Springer Nature

How to detect consciousness in people, animals and maybe even AI Insights from human brains could inform how scientists search for awareness in all its possible forms.

As advanced neuroimaging technology becomes more widely available, scientists have been developing new, more accurate ways to test for consciousness. And the need for better consciousness tests doesn’t only apply to humans: spklr.io/63320B13BK

Rubbish years: how to boost lab group morale when world events crash in Award-winning mentors share best practice to keep your team going amid political upheavals, economic downturns and other events.

Ideally, research labs should be devoid of pressures from world events. Stressing events, however, can affect lab members more than a PI might realize.

Mentors share best practice to keep your team going amid political upheavals, economic downturns and other events:

#AcademicSky

Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows First major attempt to chart researchers’ views finds interpretations in conflict.

First sketched out a century ago, the equations at the heart of quantum mechanics underpin technologies from computer chips to medical-imaging machines. But no one seems to agree on how best to describe the physical reality that lies behind the maths. spklr.io/63327B1M7Z

Your Guide to Summer’s Extreme Weather, from Corn Sweat to Flash Floods Extreme weather is front-page news. But what are the phenomena behind the headlines?

Extreme weather is front-page news. But what are the phenomena behind the headlines?
Listen to this episode of Science Quickly to find out more:

A person holds a smartphone displaying a webpage titled 'Masterclasses by Frankfurter Buchmesse'. White text over the phone reads 'Now in Our Media Library'. Text under the screen says 'FBM25 Masterclasses'.

You have missed the #fbm25 Masterclass on how AI enhances scholarly publishing? No worries, you can now catch up on the session with Stephanie Preuss & Janina Krieger.
They explore how generative AI can help make science faster, more accessible, and more trustworthy: spklr.io/63325B1RV7

Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response - Nature Neuroscience Serino et al. show that seeing an infectious avatar approach the body in virtual reality triggers an immune response, indicating that the brain prepares the body to fight infections even for perceived, but not real, threats.

One of our top-rated articles on @altmetric.com this past week was: "Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response". Read the OA article published in
@natneuro.nature.com here: spklr.io/63322B1Rdo

Why the Russia Earthquake Didn't Cause a Huge Tsunami Russia's magnitude-8.8 earthquake spawned serious tsunami warnings, but waves have been moderate so far. Here's the geological reason why

The moment seismologists got word that a magnitude 8.8 earthquake had struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, they felt an acute sense of anxiety. The earthquake spawned serious tsunami warnings, but waves have been moderate. Here’s the geological reason why:

The average sleeper snoozes their alarm 2x a day and spends 11 minutes snoozing, says paper in Scientific Reports. The study, which analyses more than 3 million sleep sessions, suggests heavier use of the snooze alarm may indicate poorer sleep quality: spklr.io/63322B1Rrg

#Health #Sleep

World Breastfeeding Week 2025: Creating Sustainable Support Systems WBW is celebrated in the first week of August every year and aims to inform, anchor, engage and promote action on breastfeeding and related issues. Here, we share a selection of Springer Nature journal articles, collections, ISRCTN clinical study registrations,and blog posts.

For World Breastfeeding Week 2025, we are sharing a selection of articles, blogs, and clinical trials. Find out more: spklr.io/63325BEC9B

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Leopard seal song patterns have similar predictability to nursery rhymes - Scientific Reports During their breeding season, male leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) spend hours perfecting their solo performance: singing unique sequences of stereotyped calls underwater to create their ‘song’. These song bouts are made up of discrete call types common across leopard seals within a region, which begs the question – what determines the individually unique patterns of these calls? Information entropy quantifies the amount of randomness in a sequence, providing insight into the statistical patterns governing a sequence. The songs produced by 26 different Eastern Antarctic leopard seals have less predictable temporal structure than humpback whale songs and dolphin whistle sequences. The estimated information entropy of the leopard seal songs is comparable to nursery rhymes but unsurprisingly, lower than contemporary, classical and baroque music. The greater structure of the leopard seal’s song improves the ability of distant listeners to accurately receive signals and identify singers, which is essential for this widely dispersed species. Future studies examining animal mating song would benefit from incorporating entropy analysis to question if information is conveyed through temporal structure alongside other acoustic variables.

