Why we choke under pressure

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‘Choking’ under pressure is linked to a drop in activity in the neurons that prepare us for movement — and it isn’t unique to people. Research found that when they gave rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) a task that could yield a ‘jackpot’ reward, creating a high-stakes situation, activity of neurons associated with motor preparation decreased. Less preparation equaled a less successful monkey. The team suggests that as the size of a potential reward increases, neural activity reaches a point of peak preparedness, which begins to wane for even larger rewards.

Nature | 3 min read

Reference: Neuron paper

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems could give us a way out of our least favourite pastime: arguing with conspiracy theorists. Researchers paid participants to spend a few minutes interacting with a chatbot designed to debunk false information, and found that the bot’s detailed responses shifted people’s thinking, a change that lasted for several months. “[AI models] have been trained on the Internet, they know all the conspiracies and they know all the rebuttals, and so it seemed like a really natural fit,” says psychology researcher and co-author Thomas Costello. The hard part might be convincing people who are deeply entrenched in conspiracy theories to engage with systems designed to contradict them.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Science paper

Seismologists have solved the mystery of what caused a weird ‘ringing bell’ signal that shook the world for nine days last September. The signal, recorded by seismic stations worldwide, came from the collapse of a mountain top in Greenland, which produced a huge landslide and ice avalanche into a fjord. The impact of the debris caused a back-and-forth sloshing of waves between mountainsides, which lasted for more than a week. “It’s the first time we’ve found a seismic signal of this type in the global record: some people thought their sensors were broken,” says geologist and co-author Kristian Svennevig.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: Science paper

Features & opinion

In the two years since the Russian invasion, researchers have been setting up initiatives to preserve science in Ukraine. Organizations such as Science at Risk have been documenting the damage that has been done to Ukrainian science and looking at how responses to future crises can be more effective, and volunteer-run #ScienceForUkraine is enriching Ukrainian science with its worldwide network of branches offering mentorship pairings and opportunities for research collaborations.

Nature | 11 min read

Proteins rarely act alone — they do their jobs by interacting with other proteins. Conventionally, researchers have studied those complexes in test tubes, but a new approach called PAPA-fSMT enables analysis in the cell itself. The method exploits the observation that some seemingly dead fluorescent molecules can be selectively reactivated by light of a different wavelength — if the two fluorophores are close together in space.

Nature | 7 min read

A senior member of a futuristically close-knit family finds a way to share his memories the old-fashioned way in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.

Nature | 7 min read

Andrew Robinson’s pick of the top five science books to read this week includes a realistic but hopeful exploration of how to get to net zero, a gripping analysis of medical malpractice and the memoir of celebrated evolutionary biologist Rosemary Grant.

Nature | 4 min read

A study of ancient genomes has dispelled the theory that early inhabitants of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) ravaged its ecosystem and caused the population to crash. “This story has been used for saying ‘hey humans, look at what happens in these different places with these cultures that were so magnificent and they ended up destroying their environment’,” evolutionary geneticist and co-author Victor Moreno-Mayar tells the Nature Podcast. “Here we have an example of how science can help debunk those narratives and put them to rest and hopefully vindicate other cultures.”

Nature Podcast | 41 min listen

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Today, Leif Penguinson is venturing along the Chorrillo Waterfall Trail near El Chaltén in the Southern Andes, within the Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina. 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.

Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Jacob Smith

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