Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 8h

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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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 1d

“This model disadvantages faculty who prioritize societal impact, mentorship, and a host of other values-based activities and outcomes.”

@retractionwatch.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 1d

“A consistent refrain – from rank-and-file scholars, department chairs, academic leaders, policymakers, and other interest holders – has been, “Nothing will really change until you tackle academic hiring and promotion.” “
🧪 #AcademicSky

@retractionwatch.com

retractionwatch.com/2025/10/06/1...

$1.5 million program targets changes to academic incentives

The incentive systems that drive academic research underlie nearly every story we write: publication counts for promotion, pressure to produce positive results, hitting certain metrics, and so on. …

retractionwatch.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 2d

Congratulations to Fred Ramsdell, Mary Brunkow and Shimon Sakaguchi for winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine!

🧪

#Nobel2025

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

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.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 5d

Embracing failure as a necessary part of success is long overdue in science and in life in general.

An economist, Severine Toussaert, shares why she is happy to admit to her research failures, and why others should too

🧪 #AcademicSky

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

Six journal rejections and a major rethink: why I’m happy to admit to my research failures, and you should too

Outlining the trial-and-error processes that are involved in every research project could help others to become more efficient and paint a more honest picture of life as a researcher.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 5d

Read our exclusive interview by @maxkozlov.bsky.social with the ex-CDC director - Susan Monarez -
In which she talks about the importance of the job and the reasons why she was fired

🧪 #CDC #MedSky
@nature.com

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

Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired

“I would never do that, as a scientist,” Susan Monarez says of being asked to approve changes to vaccine recommendations without knowing the details.

www.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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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 6d

The richest 20% of nations, with 15% of the global population, contribute more than 40% of annual ecological overshoot; the poorest 40% of countries, with 42% of the global population, experience more than 60% of social shortfall 🧪
A new analysis by Fanning & Raworth
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance - Nature

A revised ‘Doughnut’ providing a visual assessment of trends in social deprivation and planetary degradation over the past two decades shows more than doubling of global GDP accompanied by accelerating ecological overshoot but only a modest reduction in human deprivation.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 6d

The obsession with economic output as a measure of human development puts sustainability on the back burner

Time to end the GDP mania

Our editorial inspired by a @nature.com paper that looks at how the world should really measure prosperity
🧪 #SGDs #doughnuteconomics
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

End GDP mania: how the world should really measure prosperity

The obsession with economic output as a measure of human development puts sustainability on the back burner. Researchers can now help to devise better indicators.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 16d

New work - based on modelling and projection - suggests that the health impacts of climate-driven wildfire smoke could be among the most important and costly consequences of a warming climate in the US.

Yet more evidence…

#MedSky 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wildfire smoke exposure and mortality burden in the US under climate change - Nature

Nature - Wildfire smoke exposure and mortality burden in the US under climate change

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 16d

A new machine learning framework developed to project global burned areas and wildfire emissions indicates that the health burden would become more evenly distributed across nations of differing development levels than present patterns.

Time to act together!
🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Global warming amplifies wildfire health burden and reshapes inequality - Nature

Nature - Global warming amplifies wildfire health burden and reshapes inequality

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 16d

The cost to global health & apparently not much $$$ savings…

“the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development will cost taxpayers $6.4 billion over two years […] That’s enough money to save more than one million children’s lives”

#MedSky 🧪

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

Opinion | Trump’s Most Lethal Policy

www.nytimes.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 20d

The shape of things to come?

Modified GPT6 architecture, trained on UK Biobank & validated in a 2nd population, allows for modelling natural history of human disease

#MedSky 🧪
@nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Learning the natural history of human disease with generative transformers - Nature

Delphi-2M forecasts a person’s future health, covering more than 1,000 diseases, provides insights into co-morbidity dynamics and generates synthetic data for the training of AI models that have never...

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 20d

Bring us your LLMs: why peer review is good for AI models

Deepseek’s R1 model has been peer reviewed & published in @nature.com (with transparent peer reviewed). Others should follow

🧪

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

Bring us your LLMs: why peer review is good for AI models

Deepseek’s R1 model has been peer reviewed. Others should follow the firm’s example.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 20d

DeepSeek R1 - the first widely used LLM to be peer reviewed and published in a research journal. And… with transparent peer reviewed!
@nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

DeepSeek-R1 incentivizes reasoning in LLMs through reinforcement learning - Nature

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing t...

