Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here.
Scientists found the ingredients for planet formation in a star cluster called NGC 346, which lies in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, O. Jones (UK ATC), G. De Marchi (ESTEC), and M. Meixner (USRA). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI), N. Habel (USRA), L. Lenkic (USRA) and L. Chu (NASA/Ames)
JWST spots planet-making ingredients
The building blocks of planetary formation have been detected in a surprising galaxy, where scientists once thought planets might not emerge. The discovery, made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), suggests that planet formation could be more common throughout the Universe than previously thought. “It’s giving us a lot more area to start searching for planet formation and star formation beyond what we had originally presumed," says JWST deputy project scientist Stefanie Milam.
Reference: Nature Astronomy paper
Private Moon lander has probably crashed
A lunar spacecraft developed by the Japanese firm ispace appears to have crash-landed. It’s still unclear what exactly happened. Mission control lost contact with the 2.3-metre-tall lander when it was around 90 metres above the Moon’s surface. The craft picked up speed as it descended, and it could have run out of fuel prematurely. The company will attempt a second lunar landing in 2024.
Elephant seals power-nap while diving
Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) spend less than 2 hours per day sleeping — while taking 300-metre dives. During each of their 10-minute power naps, the seals “dive down, stop swimming and begin to glide. Then they transition to REM sleep, where they flip upside down and spin in a circle, falling like a leaf,” explains marine biologist Jessica Kendall-Bar. Her team monitored the seals’ naps by fitting them with a swim-cap-like device. Sleeping at depth protects the seals from sharks and orcas. When on land to breed or moult, elephant seals sleep for more than 10 hours each day.
The New York Times | 4 min read — including a well-worth-watching video
Features & opinion
The risks of repeat COVID infections
We’re probably all destined to get COVID-19 many more times. The good news is that, when reinfection does occur, the immune system seems primed to respond. Evidence is building that there is a lower risk of severe or fatal outcomes with reinfections than with the first bout. But they are not harmless: there are cumulative risks, and repeated SARS-CoV-2 infections are especially dangerous to the most vulnerable people. For those with long COVID, studies suggest that reinfection can exacerbate the symptoms, although the chances of getting it in the first place diminish with subsequent infections.
A twist in Rosalind Franklin’s DNA story
A common narrative reduces crystallographer Rosalind Franklin to a ‘wronged heroine’ who was unknowingly robbed of an X-ray diffraction image — now known as the iconic ‘Photograph 51’ — that proved the key to unlocking the structure of DNA. Nathaniel Comfort and Matthew Cobb, who are working on separate biographies of James Watson and Francis Crick, discovered an overlooked letter and an unpublished news article from the time of the discovery that suggest a different account. “Franklin did not fail to grasp the structure of DNA,” they write. “She was an equal contributor to solving it.”
“I’m a physician … that’s my identity”
In an in-depth interview, retiring US public-health leader Anthony Fauci gives a characteristically straight-shooting analysis of the factors that contributed to the country’s pandemic ups and downs. “Something clearly went wrong. And I don’t know exactly what it was,” he reflects. “The divisiveness was palpable … That’s part of it. The other part of it has nothing to do with that divisiveness. It has to do with the fracturing of our health care delivery system in this country.”
The New York Times | 32 min read
Where I work
Zoleka Filander is an ecologist at the Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa.Credit: Barry Christianson for Nature
Ecologist and expedition chief scientist Zoleka Filander surveys the species inhabiting the deep sea off South Africa’s Western Cape. After she found deep-water corals, a rare sea urchin (Dermechinus horridus) and an ancient sea star (Brisinga sp.) in Cape Canyon, part of it was made into a marine-protected area. “My tribe, the amaBhaca of the Nguni people, has a strong tie with the ocean that began with our most-ancient ancestors.” (Nature | 3 min read) (Barry Christianson for Nature)
