Stop the ‘space race’: space exploration must be a shared human endeavour Nature - Although led by NASA, Artemis II wasn’t just a US achievement; the mission was a collaborative effort. Long may such cooperation continue.

Although led by NASA, Artemis II wasn’t just a US achievement; the mission was a collaborative effort. Long may such cooperation continue

go.nature.com/3OdoKXU

People tell me they just want some good news, and isn’t this cool. You want cool? Go to apod.nasa.gov, there’s a cool new photo from space every day. Livestream the ISS. Go to your planetarium/sci museum. There is enough distraction in the world. We don’t have to celebrate the 2nd Space Race. n/n

The Artemis flight cost $4bn. Meanwhile, Perseverance collected samples on Mars that are just sitting there because Congress would not approve the budget to fly them back to Earth. Education and training programmes of $10s of million were cut. This mission is not about science, nor diversity.

The sobering decision of the last decadal was not to fund any $10bn class mission, because there was too much of a backlog on previous proposals. And then Artemis gets approved so the Trump admin can claim nationalist supremacy.

The Decadal Survey is an incredibly democratic process that gave us Hubble, JWST and soon the Roman space telescope. Thousands of astronomers come up with ideas of telescope ideas, all the white papers are put up online. These set NASA’s priorities for the coming decade.

I am not excited about Artemis. I remember the day the mission got approved overnight because of Trump‘s jingoisms, while we astronomers were wrapping up decades of work proposing scientifically useful missions for the NASA 2020 Decadal Survey. 1/n

You can see our self-archiving policy here: www.nature.com/nature-portf...

This has always been the case. This does NOT apply to Nature Communications and any other journals in our portfolio that are not named "Nature *SUBJECT*". But for the flagship and research journals, yes. And during the 6-month embargo, the author is allowed to share a readable link with anyone.

Reminder: you don't have to publish Gold Open Access if your paper is accepted at Nature or a Nature Research Journal. AND we allow you to self-archive your work, e.g. on the ArXiv. The pre-review version can go up any time, and the post-review version can go up 6 months after publication date.

FYI for authors: we have a LaTeX template for papers in the Springer Nature portfolio. Should make your life a wee bit easier. www.springernature.com/gp/authors/c...

Got to review a book about the history and legacy of Leon Foucault’s pendulum experiment. Here it is, free to read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance - Nature A revised ‘Doughnut’ providing a visual assessment of trends in social deprivation and planetary degradation over the past two decades shows more than doubling of global GDP accompanied by accelerating ecological overshoot but only a modest reduction in human deprivation.

For a full (open-access, so free for you to read!) analysis, see www.nature.com/articles/s41....

End GDP mania: how the world should really measure prosperity The obsession with economic output as a measure of human development puts sustainability on the back burner. Researchers can now help to devise better indicators.

If you, like countless others, wonder why GDP numbers look great while your economic experience goes to sh*t, there's a wealth of research explaining why. GDP is simply not a good/complete measure of economic health.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Wrote my very first book review! Free for you to read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

US brain drain: the scientists seeking jobs abroad amid Trump’s assault on research Five US-based researchers tell Nature why they are exploring career opportunities overseas.

“This isn’t just one of those moments where you say, ‘If it gets bad, I’ll leave'[.] It already has.”
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

US researchers must stand up to protect freedoms, not just funding Curtailment of freedoms and disregard for the rule of law in the United States is destroying the ability of science to serve the nation’s, and the world’s, interests. Researchers can take action.

The US administration is eroding the freedoms on which the nation’s success has been based

https://go.nature.com/4jRfcfs

Signs of life on a distant planet? Not so fast, say these astronomers Bold claims of ‘biosignature’ molecules trigger an outpouring of scepticism.

Science does not have to find aliens to be very cool. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Is There Such a Thing as a Biosignature? | Astrobiology The concept of a biosignature is widely used in astrobiology to suggest a link between some observation and a biological cause, given some context. The term itself has been defined and used in several ways in different parts of the scientific community involved in the search for past or present life on Earth and beyond. With the ongoing acceleration in the search for life in distant time and/or deep space, there is a need for clarity and accuracy in the formulation and reporting of claims. Here, we critically review the biosignature concept(s) and the associated nomenclature in light of several problems and ambiguities emphasized by recent works. One worry is that these terms and concepts may imply greater certainty than is usually justified by a rational interpretation of the data. A related worry is that terms such as “biosignature” may be inherently misleading, for example, because the divide between life and non-life—and their observable effects—is fuzzy. Another worry is that different parts of the multidisciplinary community may use non-equivalent or conflicting definitions and conceptions, leading to avoidable confusion. This review leads us to identify a number of pitfalls and to suggest how they can be circumvented. In general, we conclude that astrobiologists should exercise particular caution in deciding whether and how to use the concept of biosignature when thinking and communicating about habitability or life. Concepts and terms should be selected carefully and defined explicitly where appropriate. This would improve clarity and accuracy in the formulation of claims and subsequent technical and public communication about some of the most profound and important questions in science and society. With this objective in mind, we provide a checklist of questions that scientists and other interested parties should ask when assessing any reported detection of a “biosignature” to better understand exactly what is being claimed.

