Daily briefing: A unique layer of molten rock envelops Mars’s core – Nature.com

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here.

Marss liquid-metal core seems to be smaller than previous studies suggested (artists impression).Credit: Claus Lunau/Science Photo Library

In the interior of Mars, a layer of molten rock envelops the liquid-metal core, which is smaller than previously thought. Scientists discovered the unique layer by analysing the seismic energy that vibrated through the planet after a meteorite impact. The seismic waves speed depends on the types of material that they are travelling through. The molten-rock layer might be left over from a magma ocean that once covered the planet.

Nature | 5 min read

References: Nature paper 1 & paper 2

The prominent open-access science journal eLife has fired its editor-in-chief, Michael Eisen, after he retweeted a satirical article referencing the IsraelHamas war. The board of directors clearly view this as me having done one too many somethings, Eisen says. eLifes board issued a statement indicating that the biologist had been dismissed more broadly because of his approach to leadership, communication and social media. The decision has spurred an exodus of eLife editors, and a protest letter in support of Eisen has so far been signed by more than 2,000 people.

Nature | 6 min read

An artificial intelligence (AI) system mimics the human ability to quickly fold new words into an existing vocabulary and use them in fresh contexts. By being programmed to learn from its mistakes, the neural network outperformed the chatbot ChatGPT at making generalizations about language, scoring as well as and sometimes even better than human volunteers. This suggests that there are ways to reduce the gargantuan amount of necessary training data and make systems more efficient learners, says AI researcher Elia Bruni.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Nature paper

Two solar probes launched in 2018 and 2020 are giving scientists the most detailed views ever of the Sun. The two missions sometimes work together to capture events such as one of the largest solar eruptions ever recorded. The amount of details, the amount of complexity and also the violence of the event weve never seen it before and its just impressive, says solar physicist Nour Raouafi. The observations can help space-weather forecasters to better understand solar storms, which can disrupt communications and knock out power grids once they reach Earth.

Nature | 8 min read

Postdocs in some parts of the world are striking to highlight their struggles, such as low pay, job insecurity and worries about career progression. Some funders and employers around the world are taking steps to improve the postdoc experience. Others must follow, argues a Nature editorial, or risk losing the next generation of scientists.

Nature | 5 min read

Gordon Conway (19382023) was passionate about agriculture and sustainability long before they were fashionable topics. By paying close attention to local farming practices, Conway revolutionized rural-development approaches. I remember Gordon and Robert [Chambers, a development scholar] returning from a visit to Wollo in northern Ethiopia in 1988, full of excitement about the lessons they had learnt from farmers, writes researcher Ian Scoones about his former supervisor.

Nature | 5 min read

Philosopher Catarina Dutilh Novaes says that misinformation isnt a new problem and is often entangled with worries about changing information-sharing technologies. (Undark | 6 min read)

Today, Im gazing at 276 feline facial expressions, which cats have probably evolved over the course of their 10,000-year history with us.

Thank you to the eagle-eyed reader who spotted that our link to sign up to Nature Briefing: Anthropocene wasnt working. If youd like to sign up to this new weekly newsletter, please use this link.

Thanks for reading,

Katrina Krmer, associate editor, Nature Briefing

Want more? Sign up to our other free Nature Briefing newsletters:

Nature Briefing our flagship daily e-mail: everything you need to know about science, in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee

Nature Briefing: Cancer a weekly newsletter written with cancer researchers in mind

Nature Briefing: Translational Research covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma

Nature Briefing: Anthropocene the footprint of humanity on Earth, including climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering

Read the original here:

Daily briefing: A unique layer of molten rock envelops Mars's core - Nature.com