US President Joe Biden signed legislation last month that could trigger a nationwide ban of the popular social-media app TikTok within a year. Researchers who use the app to communicate science to curious followers, study social trends and earn money to support themselves are dismayed and frustrated. Creating YouTube and TikTok videos is improving my … Read more
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Zhang Yongzhen, the first person to publicly release the genome sequence of the virus that causes COVID-19, was camping outside his laboratory.Credit: Dake Kang/AP via Alamy Noted Chinese virologist Zhang Yongzhen appears to be back at … Read more
When Bente Klarlund Pedersen wakes up in the morning, the first thing she does is pull on her trainers and go for a 5-kilometre run — and it’s not just about staying fit. “It’s when I think and solve problems without knowing it,” says Klarlund Pedersen, who specializes in internal medicine and infectious diseases at … Read more
When Paul Zimmer-Harwood volunteered to be intentionally infected with SARS-CoV-2, he wasn’t sure what to expect. He was ready for a repeat of his first brush with COVID-19, through a naturally acquired infection that gave him influenza-like symptoms. But he hoped his immunity would help him feel well enough to use the indoor bicycle trainer … Read more
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a high-performance, hybrid sodium-ion battery that charges rapidly and offers impressive energy density. This revolutionary prototype uses sodium (Na), a chemical element over 1000 times more abundant and cheaper than lithium (Li), the main component of conventional batteries. Generally, sodium-ion batteries face … Read more
As IoT technology progresses, the question of how to power these devices, particularly in locations where reliable electrical sources are scarce, presents a significant challenge. Researchers at the University of Utah’s College of Engineering have pioneered a new form of battery that could help solve this dilemma. The solution, which is at the proof of … Read more
Credit: Richard Drury/Getty “Lots of our members call us ‘the magic money tree’,” says Alison Baxter, head of communications for the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), based in the United Kingdom. “They don’t really understand where the payments come from,” she says, “but they like getting them.” The ALCS is one of a global … Read more
A revolutionary new memory device that combines the features of DRAM and NAND flash memory is being developed by a group of researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Led by Professor Shinhyun Choi of the School of Electrical Engineering, the team’s breakthrough promises cheaper, power-efficient solutions that could potentially replace … Read more
A cubic millimetre is a tiny volume — less than a teardrop. But a cubic millimetre of mouse brain is densely packed with tens of thousands of neurons and other cells in a staggeringly complex architectural weave. Reconstructing such elaborate arrangements requires monumental effort, but the researchers affiliated with the Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks … Read more
Losing a funding competition didn’t set Ellen Stofan back — instead, she did a career pivot, and came across new opportunities.Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky In 2021, planetary scientist Ellen Stofan was appointed undersecretary of science and research at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the US national research and museum complex. There, she oversees its scientific … Read more