There are lots of great papers out there on the limitations of claiming the existence of "life" from the detection of certain molecules; here is just one. The astrobiology community itself has plenty of nuanced discussions on the defining life beyond Earth.

liebertpub.com/doi/full/10....

Global pandemic treaty finalized, without U.S., in ‘a victory for multilateralism’ Three years in the making, the accord aims to increase equity and avoid errors of the COVID-19 pandemic

It took an extension to the extension of the extension, but after more than 3 years of negotiations, governments around the globe—but notably, not the United States—have finally agreed on a treaty to improve how the world prevents, prepares for, and responds to future pandemics. scim.ag/4lDYcLe

Can't believe we have to be writing about this in 2025, but here you go.

Science’s big problem is a loss of influence, not a loss of trust Evidence shows that science and scientists remain highly trusted. But genuine scientific voices are not shouting loud enough over the noise to hold sway.

Most people still trust science, but most also believe it is increasingly politicised, which drives them to non-institutional sources and riskier behaviour. What we can do about it: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Cleaning up space: how satellites and telescopes can live together Satellites connect people around the world but they also interfere with astronomers’ views of the cosmos. There are ways to reduce these tensions.

Editorial: The skies are a shared resource. We spend public money and push the limits of technology to look into the depths of the Universe - but now often see private communication satellites instead. Solutions exist, but regulation and enforcement are lacking. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Space debris is falling from the skies. We need to tackle this growing danger Why failing to control defunct satellites leaves everyone at risk from their impacts.

Space debris is not an abstract or distant problem - it crash-lands in or right next to human settlements around the world. And with tens of thousands of launches every year, this is not getting any better unless we fundamentally change both design and regulation. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The Page Turners Collective: Give Monthly to Support Our Work Every Day - The Open Notebook By joining the Page Turners Collective, our community of monthly recurring donors, you become a cornerstone of our efforts to nurture and support science journalism around the world.

Do you like #science? Do you think #journalism is a Good Thing? If so, please join me as a donor to @theopennotebook.bsky.social — the free resource that provides tools for writers to cover climate change, global health, technology & other crucial issues.

www.theopennotebook.com/the-page-tur....

An optical image mosaic of the Milky Way galaxy shows a view looking toward the Galactic Center. The smooth band of starlight is occluded by dark clouds of interstellar dust, which absorbs and scatters background light (extinction), causing distant stars to appear fainter and redder. Variations in the properties of this dust extinction have been mapped in three dimensions using 130 million stellar spectra.

Researchers have created three-dimensional maps of the interstellar dust extinction curve within the Milky Way galaxy. The results provide improved extinction corrections for astronomical observations.

Learn more in this week's issue of Science: scim.ag/41M1gLX

Wow, you really can't make this up.

US science is under threat ― now scientists are fighting back Researchers are organizing protests and making their voices heard as Trump officials slash funding and lay off federal scientists.

The last month has seen shock & sorrow in the US research community, with grant freezes & cuts, mass firings of government scientists, & much more.

Now many are fighting back. @heidiledford.bsky.social reports for @nature.com on the rise of scientist-activists:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🧪

Move beyond ‘publish or perish’ by measuring behaviours that benefit academia A standardized system to measure contributions in mentorship, collaboration and more could bring about systemic change in science.

“Publication-based evaluation has shaped and sometimes distorted academia. The community faces a choice: maintain the status quo, or experiment with new measures that better align with our values,” writes Kelly-Ann Allen in a Nature World View article. #Academicsky 🧪

“For much of our 155-year history, the United States has been the global leader in research […]. With the changes now under way, the new administration seems to be inclined to recklessly consign that to history. We at Nature denounce this assault on science.”

Postdocs and PhD students hit hard by Trump’s crackdown on science As US federal grants remain frozen and budget cuts loom, anxiety and fear grip early-career researchers.

I remember when my PhD salary as a Smithsonian fellow was on the line during a govt shutdown during Trump 1.0, my friends offering to lend me money. I left soon after because it was bad enough; I don't think I saw this coming. www.nature.com/articles/d41...