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A strap that tracks heart rate in pregnancy may predict premature births. Plus: a new record for the coldest temperature reached by large molecules

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Heart monitor

Wearing a heart-rate tracker on the wrist during pregnancy may help doctors predict who is at risk of premature labour. Trackers worn by a group of women throughout their pregnancies showed distinct patterns in how their heart rate changed. In people who went into labour prematurely, heart rate variability patterns were far less consistent, which could allow doctors to spot premature births early and intervene if necessary. Read more.

Cold work

Molecules containing four atoms are the largest yet to be cooled down to only a hundred billionths of a degree above absolute zero. The techniques researchers use for cooling individual atoms, such as hitting them with lasers and magnetic forces, don’t work as well for molecules. Xin-Yu Luo at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany and his colleagues have made four-atom molecules colder than ever before: they chilled molecules with two potassium and two sodium atoms to a temperature of 134 billionths of a kelvin. Read more.

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Jean-Jacques Hublin at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, talks about how modern humans were already in northern Europe 45,000 years ago.

Thanks for reading and have a great Thursday.

Chris Simms

Assistant news editor, New Scientist

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