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Tweeting about your paper doesn’t boost citations

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The logo of the social networking site 'X' (formerly known as Twitter) is displayed centrally on a smartphone screen alongside that of Threads (L) and Instagram (R).

Even before recent complaints about X’s declining quality, posting a paper on the social media platform did not translate to a boost in citations.Credit: Matt Cardy/Getty

Posting about a paper on X (formerly Twitter) seems to boost engagement but doesn’t translate into a bump in citations. A group of 11 researchers, each with at least several thousand followers, tweeted about a combined 110 articles between late 2018 and early 2020. In the short term, this increased the papers’ downloads and their Altmetric scores (a measure of how many people have looked at and are talking about it). But three years later, the citation rates for the tweeted papers weren’t significantly different to those of 440 control articles.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: PLoS ONE paper

Members of the US Supreme Court expressed scepticism yesterday about arguments from a group of anti-abortion organizations and physicians seeking to restrict use of the abortion drug mifepristone in the United States. Over the past eight years, the US Food and Drug Administration expanded the drug’s usage limit from 7 to 10 weeks of pregnancy and allowed it to be sent by post. If the court invalidates those actions, mifepristone access would be restricted nationwide. Reproductive health researchers say that the case has no scientific merit, because mifepristone has proved to be safe and effective. A decision is expected in June.

Nature | 6 min read

After Homo sapiens expanded out of Africa 70,000 years ago, they seem to have paused for some 20,000 years before colonizing Europe and Asia. Now researchers think they know where. Looking at ancient and modern DNA, and the environment of the time, scientists have pinpointed the Persian Plateau — which in this definition encompasses Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and parts of Oman — as the perfect place. Finding local archaeological evidence to confirm this could be difficult. “There’s very little work being done there because of geopolitics,” says archaeologist and study co-author Michael Petraglia.

ABC News | 4 min read

Reference: Nature Communications paper

The Francis Scott Key Bridge would have been designed to survive a collision with a ship — but the sheer size of modern cargo vessels might surpass what was planned for, say engineers. Yesterday, the bridge in Baltimore catastrophically failed after one of its supports was struck by the 300-metre cargo ship ‘Dali’. The shocking speed of the collapse was due in part to its ‘continuous truss’ design, specialists say. “The collision of a vessel as large as the Dali container ship will have far exceeded the design loads for the slender concrete piers that support the truss structure, and once the pier is damaged you can see from the videos that the entire truss structure collapses very rapidly,” says structural engineer Andrew Barr.

The Independent | 7 min read

Features & opinion

In 1997, ecologist Suzanne Simard made the cover of Nature with the discovery of a subterranean network of roots and fungal filaments through which, it was suggested, trees were exchanging resources. Simard’s ideas, further expressed in her hit scientific memoir Finding the Mother Tree, resonated deeply with many. But some ecologists think our fascination with the ‘wood wide web’ has outstripped the scientific evidence that underpins it.

Nature | 16 min read

Of the ten speakers from low- and middle-income countries invited to a panel in Portugal last month, only four were able to get visas — and Ghanaian herpetologist Sandra Owusu-Gyamfi wasn’t one of them. “My experience left me feeling demoralized, embarrassed and insulted,” she writes. Her visa fees, flights and other costs were not refundable. Visa issues also come at a cost to global efforts to prevent further biodiversity loss. “Our participation is not a matter of simply ticking the inclusivity boxes, but a deliberate effort to ensure that the voices of people for whom some of these conservation policies are formulated are heard, and their opinions sought,” writes Owusu-Gyamfi.

Nature | 5 min read

Image of the day

Looping animated sequence of an acoustically levitated SDS bubble rotating.

