The perplexing body plan of arrow worms decoded
The perplexing body plan of arrow worms decoded Summary This News & Views piece summarises a new Nature paper by Piovani et al. that combines a genome sequence and a…
Just how bad will climate change get? The only way to know is to fund basic research
Just how bad will climate change get? The only way to know is to fund basic research Summary Tim Palmer argues that the biggest remaining uncertainty in projections of global…
A humidity measure that accounts for redistribution of water across the landscape
A humidity measure that accounts for redistribution of water across the landscape Summary Researchers have developed a global humidity index that, unlike conventional indices, explicitly accounts for lateral hydrological flows…
Many planets might be born with orbits misaligned from the spin of their stars
Many planets might be born with orbits misaligned from the spin of their stars Summary An analysis of the geometry of young Sun-like stars and their planet-forming disks, using ground-…
These tiny flyers levitate on the Sun’s heat alone
These tiny flyers levitate on the Sun’s heat alone Summary Researchers led by Ben Schafer at Harvard have built centimetre-scale, ultralight two-layer wafers that can levitate using sunlight alone. The…
Watch rappelling robots dive into a lava tube — for science
Watch rappelling robots dive into a lava tube — for science Summary Researchers tested a team of three autonomous robots on Lanzarote, Spain, to demonstrate how specialised rovers could explore…
Photophoretic flight of perforated structures in near-space conditions
Photophoretic flight of perforated structures in near-space conditions Summary This Nature paper demonstrates that ultralight, perforated membranes with tailored optical coatings can generate measurable photophoretic (radiometric) lift under low-pressure conditions…
Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity
Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity Summary This study uses smartphone-derived, minute-by-minute step data from the Azumio Argus app to run a countrywide natural experiment: 5,424 people…
Calving-driven fjord dynamics resolved by seafloor fibre sensing
Calving-driven fjord dynamics resolved by seafloor fibre sensing Summary This study deployed a 10-km subsea fibre-optic cable with Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) at the calving…
n-Type thermoelectric elastomers
n-Type thermoelectric elastomers Summary A multidisciplinary team led from Peking University reports one of the first n-type thermoelectric elastomers. By combining uniform bulk nanophase separation, thermally activated crosslinking and targeted…