Scientists are ‘under attack for someone else’s political gain’, says vaccine specialist Peter Hotez

Hello Nature readers,
Today we explore how box jellyfish can learn from experience, even without a brain. Plus, we hear about scientists under attack in the United States and learn how a newly discovered type of stem cell attracts cancer cells to the spine.

Brainless box jellies learn from experience

Jellyfish have demonstrated that you don’t need a centralized nervous system to learn by association. Tiny Caribbean box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora) can be trained to associate the feeling of bumping into an obstacle with a visual cue, and to use the information to avoid future collisions. Learning happens in the jellies’ rhopalia — structures containing rudimentary eyes plus nerve centres that control swimming pulses. Electrophysiologist and study co-author Jan Bielecki wants to use the findings to teach robots to recognize patterns. “That’s the future of the jellyfish brain,” he says. “We want to stick them on a chip.”

Surprising start to Japan’s ‘Ivy League’ fund

Only one institution, rather than the expected four to six, has been selected to receive a new grant from the Japanese government aimed at creating ‘elite’ universities. The ¥10-trillion (US$75-billion) fund was established to rival the Ivy League, a group of elite universities in the United States. Tohoku University’s application bypassed nine others, including those from Japan’s two most prestigious institutions. The exact amount that Tohoku will receive has not yet been announced.

Scientists ‘under attack for political gain’

During the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine specialist Peter Hotez experienced first-hand what it’s like to become a target of “anti-science aggression”: “It’s an organized, well-financed, politically motivated campaign that’s meant to tear down the fabric of science. They couldn’t care less about me; it’s what I represent.” In his new book, The Deadly Rise of Anti-science, he calls for more vigorous pushback against attacks on science and scientists. “This has become a political problem that will require political solutions.”

Five criteria for higher-yielding crops

There are thousands of papers that report how small genetic modifications can increase crop yields hugely. “Hardly any findings have translated into yield increases on actual farms,” writes a group of plant breeders, geneticists and evolutionary and plant biologists. They lay out five steps to avoid misleading claims:

• Use standard yield definitions
• Replicate trials across plots, locations and years
• Match varieties, planting densities and other conditions in experiments to those on farms
• Use realistic controls
• Prioritize genes that plant breeding might have missed

Futures: Would you still love me?

A scientist used the multiverse to take the ‘would you still love me if I was a worm’ meme to extreme lengths in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.

Podcast: Why vertebrae attract tumour cells

A newly discovered type of stem cell seems to be one of the reasons cancer spreads to the spine more often than to other bones. Vertebral skeletal stem cells, and the cells that derive from them, secrete high levels of a protein that attracts cancer cells. Stopping the cells from producing the protein reduces this metastatic preference drastically. The study’s implications could reach beyond cancer: vertebral stem cells could help people undergoing spinal fusion surgery, which often fails for unknown reasons.