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It takes three hours for pilots Tim Vest (left) and Greg Slover to reach the science area in the middle of the Weddell Sea.Credit: Nicolas Ordonez.
On board the final flights to map Earth’s polar ice
After a decade of flights to monitor annual changes in polar-ice thickness, NASA’s Operation IceBridge is preparing to wind down and pass the torch to a satellite. Nature joins one of its last — and most demanding — missions in this spectacular photo essay.
Antarctic scientists are hunting for sky’s ‘detergent’
Scientists will drill deep into polar ice to capture historical data on hydroxyl, the dominant atmospheric detergent. The highly reactive molecule breaks down many gases in the air, including methane and hydrofluorocarbons, but not the most prevalent greenhouse gas — carbon dioxide. Researchers will measure air bubbles trapped in the ice as long ago as 1880 to discover how the chemical has varied since people started pumping out pollution in earnest.
New research-integrity office for major agency
Europe’s largest basic-research agency, the CNRS, will create its first office of research integrity to improve how it tackles investigations. The CNRS has been embroiled in a long-running misconduct case in which one researcher was sanctioned, and then cleared, and another was found to have carried out “severe” and “intentional” manipulation of research figures.
DNA in a snow print is enough to track lynx
Scientists are able to track the elusive Canadian lynx using only the traces of DNA left in the cats’ snowy tracks. The technique will help researchers to differentiate the lynx from similar animals, such as bobcats, when they are caught on camera traps or spotted through their footprints. Researchers can isolate lynx DNA in concentrations as low as five cells per litre of snow.
National Geographic | 7 min read
FEATURES & OPINION
The microscopes shaking up materials science
A burst of technological advances is triggering a revolution in what researchers can probe using transmission electron microscopes, which can explore structures at sub-atomic scales. The machines can image never-before-seen details and help researchers to explore invisible properties, such as vibrations inside crystals and electric and magnetic fields. Ordinary electron microscopy is “like flying propeller planes”, says applied physicist David Muller. “Now we have a jet.”
Swirls of magnetism imaged in an iron-germanium film; colour and arrows show field direction.Credit: Zhen Chen and David Muller
Stop blackmailing foreign postdocs
A survey about postdocs in the United States has revealed a worrying trend: some senior scientists are exploiting the fact that overseas researchers depend on them for continued visas. A handful of foreign postdocs reported salary cuts, 100-hour work weeks, and a fear of repercussions if they complain. An estimated half of all postdocs working in the US are reliant on short-term visas, so these anecdotes should raise an alarm, argues a Nature editorial.
Reference: Research Policy paper
Decolonizing Mars
Are human missions to Mars ‘colonialist’? When the time comes, who will get to go, who will be in control and how will new resources be obtained and distributed? These questions were posed to panelists at a recent event that aimed to apply lessons from history to the future of interplanetary exploration. “Europeans and non-Indigenous, non-Black Americans have traditionally thought they could do whatever they wanted in an environment that is new to them,” argues physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. “Thinking about Mars is a chance to think carefully about where this attitude has gotten us.”
“You only get one shot at being a dad”
Initiatives such as family-friendly hours and flexible working at chemist David Smith’s institution were brought in primarily to support working mothers. But when Smith and his husband became fathers, he discovered how great such benefits are for dads, too. He calls on male scientists to embrace their role as carers and stand up for a family-friendly model of scientific success.
