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Animals observed during a study of the effects of deep-sea mining included those in the categories Actiniaria, Holothuroidea, Pentametrocrinidae (top row, left to right), Euplectellidae, Notocanthiformes and Aspidodiadematidae (bottom row, left to right).Credit: JOGMEC
How bad is deep-sea mining?
The International Seabed Authority, a body associated with the United Nations, is currently meeting to decide whether to allow deep-sea mining in international waters. Little is known about how this will affect ecosystems, but emerging data hint at long-term damage. A 2020 test run done by Japan revealed that the density of active swimming animals, such as fish and shrimp, dropped by more than half in places near the small area that was actually mined. And climate change is driving tuna into the area in the eastern Pacific that deep-sea mining companies are targeting — meaning that the fish could be harmed.
Reference: Current Biology paper & npj Ocean Sustainability paper
Big challenge ahead for India’s Moon lander
India has successfully launched its third Moon mission, Chandrayaan-3. The biggest challenge still lies ahead: landing on the lunar surface (its predecessor crashed in 2019). The lander has new instruments to handle failures and improved guidance software. If successful, India will become the fourth country to achieve a controlled landing on the Moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union and China.
ChatGPT boosts weaker writers
The artificial-intelligence tool ChatGPT can help people to complete writing assignments faster and better, according to a study of 453 college-educated professionals whose writing was judged by experts. The chatbot had an outsized effect on those with weaker writing skills, boosting their performance to levels closer to those of more-proficient writers. It also cut the time taken to complete the tasks — which included press releases, short reports and “delicate emails” — by 40%. “In real-world tasks, the need to fact-check ChatGPT’s output will reduce its time-saving benefits,” note the study authors.
Features & opinion
Why aspartame is now a possible carcinogen
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the sweetener aspartame as ‘possibly carcinogenic’, the same category that aloe vera extracts and red meat are in. Some studies have linked aspartame to a higher risk of liver and pancreatic cancer. The WHO said that there is not enough evidence to suggest that consumption within the established limit — the equivalent of 9–14 diet soft drinks per day for a typical adult — leads to adverse effects. The new classification “is really more of a call to the research community to try to better clarify and understand the carcinogenic hazard that may or may not be posed by aspartame consumption”, says occupational epidemiologist Mary Schubauer-Berigan.
Tales of pathogens past
Archaeogeneticists are turning their attention towards the shreds of DNA from microbes that persist in centuries-old skeletons. Cutting-edge techniques have allowed investigators to assign pathogens to diseases that were described only vaguely in historical records, and these methods could be used to trace human activities and migrations on the basis of the microbes that accompanied them. So far, they’ve cleared Christopher Columbus of bringing syphilis back from his travels and reconstructed the genomes of Neanderthal tooth bacteria. It remains to be seen how far back the techniques can go, says ancient-DNA scientist Kirsten Bos. “We’re continually testing the boundaries.”
Ideas for the future of science publishing
“A large portion of traditional academic publishing is unequal, exclusionary, unsustainable and opaque,” writes biologist Humberto Debat. This affects scientists from low-income areas in particular, he notes. He is one of a diverse group of 11 researchers asked by Nature Human Behaviour to comment on the future of publishing. Preprints can reduce bias by cutting out the need for publication ‘success’, adds psychologist Charlotte Pennington. And neuroscientist J. Andrew Pruszynski suggests that “we should consider the idea that most papers do not need traditional peer review”.
Nature Human Behaviour | 22 min read
Where I work
Andrea Fischer is the vice-director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Mountain Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Austria.Credit: Lisi Niesner/Reuters
In this image from 2021, Andrea Fischer stands inside a “big, beautiful cave” in the middle of the Jamtalferner glacier in Austria. “In the background, there are bubbles of 300-year-old air trapped in the ice,” she says. “It’s quite unusual for glaciers to be hollow.” She returns to the glacier about once every three weeks to measure its rapid melting. By June 2022, the cave was completely gone. “A glacier might look the same from the outside, but it changes constantly inside,” she reflects. “You can never come back to the exact same glacier; we can observe only the now.” (Nature | 3 min read)