The structure of leopard seal songs appears more similar in predictability to children’s nursery rhymes than classical music, says research in Scientific Reports. This song structure may help to prevent the individual seal’s ‘signal’ from degrading as it travels.

#AnimalBehaviour

How I’m helping to develop more-resilient food systems Geographer Bhogtoram Mawroh works with Indigenous People in Meghalaya, India, to adapt agriculture to climate change.

Bhogtoram Mawroh is a consultant at the North East Society for Agroecology Support in Shillong, India. He works with Indigenous People in Meghalaya, India, to adapt agriculture to climate change and develop more-resilient food systems: spklr.io/63321BEC5U

Flowchart showing how researchers use the GetFTR API to access full-text articles through their usual research tools, with access verified by publishers.

In 2020 five major publishers came together to simplify and streamline access to academic content. The result was GetFTR, designed to help researchers reach the version-of-record quickly and easily.

Here is what is has delivered – and what's next: spklr.io/63321BECeX

Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs - Nature Mouse models show that respiratory infections from viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 can trigger metastasis of dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs, a finding supported by epidemiological data from two large human cohorts.

Respiratory viruses trigger metastatic breast cancer cells to proliferate in lungs in mouse models of breast cancer, a study in Nature indicates. The work sheds light on the association between infectious diseases and cancer metastasis. spklr.io/63323B1zwU

#CanSky #OncoSky 🩺⚕️

Press Release: 2024 Open Access (OA) report highlights growing value for authors

We have published our fourth annual Open Access (OA) report, providing a data-led overview of developments in OA publishing and access across Springer Nature.
🔗 Read the press release here: spklr.io/63322B1zwK

Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches - Nature The discovery of chemosynthesis-based benthic communities at depths of 5,800 m to 9,533 m in the Kuril–Kamchatka and western Aleutian trenches challenges traditional perspectives on the energy sources...

Tubeworms and molluscs that get their energy from chemical reactions have been discovered at the bottom of trenches up to 9,533 metres deep in the northwest Pacific Ocean. The findings, reported in Nature, shed new light on the potential for life to exist in extreme environments. go.sn.pub/sbo6kb

Applications are open to the Takeda Innovators in Science Award with Nature.

This global award recognizes early-career scientists pushing the boundaries of biomedical research with a share of US$400K in unrestricted funds, career development & more. spklr.io/63328BECkg

Why Friendships Matter More Than You Think Valentine’s Day often focuses on romance, but deep friendships deserve love, too. Here’s why they matter.

Non-romantic love and partnership can shape our lives and change it for the better. Listen to this episode of Science Quickly to hear more about why friendships matter: spklr.io/63329BECwW

#FriendshipDay

How AI can deepen inequities for non-native English speakers in science Journals and conference organizers could do more to help researchers overcome language barriers, but artificial intelligence might widen inequalities, warns Tatsuya Amano.

Biodiversity researcher Tatsuya Amano has faced paper rejections due to inadequate English proficiency, a challenge shared by 38% of non-fluent researchers. Now he is on a mission to make environmental science more accessible to non-fluent English speakers.

#AcademicSky

"Promotional banner for the book 'Life Beyond Earth' by Springer. The left side features white text on a black background stating, 'Provides a compact and accessible treatment of life beyond Earth and why we have yet to encounter it.' The right side displays the book cover with the title 'Life Beyond Earth' in large white and orange letters, and the subtitle 'The Fermi Paradox – Or Why We Are Still Waiting to Meet Aliens' in smaller orange text. The cover includes an artistic depiction of planets orbiting a bright star. The Springer logo appears in white on an orange background in the top right corner."

