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Credit: Karine Aigner/2022 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition/bioGraphic/California Academy of Sciences
The month’s best science images
These cactus bees (Diadasia rinconis) are considered solitary insects: they live without the hierarchy and social structure of other bee species. Here they are seen swarming together in what is known as a mating ball, in which many amorous male bees cluster around one female. This rare moment was captured by photojournalist Karine Aigner, and won the Grand Prize of the 2022 BigPicture competition.See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.
Police reforms help women in India
Police in India are more likely to register crimes reported by women in stations with dedicated women’s help desks than in those without, according to the largest-ever randomized controlled trial of police reforms. The study found that help desks staffed by female officers record more crimes against women that result in mandatory criminal investigations. About four in ten women in India experience intimate-partner violence, and police often discourage them from making a complaint that would initiate a formal investigation, because of high workloads and a false belief that women are to blame.
Bleak reality of bullying in science
One in 15 people studying or working at Swedish universities has experienced bullying over the past year. The largest ever nationwide survey of academic workplace culture included responses from 39,000 PhD students and employees at all of Sweden’s 38 higher-education institutions. Women and young researchers are the worst affected, with one in 7 female PhD students saying that they had been bullied over the past 12 months.
New Zealand’s bold plan to oust predators
Conservationists in New Zealand are kicking off an ambitious effort to rid the country’s third-largest island of invasive predators. They aim to eliminate possums, rats, feral cats and hedgehogs from Rakiura/Stewart Island. It’s the largest island predator eradication ever attempted and the first on an inhabited island, say the groups leading the programme. “Presently Rakiura is in a state of pōuri or sadness,” says Dean Whaanga, co-chair of Te Puka Rakiura Trust. “Its true mana [power] and mauri [essence] will be recognised when the indigenous species return in numbers as seen by our ancestors.”
Features & opinion
Futures: Sharing economy
In the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series, a touch of human contact softens a world where everything is monetized.
Podcast: Happy birthday, Higgs boson
Ten years ago this week, scientists announced that they’d found evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle first theorised to exist nearly 60 years earlier. To celebrate this anniversary, the Nature Podcast reminisces about what the discovery meant at the time, and what questions are left to be answered about this mysterious particle.
Nature Podcast | 30 min listen
Read more: A collection of articles from Nature, Nature Physics and Nature Reviews Physics celebrating and contextualizing the Higgs boson discovery.
Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.
