Daily briefing: Can you name every female Nobel laureate?

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Quiz

Can you name every female Nobel laureate?

The academies that award the Nobel prizes have applied themselves to doing a better job of recognizing the accomplishments of female scientists. But men still dominate the 125-year history of the awards. As we set up the tenterhooks for the first of the prize announcements on Monday, here’s a game to test your expertise: can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize?

Take the quiz | Let us know how you get on

News

Fossil hints that flight wasn’t linear

The discovery of a complete fossil of a feathered dinosaur species adds to evidence that birds evolved the ability to fly several times rather than through a single lineage. The newly described species belongs to a group of dinosaurs called microraptorines, which are closely related to birds. Researchers found that several flight-related adaptations in microraptorines also evolved in the bird lineage Avialae. But these adaptations did not develop in the same order in the two groups and “thus could not be considered the expression of a shared developmental regime”, the researchers write.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: Nature Communications paper

Can cancer be stopped before it starts?

Cancer researchers are excited about ‘cancer interception’ — a technique in which people at high risk are treated to prevent cancer from ever developing. A combination of early-detection techniques and interception in pancreatic cancer is “going to be the breakthrough strategy that really changes survival”, says surgeon and researcher Diane Simeone. The approval of the landmark pancreatic-cancer drug daraxonrasib (Rasonque), which disarms cancer-causing proteins, could be key to an interception approach.

Nature | 8 min read

AI lingo earns a spot in the dictionary

‘Agentic’ and ‘vibe coding’ are among a slew of terms about artificial intelligence that have been added to the online version of the venerable Merriam-Webster dictionary. The entries, which also include tech phrases such as ‘prompt engineering’, are notable for the advanced knowledge needed to understand them, say scholars. “This particular batch, more than any other that I’ve seen, really does feel like it’s a meta-commentary on language,” says Peter Sokolowski, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster. The sophistication of these entries reflects non-specialists’ expanded access to highly technical terms, he says.

Nature | 4 min read

Anthropocene or not-pocene?

‘Anthropocene’ has become useful shorthand for humanity’s footprint on Earth — we even have a Briefing newsletter named after it. But it’s not an official geological epoch, after the idea was rejected in 2024. Now, some scholars say that there are unpublished documents showing that the proposal’s rejection was illegitimate, and that the rationale for the decision was never adequately explained. Researchers involved in the vote maintain that the process was fair and point to a technical explanation for the proposal’s rejection published last month in an issue of Nature Reviews Earth & Environment that focused on the debate.

Nature | 7 min read

Reference: Nature Reviews Earth & Environment comment or read the whole focus issue

Features & opinion

How to counter hate without fuelling it

“If you see hate speech online, take it almost as your duty to disagree,” says psychologist Mirta Galesic. “Just say ‘I disagree’. Don’t feel pressured to have an elaborate argument.” The goal, she says, is to highlight widespread, moderate social norms — so ask your friends to chime in and disagree, too. That advice is the result of research including an analysis of more than a million Twitter/X posts made between 2015 and 2018. It found that excessive arguing, getting hostile, or using ‘us-versus-them’ rhetoric only drives toxicity.

Nature | 7 min read

Reference: PNAS Nexus paper

Futures: science fiction from Nature

A tired scientist exchanges illuminating messages with himself in The buck stops with me and a man tries to dodge a loaded question in Von Neumann’s party.

Nature | 5 min read & Nature | 6 min read

Podcast: butterflies’ patterns trick the eye

The bright and intricate patterns on butterflies might serve to create visual illusions that baffle birds. By analysing slowed-down videos of butterflies taking off, researchers found that the insect’s markings can create the appearance of movement in one direction, when in fact they’re going the other. “I thought initially, ‘Oh no, I’ve made an error, my code’s gone wrong’,” says visual ecologist Jolyon Troscianko of when he first spotted the butterflies’ deception. “So, I did a lot of double-checking and, no, it was true.”

Nature Podcast | 18 min listen

Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Music, or use the RSS feed.

Today Leif Penguinson is exploring the boardwalks that meander through the Felsenmeer — the sea of stones — in Germany. Legend has it that the landscape of boulders and crevices is what remains of a battle between giants and dwarves. A more quotidian explanation is that it formed through the collapse of caves and early medieval mines. Either way, can you find the penguin?

The answer will be in Monday’s e-mail, all thanks to Briefing photo editor and penguin wrangler Tom Houghton.

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

Thanks for reading,

Flora Graham, chief editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Jacob Smith

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