Bubbles can be made considerably more stable by suspending them in the air using sound waves. This could reduce the need for surfactants that help them keep from popping when they’re used in industrial processes. Using ultrasonic waves, researchers kept soap stable for up to 15 minutes — longevity that’s previously only been achieved under microgravity conditions, for instance on the International Space Station. The bubbles tended to rotate a few times per second, maybe because of the way the sound waves moved around them. (Nature Research Highlight | 3 min read, Nature paywall)

Reference: Droplet paper (Credit: X. Ji et al./Droplet (CC-BY 4.0 DEED))

The 8 April total solar eclipse (visible in parts of the United States, Canada and Mexico, you lucky devils) will be more than just a visual phenomenon. The NASA-funded Eclipse Soundscapes Project is collecting multi-sensory observations and recorded sound data from community scientists on the day. Another effort, GLOBE Eclipse, asks volunteers to document air temperature and clouds during the event. As for me, I want to hear about the vibe.

Send your vibe-checks — plus any other feedback on this newsletter — to [email protected].

Thanks for reading,

Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Gemma Conroy and Katrina Krämer

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Featured

Why bigger data sets doesn’t mean better insights

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‘Data is the new oil’ was term coined by British mathematician Clive Humby 2006. It’s become an overused phrase largely meaning that if your organization has access to vast amounts of data, you can use it to aid decision making and drive results.

While there is great truth in that having access to data can lead to greater business intelligence insights, what companies actually need is access to ‘good’ data and its insights. However, knowing what makes data valuable is something that many still struggle with. With considerations often including factors such as quantity, age, source or variety, not truly understanding what type of data is good for business means it’s easy to get lost in data sets that are ultimately poor quality and bad for decision making.

The big cost of the wrong big data

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OnePlus doesn’t want this new Android ‘norm’ – and it’s made the OnePlus 12 even better value

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Keeping your phone till it dies has got a whole lot more difficult lately, right? Hardware has reached a point in recent years where for once, it’s more likely that you’ll get bored of your phone long before you kill it and phone companies are starting to steer into this, admittedly positive, skid.

That is, unless you are OnePlus. The relatively recent phone launches from Samsung and Google have introduced seven years of Android updates to the flagship norm. But OnePlus isn’t joining the party quite yet. The OnePlus 12 launched with support for only four years of major Android updates but, contrary to belief, this might actually be a good thing. 

Sticking to its roots

OnePlus 12

(Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)

Since its inception, OnePlus has consistently towed the line of high performance without a high price. While its prices have creeped up over the years, it still produces phones that can nip at the best Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra all without a bank-breaking price. The OnePlus 12 continues this trend, and from what I can tell, it makes it all the more enticing. 

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Politics

Lack of focus doesn’t equal lack of intelligence — it’s proof of an intricate brain

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Imagine a busy restaurant: dishes clattering, music playing, people talking loudly over one another. It’s a wonder that anyone in that kind of environment can focus enough to have a conversation. A new study by researchers at Brown University’s Carney Institute for Brain Science provides some of the most detailed insights yet into the brain mechanisms that help people pay attention amid such distraction, as well as what’s happening when they can’t focus.

In an earlier psychology study, the researchers established that people can separately control how much they focus (by enhancing relevant information) and how much they filter (by tuning out distraction). The team’s new research, published in Nature Human Behaviour, unveils the process by which the brain coordinates these two critical functions.

Lead author and neuroscientist Harrison Ritz likened the process to how humans coordinate muscle activity to perform complex physical tasks.

“In the same way that we bring together more than 50 muscles to perform a physical task like using chopsticks, our study found that we can coordinate multiple different forms of attention in order to perform acts of mental dexterity,” said Ritz, who conducted the study while a Ph.D. student at Brown.

The findings provide insight into how people use their powers of attention as well as what makes attention fail, said co-author Amitai Shenhav, an associate professor in Brown’s Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences.

“These findings can help us to understand how we as humans are able to exhibit such tremendous cognitive flexibility — to pay attention to what we want, when we want to,” Shenhav said. “They can also help us better understand limitations on that flexibility, and how limitations might manifest in certain attention-related disorders such as ADHD.”

