Gainesville, FL, USA. A hybrid plant species may experience rapid genome evolution in predictable patterns, suggesting that evolution in hybrid plants may follow a set of rules that determine which parental genes are lost.

The repeatability of gene loss in populations of separate origin suggests that evolutionary patterns operate at the genetic level, with parental gene loss possibly linked to changes in chromosome structure.

Arlington, VA, USA. States reduced per-student funding for major public research universities by a fifth during the past decade, according to a new report from the National Science Board (NSB).

Meantime, foreign competitors invested heavily to challenge the once dominant global position of the United States in science, innovation, and higher education.

Cambridge, MA, USA. Cognitive scientists at MIT have developed a new take on why human language has so many words with multiple meanings, claiming that ambiguity actually makes language more efficient.

By allowing for the reuse of short, efficient sounds, listeners can easily disambiguate with the help of context.

Vienna, Austria. While the Heisenberg uncertainty principle has proven valid since it was published in 1927, new results published in the journal Nature Physics suggest the basic arguments have to be revisited.

The principle is arguably one of the most famous foundations of quantum physics, saying that not all properties of a quantum particle can be measured with unlimited accuracy.

Cambridge, United Kingdom. We’re all slaves to time, and that’s no understatement. I’m in a handover meeting, about to begin a weekend on-call as a doctor. The team discusses all of the patients and what the plan is for the next 48–72 hours.

From previous experience, I know that things on the wards change quickly and so this information will be out of date in the next 24 hours. But that’s the job; patients get sick and you have to react fast to make sure that they are treated effectiv