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 21d

What if there were a technology that could help to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, air pollution & environmental degradation, while improving health, reducing social inequality & boosting economic growth?

Train travel turns 200 & needs renewed attention
🧪

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

Make trains great again — for the sake of people and the planet

As railways enter their third century of service, research must support their renaissance for more-sustainable travel that supports human development.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 21d

Synthetic data can help to train AI models when real data are scant; this can be especially valuable in the context of healthcare.
In this editorial we call for more focus on validating the results and the need for appropriate ethical review

🧪 #MedSky
@nature.com

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

Synthetic data can benefit medical research — but risks must be recognized

Artificially generated data can help to train AI models when real data are scant, but more focus is needed on validating the results.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 21d

A great review of a must read timely publication of “Science under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World” by

@peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social and @michaelemann.bsky.social

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

How did assaults on science become the norm — and what can we do?

An insightful book explores attacks on science from a historical and a personal perspective.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 22d

Childhood vaccines up for review in the US: what’s at stake?
Nature news team reviews the three shots under scrutiny by RFK Jr’s advisers and the data behind them.

🧪 #MedSky

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

Childhood vaccines up for review in the US: what’s at stake

Nature reviews the three shots under scrutiny by RFK Jr’s advisers and the data behind them.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 22d

Climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000–2023 more likely & more intense, and each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel & cement producers) substantially contributed to it.

Work by
@yannquilcaille.bsky.social
& colleagues
🧪
@nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors - Nature

Climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000–2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed.

www.nature.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 24d

“AI agents can be coaxed into revealing sensitive data they have access to or tricked by hackers into taking harmful actions—from extracting sensitive code to creating havoc in homes by activating smart appliances.”

Happily, it’s not too late says @meredithmeredith.bsky.social

@economist.com
🧪

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 29d

📣 NEW -- In The Economist, discussing the privacy perils of AI agents and what AI companies and operating systems need to do--NOW--to protect Signal and much else!

www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

An illustration of me, and the headline: "AI agents are coming for your privacy, warns Meredith Whittaker
The Signal Foundation’s president worries they will also blunt competition and undermine cyber-security"

To put it bluntly, the path currently being taken towards agentic AI leads to an elimination of privacy and security at the application layer. It will not be possible for apps like Signal—the messaging app whose foundation I run—to continue to provide strong privacy guarantees, built on robust and openly validated encryption, if device-makers and OS developers insist on puncturing the metaphoric blood-brain barrier between apps and the OS. Feeding your sensitive Signal messages into an undifferentiated data slurry connected to cloud servers in service of their AI-agent aspirations is a dangerous abdication of responsibility.

Happily, it’s not too late. There is much that can still be done, particularly when it comes to protecting the sanctity of private data. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how we approach the development and deployment of AI agents. First, privacy must be the default, and control must remain in the hands of application developers exercising agency on behalf of their users. Developers need the ability to designate applications as “sensitive” and mark them as off-limits to agents, at the OS level and otherwise. This cannot be a convoluted workaround buried in settings; it must be a straightforward, well-documented mechanism (similar to Global Privacy Control) that blocks an agent from accessing our data or taking actions within an app.

Second, radical transparency must be the norm. Vague assurances and marketing-speak are no longer acceptable. OS vendors have an obligation to be clear and precise about their architecture and what data their AI agents are accessing, how it is being used and the measures in place to protect it.

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 24d

New synthetic opioids take off. They suit illicit drugmakers, are easier to make than heroin, their chemical structures can easily be tweaked to circumvent bans on specific compounds & they are more lucrative.

🧪 #MedSky

Nitazenes: another failure of drug prohibition
economist.com/leaders/2025...

Nitazenes: another failure of drug prohibition

As countries crack down on fentanyl, a new synthetic opioid takes off

economist.com

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 26d

The Discovery Centre – the Cambridge Astra Zeneca research facility - is on this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist - the highly regarded architecture prize in the UK

Architects were praised for their focus on ‘placemaking’
Better research in better surroundings?
🧪
www.dezeen.com/2025/09/04/r...

Image showing the new Astra Zeneca research building in Cambridge, shortlisted for RIBA Stirling Award

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · Sep 5

Alas, I don’t fit in that demographic bracket but I am an avid listener of In Our Time 🤩

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · Aug 31

“Today, people find it easier to imagine that we can build intelligence on silicon than we can do democracy at scale, or that we can escape arms races”

Not the most cheerful read first thing in the morning. It’s an interesting future scenario..

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse

An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

www.theguardian.com

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