Why manta rays do not clear their throats

Hello Nature readers, welcome your turn to the daily horizon of scientific news.

Like many ocean dwellers, manta rays filter their food out of seawater. But marine biologists have recently learned that they are doing it using a previously unknown filtration method. Rather than stretching their food through a sieve, the particles slide on a series of small inclined slats. As the seawater spreads over them, eddies push the food into the mouth of the shelf as water flows. Scientists hope that understanding how these creatures feed and what they eat will facilitate conservation efforts. The strange system could also inspire anti-clogging filters for people's use.

New York Times | 3 min read

Reference: Scientists progress paper

Surveys of a French laboratory, formerly known for its work on RNA interference in plants, revealed evidence of negligence, errors, and intentional manipulation of research data. This is the last novelty of a long saga: the laboratory has published numerous studies of high-level plant biology, eight of which have been retracted since mid-2015, and several others have been corrected. The survey has not yet named individuals responsible for the latest mistakes, but more details are expected by the end of the month.

Nature | 3 min read

The French government has proposed a 2% increase in the budget for higher education and research for 2019. The draft budget foresees 25.1 billion euros for next year, of which 8.8 billion for research and innovation. Parliament must debate and vote on the draft budget before the end of the year, in a context of weak economic growth and attempts to control public spending.

Nature | 4 min read

CHARACTERISTICS AND ADVICE

Last year, nearly 15,000 overdose deaths in the United States were related to opioid analgesics. However, a ban on drugs would have a detrimental effect on those who need it to treat chronic or short-term pain. In search of solutions, the researchers found a simple way to encourage physicians to write fewer unnecessary prescriptions: a letter telling them that one of their patients had overdosed and died.

Vox | 18 min read

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), once considered a "blobology" for its fuzzy images, now produces high-resolution structures, ranging from viral particles to enzymes. Now researchers are trying to develop tools to evaluate the accuracy of these images.

Nature | 10 min reading

"Grief is like a hurricane crossing our brain; thanks to our self-confidence, he can create a real scarf, leaving a fog in his wake. Summer Praetorius tells a personal story of loss as she stands at a pivotal moment in her career as a young researcher, and offers advice to those in a similar position: "Wait for choices that will change your career. in the calm after the storm, not in heartache. "

Nature | 2 min read