Nature Briefing

"Stress stops the brain from joining the dots between memories."

Views expressed in this science and technology update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 26 May 2026, 2111 UTC.

Content and Source:  "Nature Briefing."

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQgMCWGGxcNxJVFwjkBvspnrgKp

URL--https://www.nature.com.

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

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

View this email in your browser Tuesday 26 May 2026

Hello Nature readers, Today we learn that stress impairs the brain’s ability to link memories, hear a call to invest in early science education and consider whether we’re entering an era of ‘secretive’ research into artificial intelligence. If you enjoy this newsletter, please consider recommending it to a friend or colleague. Click here to forward it by e-mail. Thank you!

The brain connects new and old information to make inferences through a cognitive process called integration. Activity in the hippocampus is essential for this process. (K H Fung/Science Photo Library)

Stress stops the brain joining the dots Acute stress makes it difficult to connect memories of past experiences with fresh information — a process crucial for making deductions. This could explain why people struggle to show insight under pressure. During psychological tests that involved making links between indirectly related pictures, brain imaging showed altered activity in the hippocampi of people who had been through a stressful mock interview compared with those of people who’d had to complete a simpler task, which suggests that their brains hadn’t inferred connections between the images as strongly. Nature | 5 min read Reference: Science Advances paper

AI update

News AI cracks decades-old geometry problem Mathematicians at tech firm OpenAI have cracked an 80-year-old challenge in geometry by giving a single prompt to an AI chatbot. In 1946, mathematician Paul Erdős suggested the ‘best’ arrangement of points on a plane so that as many pairs as possible are at a given distance from each other. OpenAI’s bot has disproved Erdős by showing a better one. The company has revealed neither the full details of how the bot did it, nor which AI system they used, but the finding has been independently verified. Nature | 5 min read Reference: OpenAI announcement News AI must be ‘disarmed’, says Pope In the first major publication of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV has warned that artificial intelligence must be “disarmed” to prevent it from “dominating humanity”. The pontiff’s first ‘encyclical’ — a letter outlining his priorities and views on major societal issues — puts particular emphasis on the use of AI in warfare and urges that it be subject to “the most rigorous ethical constraints”. The Pope presented the document alongside Christopher Olah, co-founder of AI firm Anthropic, who at the same event urged governments and other religious leaders to take part in the oversight of AI technologies. The Guardian | 5 min read Reference: Magnifica Humanitas encyclical Feature The restricted-AI era In April, Anthropic announced that its model Claude Mythos was too dangerous to be released to the public because it had found vulnerabilities in every major operating system and web browser currently in use. The decision marks a turn to secretive AI research that could become a trend, with potential knock-on implications for science, experts say. The possibility that powerful AI is eventually deemed a ‘dual-use’ technology — one that could be weaponized by the military as well as used in civilian society — also raises the question of whether governments should take control of who can access it. Nature | 7 min read

Features & opinion

The brain is no machine In The Brain, In Theory, neuroscientist Romain Brette makes the case to move away from the predominant model of the brain, which treats the organ like a computer. Brette argues that engineering metaphors are often vague and misleading, and attempts to breathe life back into brain science by focusing the study of the nervous system on biology. “Brette’s take-down of the field’s dominant theoretical frameworks is systematic,” writes neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín in his review. “The book is intense and intricate. One can get lost in it, but it is worth the adventure.” Nature | 7 min read

Innovation starts in schools Countries hoping to cultivate talent to drive innovation need to invest in primary- and secondary-school science education, argue three education researchers. Such investment could enable schools to replace conventional teaching with projects that engage students in how science is actually done. The shift also requires a sustained investment in science teachers, providing them with the necessary training and professional development to facilitate a broader science-learning ecosystem. “Countries that neglect these investments might still build excellent labs. They will find it much harder to build the talent that those labs need,” the authors write. Nature | 8 min read

Quote of the day “Every year since the Olympics I've always done some sort of physical challenge … This is another step again. Off the chart. The most outrageous so far.” Olympic rower Matthew Wells trialled prototype exercise equipment designed for space missions during a parabolic flight, which creates temporarily weightless conditions. (BBC | 6 min read)

On Friday, Leif Penguinson was relaxing alongside the sea otters at Moss Landing, California. Did you find the penguin? When you’re ready, here’s the answer. This newsletter is always evolving — tell us what you think! Please send your feedback to briefing@nature.com. Thanks for reading, Jacob Smith, associate editor, Nature Briefing

Free newsletters from Nature Want more? Update your preferences to sign up to our other Nature Briefing newsletters: 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: 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: Translational Research — covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma Please visit your preferences page to choose which Nature Briefing newsletters to receive (or to unsubscribe).

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. © 2026 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.