Nature Briefing

Friday 12 June 2020

Hello Nature readers, Today we learn that the Universe’s coolest lab has created bizarre quantum matter in space, explore how healthy blood vessels might protect children from serious effects of COVID-19 and go on the hunt for the microbial ‘dark matter’ that has never been cultured in the lab.

The International Space Station is home to the Cold Atom Lab — one of the coldest places in the known Universe. (NASA)

Quantum matter in the coolest place in space Physicists have made a Bose–Einstein condensate on the International Space Station. (Bose–Einstein condensates form when clouds of atoms are chilled to just above absolute zero and they coalesce into a single macroscopic quantum object.) The results are a proof-of-principle showing that the Cold Atom Lab can successfully exploit the microgravity of space in ways that should allow scientists to create phenomena that would be impossible on Earth. The US$100-million facility is on track to become the coldest place in the known Universe. Nature | 4 min read Go deeper with the expert view in the Nature News & Views article. Reference: Nature paper

Hear more about the the Cold Atom Lab, plus other top stories, in the Nature Podcast. (22 min listen)

Hong Kong security law concerns academics Last month, China’s central government approved plans to enact a national security law in Hong Kong. The decision follows a year of protests in the city, which lawmakers say the new law is going to stop. The law hasn’t been written yet, but some academics are concerned that it will lead to government interference in research, restrict international collaborations and increase self-censorship. Others think research will be unaffected. Nature | 5 min

Microsoft joins face-recognition moratorium Following similar announcements by IBM and Amazon, Microsoft has said that it will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until the technology is regulated at national level. The company has not said whether it would sell the technology to federal agencies or to law-enforcement agencies in other countries. “When even the makers of face recognition refuse to sell this surveillance technology because it is so dangerous, lawmakers can no longer deny the threats to our rights and liberties,” says technology and civil liberties lawyer Matt Cagle. Washington Post | 4 min read

COVID-19 coronavirus update Children account for fewer than 2% of confirmed COVID-19 infections in the United States. (Jaime Reina/AFP/Getty) Healthy arteries could protect kids Researchers have proposed a new theory for why children avoid the worst complications of the new coronavirus, such as excessive blood clotting that leads to heart attacks and stroke. Such complications are linked to malfunction in the cells that line blood vessels, called the endothelium. Scientists have found that SARS-CoV-2 can infect endothelial cells. They posit that because endothelial cells deteriorate with age, children’s vessels might be able to cope with a viral attack better than many adults’ can. Nature | 4 min AI tools to tame the literature Developers hope that tools for processing natural language will help biomedical researchers and clinicians to find the COVID-19 papers that they need. Nature | 7 min read

Features & opinion

The search for microbial dark matter The vast majority of microbes have still never been cultured in the lab. This microbial ‘dark matter’ could hold useful enzymes, new antimicrobials and other therapeutics. Researchers are developing technologies to find and grow microbes that have previously been unculturable. Nature | 9 min read

Scientists tackle motion sickness Motion sickness has been affecting humans since time immemorial — and driverless cars, megaskyscrapers and virtual reality have introduced yet more ways to make our vestibular systems miserable. Last year, researchers held the first international conference on motion sickness in Iceland — a country that knows a thing or two about the perils of life at sea. Icelandic journalist Egill Bjarnason explores the latest research into motion sickness and its influence on the culture and well-being of his home nation. Hakai | 15 min read

Where I work

In this photograph, taken at Pomberuk, or Hume Reserve, on the River Murray, archaeologist Christopher Wilson sits on what had been the base of a rainwater tank built by the local Aboriginal people between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The Ngarrindjeri community is working with the local council to conserve the area, and is regrowing native plants, such as the umbrella bush (Acacia ligulata) seen in the background, to prevent erosion. “As a proud member of the Aboriginal Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Latje Latje Nations… this site inspires me because my people have occupied this landscape for tens of thousands of years,” says Wilson. “As I go through the layers of excavation, I’m also pulling back the layers of my history, my culture and my identity.” (Nature | 2 min read) (Iain Bond for Nature)

Quote of the day “As ‘Black-ademics,’ we’re often the only one. So when these racist acts happen, whether it’s covert or overt, it’s very easy to think, ‘Gosh, I must have done something wrong.’ But when you have this, when you share your experience, you’re able to see that other people have gone through the exact same things.” Communications researcher Shardé Davis spoke to Nature about the Twitter hashtag #BlackInTheIvory, which she co-created with Joy Melody Woods. (Nature | 6 min read)

This week, our playful penguin Leif Penguinson is hiding among the limestone ‘tufa towers’ that rise above the surface of Mono Lake in California. Can you spot the penguin? The answer will be in Monday’s e-mail, all thanks to Briefing photo editor and penguin wrangler Tom Houghton. I won’t be working on Monday, but not to worry! I’ll be back on Tuesday and I leave you in the safe hands of the Nature News team. Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing With contributions by Nicky Phillips and Davide Castelvecchi

Bizarre star offers clues to mystery signals

For a fraction of a second in late April, a hyper-magnetized star in the Milky Way suddenly blasted out radio energy. Now scientists say that this sudden, strange blip could help to explain one of astronomy’s biggest puzzles: what powers the hundreds of other mysterious fast radio bursts (FRBs) that have been spotted much farther away in the Universe. Many astronomers think that fast radio bursts — brief but powerful cosmic flashes that flare for just milliseconds — come from magnetars, but haven’t found the link. “Here is something that gets close to the insane intensity of cosmic FRBs, but that is happening not so far away,” says astronomer Sarah Burke. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn about at least one of the sources that could be causing FRBs.”

Nature | 5 min read

huge mammoth graveyard has been found under the new Mexico City airport, explore the two very different coronavirus vaccines reporting phase 1 clinical results and question whether the pandemic will make or break research funding.

The bones of roughly 60 mammoths were discovered north of Mexico City during the construction of a new airport. Here, an archaeologist works on one of the specimens. (INAH via AP/Shutterstock)

Dozens of mammoths under new airport At least 60 mammoth skeletons have turned up in excavations for a new airport north of Mexico City — and more are likely to come. “There are too many, there are hundreds,” says archaeologist Pedro Sánchez Nava. The site is on what used to be the shores of a lake called Xaltocan, where a military airport is now being converted to civilian use. The wealth of remains suggests that mammoths died after being chased by prehistoric humans some 15,000 years ago and getting stuck in the mud. Smithsonian | 5 min read