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The Thwaites Glacier’s fractures were identified in satellite imagery.Credit: NASA
Antarctic glacier closer to collapse
Giant fractures in the floating ice of Antarctica’s massive Thwaites Glacier could shatter part of the shelf within five years. If that happens, the glacier could release an armada of icebergs and begin flowing much faster into the ocean. That would funnel ice that had been resting on land into the sea, where it would contribute to sea-level rise. If Thwaites were to collapse completely, it would raise sea levels by 65 centimetres. “We have been expecting that ice shelf to fail, and that’s one of the reasons that there has been such a coordinated international effort to study Thwaites — it’s big and important, but it’s also been clearly poised on the brink of change,” says geophysicist Kirsty Tinto.
Probe is first to touch Sun’s atmosphere
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has travelled into the Sun’s corona — the first to have ever broached our star’s outer atmosphere. The Parker probe crossed the much-anticipated boundary, known as the Alfvén surface, on 28 April. It took several months for scientists to download the data and confirm the achievement. The region is “one of the last great unknowns”, says solar physicist Craig DeForest. “This is a huge milestone.”
Reference: Physical Review Letters paper
Fabric is warm one way and cool the other
A theoretical textile could keep you cosy, or cool you down when turned inside out. Dielectric fibres on one side of the thin fabric would let infrared radiation from the body escape for a cooling effect. When reversed, the other side’s metallic fibres would keep the radiation in. Models show the two-faced fabric would keep a person comfortable from 11 °C to 24 °C.
Reference: Physical Review Applied paper
Features & opinion
A guide to the Charles Lieber case
A highly anticipated trial began yesterday for nanotechnology researcher Charles Lieber, who stands accused by the US government of hiding ties to China. Lieber has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His arrest in January 2020 shocked scientists: he is a Harvard University department chair, won the 2012 Wolf Prize in Chemistry and has been listed as a potential Nobel prizewinner. The jury trial will be a crucial test of the United States’ crackdown on researchers with connections to China. The government’s first attempt at a trial, against nanotechnologist Anming Hu, resulted in an acquittal.
India: Embrace international collaborations
“Having trained with three Nobel laureates, I knew the power of collaboration to drive cutting-edge science,” writes bioengineer Arun Kumar Shukla. Yet after returning to India, he discovered that some grant and hiring committees count research publications for nothing if they have foreign co-authors. Some assessors feel that they can’t judge an Indian author’s contribution, or that the attention to a paper is due to the foreign author and not to the science itself. But the attitude ultimately hurts the progress of science, argues Shukla.
Mental health under pandemic pressures
For two decades, says mycologist Matt Kasson, his hyperactivity and anxiety felt like a superpower. Then COVID-19 struck. “Like many people who live with mental illness, I kept my struggles professionally and personally private,” he writes. “Convinced of my own resilience, I felt I might will my way through my illness.” But inside, things were falling apart. Now, with the right combination of medications and therapy, Kasson says he is discovering the true meaning of balance. “Being open about my own mental disorder doesn’t diminish my value and contributions as a scientist,” he writes. “Honestly, the truth feels like a second chance.”
Infographic of the week
Graphic: Nik Spencer/Nature; ‘Cold telescope’ main image: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
Some three decades in planning, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is finally about to launch. It is scheduled to lift off from a launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, no earlier than 22 December. If everything goes to plan, Webb will remake astronomy by peering at cosmic phenomena such as the most distant galaxies ever seen, the atmospheres of far-off planets and the hearts of star-forming regions swaddled in dust. Roughly 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb will reveal previously hidden aspects of the Universe, studying light that has travelled from faraway galaxies. (Nature | 12 min read)
See more of the week’s key infographics, selected by Nature’s news and art teams.
