Nicola Jones

I was lucky enough to edit this great piece in Nature about the wiggly ways in which 'net zero' emissions are talked about. Time to pin them down! https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00662-3

I was honoured to work as the commissioning and developmental editor on this piece; such a fascinating story and important point. The authors argue that ground-based detection of gases from CFCs to methane is vital for hunting down and tracing rogue emissions: but there are gigantic holes in our planetary coverage, including large swaths of continents now emerging as major industrial centres and commercial producers. Time to plug those gaps! https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01967-z

Occasionally I write stories about quantum physics. I find this fascinating because a) it helps me explore what it means to actually "understand" something (I rarely get to a satisfying level of understanding in quantum topics, but it seems sufficient!) b) the people are usually really, really cool. This woman is even cooler than usual, since she is not only a quantum physicist but also a medical doctor working on COVID-19... https://fqxi.org/community/articles/display/250    And here's a throwback to my last piece for the same website, this time begging the question: what would a quantum fridge magnet look like? https://fqxi.org/community/articles/display/245

It seems like there's a new human species in the fossil record announced every year these days. Here's my piece for Nature on two (controversial) suggested new hominin populations, from China and Israel.  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01738-w

 Here's my piece for SAPIENS on the delicate dance that writers and editors engage in... https://www.sapiens.org/language/developmental-editor-tips/

'Non fungible tokens' are the latest, greatest, collectible digital equivalents of baseball cards made using crypto-technology. Now science has boarded the train. This month saw sales or auctions of NFTs for: docs relating to two Nobel Laureates from the University of Berkeley; whole genome sequencing packages; augmented reality snaps of Neil Armstrong and various satellites; the original source code for the World Wide Web being typed out; and... a promise to auction up George Church's genome. All of this is weird, and fun, and wacky, and maybe a little bit serious too... My story for Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01642-3

I have been fascinated by the changes to my own work practices and relationships thanks to the emergence of Zoom as a more standard communication technique and social norm for business calls. Sure, we have had access to video calling for ages, and I have used it in the past to chat with grandparents and even for a feature or two when I couldn't manage to make a site visit in person. But the pandemic really thrust video conference into the mainstream. For me, that's been great (I talk to many people I have never met every week; seeing them, instead of just hearing them adds a really valuable layer of information to my work, and helps to establish a bond of trust more quickly). For others... not so great.  Here are some thoughts and interviews on the topic! The promise and perils of life lived online , for Knowable Magazine. https://knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2021/the-promise-and-perils-life-lived-online