The focus-and-filter test

To conduct the study, Ritz administered a cognitive task to participants while measuring their brain activity in an fMRI machine. Participants saw a swirling mass of green and purple dots moving left and right, like a swarm of fireflies. The tasks, which varied in difficulty, involved distinguishing between the movement and colors of the dots. For example, participants in one exercise were instructed to select which color was in the majority for the rapidly moving dots when the ratio of purple to green was almost 50/50.

Ritz and Shenhav then analyzed participants’ brain activity in response to the tasks.

Ritz, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, explained how the two brain regions work together during these types of tasks.

“You can think about the intraparietal sulcus as having two knobs on a radio dial: one that adjusts focusing and one that adjusts filtering,” Ritz said. “In our study, the anterior cingulate cortex tracks what’s going on with the dots. When the anterior cingulate cortex recognizes that, for instance, motion is making the task more difficult, it directs the intraparietal sulcus to adjust the filtering knob in order to reduce the sensitivity to motion.

“In the scenario where the purple and green dots are almost at 50/50, it might also direct the intraparietal sulcus to adjust the focusing knob in order to increase the sensitivity to color. Now the relevant brain regions are less sensitive to motion and more sensitive to the appropriate color, so the participant is better able to make the correct selection.”

Ritz’s description highlights the importance of mental coordination over mental capacity, revealing an often-expressed idea to be a misconception.

“When people talk about the limitations of the mind, they often put it in terms of, ‘humans just don’t have the mental capacity’ or ‘humans lack computing power,'” Ritz said. “These findings support a different perspective on why we’re not focused all the time. It’s not that our brains are too simple, but instead that our brains are really complicated, and it’s the coordination that’s hard.”

Ongoing research projects are building on these study findings. A partnership with physician-scientists at Brown University and Baylor College of Medicine is investigating focus-and-filter strategies in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Researchers in Shenhav’s lab are looking at the way motivation drives attention; one study co-led by Ritz and Brown Ph.D. student Xiamin Leng examines the impact of financial rewards and penalties on focus-and-filter strategies.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01MH124849, S10OD02518), the National Science Foundation (2046111) and by a postdoctoral fellowship from the C.V. Starr Foundation.

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News

Busting the Myths: What Doesn’t Work in Lottery Strategy

Imagine how exciting it would be to win the lottery and have your life change dramatically for the better. It’s something we’ve all dreamed about, right? You might win the lottery, but it’s not very likely. It’s like finding a horse in your backyard.

Even though the odds are so low, there is a lot of talk and guessing about how to make them better. Before we get into the methods for winning the lottery in this article, let’s take a look at some of the most popular myths about them.

The Allure of Quick Fixes

Getting good at the lottery is an interesting topic. Everyone wants to win the lottery and see their life change in an instant. It’s an appealing thought that has made many people look for easy ways to get rich. Today, we’re going to talk about the interesting world of lottery myths and why people are interested in quick fixes that don’t work. 

We can hear many stories regarding the lottery. During hard times, we hold on to any chance, no matter how small, that might make things better. This is where lottery myths take advantage of people who are weak, giving them fake hope when they really need it. But it’s important to keep in mind that the lottery is a game of chance, and there is no way to change the basic odds. Even though it’s easy to be drawn to quick fixes, it’s important to have a realistic view of the game and have a full list of lotto strategies that really work. We are more likely to believe in lotto lies when we are desperate or hopeful. Some people see getting a lottery ticket as a way to find hope when they are having trouble with money.

Myth 1: The Lucky Numbers Myth

Let’s start with the first lottery strategy myth: the idea that certain numbers are lucky. Some people say that their birthday, wedding, or some other special number is the key to winning the lottery. We’ve all heard this before. It’s a cute thought, right? But let’s look at each part of this plan and explain why it’s not working and why you shouldn’t trust these “lucky” numbers.

Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Other “Lucky” Numbers: What People Believe

A lot of people have a favourite number that means something special to them. It could be their birthday, the anniversary of their wedding, or any other important date to them. Of course you want to think that these numbers have some magical power to help you win the lottery. After all, wouldn’t it be great if the world gave us a prize for reaching important points in our lives?

