How Jaws changed everything for sharks  Fifty years after it was released, Jaws is still shaping how we view — and protect — the ocean’s top predators.  Marine conservation biologist David Shiffman describes the ‘Jaws effect’, which is now used in public-policy literature to explain how fictional portrayals of real-world issues impact what voters want leaders to do about those issues.  “There’s still widespread fear, and in some cases it’s quite pseudoscientific in nature,” he says.  “Around the same time, Star Wars came out, and no one was afraid that the Death Star was going to blow up Earth.”

Drug slows ageing without going hungry  There’s plenty of evidence that restricting calories — whether by eating smaller portions or intermittent fasting — seems to prolong life, but few of us are willing to adopt the strategy.  Now a survey of the literature has found that an immunosuppressant derived from bacteria found in the soil on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) could slow ageing almost as well.  But don’t start adding a side of rapamycin to your dinner yet: most of the evidence originates from mice and rats, and suppressing your immune system can have unwanted side effects.

What’s a mushroom between friends?  Mycologists Paul Stamets and Jeff Chilton can’t agree on what defines a mushroom.  The supplement tycoons and former close friends both sell a range of fungus-derived products with purported benefits from increased cognition to boosted immunity.  But there’s a key difference between their wares: to Clifton, ‘mushroom’ refers only to the fruiting body, or toadstool.  As such, his supplements only include extracts from that part of the fungus.  Stamets’s definition, and his supplements, includes the toadstool and the mycelium, its fungal roots.  This is no quibble — the answer could cost the ‘wrong’ party’s business millions.  Some experts in the field refuse to weigh in for fear of making an enemy of either mushroom titan.  Others have given their two cents, but have conflicts of interest.  The debate has raged on for years, and until one party produces evidence of a consensus among experts, the end is far from near.

Every breath you take (could identify you)  A person’s breathing pattern might be as unique to them as their fingerprint, and could even be used to identify them.  Using a wearable device, researchers tracked the breathing of 97 people over 24 hours, and trained a machine-learning algorithm on the data.  After a second measurement, the algorithm could identify people from their breath patterns with 96.8% accuracy.  There was also some correlation between a person’s breathing patterns and factors such as their body-mass index and levels of anxiety.   “In a way, we’re reading the mind through the nose,” says neurobiologist and study co-author Noam Sobel.

Swift Awareness Week  From Saturday 28 June to Sunday 6 July 2025, you can join walks, talks and events with local Swift experts and enthusiasts to enjoy watching these extraordinary birds and find out more about them. ---  --- A sky full of Swifts?  Swifts usually arrive in the UK from early May, enlivening our skies with their swooping, diving and exuberant cries.  Sadly, these aerial masters are on the UK Red list due to their declining numbers here.  The reasons behind this loss are complex, but there are two steps we can take to help: providing suitable nesting sites and ensuring that there are plenty of insects for them to feed on. 

Have you got Swifts nesting near you?  You can help by recording your sightings with the easy-to-use Swift Mapper web and app system. By helping build a picture of where Swifts are nesting, you can help Swift conservation groups target the right areas for installing nestboxes and taking action for colonies threatened by development.  Follow the guide to Swift Mapper – it’s full of top tips on getting started using the app or web, along with Swift behaviours to look out for. To find out more go to www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news then scroll down to Swift Awareness Week

”For these, and other wildlife, nature, and environmental news items, go to www.nature.com/nature/