Eye

2 days ago | nature.com | Robert Leech |Rodrigo M. Braga |David Haydock |Elizabeth Jefferies |Boris C. Bernhardt |Federico Turkheimer | +4 more

AbstractBrain activity emerges in a dynamic landscape of regional increases and decreases that span the cortex. Increases in activity during a cognitive task are often assumed to reflect the processing of task-relevant information, while reductions can be interpreted as suppression of irrelevant activity to facilitate task goals. Here, we explore the relationship between task-induced increases and decreases in activity from a geometric perspective.

2 days ago | nature.com | Elizabeth Gibney

Africa’s first continent-wide space agency, the African Space Agency (AfSA), which was inaugurated in April, is looking to secure funding as its first projects get underway. AfSA is an initiative of the 55-member African Union (AU) and is headquartered in Cairo.It was established to coordinate the work of Africa’s existing efforts in space — more than 20 African countries have space programmes.

2 days ago | nature.com | Elizabeth Gibney

Europe’s beleaguered ExoMars rover is one of several international missions whose future looks bleak owing to unprecedented cuts to US science funding proposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration. Last year, NASA agreed to provide both launch and landing gear for ExoMars’s Rosalind Franklin rover after the European Space Agency (ESA) cut ties with its former partner, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

2 days ago | nature.com | Max Kozlov

A surge of mpox infections in the small African nation of Sierra Leone has pummelled the country’s health-care system, raising the possibility that the virus will spread to neighbouring countries and spark a larger outbreak throughout the densely populated region of West Africa. Sierra Leone has confirmed 15 deaths and more than 3,000 mpox infections — more than half of all new infections for Africa — over the past month.

2 days ago | nature.com | Chenglin Yang |Bitao Dong |Omar Mohammed

AbstractDefective and mechanically weak interfaces substantially undermine both the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Here we introduce a linear polymer, heparin sodium, as a multifunctional interface bridge layer in n–i–p PSCs. Unlike commonly employed small-molecule interface modification/passivation materials, heparin sodium features functional groups and ions including COO−, SO3− and Na+ distributed along the top and bottom sides of its backbone.