Nature Briefing

"Mathematicians up in arms over OpenAI's preprint deluge."

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

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Hello Nature readers, We hear that OpenAI has released 700 maths preprints, learn that a gut microbe could protect against cardiovascular disease and consider the value of silent meetings. If you enjoy this newsletter, please consider recommending it to a friend or colleague. Click here to forward it by e-mail. Thank you!

Artemis II astronauts annotated this picture of the Moon with the location of micrometeorite impacts they witnessed during the mission. (NASA/CSA)

A fresh dose of ‘Moon joy’ NASA has released more than 800 gigabytes of images, audio recordings, written notes and other data gathered by the Artemis II astronauts on their historic flight past the Moon in April. The release includes details such as the colours the crew could make out on the lunar surface and the flashes of light they saw when micrometeorites pelted the Moon. The report also describes how changing light conditions impacted the team’s ability to assess the lunar terrain, an issue that might affect future missions to explore the surface of the Moon. Nature | 5 min read Reference: Artemis II Preliminary Science Report

Gut microbe could protect the heart Bacteroides uniformis, a common gut microbe, manufactures a molecule that can slash cholesterol levels and shrink fatty plaques in the arteries of mice. Researchers found that the molecule, pentadecanoic acid, inhibits a liver enzyme that’s involved in cholesterol production — the same biological action as drugs called statins. The findings underline new ways in which people’s gut microbiome might be harnessed to protect against cardiovascular diseases caused by atherosclerosis, the progressive build up of inflammatory plaques in the walls of arteries, says microbiologist and study co-author Wenjing Zhao. Nature | 5 min read Reference: Nature paper

OpenAI posts a deluge of maths preprints Tech giant OpenAI has released a flood of more than 700 preprints generated by artificial intelligence that tackle hundreds of high-profile problems in mathematics. The surprise drop has divided mathematicians, some of whom say they’ve been scooped or bemoaned a ‘slopocalypse’. Others celebrated the solution to longstanding problems, some more than a century old. The release shows just how quickly AI has become useful to the field. “It’s obviously the most significant moment in mathematical history,” said Levent Alpögeon, mathematician at rival AI company Anthropic, on social media. Nature | 4 min read

British invasion fuelled Australian fires The suppression of Indigenous burning practices in Australia after British colonization probably resulted in bigger, hotter bushfires today. A reconstruction of fires in southeastern Australia over the past 1,000 years suggests that the absence of controlled burning transformed swathes of forests from open and grassy into the dense, flammable woodland that compounds the risk of intense wildfires with climate change. Researchers suggest that restoring frequent, low-temperature ‘cultural burning’ practices could lower the risk of fires growing out of control. Nature | 4 min read Reference: Nature paper

Nobel prizes in science

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A MAN WITH A NOBEL? Nobels week is one of my favourites: for one week, scientists are rock stars and science is everywhere. But something is bothering me — and a lot of people. This year’s science laureates did not include a single woman. In the past 50 years, 3 women won in physics, 5 in chemistry and 13 in medicine. At the press conference for the physics Nobel on Tuesday, it was called ‘historic’ for the prize to be announced by a woman — Ellen Moons, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. ‘How does it feel to be a man and win a Nobel?’ asked no one, ever, to any of the laureates. This exciting week would be even more thrilling if more women received the accolade for their work. We could stop rooting for ‘any woman in any of the sciences’ and be excited solely for the science, beyond the gender of the winners. Some are pondering how to recognize machines’ contributions. Before that, can we make sure the prizes reflect the scientific community, across genders, nationalities, geographical location and more? Anne Pichon, senior opinion editor, Nature Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize? Take our quiz and let us know how you get on. Nature updated an analysis from 2018 after this year’s science Nobels failed to include any female winners. The prize-awarding academies have said they have made changes to their secretive nomination processes to tackle bias, while critics say the measures don’t go far enough. (Nature | 9 min read, from 2018)

Features & opinion

The failed search for a ‘super-dog’ In the 1940s, biologist John Fuller and an animal-behaviour specialist John Paul Scott launched an ambitious study to ask: can humans breed a ‘super-dog’? Over more than 13 years, the pair’s team studied around 500 dogs of various breeds from birth, meticulously recording the animals’ behaviour and testing their intelligence. The study was awarded funding by a proponent of eugenics, who hoped the study could demonstrate that intelligence really was overwhelmingly hereditary. But by the end of the project, Fuller and Scott determined that no breed could be considered more intelligent than others — each had its own strengths. BBC Future | 8 min read

Why we embraced silent meetings “Every month, the members of my laboratory gather for a video call that starts in silence,” writes neuroscientist Manuel Spitschan. “For 20 minutes, the whole group sits and reads a memo written by one of us. Then, we discuss it for the remaining 70 minutes.” The approach — which Spitschan adopted from the company Amazon — stops presentations from acting as a crutch when the speaker is uncertain about something. And it opens the door to novel topics: “a postdoc used her slot for a memo titled ‘Help! What’s my research profile?’” Nature | 7 min read

QUOTE OF THE DAY “I am much less likely to become leopard bait in the office.” As an intern, wildlife veterinarian Shaleen Sarange Angweni was tasked with distracting a leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) so her supervisor could sedate it safely. Now, she leads the Wildlife Health Watch programme, an initiative to train park rangers to collect and communicate wildlife health information in real time. (Nature Africa | 4 min read)

Today I’m celebrating a conservation success. The population of wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha) is officially increasing in New Zealand, after a breeding programme released 11,000 individuals into the wild. I’m very glad to hear that the population is on the up. I’m also glad that they’re over in New Zealand, and not here in the UK where I might come across them — wētāpunga are thought to be the world’s heaviest insects, and can grow to 10 centimetres in length. One thing I would like to come across is your feedback on this newsletter. Please send any thoughts you have to briefing@nature.com. Thanks for reading, Jacob Smith, associate editor, Nature Briefing With contributions by Flora Graham

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