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Taylor Swift performing onstage.

Researchers have analyzed Taylor Swift's accent in interviews.Credit: Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

How Swiftly an accent can change

Audiologists have seized a rare opportunity to study how a person’s dialect can change over their lifetime by analysing interviews with pop superstar Taylor Swift. Early in her career, when she was living in Nashville, Swift pronounced words with short vowels, a classic feature of a southern US accent. The twang faded as she moved from country into pop music, and the pitch got lower when she moved to New York City. Swift is no different from many other people who adapt their dialect throughout their lives, says linguist Alice Gaby. “The change is not just specific to the location but also how she’s positioning herself.”

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America paper

Trump autism claims

Leucovorin is unproven for autism

On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will slap a new warning label on the painkiller Tylenol (also known as acetaminophen and paracetamol) that flags a “possible association” with autism in children. But there is a lack of strong evidence to back up the claim.

Another drug called leucovorin will help “hundreds of thousands of kids” with autism, FDA head Martin Makary said at the same event. But some specialists warn that the drug’s efficacy has not been established, that scientists don’t know how much of the drug to give or how long people should take it, and that safety data in children are lacking. According to the FDA’s current plans, leucovorin will be available to only a minority of autistic people. All of this has led to widespread confusion, say clinicians. “If anyone tells you they have found a magic bullet cure for autism, doubt them,” says Alycia Halladay, chief science officer of the Autism Science Foundation. “There is not going to be one cause and one singular treatment.”

Nature | 7 min read

The world’s favourite painkiller

Paracetamol/acetaminophen has been around for more than 130 years and is among the most commonly taken painkillers. As long as you stick to the recommended dose, it’s thought to be one of the safest, too. But despite decades of clinical use, and the proposal of several molecular mechanisms, researchers still don’t fully know how the drug dulls pain. Those seeking even better analgesics must grapple with gaps in our understanding of the underlying neurobiology of pain, the overwhelming power of the placebo effect and the inherently subjective experience of pain.

Nature | 5 min read

‘Extreme statements without evidence’

A conversation with four autism experts reveals their wide-ranging responses to the Trump team’s statements about autism. “In some respects this was the most unhinged discussion of autism that I have ever listened to,” says psychologist Helen Tager-Flusberg, the founder of the Coalition of Autism Scientists. Epidemiologist Brian Lee, who co-authored a key study that showed an apparent statistical association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and children’s risk of autism, says that it does not show the cause-and-effect that some people think. “Association is not causation,” he says. “Studies like our Swedish study and others, including a Japanese study that just came out this month, that have gone further and accounted for genetics by using sibling controls found that this statistical association disappeared. In other words, it’s not causation.”

The New York Times | 13 min read

Reference: JAMA paper & Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology paper

Features & opinion

Climate action needs ‘wonder and hope’

To prompt widespread action on climate change, people need to embrace an emotional response, not just a data-driven one, argues climate scientist Kate Marvel in Human Nature. Through historical examples and personal anecdotes, Marvel explains how anger, fear and grief are powerful forces in demanding action from policymakers, but so too are wonder, love and hope. The book “offers a clear, approachable overview of the field and its broader issues” for both newcomers and seasoned climate scientists, writes demographer Raya Muttarak in her review. “Everyone should read it.”

Nature | 6 min read

How to train the skilled workers we need

Ever-more-advanced technologies require ever-more-skilled workers to build them, argues mechanical engineer Roseanne Warren, who teaches micro- and nanofabrication at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “The university showcases the types of initiative needed to develop people’s skills,” Warren writes, noting its industry–academic partnerships, free clean-room training courses for technicians and support from industry for class fees. But the high cost of such sophisticated programmes means that they often struggle for funding. She recommends that academia, industry and government agencies join forces to fill the ‘skills chasm’.

Nature | 6 min read

It’s never too late to learn a language

Evidence has shown that, despite the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, older people aren’t at a disadvantage when learning a new language, thanks to their lifetimes of accumulated knowledge. Now research shows that, unlike younger adults, people over 60 can succeed regardless of how they are taught, writes applied linguist Karen Roehr-Brackin, who led a study of 80 English-speaking volunteers learning Croatian. “They seem to be sufficiently independent to choose the path that works best for them.”

The Conversation | 4 min read

Reference: Language Teaching Research paper

Quote of the day

“‘Thinky think’ before ‘grabby grab’.”

Nature has tapped into its global community of readers, writers, friends and colleagues to compile a list of 99 lab tips to help make scientists’ working lives better. One, sent in by a chemist who has been burnt before, is simple: hot things can look cold. (Nature | 20 min read)