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Credit: Andrey Shpatak/Ocean Photographer of the Year
Ocean photographer Andrey Shpatak snapped this colourful pea crab (Pinnotheres pisum) in Rudnaya Bay, just off the southeastern coast of Russia. His timing was a stroke of luck, he says. Pea crabs live most of their lives hidden inside the shells of mussels. “I can only assume that this pea crab was looking for a home when I managed to photograph it,” says Shpatak. The lucky shot was a finalist in Oceanographic magazine’s 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.
People with a psychiatric disorder are more likely to marry someone who has the same condition than to partner with someone who doesn’t. Using data from more than 14.8 million people, researchers found that when one partner was diagnosed with one of nine conditions after marriage, the other was significantly more likely to be diagnosed with the same condition. “The pattern holds across countries, across cultures, and, of course, generations,” says population-and-genetics researcher Chun Cheih Fan, who co-authored the study.
Reference: Nature Human Behaviour paper
Researchers have identified more than 1,000 potentially problematic open-access journals using an artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to screen titles for signs of dubious publishing practices. None of the journals it flagged has previously been on any kind of watchlist, and some titles are owned by large, reputable publishers. The tool isn’t designed to replace human evaluations of the integrity of journals and papers, says computer scientist Daniel Acuña, who designed it. But it could be used to speed up such assessments.
Reference: Science Advances paper
Features & opinion
In Flashes of Brilliance, writer and photo editor Anika Burgess captures the dual nature of scientific images: a tool for discovery and a medium for communication. As a guide through the history of scientific photography, Burgess celebrates the ability of an image to wordlessly crystallize a complex idea, while acknowledging their potential to mislead if manipulated. The book “challenges us to be more thoughtful, not just in making images but in seeing them”, says science photographer Felice Frankel in her review.
A new study in Communications Psychology finds that extolling the novelty or importance of a paper in its abstract increases online attention and citations. But the journal’s editors don’t allow such promotional language in its own pages. In an editorial, the journal explains why it’s “so mean” when it comes to banning hype. “Novelty claims lead to unproductive disagreement,” it argues, and it’s unclear what makes a ‘first’ anyway. Hype exacerbates the gender gap: if women use hype, their work doesn’t benefit as much as men’s. In any case, “it is not the authors but the expert readers who are best placed to judge the work, who may feel ‘amazed’ and who can most credibly assign the label of ‘incredibly valuable contribution’”.
Communications Psychology | 4 min read
Reference: Communications Psychology paper
Where I work
Carmen García-Chávez is a biologist and co-founder of the Tonkawa Foundation in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico.Credit: Mahé Elipe for Nature
Biologist Carmen García-Chávez is the co-founder of a charity that works to recover the population of the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), which had been hunted to near-extinction by the 1980s. Her work involves outreach to local landowners and communities to discuss benefits that can come from reintroducing the species. “I’ve watched children explain to their parents why ‘the wolf is not the bad guy’, but a valuable animal that helps maintain the balance of the ecosystem,” she says. (Nature | 3 min read)
On Friday, Leif Penguinson was exploring a lithified sand dune on Cat Island in the Bahamas. Did you find the penguin? When you’re ready, here’s the answer.
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