|
|
Hello Nature readers,
Today we explore the thorny question of what exactly is ageing. Plus, we watch colour-changing textiles adapt to temperature and learn how people in the United States and China can maintain positive momentum on climate-change cooperation, even without their national governments on board. |
|
 |
| Some researchers think that ageing begins at birth, at puberty or when the body reaches peak performance in our twenties. Others say it starts before conception, when eggs and sperm are being produced — and, if your parents are older when you are conceived, you are already more advanced in your ageing. (mrPliskin/iStock via Getty) |
|
Researchers studying ageing disagree on just about everything — including what ageing is, whether it is a disease and when it starts. A survey of about 100 scientists working in the field found that most are clear in their own minds about what ageing is — but their perspectives don’t align with those of others. One-third of respondents considered it to be a loss of function over time, while others saw ageing as a gradual accumulation of deleterious changes — or simply as an increased chance of dying. Nature | 5 min read
Reference: PNAS Nexus paper
|
|
The long axons that extend from neurons might be more like a ‘string of pearls’ than smooth, cylindrical tendrils. Researchers say that a technique called high-pressure freezing is able to preserve the fine details of the axon that are destroyed by other methods, making the ‘pearls’ visible to an electron microscope. And the size and spacing of the pearls seem to influence the speed at which an electrical signal travels along the axon. Others say that the structures might be a side-effect of the freezing technique. It’s “a controversial addition to the literature”, says neuroscientist Christophe Leterrier. Science | 6 min read
Reference: Nature Neuroscience paper
|
|
A sprayable coating for textiles and other materials changes colour to help keep things cool in the heat and warm in the cold, without needing any power. The solution contains tiny capsules that change from black to white as they warm up. Researchers tested their invention on a jacket and a tent and found that it kept the temperature inside within a comfortable 19 ℃—26 ℃ range, when it was as cold as 15 ℃ and as hot as 33 ℃ outside. Chemistry World | 4 min read
Reference: Science Advances paper
|
|
 |
| (Kaixuan Zhu et al./Sci. Adv.) |
|
|
|
How close are we to developing an artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a machine capable of the whole range of cognitive tasks that human brains can handle? Some think that the large language models (LLMs) currently out there already have some of the ingredients in place. One point in these models’ favour is their underlying transformer architecture, which can find statistical patterns in a range of information beyond text, such as audio. Yet there are also signs that transformer-based LLMs have limits. For a start, the data used to train the models are running out. Nature | 14 min read
|
|
When US President-elect Donald Trump chose to exit the 2015 Paris climate agreement and disengage with China during his first term, it left a void. “California stepped in to help fill it,” note five authors including former California governor Jerry Brown and Zhenhua Xie, the former special envoy on climate change of the People’s Republic of China. In 2017, Brown met with President Xi Jinping and signed a series of climate and energy-focused agreements between California and several of China’s national agencies and provincial governments. It’s one example of how provinces, states, cities — and non-state actors such as businesses and academia — can maintain positive momentum on clean energy and climate action in the two countries, argue the authors. Nature | 10 min read
|
|
Philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith’s vivid account of the evolution of minds will fill readers with wonder — and challenge how they think about their moral responsibility to protect the planet, writes philosopher Alan Love in his review. Godfrey-Smith argues compellingly that humans have distinctive ethical responsibilities because of our uniquely powerful ability to affect the world around us. Nature | 7 min read
|
|
|
|
 |
| Ioannis Binietoglou is a remote-sensing policy manager at the Clean Air Task Force, pictured above testing out the latest addition to its toolkit at a coal mine in southern Greece. “The yellow box on the ground is a methane-measuring instrument, and the tablet I’m holding uses GPS data and specially designed software to generate a map of local methane,” he says. By combining local information with satellite data, researchers can track rogue emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas to the source. “For me, using the kit is almost like hunting. The methane is invisible, so you can suddenly find yourself in a plume — it’s an exciting experience.” (Nature | 3 min read) (Giacomo d’Orlando for Nature) |
|
Quote of the day“The things that deserve our time are the hard questions and the creative hypotheses.”Medical informatician Milton Pividori explains why many scientists are turning to generative artificial-intelligence tools such as ChatGPT to help with the boring bits of being a scientist, such as writing grant applications. (Nature | 7 min read) |
|
|
|
|
Free newsletters from NatureWant more? Update your preferences to sign up to our other Nature Briefing newsletters:
Please visit your preferences page to choose which Nature Briefing newsletters to receive (or to unsubscribe). |
|
Nature+ is our most affordable 30-day subscription, giving you online access to a wide range of specialist Nature Portfolio journals, including Nature.
Learn more about Nature+ |
|
|
You received this newsletter because you subscribed with the email address: sungyk8@gmail.com Please add briefing@nature.com to your address book. Enjoying this newsletter? You can use this form to recommend it to a friend or colleague — thank you! Had enough? To unsubscribe from this Briefing, but keep receiving your other Nature Briefing newsletters, please update your subscription preferences. To stop all Nature Briefing emails forever, click here to remove your personal data from our system. Fancy a bit of a read? View our privacy policy. Forwarded by a friend? Get the Briefing straight to your inbox: subscribe for free. Want to master time management, protect your mental health and brush up on your skills? Sign up for our free short e-mail series for working scientists, Back to the lab. Get more from Nature: Register for free on nature.com to sign up for other newsletters specific to your field and email alerts from Nature Portfolio journals. Would you like to read the Briefing in other languages? Sign up for the weekly round-up e-mail in Arabic, curated and translated by the editors of Nature Arabic Edition. هل تود أن تقرأ هذا الموجز باللغة العربية؟ سَجِّل الآن لتصلك نشرة العلوم الموجزة أسبوعيًّا، التي يختار محتواها ويترجمه فريق محرري "نيتشر الطبعة العربية". Follow Nature Portfolio on WeChat for a weekly round-up post in Chinese, curated and translated by our team in China. 关注Nature Portfolio官方微信订阅号，每周二为您推送Nature Briefing精选中文内容——自然每周简报。 
Nature Portfolio | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature Portfolio, part of Springer Nature.
© 2024 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved. |