eight European countries find pesticides in bumble bee pollen to be associated with reduced colony performance, especially in areas of intensive agriculture.

• Charlie C. Nicholson
• Jessica Knapp
• Maj Rundlöf

Disproportionate declines of formerly abundant species underlie insect loss

An analysis of more than 500 sites distributed worldwidefinds that declines in the abundance of terrestrial insects are attributable mainly to decreases in species that were formerly abundant, rather than being the result of losses of rare species.

• Roel van Klink
• Diana E. Bowler
• Jonathan M. Chase

Adaptive foraging behaviours in the Horn of Africa during Toba supereruption

The archaeological site Shinfa-Metema 1 in the lowlands of northwest Ethiopia provides early evidence of intensive riverine-based foraging aided by the likely adoption of the bow and arrow.

• John Kappelman
• Lawrence C. Todd
• Sierra Yanny

Synthetic reversed sequences reveal default genomic states

Introduction of a long synthetic DNA into yeast genomic loci results in high default transcriptional activity in yeast but low activity in mouse, suggesting distinct default levels of genomic activity in these organisms.

• Brendan R. Camellato
• Ran Brosh
• Jef D. Boeke

Neural signatures of natural behaviour in socializing macaques

Single-neuron and population activity in the macaque prefrontal and temporal cortex robustly encodes 24 species-typical behaviours, reciprocity in social interactions and social support.

• Camille Testard
• Sébastien Tremblay
• Michael L. Platt

A patterned human neural tube model using microfluidic gradients

Newly developed microfluidic neural tube-like and forebrain-like structures based on human pluripotent stem cells can model pivotal aspects of neural patterning along both the rostral–caudal and dorsal–ventral axes.

• Xufeng Xue
• Yung Su Kim
• Jianping Fu

AIRE relies on Z-DNA to flag gene targets for thymic T cell tolerization

Z-DNA anchors the AIRE-mediated transcriptional program by enhancing the generation of double-stranded breaks and promoter poising.

• Yuan Fang
• Kushagra Bansal
• Diane Mathis

Rapid unleashing of macrophage efferocytic capacity via transcriptional pause release

Macrophages are revealed to adopt a polymerase II pause/release process to effectively deal with ingested apoptotic corpses and for continuous efferocytosis.

• Turan Tufan
• Gamze Comertpay
• Kodi S. Ravichandran

TRBC1-targeting antibody–drug conjugates for the treatment of T cell cancers

Anti-TRBC1 antibody–drug conjugates may offer a more potent T cellcancer therapy by bypassing the fratricide that may be limiting the efficacy ofanti-TRBC1 CAR T cells in theclinical trial for patients with T cell cancers.

• Tushar D. Nichakawade
• Jiaxin Ge
• Suman Paul

A distinct Fusobacterium nucleatum clade dominates the colorectal cancer niche

A study reveals that Fusobacterium nucleatum subspecies animalisis bifurcated into two distinct clades, and shows that only one of these dominates the colorectal cancer niche, probably through increased colonization of the human gastrointestinal tract.

• Martha Zepeda-Rivera
• Samuel S. Minot
• Christopher D. Johnston

Transcription–replication conflicts underlie sensitivity to PARP inhibitors

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) functions together with TIMELESS and TIPIN to protect the replisome in early S phase from transcription–replication conflicts, and inhibiting PARP1 enzymatic activity may suffice for treatment efficacy in hom*ologous recombination-deficient settings.

• Michalis Petropoulos
• Angeliki Karamichali
• Thanos D. Halazonetis

Targeting DCAF5 suppresses SMARCB1-mutant cancer by stabilizing SWI/SNF

DCAF5 has a quality-control function for SWI/SNF complexes and promotes the degradation of incompletely assembled SWI/SNF complexes in the absence of SMARCB1.

• Sandi Radko-Juettner
• Hong Yue
• Charles W. M. Roberts

Automated model building and protein identification in cryo-EM maps

ModelAngelo builds atomic models and identifies proteins with unknown sequencesin cryo-EM maps.

• Kiarash Jamali
• Lukas Käll
• Sjors H. W. Scheres