Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Emma Stoye

Nature @nature.com · 20h

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi, who developed a class of extremely porous materials known as metal-organic frameworks, have won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry

go.nature.com/3VRBAv4

Chemistry Nobel for team who developed massively porous ‘super sponge’ materials

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi pioneered the creation of metal-organic frameworks, which can capture and store molecules such as carbon dioxide.

go.nature.com

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Emma Stoye @emmastoye.bsky.social · 22h

Omg finally a MOFs Nobel - this is not a drill!!!

Nature @nature.com · 22h

BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”

Stay tuned for more.
#NobelPrize

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations to John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis!

Martinis told our reporter that his wife had gotten the news in the middle of the night — in California time — but decided not to wake him up quite yet.
🧪
#Nobel2025

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Groundbreaking quantum-tunnelling experiments win physics Nobel

John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis discovered quantum physics on a macroscopic scale, paving the way for quantum computing.

www.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · 1d

John M. Martinis, Michel H. Devoret & John Clarke recount the history of their milestone discovery, which today won the Nobel Prize in Physics

go.nature.com/4gVswyS

Quantum Josephson junction circuits and the dawn of artificial atoms - Nature Physics

In 1985, experiments revealed the quantum behaviour of a macroscopic degree of freedom: the phase difference across a Josephson junction. The authors recount the history of this milestone for the development of superconducting quantum circuits.

go.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · 2d

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three scientists for discovering a class of immune cells that help to prevent the body from attacking its own tissues

go.nature.com/3VNrH1s

Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’

Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi discovered cells that protect the body from autoimmune diseases.

go.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 6d

Jane Goodall challenged what it meant to be a scientist.

In this news story we look at three ways she changed science.

A loss for science, a loss for the community, a loss for everyone

🧪 #academicSky

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Jane Goodall’s legacy: three ways she changed science

The primatologist challenged what it meant to be a scientist.

www.nature.com

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Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · 6d

Thirty years ago Monday, astronomers announced the first planet around a Sunlike star. Since then they have cataloged more than 6,000 alien worlds.

I asked a bunch of astronomers what their favorite exoplanet is, and wrote about it for @nature.com. What's yours?

🧪 #astronomy

These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why

Space scientists look back on 30 years of exoplanet discoveries — from rows of massive ‘super-Earths‘ to worlds with perfectly synchronized orbits.

www.nature.com

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ABSW @absw.bsky.social · 8d

#training

Thinking of #pitching your science story across country borders? 🌍
Join us on 23 Oct at Pitching Across Borders. Free (for ABSW / EFSJ members).

Hear from editors & writers like @emmastoye.bsky.social @tushna42 @jopdevrieze.bsky.social @mariabolevich89.bsky.social

zurl.co/osI7Q

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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 13d

NEW: Nature trained AI to predict which NIH grants from 2014 would have been cut if the Trump admin had its way back then — and what science would have been lost to history.

"The results show the damage that cuts in funding can do to research, and the unpredictable nature of the research process."

Nature @nature.com · 13d

We used machine-learning tools in an attempt to recreate the method for cutting funding, and then applied it to past US NIH grants to reveal the broad-reaching consequences

go.nature.com/4pBArFH

What research might be lost after the NIH’s cuts? Nature trained a bot to find out

We used machine-learning tools in an attempt to recreate the method for cutting funding, and then applied it to past US National Institutes of Health grants to reveal the broad-reaching consequences of such action.

go.nature.com

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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 14d

Seismic shifts are afoot for universities in the US and worldwide. @dangaristo.bsky.social captures the trends in four telling graphics. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The great university shake-up: four charts show how global higher education is changing

More students than ever are studying across international borders, but where and what they learn is shifting.

www.nature.com

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Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · 15d

“We cannot typically follow someone around with a microphone,” says audiologist Matthew Winn.

Enter Tay Tay.

@mohanabasu.bsky.social reports on the linguistics of #TaylorSwift for @nature.com 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Shake it off’: Taylor Swift’s changing voice shows how our accents evolve

An analysis of Swift’s interviews suggests her speech pattern has changed over her career.

www.nature.com

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Helen Pearson @helenpearson.bsky.social · 16d

Now might be a good time to repost this story about what scientists actually know about the complex causes of autism, and what's behind the increasing prevalence.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Autism is on the rise: what’s really behind the increase?

