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A palaeontologist examines a dinosaur fossil from the Triassic period (around 250 million to 200 million years ago) in Brazil.Credit: Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty
The dinosaur that sparked a revolution
In December 2020, palaeontologists described an exciting new species: Ubirajara jubatus, the first dinosaur found in the Southern Hemisphere to display what were probably precursors to modern feathers. The paper prompted outrage among Brazilian researchers. The fossil had been found in Brazil, but they had never heard of it; it had been removed from the country and analysed abroad. The publication was eventually withdrawn. The controversy sparked a movement in fossil-rich countries from Latin America to Mongolia to ensure that their scientific natural resources benefit their own people, including by inspiring future researchers.
Nature | 8 min read
Scientists breathe sigh of relief in France
Scientists in France are widely relieved by President Emmanuel Macron’s convincing victory over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the national presidential election. Researchers expressed worry that Le Pen’s anti-immigration and anti-European policies could have damaged research and international collaboration. But many “are worried about what Macron will do for research and higher education over the next five years”, says Patrick Lemaire, a biologist at the University of Montpellier and president of an alliance of 69 French learned societies and outreach associations. “Macron’s vision is short-term and utilitarian — it focuses on business rather than knowledge,” he says.
Features & opinion
When your supervisor leaves you
Principal investigators (PIs) change institutions, take sabbaticals, retire and sometimes depart academia altogether — leaving their PhD students and postdocs to wonder what’s next. “We want PIs to be able to move,” says Jennifer Polk, a career coach for PhD students. “But the impacts of that move on PhD students can range from none at all to them not finishing their degrees, depending on what happens next.” Junior researchers, a PI, a career consultant and a dean discuss the impacts of an absent PI and what PhD students and postdocs can do to stay on track.
Enslaved people and the birth of epidemiology
Historian Jim Downs’s book, Maladies of Empire, puts nineteenth-century advances in epidemiology and public health in a global context. Instead of rehashing the iconic tale of British doctor John Snow tackling a cholera outbreak by removing the handle from a London water pump, Downs centres the people who endured slave ships, colonialism, prison and wars — and provided much of the data that informed medical advances. Reviewer Mary Bassett, the New York state health commissioner, lauds the book’s focus on restoring erased histories. But she questions Downs’s use of fictionalized accounts to reinstate a human dimension absent from the historical record.
How to grapple with the ungraspable
‘Gelata’ — jellyfish and their soft-bodied relatives — are fiendishly difficult to catch and analyse, especially once they have been removed from their supportive watery surroundings. “We’ve tried X-rays, we’ve tried MRIs, we’ve tried CT scans,” says marine biologist Dhugal Lindsay. “But, because there aren’t any hard parts in these gelatinous organisms, it’s hard to get 3D information.” One such insubstantial creature is the giant larvacean (Bathochordaeus sp.), a filter feeder that surrounds itself in an intricate ‘house’ made of translucent mucus. Bioengineer Kakani Katija was inspired by her first sighting of a larvacean to equip a remote underwater vehicle with a laser that illuminates cross-sections of the organism as it swims. “Instantly, I had questions,” she recalled. “What is this thing? Just from a really basic standpoint, how does this thing exist?”
See the giant larvacean in action in a video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
Where I work
Gregor Luetzenburg is a PhD fellow in the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen.Credit: Kent Pørksen
Geographer Gregor Luetzenburg uses the latest iPhone to create 3D models of cliff surfaces. The iPhone 12 Pro’s LiDAR scanner emits laser pulses in all directions and makes its camera capable of measuring depth. “For Apple, this is about entering augmented reality and improving the camera’s auto-focus,” says Luetzenburg. “For me and my team, it’s a great way to measure the erosion of cliffs.” In the past, his team would have needed to use a big, expensive terrestrial laser scanner to get the same result. “The thing that excites me most about this kind of work is the longer-term potential that such techniques have for citizen science,” says Luetzenburg. (Nature | 3 min read)
