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Credit: Giacomo d’Orlando/2022 Sony World Photography Awards
The month’s best science images
Forty metres off the Italian coast, herbs, vegetables and flowers grow in six vinyl biospheres below the sea surface. ‘Nemo’s garden’ is an underwater farm started in 2012 to explore the possibility of growing terrestrial plants 6 metres under the sea. This shot, taken by photographer Giacomo d’Orlando, came third in the environment category in this year’s Sony World Photography Awards.
See more of the month’s best science images, selected by Nature’s photo team
Accelerator to probe origins of elements
A long-anticipated accelerator in the United States is ready to go, five months early and on budget. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) will chart unexplored regions of the landscape of exotic atomic nuclei and shed light on how stars and supernova explosions create most of the elements in the Universe. The system will smash atoms to create isotopes of all kinds — including the rarest ones, whose production rates might be as low as one nucleus a week. “This project has been the realization of a dream of the whole community in nuclear physics,” says experimental nuclear physicist Ani Aprahamian.
Features & opinion
Language generation could change science
Emerging artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies that generate fluent language from vast amounts of text could change how science is done — but not necessarily for the better, says Shobita Parthasarathy, a specialist in the governance of emerging technologies. Large language models (LLMs) can churn out astonishingly convincing prose, translate between languages, answer questions and even produce code. “It's easy for scientists to assert that they are smart and realize that LLMs are useful but incomplete tools,” says Parthasarathy. “But the algorithmic summaries could make errors, include outdated information or remove nuance and uncertainty, without users appreciating this.”
Collaborations can be tricky territory
Biochemist Jennifer Doudna — who, alongside Emmanuelle Charpentier, was part of the first all-female team to win a Nobel Prize — is among the female scientists who discuss the challenges that women face when navigating scientific collaborations, such as breaking into ‘old boy networks’ of senior scientists, and ensuring their work is properly credited. Problems can be especially acute for female scientists of colour. Surveys suggest that they have fewer collaboration opportunities and are more likely than white women to report having had their ideas stolen or not getting credit.
The case for parasite conservation
Parasites make up around half of all animal species, but almost everything we know about them today comes from studying how to kill the few parasites, such as tapeworms, pinworms and hookworms, that are harmful to people. That is starting to change with an influx of early-career researchers into disease and parasite ecology. As the field grows, scientists are finding increasing evidence that parasites have a significant role in ecosystems — from pest control to linking food webs — and that many are in trouble owing to climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and other threats. “Every species you can think of that’s endangered has parasites that rely on it,” says parasite ecologist Skylar Hopkins. “If those species go extinct, then their parasites can also go extinct.”
Scientific American | 15 min read
Where I work
Molecular ecologist Kristine Bohmann has invented a sampler that collects genetic information from the air. When it was tested at Copenhagen Zoo, the system could detect animals from nearly 200 metres away. “Airborne DNA is all around us,” says Bohmann. “Birds release skin cells when they flap their wings. Saliva from all sorts of animals can become airborne. Animals release DNA when they defecate.” The system could one day be used to detect rare animals and get a better understanding of diversity without disturbing an environment.
Reference: Current Biology paper
See more shots from this story on the Nature Instagram account. (Christian Bendix for Nature)
