Nicola Jones

Okay, no, I can't answer this question; no one can, yet. But I got the chance to look at a fun new brain scan study of students writing essays with ChatGPT, Google, or the old fashioned way, using 'just their brains'.  Unsurprisingly, students who wrote essays with a chatbot didn't show as much brain 'connectivity' (widespread talk from one region of the brain to another). In other words, their brains were less engaged. No shocker there. But there are some more subtle findings that are interesting. PS - anyone seen a study of how calculators change our brains? How about typewriters? YouTube? Cat videos?  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02005-y 

Is the globe getting more lightning? And if so, what will that mean for local ecology and global climate? "In August 2019, something bizarre happened in the Far North: A massive thunderstorm produced more than a thousand flashes of lightning, including a record-breaking bolt that hit just 32 miles from the North Pole, the closest strike ever recorded. “It was a crazy summer,” says Rick Thoman, a climatologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It’s common knowledge that thunderstorms and lightning are more likely when it’s hot than when it’s cold; they are more prevalent in the tropics than in the Arctic. So, scientists wondered: Was the Arctic becoming more electric in our warming world? ..."  https://e360.yale.edu/features/arctic-lightning-climate-change

The aptly-named Centre for Scientific Integrity (CSI) -- the non-profit set up to oversee Retraction Watch -- has launched a new project aimed specifically at rooting out the bad science that's skewing medical guidelines. These guys are expert science sleuths, so here's hoping they can make a difference https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01739-z This story is an exclusive: I was chatting to Ivan Oransky for a different story and he mentioned this was coming up, and offered it exclusively to Nature.