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Hello _Nature _readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. “EXCEPTIONALLY RARE” SKULL PUTS NEW FACE TO HUMAN ORIGINS An especially rare and
well-preserved _Australopithecus anamensis _skull has highlighted new complexities in the origins of humanity. The species is generally thought to have evolved into _Australopithecus
afarensis _— the species of the iconic ‘Lucy’ fossil. But features of the latest find suggest that_ A. anamensis_shared the prehistoric Ethiopian landscape with Lucy’s speciesfor at least
100,000 years. Understanding how the two ape-like hominins are related is important because Lucy’s species might have been the one from which the ‘true’ human genus, _Homo_, evolved about
2.8 million years ago. Nature | 6 min read FUNDERS THREATEN TO ABANDON FACEBOOK Funders and researchers are losing patience with Facebook because the company has failed to provide all the
data it promised to social scientists. The groups funding and running a project to investigate the effects of social media on democracy have given the company until 30 September to cough up
the goods. Facebook blamed technical and legal complexities for the delay and said it will continue to try to share its data even if the funders bail. BuzzFeed News | 8 min read Read more:
Facebook gives social scientists unprecedented access to its user data (Nature, from May) SECRET SPACE PLANE SETS RECORD An uncrewed space plane operated by the US military has become the
longest mission in a secretive programme. The Air Force’s latest Boeing X-37B has spent almost two years in orbit, breaking the record of just under 718 days set by the previous X-37B
mission. The plane, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, is designed to carry out classified experiments in space and test space-flight technologies. CNN | 5 min read FEATURES &
OPINION WHEN DISCOVERY MEANS DESTRUCTION Powerful DNA-sequencing techniques have spurred an avalanche of discoveries about ancient humans, but each one comes at a price: the partial
destruction of the specimens from which the DNA was taken. Anthropologists Keolu Fox and John Hawks call for researchers to think harder about safeguarding. “Unless some ground rules are
established, future scientists, armed with better, potentially less-invasive methods for extracting DNA from ancient samples could well look back on this era as a time of heedless
destruction, fuelled by the relentless pressure to publish,” says Fox and Hawks. Nature | 8 min read BIOCHEMISTRY IN A CONFLICT ZONE Biochemist Eqbal Dauqan conducted research while bombs
dropped during Yemen’s 2015 civil war. She describes how she adapted to the war and her eventual move to Norway in 2018 — including the struggles of supervising a PhD student back home.
“Sometimes she can’t access her e-mail through the Internet in Yemen, so I correct her papers by hand, photograph them and send them to her through WhatsApp,” says Dauquan. Nature | 5 min
read ALL THE WAYS WE’VE TRIED TO KILL HURRICANES From seeding them with particles of silver iodide to chilling vast stretches of ocean water, so far no method mooted for dispersing
hurricanes has managed to best the storms’ power and unpredictability. What we do know: you definitely shouldn’t nuke them. “I think the most likely outcome is you’d have a radioactive
hurricane,” says meteorologist Kerry Emanuel. National Geographic | 8 min read