Nature Briefing: Why Large Dogs Age Faster, Nobel Prize Highlights and the Latest Science
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Why large dogs may age faster than small dogs
Large dogs tend to age faster than smaller dogs. Differences in the chemical tagging of their genomes could help explain why. Credit: Jacob King/PA Images/Alamy
Large dog breeds tend to age faster than small dogs, probably because they have more “jumping genes” that move around the genome. In a study of about 900 dogs representing roughly 120 breeds, researchers found that aging in dogs is associated with changes in specific chemical groups added to DNA. These chemical tags can control gene activity.
In large dogs, the epigenetic changes appear to accumulate more quickly. This may allow some genes to move to new locations in the genome, where they can disrupt normally functioning genes.
Nature | 5 minute read
Reference: Science paper
Why a suspected plague death in Siberia has raised biosecurity concerns
The death of a 28-year-old researcher in a Siberian laboratory from probable pneumonic plague has triggered international concern about the possibility of a wider outbreak.
Biosecurity experts say a broader outbreak is unlikely. There is also no evidence linking the institute to Russian bioweapons research. However, experts remain concerned about the lack of transparency surrounding the incident.
“The World Health Organization cannot force someone to provide information; they can just politely ask,” says biosecurity policy expert Gregory Koblenz. Open-source biosurveillance systems are useful only “if you have a government that is inherently secretive and refuses to share information,” he says.
Nature | 5 minute read
Gene-editing “cell recorders” reveal mouse embryonic development
Two independent research teams have developed gene-editing-based “cell recorders” that capture mouse embryonic development in unprecedented detail.
One team recorded the cell-by-cell development of a two-week-old embryo from a single fertilized egg. The other captured most of the embryo’s cell divisions as organs formed.
The work builds on earlier efforts to trace the lineage of mammalian cells and was inspired by the complete developmental map of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
Nature | 5 minute read
References: Science paper and Cell paper
2026 Nobel Prize highlights
Medicine: optogenetics brings light-controlled neurons
On Monday, the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work in optogenetics. The technology allows researchers to control neurons in the brain with pulses of light.
Learn about optogenetics from award winner Karl Deisseroth in this video lecture from 2013.
Eye Biology | 38 minutes viewing
Physics: high-energy neutrinos from deep space
Physicist Francis Halzen won the Physics Prize for his contributions to the creation of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos arriving from deep space.
In a 2014 interview, he advised students: “Don’t read too many books, do something!” Read the interview.
Jot Down | 28 minute read — free registration required
Chemistry: solving a mirror-image molecular mystery
On Wednesday, chemists Henry Kagan and Kenso Soay were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work addressing a long-standing mystery: how organisms create molecules that are only one of two possible mirror-image variants.
Nature | 5 minute read
Can you name a woman who won a science Nobel Prize?
The Academy says it has worked to better recognize the achievements of female scientists, but this year’s science prize winners included no women. Test your knowledge of past winners with our quiz.
Take our quiz and let us know how you get on.
Listen: the science behind this year’s Nobel Prizes
This week on the Nature Podcast, a different colleague explains the science behind each of this year’s Nobel Prizes. Miriam Nadav explores why optogenetics’ victory is long overdue, senior reporter Elizabeth Gibney discusses neutrinos, and the podcast examines the triumph of “real chemistry”.
Nature Podcast | Listen for 23 minutes
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify,
YouTube Music or
RSS.
Neuroscientist and educator Dwayne Godwin and engineer and artist Jorge Cham charted the path to the Nobel Prize in Medicine in this 2011 comic. The story begins in the early 2000s, when Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered light-sensitive proteins in algae.
The protein, called channelrhodopsin, opens in response to blue light. Deisseroth and colleagues inserted the gene encoding channelrhodopsin into rodent neurons and found that it could cause the cells to fire and communicate with other neurons.
Nature | 7 minute read
Features and analysis
Lawmakers seek stronger protections for the US CDC
US lawmakers have convened a group of public-health experts to draft a legal framework intended to protect the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from future political interference.
The group was created in response to actions by the administrations of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the replacement of members of the Independent Vaccine Advisory Committee with people sympathetic to vaccine conspiracy theories.
“The guardrails weren’t there to keep one politically appointed person from disbanding an entire commission that was supposed to be apolitical,” says Helen Chu, a physician and epidemiologist who is a member of the new task force.
New York Times | 9 minute read
Margaret Hamilton, Apollo software pioneer, dies at 90
“To say that Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer is to say that she was ahead of her time,” says systems engineer Olivier de Weck.
Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton dies at age 90. Hamilton led the team that developed the onboard flight software for the Apollo Moon missions. She later founded a software company, helped legitimize the term “software engineering” and was turned into a minifigure in a NASA Lego set.
“There were no second chances, and I knew that,” Hamilton said in 2009. “Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world. We had no choice but to be pioneers.”
MIT School of Aeronautics and Astronautics obituary | 12 minute read
More science and culture
Railway workers must hide their true identity, and grief takes many forms in Five Movements from the Edge of Singularity.
Nature | 7 minute read and Nature | 6 minute read
Andrew Robinson’s five science books to read this week include the secrets of clouds and an analysis of little-deciphered ancient texts.
Nature | 4 minute read
Can you find the penguin?
Today, Leif Penguinson is drinking with a zebra (Equus quagga burchellii) at Friends of Etosha National Park in Namibia. Can you find the penguin?
The answer will be in Monday’s email. Thanks to Briefing photo editor and penguin wrangler Tom Horton.
This newsletter is constantly evolving. Please send your feedback to [email protected].
Thank you for reading,
Flora Graham, Nature Briefing Editor-in-Chief
Contributed by Jacob Smith
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