Quantinuum detects knots on a topologically-dominated quantum computer and uncovers hidden connections between topology and quantum physics
A fossilized jawbone discovered more than 20 years ago belonged to a Denisovan. The states have been hit hardest by the cuts to the acoustics lab and charts.
The prevalence of mental-health issues among early-career researchers is driven by a lack of support at their institutions, and graduate students and postdocs are starting to build their own movements to find solutions. The efforts focus on five areas: reducing stigma, improving mental-health literacy, improving supportive skills, encouraging peer-support networks, and creating structures across the research enterprise to take responsibility for mental health.
Researchers at the UK quantum-computing company Quantinuum report that their quantum machine, H2-2, can distinguish between different types of knot on the basis of topological properties, and show that the method could be faster than those that run on ordinary, or ‘classical’, computers. The finding hints at where the innovative computers could someday be particularly useful. This is owing to mysterious connections between topology and quantum physics. “That these things are related is mind-blowing, I think,” says Konstantinos Meichanetzidis, a Quantinuum researcher who led the work behind the preprint.
Source: Daily briefing: Mysterious Taiwan fossil is Denisovan
The Brains of a Denisovan: How a Nuclear Reactor Injures a Scientific Laboratory in Washington State in 2019 and 2022
A fossilized jawbone discovered more than 20 years ago belonged to an ancient group of humans called Denisovans. The jawbone was dredged up by fishing crews 25 kilometres off the west coast of Taiwan. The geographical range of the group, from colder, high-altitude areas to warmer climates, has now been widened by the confirmation that the bone belonged to a Denisovan.
The US National Institutes of Health has ended over 800 research projects, wiping out significant chunks of funding. The administration of US President Donald Trump is purging NIH-funded studies on topics ranging from COVID-19 to misinformation, with a particular focus on research related to the health of sexual and gender minorities. Massachusetts, California, Maryland and Texas have all lost some research funding, as has New York which is home to a particularly targeted school, Columbia University.
Scientists have set up a sound testing laboratory in a decaying reactor in Washington state to take advantage of its unique characteristics. A former NASA researcher is testing everything from soundproof building materials to washing machines to battle the challenges of working within an abandoned reactor building.
Researchers have been studying the genomes of six ape species for more than two decades. Understanding the genetics of apes gives scientists new information about what differentiates us from our relatives in the past. The results will also be key to analysing the genetic diversity of at-risk ape populations — all six species sequenced are listed as either endangered or critically endangered. “I’ve never thought that this would be accomplished in my lifetime,” says evolutionary geneticist and study co-author Kateryna Makova.
From 2019 to 2023, I studied for a PhD in the evolutionary developmental genetics of the beetle Tribolium castaneum at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. My laboratory, based in the coastal region of Macaé, became collateral damage in a war on science declared by Jair Bolsonaro, our president from 2019 to 2022 — a war that might feel familiar to many US researchers now that their own president seems determined to cut funding for scientific research.
The pressure paid off. The Brazil National Union of Students was credited with helping to mobilize the Brazilian Ministry of Education which unlocked a billion Brazilian reais ( US$172 million) for federal universities in October. I was more than just a scientist that day. I was part of a movement that had pushed back against the cuts and reaffirmed the role of education and research in Brazil. I felt connected. I was not alone.
That year, a brilliant colleague of mine nearly lost her career when the government axed her scholarship days before she was set to begin. She was locked out of the lab without warning. Desperate not to lose everything she had worked for, she spoke out, and the story of her cancelled funding struck a nerve with the public. Support came together quickly enough to keep her from walking away, but only just.
Others faced similar threats: a friend of mine, unable to afford rent without her stipend, left her PhD for a non-academic job. Another, after months of uncertainty, moved abroad to continue his research. I, too, thought about quitting. But I had already changed fields once — from nuclear physics to developmental biology — and I knew I couldn’t do it again. Not even under Bolsonaro.
Students, professors and scientific societies took to the streets across the country to protest the cuts and proclaim: Knowledge is not an expense. Marching with thousands in my city made me feel strong.
Breaking the outrage addiction. I survived the besieging of science. And it didn’t work. When I arrived in Brazil twenty years after my internship, I was shocked to learn that COVID-19 had not been studied
I was stuck in limbo and adapted by shifting my research focus from wet lab work to bioinformatics and collaborating through a group that was waiting for borders to reopen. I finally arrived in late September 2021, and my official internship ran from October that year to April 2022. During the eight-month period I stayed in Germany, I did analyses during quark and created the basis for my experiments.
By then, I had booked flights, rented an apartment and spent nights reading catastrophic headlines detailing Bolsonaro’s relentless attacks on science — dismissing the virus as “just a little flu”, promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment despite overwhelming evidence of its ineffectiveness and systematically slashing science budgets and environmental protections across the Amazon rainforest.
Germany closed its borders to Brazilian travellers on the eve of mydeparture due to their high case numbers and the emergence of new COVID-19 variant. I was not able to recover the costs. Because the funding agency covered only part of the trip, the financial loss came out of my own pocket — another harsh reminder of how unstable my research situation had become.
Online troll, and even some family members, ridiculed my research, championed funding cuts, and embraced debunked cures such as hydroxychloroquine. Amid the chaos, I learnt to thrive in uncertainty — skills that no grant could fund.
Completing my PhD required more than scientific rigour — it demanded that I confront my own limits. My resolve was tested each day as I faced personal challenges and setbacks. My spouse was with me when I needed mental health care. My advisers, Rodrigo Nunes da Fonseca and Helena Araújo, despite facing their own institutional chaos, found time to strategize about grants and training opportunities.
Source: Dear US researchers: break the outrage addiction. I survived the besieging of science. So can you
The alleged coup of 2022 Brazilian President Bolsonaro to defend against a rigged election in Braslia
In October 2022, Bolsonaro was voted out of office. His supporters took over government buildings in Braslia on 8 January after he claimed that the election was rigged. The assault on the US Capitol in Washington, DC was preceded by the defeat of Donald Trump at the end of his first term as president. In Brazil, courts and Congress stopped the attempted coup. The judge banned Bolsonaro from running for eight years in June. The Brazil Supreme Federal Court unanimously accepted complaints against the president, and he could be charged with a crime by the end of the year.