The existence of intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations is one of the most intriguing scientific and philosophical problems. This @springer.springernature.com book analyzes their likelihood and offers a comparative analysis on the history of life on Earth: spklr.io/63324BE7IK
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Need to update your data? Follow these five tips Researchers engaged in long-term projects often need to update their data sets over time. Here’s how to do it while maintaining reproducibility.

“Data collection is not a one-time effort,” says environmental data scientist Ethan White, who works on a decades-long ecological monitoring study. Researchers engaged in long-term projects often need to update their data sets over time. Here’s how to do it while maintaining reproducibility:

A Level Playing Field Women football players require specifically tailored products such as kit, boots, and balls in order to optimise their performance and safety on the pitch, according to a paper published in Sports Engineering. The authors conclude that, while some progress has been made in addressing the equipment requirements of female players, essential gaps in research, development, and production remain in women’s football. Kat Okholm Kryger and colleagues – including Captain of the England Women’s National Football team Leah Williamson – posed ten questions to highlight the minimal progress made in elite women’s football technology, and the barriers to making bespoke equipment available to women players that still remain. You can read the article here: http://spklr.io/63323B18p7 LEARN MORE about Science Stories: http://spklr.io/63325B18ph SUBSCRIBE to our channel: http://spklr.io/63326B18V6 Аbout Springer Nature Group: Research and learning are the cornerstones of progress, which is why we open doors to discovery – enabling millions of researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals to access, trust and make sense of the latest insights. Ensuring that the world makes as much progress in the next 150 years as it has in the last – improving and enriching lives and helping to protect our planet for future generations. Follow us on: Twitter: http://spklr.io/63327B18VB Facebook: http://spklr.io/63328B18V8 LinkedIn: http://spklr.io/63329B18VD Instagram: http://spklr.io/63320B18VE

Women football players need tailored products like kits, boots, and balls for optimal performance and safety, as highlighted in a Sports Engineering paper. Despite some progress in addressing their equipment needs, significant gaps in research and production persist.

#WomensFootball

A close-up of a compass held in a person's hand. Overlaid text reads, 'LSE Blog: Is there a strain on peer review? – It's more complicated than you think. By Ritu Dhand' and 'SPRINGER NATURE'.

The significant growth of academic publishing in recent years has led some to argue the system is reaching a breaking point.
In this LSE Blog, Ritu Dhand suggests globalization and changing quality thresholds should prompt a rethink about where and why strains exist: spklr.io/63326BE75I

Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response - Nature Neuroscience Serino et al. show that seeing an infectious avatar approach the body in virtual reality triggers an immune response, indicating that the brain prepares the body to fight infections even for perceived, but not real, threats.

The brain detects when a potential source of infection enters the immediate surroundings and prepares the body’s immune defenses, suggests a @natneuro.nature.com paper. This may occur even before physical contact is made, in a virtual reality environment.

#Neuroscience #Neuroskyence

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Ingestible optoelectronic capsules enable bidirectional communication with engineered microbes for controllable therapeutic interventions - Nature Microbiology A smartphone-controlled ingestible capsule can have a two-way communication with engineered microbes inside the gut via light-induced signals.

A smartphone-controlled ingestible capsule that can control and allow for two-way communication with gut bacteria in pigs is reported in @natmicrobiol.nature.com‬. The findings could lay the foundation for new diagnostic and treatment strategies for diseases, such as colitis.

#Microbiology

Behind the Paper: Hepatitis B discrimination: global responses requiring global data As we approach World Hepatitis Day on July 28 this year, it is important to bring awareness to hepatitis B, the need to work towards elimination and the impact hepatitis B has on those with lived experience.

Over 250 million people worldwide live with chronic Hepatitis B. This World Hepatitis Day, it is important to bring awareness to Hepatitis B, the need to work towards elimination and the impact it has on those with lived experience. Read more behind the paper:

@bmc.springernature.com #PublicHealth