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Researchers have found that sharing experiences of mental-health struggles reduces stigma.Credit: Tempura/Getty
How to tackle the PhD mental-health crisis
Mental-health issues among early-career researchers seem to be widespread and now, driven by a lack of support at their institutions, graduate students and postdocs have begun building their own movements to find solutions. The efforts focus on five areas: reducing stigma, improving mental-health literacy, improving supportive skills, encouraging peer-support networks, and creating structures across the research enterprise to take responsibility for mental health.
Quantum computer untangles knot maths
Researchers at the UK quantum-computing company Quantinuum report that their quantum machine, H2-2, can distinguish between different types of knot on the basis of topological properties, and show that the method could be faster than those that run on ordinary, or ‘classical’, computers. The finding hints at where the innovative computers could someday be particularly useful. This is owing to mysterious connections between topology and quantum physics. “That these things are related is mind-blowing, I think,” says Konstantinos Meichanetzidis, a Quantinuum researcher who led the work behind the preprint.
Reference: arXiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
Mysterious Taiwan fossil is Denisovan
A fossilized jawbone discovered more than 20 years ago belonged to an ancient group of humans called Denisovans. Named Penghu 1, the jawbone was dredged up by fishing crews 25 kilometres off the west coast of Taiwan. The confirmation that the bone belonged to a Denisovan — the result of more than two years of work to extract ancient proteins from the fossil — expands the known geographical range of the group, from colder, high-altitude regions to warmer climates.
Trump NIH cuts: in charts
Source: Nature analysis of NIH Grant Terminations in 2025 database
The science and states hit hardest
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has terminated nearly 800 research projects, wiping out significant chunks of funding to entire scientific fields. The administration of US President Donald Trump is purging NIH-funded studies on topics ranging from COVID-19 to misinformation, with a particular focus on research related to the health of sexual and gender minorities. A Nature analysis of a scientist-led effort to track these cuts reveals big losses in biomedical-research heavyweight states — Massachusetts, California, Maryland and Texas — and in New York, which is home to an institution that has been particularly targeted by Trump: Columbia University.
Source: Nature analysis of NIH Grant Terminations in 2025 database
Features & opinion
Silence in the abandoned reactor, please
In a decaying nuclear power plant in Washington state, scientists have created a sound-testing laboratory that takes advantage of the site’s unique characteristics. Former NASA researcher Ron Sauro and his team test everything from soundproof building materials to washing machines while battling the challenges of working within an abandoned reactor building — such as a terminally leaky roof and deadly unfinished lift shafts.
Consider what it means to be alive in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.
Podcast: Genomes of the apes
After more than two decades of work, researchers have sequenced the complete genomes of six ape species. An understanding of the apes’ genomes gives geneticists insights into the genetic factors that differentiate humans from our closest evolutionary relatives. The results will also be key to analysing the genetic diversity of at-risk ape populations — all six species sequenced are listed as either endangered or critically endangered. “I’ve never thought that this would be accomplished in my lifetime,” says evolutionary geneticist and study co-author Kateryna Makova.
Nature Podcast | 29 min listen
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