Nature Briefing Newsletter.

"Science photos aren't just pretty pictures:  What they do that AI-generated images can't."

Views expressed in this science, environment, and technology update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 24 February 2025, 2005 UTC.

Content and Source:  https://www.nature.com.

Please check link or scroll down to read your selections.  Thanks for joining us today.

Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.blogspot.com).

 

View this email in your browser Monday 24 February 2025

Hello Nature readers, Today we learn that breast cancer is on the rise, and people in low- and middle-income countries face the heaviest burden. Plus, we track how the administration of President Donald Trump is dismantling climate progress in the United States and explore what science photography does that AI-generated images can’t. You might have noticed that some Nature stories now require you to register your e-mail address to read all the way to the end. In the interest of expediency, you could register here first: my-profile.springernature.com — then, assuming you have cookies accepted and stay in the same browser, you would not be asked to log in again while reading.

(Source: Ref.1)

Breast cancer is on the rise People in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face higher death rates from breast cancer than those in wealthier nations, because of a lack of screening and treatment options. For example, people aged under 50 in low-income countries are four times more likely to die from breast cancer than those in high-income countries, on the basis of the most-recent available data, from 2022. Because of increasing life expectancy and changing prevalence of risk factors — such as obesity, drinking alcohol, and less breastfeeding — breast cancer cases and deaths are predicted to rise over the next 25 years, with the greatest increase in LMICs. Nature | 5 min read Reference: Nature Medicine paper

Trump policies attack US climate work Through actions such as firing of US federal scientists en masse, blocking clean-energy incentives and abandoning international climate commitments, the administration of US president Donald Trump is hobbling the country’s efforts to reduce its contribution to global warming. As courts start to assess the legality of some of Trump’s policies, the uncertainty is hampering climate- and energy-related programmes and businesses. “There’s been a viciousness that I hadn’t anticipated in tearing everything down without a coherent plan for what to build back up,” says atmospheric scientist Daniel Cohan. Meanwhile, a coalition of nonprofit groups, archivists and researchers are working to ensure that the federal environmental data they rely on remains available to the public. Research librarian Alejandro Paz and policy scholar Eric Nost, who belong to the Public Environmental Data Partners network, have written an overview of where US government data is disappearing, how to find it and how to save it. Politico | 10 min read & The Conversation | 6 min read

Our brains have a blindspot for knots Do you know your reef from your thief and your granny from your grief? Scouts and seafarers will know that these are similar-looking knots, and the reef is strongest. “The grief knot, aptly named, is so weak you could sneeze on it and it would fall apart,” notes brain scientist Sholei Croom. But people aren’t that good at guessing which knot is stronger just by looking at them — even when they showed a good understanding of the underlying structure. This blindspot in physical reasoning sheds light on how our brains perceive the world, say researchers. Scientific American | 4 min read (before you read, jump to the image to take the test yourself)

Features & opinion

Not AI: this image was made by manipulating iron particles in an oil drop on a glass slide with magnets placed underneath. (Felice Frankel)

Science photos aren’t just pretty pictures “The joy of being a science photographer is that I must learn about the things I am documenting to produce communicative and trustworthy images,” writes Felice Frankel. In an exploration of what AI-generated images might mean for science, Frankel touches on the difference between illustration and documentation, the ethics of manipulating images and the need for scientists to undergo visual-communication training. “It is clear that genAI images are part of our future,” says Frankel, but we need guidelines to ensure data are faithfully represented. Nature | 9 min read

Use stories to drive climate action Communication is a powerful tool for driving climate action, but it’s often overlooked by researchers, says ecologist Harini Nagendra. Engaging storytelling that celebrates the joy of nature, rather than simply presenting scientific information, can make climate science more relatable to the public. These stories must be accessible in as many languages as possible, and elevate the knowledge of Indigenous communities. “We must share the stage with others affected by climate change, to help us understand how it feels,” Nagendra writes. Nature | 12 min read

Video: The secret language of crows Researchers have been eavesdropping on unusually close-knit families of carrion crows (corvus corone corone) in Spain, collecting data on hundreds of thousands of different vocalizations. Small microphones recorded a variety of soft calls, far quieter than the familiar ‘caws’. The team then used AI to analyse and group the sounds. The researchers aim to better understand how the crows cooperate — and experiment with some human-crow chats. Nature | 7 min video

Quote of the day “Much of modern fashion will end up being, in the deepest possible sense, truly timeless.” Palaentologist Sarah Gabbott and geologist Jan Zalasiewicz explain in their book, Discarded, that mass-produced synthetic clothing will abruptly enter humanity’s fossil record as a ‘technofossil’, after millennia of clothes made from natural materials have degraded and left no trace. (The Guardian | 7 min read)

On Friday, Leif Penguinson was scaling a sandstone cliff face in the Waterberg Plateau National Park, Namibia. Did you find the penguin? When you’re ready, here’s the answer. If you enjoy this newsletter, I’d be very grateful if you were to recommend it to a friend or colleague. Please click here to forward it by e-mail. Thank you! Thanks for reading, Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing With contributions by Jacob Smith

Free newsletters from Nature Want more? Update your preferences to sign up to our other Nature Briefing newsletters: Nature Briefing: Careers — insights, advice and award-winning journalism to help you optimize your working life Nature Briefing: Microbiology — the most abundant living entities on our planet – microorganisms – and the role they play in health, the environment and food systems Nature Briefing: Anthropocene — climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering Nature Briefing: AI & Robotics — 100% written by humans, of course Nature Briefing: Cancer — a weekly newsletter written with cancer researchers in mind Nature Briefing: Translational Research — covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma Please visit your preferences page to choose which Nature Briefing newsletters to receive (or to unsubscribe).

Access Nature and 54 other Nature journals Nature+ is our most affordable 30-day subscription, giving you online access to a wide range of specialist Nature Portfolio journals, including Nature. Learn more about Nature+

Join our community

You received this newsletter because you subscribed with the email address: kh6jrm@gmail.com Please add briefing@nature.com to your address book. Enjoying this newsletter? You can use this form to recommend it to a friend or colleague — thank you! Had enough? To unsubscribe from this Briefing, but keep receiving your other Nature Briefing newsletters, please update your subscription preferences. To stop all Nature Briefing emails forever, click here to remove your personal data from our system. Fancy a bit of a read? View our privacy policy. Forwarded by a friend? Get the Briefing straight to your inbox: subscribe for free. Want to master time management, protect your mental health and brush up on your skills? Sign up for our free short e-mail series for working scientists, Back to the lab. Get more from Nature: Register for free on nature.com to sign up for other newsletters specific to your field and email alerts from Nature Portfolio journals. Would you like to read the Briefing in other languages? Sign up for the weekly round-up e-mail in Arabic, curated and translated by the editors of Nature Arabic Edition. هل تود أن تقرأ هذا الموجز باللغة العربية؟ سَجِّل الآن لتصلك نشرة العلوم الموجزة أسبوعيًّا، التي يختار محتواها ويترجمه فريق محرري "نيتشر الطبعة العربية". Follow Nature Portfolio on WeChat for a weekly round-up post in Chinese, curated and translated by our team in China. 关注Nature Portfolio官方微信订阅号，每周二为您推送Nature Briefing精选中文内容——自然每周简报。 Nature Portfolio | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature Portfolio, part of Springer Nature. © 2025 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.