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Bubbles of radio waves spotted at the centre of the Milky Way.Credit: South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)

In its first major result, just over a year after its inauguration, South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope has discovered two huge ‘bubbles’ above and below the thick interstellar matter of the Galaxy’s central region. The gas structures seem to be the remnants of an energetic explosion several million years ago. It might have followed a period of intense matter-gobbling by the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, or been caused by the shockwave from the fiery deaths of many large stars.

Nature | 3 min read

Biologists have developed a way to use human stem cells to make structures that mimic early embryos. They are the first embryo-like sacs to produce rudimentary reproductive cells. Researchers are seeking to make ever-more sophisticated structures that can be used to study early-stage embryonic development. The latest method for making these sacs has a much higher success rate than previous attempts, and can reliably produce them on demand.

Nature | 5 min read

Astronomers have spotted hints of water raining in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Named K2-18 b, the planet is not much bigger than Earth and is located 34 parsecs (110 light years) away. Researchers pushed the limits of the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to observe how the light from K2-18 b’s star filtered through the planet’s atmosphere, revealing signs that water vapour was condensing into liquid water. Of course, the presence of water in the atmosphere of an Earth-size planet doesn’t necessarily mean the world also has life: just look at Venus.

Nature | 4 min read

A group of Germans were good at correctly identifying true statements about the science of global warming, but less savvy at pointing out false statements — although most people were just as confident in their wrong answers as those that were correct. People’s confidence in their knowledge of the facts is important when it comes to decision-making, says psychologist Helen Fischer. “People who trust in the solidity of their understanding of climate change, and that of their informants, are more likely to change their behaviour,” she says.

Nature | 4min read

Bulgarian political scientist Mariya Gabriel has been nominated as the European Union’s next commissioner for research. If confirmed in the post, she’ll be entrusted with the implementation of Horizon Europe — set to be the commission’s biggest-ever research programme, worth about €100 billion, and includes the European Research Council (ERC), the continent’s premier science funder.

Nature | 4 min read

FEATURES & OPINION

A police officer stands guard outside a clinic in Katwa.Credit: John Wessels for Nature

In an exclusive story, Nature joins WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the teams of African health workers who are giving everything to stop Ebola in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Their moving stories of success and struggle illuminate the complex challenges of battling one of the most deadly pathogens known to humankind in a place tortured by war. “People are so afraid. They don’t know if we might be terrorists who want to kill them,” says medical anthropologist Julienne Anoko. “So we just show them that we are human — mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers — we explain why we want to help.”

Also well worth watching is the video, narrated by reporter Amy Maxmen, telling her first-hand story alongside stunning photographs by John Wessels.

Nature | 18 min read & Nature | 5 min watch

The race to cash in on quantum computing is draining universities of talent, fracturing the field and closing off avenues of enquiry, warn three quantum-computing researchers. They urge funders and companies to invest in the algorithms and ideas that will drive the devices, lest we wake up one day with quantum hardware and no knowledge of what to do with it.

Nature | 7 min read

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Credit: David Spears

This false-colour scanning electron microscope image of a confused flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) (its name is ‘confused’ — its state of mind is unknown) has put photographer David Spears on the shortlist for the Royal Photographic Society’s science photographer of the year.

See more of the most spectacular images of the month, as selected by Nature’s photo team.