Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here
Stephan’s Quintet is a group of five galaxies, four of which (on the right) are about 90 million parsecs from Earth. The topmost galaxy, NGC 7319, harbours a supermassive black hole that is pulling in stellar material around it.Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
First images from Webb telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope — a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency — released four of its first full-colour science images today. Webb’s 6.5-metre-wide mirror is the largest ever launched into space. The combination of its large mirror, infrared view and cool, shady spot on the far side of the Moon allow Webb an unprecedented view of many astronomical phenomena. “It’s only just the beginning,” notes NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller.
The Cosmic Cliffs is a star-forming region in the Carina Nebula that is roughly 2,330 parsecs away. Webb captured this image in exquisite detail, showing bubbles, cavities and protostellar jets, formed by interstellar wind, intense radiation and gathering dust from newborn stars.Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
The Southern Ring Nebula, located around 770 parsecs away, is formed by a pair of stars, one of which is dying and shedding dust and gas. Webb captured images of this nebula with two of its instruments: on the left, the near-infrared camera, and on the right, the mid-infrared instrument. The latter reveals the second star in the pair surrounded by dust for the first time.Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb ERO Production Team
Webb captured this spectrum of water in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-96b, a hot gas giant. From the spectrum, researchers calculated the atmosphere’s temperature: 725°C (1350°F).Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
The first image released from the Webb telescope shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
US President Joe Biden gave us a sneak peak of Webb’s wonders by releasing its first science image yesterday. It is the deepest astronomical image of the distant Universe and shows thousands of galaxies in a patch of sky no larger than that covered by a grain of sand held at arm’s length. (Nature | 6 min read)
News
Gophers are ‘farmers’ too, say scientists
Gophers graze on roots that grow into their large network of tunnels, which some researchers say could be the first evidence of a non-human mammal engaging in farming. Scientists installed cameras in trenches that they dug around tunnels used by southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) in Florida. The roots of above-ground grasses and nettles quickly filled the tunnels that the gophers couldn’t access, but remained short in those they could. The animals nibbled on the roots to nourish themselves and stimulate root regrowth, and dropped waste throughout the network to fertilize the soil — effectively cultivating the crop. Other researchers say the practice can’t be described as farming because the gophers don’t plant or distribute their crops as do humans and other creatures, such as fungus-growing ants.
Reference: Current Biology paper
A case study of a failed vaccine roll-out
Researchers have been studying vaccine hesitancy in Guatemala, which has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Latin America. Only about 35% of people have been fully vaccinated. “It’s incredibly difficult to convince them,” says nurse Nancy Notz, who took to the streets with colleagues and a megaphone to publicize the availability of the life-saving shots. The underlying reasons are complicated. Trust is a factor in a country with a history of human-rights abuses against Indigenous communities and ethical violations by medical authorities in the past few decades. Twenty-five languages are spoken in Guatemala — but most educational information was first published in Spanish. And there are financial barriers for some people who must travel far to vaccination sites.
‘Quantum-proof’ algorithms guard the keys
Future quantum computers might be able to break the cryptographic keys that protect everything from smartphone banking apps to online payments. Now, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology has officially endorsed cryptographic technologies that are thought to be resistant to attack from quantum computers. These include an encryption algorithm — used to keep online data secure — called CRYSTALS-Kyber, along with three algorithms for use in digital signatures, which provide identity authentication. “It’s officially a post-quantum world,” says John Graham-Cumming, chief technology officer of the Internet-services company Cloudflare.
Research highlights: 1-minute reads for Nature subscribers
The relatively long, slender bill of this rock dove from the Outer Hebridean islands of Scotland are characteristic of feral pigeons’ ancestors.Credit: W. J. Smith et al./iScience
Found: Hideout of primordial pigeons
The nineteenth-century rage for pigeon breeding created a wealth of fantastical varieties of pigeon (Columba livia), seeding the world with escaped domestic birds and their feral descendants, which hybridized with their wild ancestors, the rock doves. Researchers have now combed the British Isles, using genome sequences and physical inspection, for rock doves lacking significant influence from domestic genes — and they found some, on Scotland’s Outer Hebrides island chain. These birds showed “negligible” genetic mixing with their sandwich-crust-nibbling feral kin.
Nature | 2 min read (Nature paywall)
Nature’s Research Highlights are available to readers with subscriber access to Nature. Get help logging in with your institution’s subscription.
