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This is the highest-resolution image of the Sun ever taken.Credit: NSO/NSF/AURA
Highest-resolution images of the Sun ever
The first images from the world’s most powerful solar telescope show churning plasma in amazing detail. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii can study objects as small as 35 kilometres across, from a distance of 150 million kilometres. The telescope will also make the most precise measurements of the Sun’s magnetic field, including the first-ever magnetic measurements in the corona.
‘Unprecedented’ locusts in East Africa
Hundreds of millions of desert locusts, in swarms larger than cities, are ravaging East Africa. Kenya has been the worst hit — it has not seen locusts on this scale for 70 years — but the infestation has also struck Ethiopia and Somalia. Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) have been breeding in large numbers because of unusual weather patterns, including heavy rains. Aid agencies are appealing for urgent help, including dropping pesticides from the air.
Wuhan coronavirus outbreak
Coronaviruses take their name from their crown-like shape.Credit: Getty
Map shows spread of virus across the globe
• Researchers have built a map and dashboard for tracking the worldwide spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The downloadable data set is collected from sources including the World Health Organization, official sources in China and Dingxiangyuan, a social network for health-care professionals that provides real-time information on cases. (Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering)
• Some observers are calling for a temporary ban on selling wild animals for food in China to be made permanent — and brought to bear worldwide. “Humans are getting sick from eating or being exposed to wildlife in these markets; wildlife populations are being depleted as they are poached and hunted for these markets; and economies and the poor are harmed as the mass culling of animals in response to these outbreaks increase the cost,” says veterinarian Christian Walzer. The new coronavirus is believed to have emerged from a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. (The Guardian | 6 min read)
• Stay up to date with the latest news on the outbreak on Nature. (13 min read, continuously updated)
Features & opinion
This is not the worst of all possible worlds
The worst-case climate scenario agreed by scientists was a dystopian future without any climate mitigation, leading to nearly 5 °C of warming by the end of the century. “Happily — and that’s a word we climatologists rarely get to use” — [that scenario] becomes increasingly implausible with every passing year,” write climate scientists Zeke Hausfather and Glen Peters. They call time on its misuse as ‘business as usual’ and urge policymakers to use a more-realistic baseline of around 3 °C of warming above pre-industrial levels — which would still be a “catastrophic outcome”.
Sources: Historical data: Global Carbon Budget (2019); SSP data: ref. 19/J. Rogelj et al. Nature Clim. Change 8, 325–332 (2018)/SSP Database (v2); IEA data: Ref. 7
How to talk so non-scientists will listen
When it comes to sharing scientific findings, “facts and evidence rarely help as much as scientists think”, says science communicator Craig Cormick. To open the door to understanding, tell a good story and link your research to shared values, rather than firing off facts.
Better work-life balance for better research
The outdated scientific culture of overwork, stress and exploitation isn’t good for scientists, their safety or the quality of their research output, argues chemist David Smith. To turn things around, we should choose lab leaders without “snap judgements based on scientific background, ‘parentage’ or papers published and citations gained, and focus instead directly on the qualities and ideas of the candidates themselves,” he says.
