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Rendering based on electron-microscope data, showing the positions of neurons in a fragment of the brain cortex. Neurons are coloured according to size.Credit: Google Research & Lichtman Lab (Harvard University). Renderings by D. Berger (Harvard University)
A millimetre of brain in spectacular detail
Researchers have created an exquisitely detailed atlas of a tiny piece of one woman’s brain, which had been removed during surgery to treat her epilepsy. The sample was cut into thousands of nanometre-thick slices and each was imaged with electron microscopes. AI tools then classified different structures and cells, and created a 3D reconstruction of the sample. “I remember this moment, going into the map and looking at one individual synapse from this woman’s brain, and then zooming out into these other millions of pixels,” says neuroscientist and study co-author Viren Jain. “It felt sort of spiritual.”
How a TikTok ban could affect scientists
Researchers who use TikTok to communicate science, study social trends and earn money tell Nature that they are dismayed and frustrated about a looming ban on the app in the United States. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance — which, amid growing US–China tensions, faces concerns related to the Chinese government’s access to user data. Some scientists worry that the ban would cut off an important route for trustworthy science information to reach teenagers — 63% of whom use the app.
Features & opinion
An AI scientist goes to Washington
Computer scientist Kiri Wagstaff temporarily shelved her academic career in applied machine learning to provide advice on artificial intelligence (AI) to US lawmakers. One thing they’re watching closely is the European Union’s AI Act, which passed in March. A key difference between the legislative environments of the US and the EU, says Wagstaff, is US constitutional protections for freedom of speech. “Take generative AI,” she says. “If it offends someone, how much of that do we allow to just be as it is without restrictions? We have to draw that line carefully.”
Futures: Tashni’s first tunnel
A shy child gets a helping claw from an alien classmate in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.
How rich is too rich?
When the top 1% of people hold as much wealth as the bottom 90%, as in the United States today, is it time to take drastic action and place limits on how rich individuals can be? Economist and philosopher Ingrid Robeyns thinks so — and suggests a cap on wealth of 10 million euros or US dollars per person. As economist Lucas Chancel explains in his review of Robeyns’s book, Limitarianism, the concentration of extreme wealth stymies governments’ abilities to invest in public goods, such as education, health care and climate-change mitigation.
Podcast: Major AlphaFold upgrade
“The real revolution was AlphaFold2,” Nature reporter Ewen Callaway tells the Nature Podcast. But “it just predicted protein structures, it didn’t predict proteins alongside all the other players of the cellular ecosystem”, such as DNA. “AlphaFold3 is exactly that.” AlphaFold3 is also reportedly easier to use and incredibly fast. Access to the tool, however, is limited — partly to protect the advantage of DeepMind’s own drug-discovery spin-off company.
Nature Podcast | 21 min listen
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