The busy lives of academics have hidden costs — and universities must take better care of their faculty members

The busy lives of academics have hidden costs — and universities must take better care of their faculty members

Busy lives of academics have hidden costs A particularly exhausting week in which family life and his own health fell by the wayside in favour of work deadlines prompted neuroscientist Hilal Lashuel to ponder the toll of overwork in academia. University leaders at all levels should pause and think about the costs of continuing business as usual, he argues. Nature | 7 min read

Self-driving boat maps what lies beneath The cold, fresh water of Lake Huron preserves in eerily pristine condition many of the ships that fell victim to its ‘Shipwreck Alley’. An autonomous boat called BEN is aiming to map the mysteries that lie beneath the waves, and prove its worth in the quest to fill in the huge holes in our knowledge of the ocean floor. The Verge | 13 min read

Pizza hangs in the quantum-computing balance On 1 March 2030, a physicist will be one pizza (and one beer) richer. Physicists Jonathan Dowling and John Preskill have set up a playful bet about whether someone will invent a topological quantum computer. The theory is that such a computer will function through the merry dance of clusters of electrons, known as non-Abelian anyons, swapping locations inside a material. “I would be really happy if I lost,” says Dowling. “That would mean somebody made a topological quantum computer.” Wired | 9 min read