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Fragment of a military diploma from Sardinia. AI model Aeneas can predict text lost from a damaged inscription (grey text) without needing to know the length of the section that is missing.Credit: Yannis Assael et al./Nature
An artificial intelligence model called Aeneas can predict where ancient Latin texts come from, estimate their age and restore any missing parts. Researchers trained Aeneas on snippets of text from three of the world’s largest databases of Latin inscriptions, comprising more than 175,000 entries. The model also supports its output with a list of similar inscriptions from the data set, ranked by how relevant they are to the original inscription. When put to the test on well-known texts, Aeneas’s predictions about their age and location-of-origin were similar to that of historians.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper
Solid gold can take the heat
Scientists say they’ve heated solid gold to fourteen times its melting point before it melted. The team used a laser to rapidly heat a 50-nanometre-thick sample to 19,000 kelvin for trillionths of a second before it melted and exploded. Testing such ‘superheating’ of metals is relevant for subjects such as the study of molten planetary interiors. But the result of the experiment has raised eyebrows among physicists. “Do we exceed the melting temperature 10–14 times before melting? I do not think so,” says Artur Tamm, a computational physicist who reviewed the paper.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper
The United States is once again withdrawing from UNESCO, the United Nations science and cultural organization, ending its two-year return to the agency. Researchers say the decision is a setback for global cooperation in science and education, but came as no surprise. The country, a founding member, last withdrew from UNESCO in 2017, during the first term of President Donald Trump, cutting off more than 22% of the agency’s funds. According to UNESCO, the latest withdrawal won’t hit as hard as in 2017 because the US contribution now accounts for 8% of UNESCO’s current annual budget.
Nature | 4 min read
Notable quotable
John Silk, the Marshall Islands’ representative at the United Nations, is among those voices responding to the ICJ ruling. (Earth.org | 12 min read)
Features & opinion
To make energy, organisms either respire aerobically, using oxygen, or anaerobically, without oxygen. Some species can do both, but for years, researchers didn’t think any organism could do them at the same time. Now, a hardy bacterium that grows in hot springs has thrown a spanner in the works. Scientists found that the species, coined Hydrogenbacter RSW1, could use sulphur to keep its respiration ticking over if there’s no oxygen available — a process that continues even when the bacterium begins to respire aerobically.
Quanta | 8 min read
Researchers have unveiled a new medical device that can stick to soft, moving surfaces, such as the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. The team were inspired by remora, a family of fish that use a similar, sucker-like organ to hitch a ride on larger animals as they swim. The team hopes that such a device can one day be used to deliver medicine to internal organs by sticking to its inner walls, or to monitor disease symptoms such as acid reflux.
Nature | 4 min video
Reference: Nature paper
Image of the week
Stephan N. F. Spiekman et al/Nature
At first glance, you might think that the large protrusion coming from the back of this 247-million-year-old fossil — the newly-discovered Mirasaura grauvogeli — is made of feathers. But, researchers have confirmed, you’d be wrong. Instead, it’s a ‘skin appendage’ — a series of flat, stiff structures that extend vertically from the spine of the reptile. Such structures push the boundaries of what researchers thought reptile skin could achieve, as they’re neither feathers nor covered in scales. “They also must have been awkward to carry around, given that the longest is more than one-third of the length of the entire creature,” writes evolutionary biologist Richard Prum. (Nature News & Views | 6 min read, Nature paywall)
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Kevin Kent Lloyd, Karen Johnston and Barbara Kelley, three senior US National Institutes of Health (NIH) advisers, speak out against ongoing grant terminations, planned budget cuts of 40% for 2026 and a proposed structural reorganization of the agency. (Nature | 5 min read)
Today I’m taking fashion tips from songbirds. A study of Tangara birds’ feathers has revealed that carefully disguised layers of neutral bands make bright colours appear more vibrant. Reds and yellows pop against central white bands, while blues and purples stand out against black ones.
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