Daily briefing: Why potentially useful human genes are being ignored by science

Hello Nature readers, welcome to your essential daily briefing of science news.

Reimagining of Schrödinger’s cat breaks quantum mechanics — and stumps physicists

A thought experiment that replaces the cat in Schrödinger’s imaginary box with physicists doing experiments has shocking implications. In the original, the peculiar rules of quantum theory meant that the cat could be both dead and alive, until the box was opened and the cat’s state measured. But in the latest version, different experimenters can reach opposite conclusions about what the physicist in the box has measured. This means that quantum theory contradicts itself. “I think this is a whole new level of weirdness,” says theoretical physicist Matthew Leifer.

Nature | 6 min read

Reference: Nature Communications paper

Evidence of prehistoric child labour

Bones and artefacts suggest that prehistoric children performed skilled and sometimes back-breaking work. Researchers have found tiny fingerprints in prehistoric clay vessels in Canada, a child-sized cap and mining picks in ancient salt mines in Austria, and baby teeth that appear to be worn down by basket-making work in France. The findings stem from an increasing interest in previously overlooked groups in the archaeological record, including women and children.

Nature | 4 min read

Huge peer-review study reveals diversity failings

An analysis of thousands of submissions to the influential eLife journal shows that women worldwide, and researchers outside North America and Europe, are under-represented as peer reviewers, editors and last authors. The study was kicked off by eLife itself, and looked at nearly 24,000 submissions to the journal.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: bioRxiv paper

Palaeontologist loses £1-million grant over bullying

Prominent palaeontologist Nicholas Longrich has lost his grant from the Leverhulme Trust following a bullying investigation. The University of Bath, UK, found that Longrich had breached its anti-harassment policy. The Leverhulme Trust will continue to support Longrich’s existing PhD students.

Nature | 4 min read

Potentially useful human genes are being ignored

The Human Genome Project was meant to change everything — but 15 years later, most research still tends to focus on the same old genes. Scientists applied machine learning to an exhaustive list of publications to determine the factors that predict when scientists will choose to study a particular gene. They found that it partly depends on the gene’s importance to human health, but a lot of it simply comes down to how easy the gene was to investigate in the 1980s and 1990s. “The 16 percent of genes that were known in 1991 still accounted for half of all biomedical papers in 2015,” notes The Atlantic, “and a quarter (27 percent) have never been the focus of a scientific paper.”

The Atlantic | 6 min read

Reference: PLOS Biology paper

FEATURES & OPINION

Four lessons learnt from an Austrian science scandal

A decade on from a major academic scandal in Austria, officials there demonstrate how to get your act together. A Nature editorial explores the lessons learnt: act quickly and decisively, institutions have nothing to fear, one size cannot fit all and legal reforms are necessary.

Nature | 5 min read

Read more about the scandal in Nature editorial from 2008

A new way to read minds

In the past two decades, scientists have found a way to embed fluorescent, voltage-indicating proteins right into the cell membranes of neurons. With the right kind of microscope, they can then see cells lighting up as they talk to each other — be it in a whisper or a shout. The technique shows promise to become the standard approach for measuring brain activity.

Nature | 12 min read

Diagnoses bring hope in rare developmental disorders

For children and families facing an extremely rare genetic disease, getting a diagnosis is a crucial first step. When the “diagnostic odyssey” of typical medical tests leads nowhere, full genome sequencing is offering hope. The results can allow people to learn from other patients what the future might hold, help to predict whether future children might be affected — and, in some cases, point towards a treatment.

Mosaic | 21 min read