Daily briefing: What is a cell type, really?

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Octopuses and fish have been caught on camera teaming up to hunt for prey. Researchers caught 13 instances of the cross-species collaboration over 120 hours of footage, showing a big blue octopus (Octopus cyanea) working with different fish species to capture meals. Each of these scenes hinted at complex group dynamics, with different species adopting different roles. “The other fish provide several options, and then the octopus decides which one to take,” says animal-behaviour researcher and co-author Eduardo Sampaio. “There’s this element of shared leadership.”

Nature | 3 min read

Reference: Nature Ecology & Evolution paper

A blast of X-rays from a nuclear explosion should be enough to save Earth from an incoming asteroid, a first-of-its-kind experiment shows. Researchers recreated the scenario in miniature, firing X-rays at two 12-millimetre mock asteroids made of quartz and silica. In just 20 millionths of a second, the samples were accelerated to high speeds as the X-rays vaporized their surface, creating a thrust as gas expanded away from them. The results “showed some really amazing direct experimental evidence for how effective this technique can be”, says physicist Dawn Graninger.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: Nature Physics paper

Over the course of just one month on the International Space Station, engineered human heart tissue got weaker, its ‘beating’ patterns became irregular and it underwent molecular and genetic changes that mimicked the effect of ageing. But the irregular beating disappeared after coming back to Earth. This suggests that space crew such as cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, who just completed the longest-ever stay in space, probably experience cardiovascular stress that resolves after they return to Earth.

Nature | 3 min read & BBC | 1 min watch

Reference: PNAS paper

The US National Cancer Institute (NCI), the world’s largest funder of cancer research, is grappling with a budget cut. The reduction leaves it US$96 million short of the previous year’s figure, with a reprieve in 2025 unlikely. The end of projects such as the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, supported by President Joe Biden, are largely responsible, but with grant applications up 40% over the last decade, the institute must make some difficult decisions, says NCI director Kimryn Rathmell.

Nature | 4 min read

Features & opinion

Ask a dozen researchers about how to group similar cells together and you’ll get as many different answers. Its function, response to its environment and which genes it switches on have all been suggested as the criteria we should use to categorize the basic unit of life. And the further we delve into cells of the same type, the more differences begin to appear between them. So, what exactly is a cell type? As biologist Barbara Treutlein puts it, “there’s a general consensus that it is extremely complicated”.

Nature | 12 min read

Three years after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, women are locked out of post-primary education, banned from most jobs (including nearly all forms of research and teaching) and forbidden from even speaking or singing in public. The Taliban are not recognized as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, but relations are thawing — without the participation of women’s organizations or discussions of education. “Where is the outrage?” demands a Nature editorial. “This cannot continue. If it does, the international community will be complicit in gender apartheid.”

Nature | 5 min read

Dinosaur taxonomy is tough: only a tiny fraction of animals are preserved as fossils and there is little genetic data to guide taxonomic discussions. Researchers have “barely have enough species to work with to allow a lot of our analyses to even run,” says palaeobiologist Emma Dunne. This makes it hard to know for sure how biodiversity has changed over time. “The actual numbers of species lost in previous environmental catastrophes are probably always worse than we currently record because we’re probably lumping more than one species under one name,” says palaeontologist Tom Holtz.

Scientific American | 7 min read

You can keep your fancy AIs and supercomputers — I’m entranced by the slime-mould algorithm. Physarum polycephalum, despite having no neurons, brain or subscription to Nature, has already proven itself to be a dab hand at coming up with efficient Tokyo subway networks and helping run a heart-rate-sensing smartwatch. Now an algorithm based on the brilliant blob has been used to simulate how the cosmic web of matter forms over unimaginable aeons.

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Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Jacob Smith and Smriti Mallapaty

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