Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Hard at work building China’s Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO). JUNO hopes to be detecting neutrinos by the end of 2024.Credit: Qiu Xinsheng/VCG via Getty If all goes to plan, the US$376 million Jiangmen Underground Neutrino … Read more
Organizations around the world are starting to share information on past cases of sexual harassment, but academic institutions have yet to embrace the practice.Credit: Pawel Libera/LightRocket via Getty Because most universities keep the findings of misconduct investigations confidential, sexual-harassment perpetrators are often able to move to other institutions without having to disclose why they left … Read more
People with long COVID often struggle to get sufficient support in the workplace; researchers are no exception.Credit: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/Shutterstock Abby Koppes got COVID-19 in March 2020, just as the world was waking up to the unprecedented scale on which the virus was spreading. Her symptoms weren’t bad at first. She spent the early lockdown … Read more
How doomed are we? It’s a question I have been asked as a climate scientist many times over the years, sometimes with “doomed” replaced by less printable synonyms. I struggle to answer it every time. It’s not a scientific question, because the terms are not well defined. What does it mean to be “doomed”? And … Read more
Liver tissue from a person with extra fat in the organ.Credit: IKELOS GmbH/Dr. Christopher B. Jackson/Science Photo Library For the first time, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug to treat an obesity-linked liver disease that is on the rise around the globe and is becoming a leading driver of liver failure … Read more
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Avi Loeb and his team say that metallic balls found near Papua New Guinea could be of extraterrestrial origin.Credit: Avi Loeb’s photo collection Scientists have clashed over whether a research team has indeed found fragments of … Read more
Vision Impairment Michael Crossland UCL Press (2024) On a typical day in his clinic, London-based optometrist Michael Crossland assesses both young children and centenarians with low vision. Severe vision impairment affects 350 million people around the world, many of whom in poorer countries lack access to any eye care. His fascinating, sometimes moving, account — … Read more
Avian flu has been detected sub-Antarctic king penguins.Credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty A deadly strain of bird flu circulating worldwide is disrupting research in Antarctica and could lead to the cancellation of some projects to study penguins, seals and other animals next year. “This is the first time I remember such reduced access … Read more
Deciding which projects to pursue can be daunting, but a simple framework can help you to decide which ones are the best fit.Credit: Biwa Studio/Getty All three of us have, at some point in our academic careers, taken on one too many projects. For example, M. P. is finishing his PhD programme in management at … Read more
It takes all sorts: different collaborators approach projects in different ways, and managing relationships between them is a crucial challenge.Credit: Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty As a psychologist, I’m equipped with a theoretical understanding of emotions, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour – and, because of this, I might reasonably be expected to manage relationships with collaborators effectively. Some of … Read more