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View this email in your browser Wednesday 18 July 2018
Nature Briefing

Hello Nature readers,
Today we discover ten weird new Jupiter moons and learn why we are now officially living in the Meghalayan Stage of the Holocene.

A NASA image of Jupiter
Jupiter now has 79 known moons — by far the most of any planet in our solar system. (NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (NASA Goddard))

Ten weird new Jupiter moons discovered

Astronomers searching for Planet Nine have instead discovered ten more moons orbiting Jupiter. All are tiny — between about 1 and 3 kilometres across — and 7 of them travel in remote orbits and in the reverse direction from the planet’s rotation. One oddball moon orbits in the opposite direction from its closest neighbours, putting it on a collision course  with them. All this weirdness suggests that the moons didn’t form with Jupiter, but were probably captured after the gas giant’s birth.

Nature | 3 min read

Scientists: “We won’t build killer robots”

The co-founder of Google DeepMind and car, spaceship and cave-submarine magnate Elon Musk are among more than 2,400 artificial-intelligence researchers who have signed a pledge against killer robots. The signatories declared that they will not participate in the development or manufacture of robots that can identify and attack people without human oversight. The document also calls on governments to outlaw such technology.

The Guardian | 5 min read

Novichok-contaminated bottle found

UK police have found a bottle contaminated with the nerve agent Novichok in the house of one of two recent British victims. One of them, Dawn Sturgess, has died from the poison. The fact that the original compound was found on the bottle, and on the victims’ hands and clothing, suggests it was engineered to be relatively stable. Police are working to determine whether the poison is indeed the same nerve agent used to attack a former Russian double agent in March.

Chemistry World | 6 min read

FEATURES & OPINION

Science alone won’t win you an election

Candidates with science and technical backgrounds are running for the US Congress this year in unprecedented numbers. But election forecasters say that engineers, researchers and physicians have won or lost primary races for factors other than obvious science-based issues. Scientific American meets the candidates and explores their results.

Scientific American | 4 min read

Uncertainty and fertility in academia

Female academics often work contract to contract during the years when they are considering starting a family. “This, for me, should be the real business of initiatives like Athena Swan, which try to ensure women progress in the workplace,” argues sustainability researcher Lucie Middlemiss. “How do we find ways of allowing women to be both academics and mothers in the context of precarious contracts?”

Mama is an Academic blog | 4 min read

When your DNA test reveals a family secret

When exploring their family tree turns up a few unexpected branches, some people turn to Facebook for support. Meet members of the DNA NPE Friends group — where NPE refers to “not parent expected” — to discover how some of the millions of people who take DNA tests every year are dealing with the fallout.

The Atlantic | 21 min read

The sci-fi novel CP Snow suppressed

Chemist CP Snow — renowned for his 1959 “two cultures” lecture lamenting the intellectual divide between the sciences and the humanities — also wrote 17 novels. One of them, he wished he hadn’t: New Lives for Old, about an anti-ageing treatment that ultimately undermines society. Historian Catherine Oakley explores the sex and sexism in what Snow called “the book which will not appear again”.

Palgrave Communications | 40 min read

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“In spite of its many publications, the Anthropocene working group still has not submitted a proposal for consideration. Why? Ask them.”

The International Union of Geological Science hasn’t included ‘Anthropocene’ in its latest chart defining the periods, epochs and ages of geologic time. (FYI we are now officially living in the Meghalayan Stage of the Holocene.) (Twitter)

This newsletter is always evolving — tell us what you think! Please send your feedback to briefing@nature.com.

Thanks for reading!
Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing

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