A new peer-reviewed study examining regional snow cover trends across the Northern Hemisphere suggests shrinking snow coverage and seasonal shifts in when the wintry layer comes and goes.

Philosophy at Peking University, Logic in Amsterdam, and then Mathematics in Lyon ... for Dr. Tingxiang Zou, borders are an invitation rather than an obstacle. Tingxiang Zou is taking on a big new challenge at the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM), a Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn, where she will start leading a newly formed Emmy Noether group at the Mathematical Institute this September, focusing on the Elekes-Szabó problem. The German Research Foundation (DFG) will be providing up to 1.6 million euros in funding for the research group over the next six years. The Emmy Noether Program opens up the possibility for Tingxiang Zou to qualify for a professorship.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory postdoc Stan Kerstjens and colleagues have devised a new theory for how the brain organizes itself during development. Their model suggests that cells sharing the same lineage tend to remain close to one another. The theory could apply to other types of developing tissue and may have implications for artificial intelligence.