Stereotyped assumptions about women’s ages and their perceived job suitability are enhanced by Internet imagery, according to new research. A study of hundreds of thousands of online images shows that women appear younger than men. This stereotype extends to the jobs that people perceive women do, with men being associated with roles such as CEO or head of research, while women were linked to occupations like cook or nurse. The research shows that these biases have been embedded into the training data for AI models and could affect future hiring. The researchers caution that society is at risk of creating a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ where these stereotypes shape the real world.

Research Article: Guilbeault et al.

News and Views: Distorted representations of age and gender are reflected in AI models

A very hungry planet — plus, how climate change is leading to larger trees in the Amazon.

Research Highlight: ‘Rogue’ planet is fastest-growing ever observed

Research Highlight: Trees of the Amazon are becoming even mightier

Thirty years ago, astronomers announced the discovery of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star, sparking a renewed passion into spotting these planets that lie beyond our Solar System. In celebration, Nature asked researchers to tell us about their favourites.

News: These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why

Hear the music of a distant planetary system

Flora Graham from the Nature Briefing joins us to talk about the winners of this year’s science Nobel prizes.

Nature: Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’

Nature: Groundbreaking quantum-tunnelling experiments win physics Nobel

Nature: Chemistry Nobel for scientists who developed massively porous ‘super sponge’ materials

Nature: Will AI ever win its own Nobel? Some predict a prize-worthy science discovery soon

Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.

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Research suggests that ancient viral-DNA embedded in the human genome is playing a key role in early embryo development. Around 8% of our genome consists of endogenous retrovirus DNA — the remnants of ancient infections, but knowledge of their activity is limited. Now, a team show that these sequences are required for the correct development of lab-derived embryo analogues, and for the switching on of human-specific genes.

Research Article: Fueyo et al.

News and Views: Ancient viral DNA in the human genome shapes early development

Longer whale mothers are more likely to give birth to daughters — plus, how the stink of the corpse flower waxes and wanes to attract pollinators.

Research Highlight: Big mother whales have more daughters than sons

Research Highlight: Corpse flowers waft out stinky compounds as fast as landfills do

Researchers have developed a way to use heat to recharge DNA-based computer circuits, which could help overcome one of the stumbling blocks preventing this technology from being scaled up. Although DNA strands have been used to perform computational tasks for some time, current methods can run out of energy or build up waste products, preventing their continued use. Now, using just heat a team have demonstrated a reuseable neural network based on DNA. They hope that ultimately this could be a step in the development of bigger and more powerful DNA computers that could be used to power targeted clinical therapies.

Research Article: Song & Qian

A one-time gene therapy for Huntington’s disease show promise at slowing the brain disorder’s progression — plus, how mitochondria throw out ‘tainted’ DNA.

Nature: Huntington’s disease treated for first time using gene therapy

Nature: Mitochondria expel tainted DNA — spurring age-related inflammation

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In April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism, and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent. Although Kennedy said that environmental factors are the main cause of autism, research has shown that genetics plays a bigger part. Also, the rise in prevalence, many researchers say, is

predominantly caused by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits.

Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism, many researchers were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?

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