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| The Hawaiian crow, or ʻalalā (Corvus hawaiiensis), has been pushed to the brink of extinction by waves of human migration through the Pacific. It now exists only in captive breeding programmes. (ZSSD/Minden Pictures via Alamy) | |||||
12% of bird species driven to extinctionHumans are probably responsible for the extinction of around 1,500 bird species over the past 126,000 years. Ecologists made the estimate by using a model that looked at documented extinctions, fossil records and predictions of species richness on 1,488 islands. Most species will have vanished without a trace, never seen by people and leaving no fossils behind, because of their lightweight, hollow bones. "The sobering thing is that this estimate could actually be conservative," says ecologist Jamie Wood. Nature | 4 min readReference: Nature Communications paper | |||||
Vaccines lower long COVID risk in childrenVaccines protect children from long COVID — a similar effect to that seen in adults. In a study of more than 600 US children who caught COVID-19, being vaccinated reduced the likelihood of developing at least one long COVID symptom by 34% and of developing two or more symptoms by almost 50%. "This will demonstrate to families how important it is that we protect our kids, not just from acute COVID, but from the longer-term impacts of COVID as well," says paediatric infectious-disease specialist Jessica Snowden. Reference: Open Forum Infectious Diseases paper and Nature paper 1 & paper 2, bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed) | |||||
How to see your influence on policySage Publishing has launched a web-based tool that allows researchers to check whether their work has influenced policy. The tool — dubbed Sage Policy Profiles — allows any researcher to register and search for their name or unique ORCID identifier. It then sifts through a database of around 10.2 million policy documents — the world's largest such index — compiled by the UK start-up firm Overton. The tool returns a summary of policy documents that cite that researcher's papers or mention their name. A Sage spokesperson said that the aim is to "help shift the research-impact conversation beyond scholarly citations." Nature | 5 min read | |||||
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| Warped space-time around a black hole, as portrayed by artist Lia Halloran. (Lia Halloran) | |||||
Painting and poetry illuminate black holesA new book by physicist Kip Thorne and artist Lia Halloran explores the mysteries of space through poetry and paintings. "I painted what Kip was describing about singularities: something that has geometrical shapes and surprises and chaos," says Halloran. "But when I finished and looked at the painting, I also understood more clearly what he was saying — and that was a surprise." Nature | 7 min read | |||||
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Research prizes need a shake-up"Scientific prizes are plagued by opaque and seemingly biased selection criteria," argues biologist Malgorzata Lagisz. She and an international group of fellow volunteers analysed a broad sample of 'best paper' awards. The majority of awards had failings that could open the door to discrimination or conflicts of interest, and some relied on simplistic metrics, such as citations. "Next time you see another award announcement, maybe reflect on whether this prize contributes to the reproducibility crisis and various biases rampant in academia," she concludes. Nature | 5 min read | |||||
Sexism is a waste of moneySexism harms people. It's also one of the biggest sources of public funding inefficiency, write scientists Nicole Boivin, Susanne Täuber, Ursula Keller, Janet Hering and Ulrike Beisiegel, a former university president. Even at the most senior levels of academia, sexism pushes women out of science. "Paradoxically, although we expect women to become more empowered over time, female precarity actually increases in later career stages," write the authors. "Given the sizeable public funding investment in many female academics by the time they have reached a late career stage, as well as the substantial accumulated scientific knowledge they possess, the drain represents a massive inefficiency within the higher education and research sector." Nature Reviews Materials | 9 min read | |||||
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| (N. Boivin et al./Nat Rev Mater) | |||||
Quote of the day"I'd like to have a half-hour conversation with my mother across the grave, just to sort some things out. Genetics and science have sorted some of it out, but not the more emotional side."Nobel-prizewinning geneticist Paul Nurse discovered later in life that the woman he had known as his sister was actually his mother. In her podcast, geneticist Turi King helps him to track down, for the first time, the identity of his father. (Professor Turi King podcast | 30 min listen) | |||||
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What matters in science | View this email in your browser Tuesday 12 December 2023 Hello Nature readers, Today we discover a hybrid computer that combines lab-grown brain tissue with electronic hardware. Plus, we explore the risks of cannabis to young people and catch up with the COP28 climate conference as it overruns its deadline today. Part of a brain organoid, in which stem cells (pink) are differentiating into neurons (purple). (Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library) ...
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