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An artist’s impression of the European Space Agency’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, or CHEOPS.Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The European Space Agency (ESA) is set to launch the first mission designed to study — rather than find — alien worlds. CHEOPS (Characterising Exoplanet Satellite) is scheduled to launch on Tuesday. Once in orbit, it will constantly face Earth’s night side so that its view of space is uninterrupted by sunlight. Equipped with a single camera, CHEOPS will observe the sizes and atmospheres of known exoplanets as they pass in front of their stars.

Nature | 3 min read

Magnetic minerals in ancient Greenlandic rocks suggest that Earth’s magnetic field formed at least 3.7 billion years ago. The work pushes back the estimate by about 200 million years, to around the time when the first life appeared on Earth. The field is considered an essential part of our planet’s life-support system, but it’s hard to find rocks old enough to provide evidence of its origins.

Nature | 3 min read

China is taking dramatic steps to improve the quality and international reputation of its science journals. Publishers of hundreds of titles will receive generous government funding as part of a five-year plan to elevate the country’s publications to among the world’s best. The initiative marks a shift from a focus on getting Chinese science into prominent foreign-owned journals to an emphasis on improving Chinese-owned publications.

Nature | 4 min read

Two researchers have been released in a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States. Historian Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University graduate student and US citizen, had been imprisoned in Iran on murky spying charges since August 2016. Prominent Iranian stem-cell researcher Masoud Soleimani had been jailed in the United States since October 2018, charged with inadvertently violating trade sanctions by attempting to export a small quantity of chemicals called growth factors. The United States has dropped all charges against Soleimani, who was expected to be released imminently under a plea agreement.

The New York Times | 8 min read

Read more: Iranian biologists face US trial for trying to take proteins out of the country (Nature, from June)

Features & opinion

Known by the loosely defined terms ‘social priming’ or ‘behavioural priming’, tiny subconscious cues can have drastic effects on our behaviour — or so a spate of studies have argued. People primed with words related to professors do better on quizzes, for example. But so many findings have been disputed that some say the field is close to being entirely discredited. Now researchers are trying to establish what’s worth saving.

Nature | 12 min read

To end the confusion, shoddy scholarship and waste caused by predatory publishers, we need a consensus on what defines a predatory journal, argue 35 researchers who contributed to just such a definition. After a 12-hour discussion, they agreed on the following characterization: false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, lack of transparency, and aggressive, indiscriminate solicitation. They explain how they chose those elements — and why they left out certain things, such as the quality of peer review.

Nature | 9 min read

Understanding the geography of a city’s income and race are core to studying its wildlife, says urban ecologist Christopher Schell. Schell explains how his research on coyotes is deeply intertwined with his own experience as a black scientist and academic.

University of Washington Magazine | 9 min read