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An area buried deep in the brain is a hotspot for immune cells called T cells.Credit: Du Cane Medical Imaging Ltd/Science Photo Library
Immune ‘spies’ keep tabs on the gut
Specialized immune cells can act as ‘spies’ that carry information about the gut and fat tissue into the brain. This surveillance system, uncovered in mice, is crucial to the brain’s control of behaviour such as pursuit of food. The newly identified cells have molecular traits that give them entry into the core of the brain. Their function is shaped by diet and the microbiome; without them, even hungry mice are slow to eat.
Stay in your lane, or face the ‘pivot penalty’
When a scientist moves away from their original area of expertise, their publications receive fewer citations than their previous work. An analysis of millions of papers revealed that the larger the shift away from a scientist’s field, the greater the effect — a phenomenon coined the ‘pivot penalty’. A pivot can also make getting a paper published, and securing initial funding, more difficult. “When you move out of the area in which you’re trusted, you lose that recognition,” says science-policy specialist Kieron Flanagan.
Rock-return mission heads for asteroid
Yesterday, China launched an ambitious mission to grab rocks from a near-Earth asteroid and return them to Earth. Tianwen-2, which launched yesterday, is now on its way to Kamo‘oalewa, a ‘quasi-satellite’ of Earth. Researchers hope the samples from Kamo‘oalewa will reveal whether it was once part of the Moon, or has escaped from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The probe is due to reach the asteroid in the middle of next year, and return in early 2027.
Researchers decry Trump’s ‘gold standard’
Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Gold Standard Science”. The order mandates the overhaul of research-integrity policies to ensure that the federal government promotes “transparent, rigorous, and impactful” science. Researchers who spoke to Nature worry that language in the order opens the door to political interference in US science. “It all sounds very non-objectionable, but it’s extremely dangerous” in the details and subtext, says Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group.
Features & opinion
AI can ‘hear’ illness in your voice
Voice recordings examined by artificial intelligence (AI) could reveal new biomarkers of conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Neurologists can often spot the tell-tale signs of an illness in someone’s voice, but AI systems could grant non-specialists the same ability, and detect more subtle vocal changes than people. The measure isn’t perfect, not least because people’s voices fluctuate from day to day, and there is a lack of long-term data. But AI-guided vocal analysis might one day allow physicians to monitor their patients remotely and get early warnings of a range of conditions.
This editorially independent article is part of Nature Outlook: Medical diagnostics, a supplement produced with financial support from Seegene.
Can art therapy break into the mainstream?
Around the world, arts therapies have seen success for a range of conditions, such as improving mobility in people with Parkinson’s. These ‘art for health’ initiatives use activities, such as choir rehearsals or museum visits, as add-on therapies to help treat, and raise awareness of, both physical and mental conditions. But critics of the practice believe it needs more robust evaluation — and a clear definition of what counts as ‘art’ — before it’s adopted as a standard treatment. “We have more to gain by leaning into the arts as a health resource than we have to lose,” argues drama therapist Nisha Sajnani.
Infographic of the week
In ν Octantis — a system of two stars that orbit one another — some evidence hints that an exoplanet orbits the larger, ‘subgiant’ star in the opposite direction to the second star (a). Researchers found that the second star in ν Octantis is a white dwarf, a dying star that has shed its outer layers. The layers expelled from the white dwarf, called a planetary nebula, could have provided material for the planet to form (b). (Nature News & Views | 7 min read, Nature paywall)