RFK Jr has vowed to find out what’s responsible, but scientists say he is ignoring answers from decades of research.

www.nature.com

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Anne Marie Conlon @annemarie.bsky.social · 20d

Posting an article about LinkedIn on Bluesky feels a little strange, but I think this piece is useful for anyone who breaks out in a sweat at the thought of actively 'networking' for their career: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘LinkedIn is like air to me’: the scientists who’ve cracked professional networking

Fans of the global social-media platform explain how best to harness its career-boosting and collaboration potential.

www.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · 19d

Scientists have created the first ever viruses designed by AI, and they’re capable of hunting down and killing strains of E. coli

go.nature.com/3Khz3aR

World's first AI-designed viruses a step towards AI-generated life

Scientists used AI to write coherent viral genomes, using them to synthesize bacteriophages capable of killing resistant strains of bacteria.

go.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · 19d

Highlights of this year’s Ig Nobel recipients include a nutrition prize for studying the preferred pizza toppings of rainbow lizards at a seaside resort in Togo

go.nature.com/4n5HQv7

Tipsy bats and perfect pasta: Ig Nobels celebrate ‘improbable’ research

The annual awards are a celebration of weird but thought-provoking science.

go.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · 26d

In the African desert, wild mice ‘sing’ tunes that don’t travel far but help the animals to tell neighbours from strangers

go.nature.com/3K0SGDZ

Songs of the striped mouse show who’s friend and who’s foe

Ultrasonic calls, too high for the human ear to detect, convey a wealth of information across the rodent’s territory.

go.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · Sep 8

In this podcast mini-series 🔊 we explore why scientific misconduct happens and how to tackle it.

go.nature.com/47u7Zig

Research misconduct: how the scientific community is fighting back

Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 08 September 2025

go.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · Aug 20

A technology that played a key part in saving millions of lives during the pandemic should be celebrated. Yet in the US, research into mRNA vaccines is being cut. While sadly not unexpected, it’s irresponsible as we argue in our editorial this week 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility

The rest of the world is not following the US government’s dangerous path, and will stick with the technology that helped the world out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

www.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · Aug 14

The summer of 2025 is already shaping up to be a record-breaker

go.nature.com/4mjeVU1

Summer 2025 is roasting hot: these charts show why it matters

Data reveal how this year’s back-to-back heatwaves are affecting populations and economies across Europe.

go.nature.com

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Elizabeth Gibney @lizziegibney.bsky.social · Aug 7

OpenAI's new open-weight #AI model looks to be a powerful reasoner. It's small enough to use locally and they've done loads to make it available.

But has it entered the game too late to become the go-to for researchers? Do ping me if you're trying it out!

www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🤖🧪

OpenAI launches reasoning LLM that you can download and tweak

One version of the gpt-oss large language model can run on a laptop, and performs nearly as well as the company’s most powerful models.

www.nature.com

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Jenna Ahart @jennaahart.bsky.social · Aug 7

New from Nature: “I had to take a moment of silence to appreciate what I was seeing.”

Astronomers reveal what could be the first ever image of a planet in its star’s habitable zone—and in the same star system as Avatar, no less

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Alien planet glimpsed in star's 'habitable zone'

A smudge of light spotted by the James Webb telescope near Alpha Centauri A could be the planet with the tightest orbit ever to be imaged directly.

www.nature.com

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Nature @nature.com · Aug 6

It has taken the United Nations nearly 40 years to commission another study on the effects of nuclear conflict. Better late than never

go.nature.com/4onnChp

Scientists can help stop a slide to nuclear war — don’t shut them out again

It has taken the United Nations nearly 40 years to commission another study on the effects of nuclear conflict. Better late than never.

go.nature.com

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Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · Aug 6

We've been waiting for this report from NSF for many months — results of a survey on sexual harassment at US Antarctic stations. The numbers aren't good, but at least this problem is out in the open & starting to be tackled. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Sexual harassment is rife at US Antarctic research bases, fresh survey finds

More than two-thirds of people polled had witnessed sexual harassment or assault on the ice.

www.nature.com

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Davide Castelvecchi @castelvecchi.bsky.social · Jul 25

Until just months ago, mathematicians didn't see LLMs as a promising way of doing math. Now the chatbots are beating 'neurosymbolic AI' and even most humans — at least when it comes to solving (very hard) high-school competition problems
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

DeepMind and OpenAI models solve maths problems at level of top students

For the first time, large language models performed on a par with gold medallists in the International Mathematical Olympiad.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · Jul 23

Gavi, the vaccine provider for the world’s poorest people, is celebrating its 25th birthday. It also needs an extra US$3 billion to protect infants and other vulnerable groups. More donors must step up.
🧪 #MedicalSky

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Help save 2 million lives: close the vaccine funding gap

Gavi, the vaccine provider for the world’s poorest people, needs an extra US$3 billion to protect infants and other vulnerable groups. More donors must step up.

www.nature.com

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