The Math Behind Randomness and Why This Plan is Wrong

Math is the only way to win at the lottery, which is a shame. Randomness is used in every lottery drawing, just like when you flip a coin or roll a die. In other words, every possible mixture of numbers has the same chance of being picked, no matter how important they are to you. It’s not more likely to happen on your birthday because it’s your birthday. It can even be dangerous to believe in lucky numbers because they might make you pick the same numbers over and over, which could lower your chances of winning. Don’t forget that the lottery is all about luck and odds, not picking a favourite number.

Myth 2: The Hot and Cold Numbers Theory Is Not True

The “Hot and Cold Numbers Theory” is another popular myth about how to win the lottery. It’s kind of like thinking that weather trends can tell you the lottery numbers. It means that certain numbers have been “cold” for a while and are “due” to come up or that “hot” numbers are winning straight away. But let’s look at each part of this idea and see why it doesn’t work and why you shouldn’t trust it.

The thought that certain numbers are “due” to show up.

The idea behind the Hot and Cold Numbers Theory is that numbers are drawn either a lot (called “hot”) or not at all (called “cold”). A lot of lottery players carefully record past draws to find patterns and trends. People bet that if a number hasn’t shown up in a while, it will “due” to show up soon. If a number has been drawn recently, on the other hand, they might stay away from it because they think it won’t come up again so soon.

How Probability Really Works: Disproving the Theory

This theory is flawed because it doesn’t understand how chance works in the lottery. Each draw has nothing to do with the ones that came before it. A lottery machine doesn’t remember which numbers were chosen last week or last month because they don’t have memory. In other words, the fact that a number has been “hot” or “cold” in recent draws doesn’t change the chance that it will be picked in the next draw. When it comes to lottery numbers, there is no such thing as “due.” In every draw, there is an equal chance that each number will be picked. So, the idea that you can use past results to guess what will happen in the future is a myth. Really, it’s just a game of chance, even though it might make you think you’re on to something.

Myth 3: The More You Play, the Better Your Chances are

Today we’ll talk about another lottery strategy myth: the idea that the more you play, the more likely you are to win. It’s easy to believe this because it makes sense. More lottery tickets mean a higher probability of securing that coveted jackpot. But while you’re caught up in the thrill of the game, remember: saving you time—saving you money. So, let’s discover the truth about this myth, see why it’s not true, and look at the science behind lottery numbers.

What People Think When They Say “Investing” in Lottery Tickets

There are people who think of constantly getting lottery tickets as an investment. These people believe that by playing regularly, they will have a better chance to win in the long run. It’s like thinking that at the school funfair, the more raffle tickets you buy, the more likely it is that you will win a gift. But that’s not how the lottery works.

Myth 4: Software and Algorithms That are Too Complicated

One more myth that’s been going around the world of lottery strategy is that complicated formulas and software can tell you which numbers will win. It sounds cool and high-tech, doesn’t it? We’ll cut through the hype in this piece and get to the bottom of whether math can really tell you what will happen in a chance event like a lottery draw.

The Big Deal About Software and Algorithms That Predict Lotteries

In the past few years, there has been a lot of software and programmes that claim to be able to figure out the winning numbers for the lotto. These programmes usually have catchy names and flashy ads that make you think they can find the next winning combo by looking at past results, statistical patterns, and mathematical formulas. 

Sum Up!

As we come to the end of our look at lottery strategy myths, it’s important to stress how important it is to be sceptical and think things through before you play. It can be tempting to believe in quick fixes, lucky numbers, and complicated formulas, but it’s important to be smart about these things, as the allure of winning money can change the way you think and feel, so always try to organize your personal finance. While we all dream of hitting the jackpot and experiencing financial freedom, it’s crucial to maintain a balanced perspective. Lottery games are meant to be enjoyable forms of entertainment, but they should never lead to financial hardship.