What a 92-year-old elite athlete teaches us about healthy ageing

Wednesday 17 January 2024

Hello Nature readers,
Today we explore a step forward in cloning primates, consider a bold proposal to slow glacier melting and delve into the drama surrounding consciousness research.

A rhesus monkey sits on a metal shelf, its arms stretched out to lean onto the adjacent wall. It looks over its shoulder, showing off the lush gold-and-brown fur on its back.

The cloned rhesus monkey, named ReTro. (Qiang Sun)

Cloned rhesus monkey lives into adulthood

For the first time, a rhesus monkey cloned in the laboratory has lived into adulthood — surviving for more than two years so far. The feat was achieved using a slightly different approach to the conventional cloning technique used to clone Dolly the sheep and other mammals, including long-tailed macaques, the first primates to ever be cloned. The new technique could unlock possibilities for using cloned primates in drug testing and behavioural research. "We could produce a large number of genetically uniform monkeys that can be used for drug-efficacy tests," says neuroscientist Mu-ming Poo.

Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature Communications paper

Largest genetic atlas of marine microbes

A trove of around 315 million gene groups from ocean bacteria, fungi and viruses has been made freely available online. The database includes more genomic data from the deep sea and sea floor than previous catalogues. More than half of the gene groups from the 'twilight zone', at depths of 200 to 1,000 metres, came from fungi, which suggests that they play a greater part in processing organic matter than previously thought. The database could help researchers to discover new antibiotics, or to monitor the impacts of burning fossil fuels or deep-sea mining on microbial diversity.

Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Frontiers in Science paper

Underwater curtains to slow glacier melting

Glaciologists have proposed a drastic idea to slow the melting of polar ice: erecting giant underwater 'curtains' near glaciers to protect them from warm ocean water. Critics say that the proposal would be expensive and difficult to construct, and might interfere with local ecosystems or distract us from the essential work of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions. The concept builds on a 2018 proposal in which glaciologist John Moore and three colleagues made a heartfelt plea to consider such bold ideas, given the toll that rising sea levels will take on humanity. "We understand the hesitancy to interfere with glaciers — as glaciologists, we know the pristine beauty of these places. But we have also stood on ice shelves that are now open ocean," they wrote. "Is allowing a 'pristine' glacier to waste away worth forcing one million people from their homes? Ten million? One hundred million?"

Nature | 6 min read

An infographic entitled 'Curtain Call'. The top reads: 'Fixing a curtain to the sea bed might prevent glaciers from being bathed in warm seawater, but it might also prevent the movement of nutrients and marine organisms.' <br>The stylised graphic shows a glacier moving forward underwater. In front of it is an orange sheet, anchored in the sea bed and held afloat with buoyancy elements on the top.

Features & opinion

Stop sending human remains to the Moon

US company Astrobotic's Peregrine lander is failing because of a propellant leak, but it was due to deposit at least 70 people's ashes on the Moon. That controversial plan was made without consulting Indigenous Peoples, despite NASA having promised such consultation in 1998. Many Indigenous Nations view the Moon as an ancient relative. It's "not about ownership of the Moon or to enforce Diné religious beliefs," says Alvin Harvey, Diné of the Navajo Nation and an aerospace engineer. "But rather about the right to be consulted, to uphold Native American legal rights, to hold government agencies accountable and to safeguard the Moon for future generations."

Nature | 5 min read

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The consciousness wars

Five collaborations have been funded to empirically test competing theories of consciousness against each other. These projects, and others, are raising hopes that we're making progress on one of science's most intractable questions. But the field is hard to pin down: consciousness means different things to different people. And it's combative: an open letter last year raised hackles with claims that a prominent theory about consciousness — integrated information theory (IIT) — is "pseudoscience". A fresh generation of researchers is leading efforts to heal the divisions and push research forward.

Nature | 11 min read

An infographic showing four drawings of a brain. The top reads: 'Theories of consciousness: Researchers have dozens of theories for how the brain produces an individual's subjective experience. The most popular ones fall into four categories.' The top left reads: 'Higher-order theories: These posit that humans become conscious of something, such as a visual stimulus, when it is made part of a meta-representation in 'higher-order' parts of the brain - those that process and synthesize content from other regions.' The top right reads: 'Integrated information theory: This proposes that consciousness arises from the integration of information in a system; the greater the degree of integration, the higher the level of consciousness. In principle, any complex system, such as an artificial intelligence, could be conscious.' The bottom left reads: 'Global workspace theories: Here, information enters consciousness when it is accessed by and broadcast in a brain-wide, or global, 'workspace', particularly involving the prefrontal cortex.' Finally, the bottom right reads: 'Recurrent processing theory: The core claim is that conscious visual perception requires a loop of information flow from higher-order cognitive areas to lower-order sensory processing areas - top-down signalling - and the other way around - bottom-up signalling.'

(Source: A. K. Seth & T. Bayne Nature Rev. Neurosci. 23, 439–452 (2022))

Quote of the day

"It was one of the most inspiring days I've ever spent in the lab."

Exercise scientist Philip Jakeman invited 92-year-old rower Richard Morgan into the laboratory to investigate what the four-time indoor world champion — who only took up regular exercise in his 70s — can teach us about healthy ageing. (The Washington Post | 7 min read)
Reference: Journal of Applied Physiology paper

When we heard that NASA scientists were struggling to open the container that holds most of the asteroid sample returned by the OSIRIS-REx mission, Briefing readers stepped in with their jar-opening tips and tricks.

Many mentioned the wonders of a bit of WD-40 lubricant to get stuck lids off, and several voted for my go-to technique of warming the lid in hot water. Grip is key, readers agree — and a damp dishcloth or rubber gloves can do the job as well as a specialized grippy implement. Striking the lid around the edge with the flat side of a big knife is a popular option, as is levering it open slightly with a spoon to crack an obstinate seal. "It's probably just stuck on some dried saliva from an alien creature," jokes reader Stewart Holmes. "My dog does that to the peanut butter jar."

NASA has the unique challenge of keeping the sample pristine. The container is kept in a specialized glovebox under a flow of nitrogen to keep it from being exposed to Earth's atmosphere. And they can use only carefully prepared tools that fit inside and won't contaminate the material.

In this situation, reader Mark Knight suggests harnessing a common bugbear for engineers: vibrational loosening. "Applying a vibration with the right amplitude and frequency can induce a loosening action on a threaded fastener that's under tension," he notes.

To finally solve their problem, NASA designed two new tools with components "made from a specific grade of surgical, non-magnetic stainless steel; the hardest metal approved for use in the pristine curation gloveboxes". Along with the material that was stuck outside the container, they now have plenty to keep researchers busy for the foreseeable.

Thanks to everyone who shared their wisdom. Why not let us know what you think of this newsletter — e-mail us at briefing@nature.com.

Thanks for reading,
Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing
With contributions by Katrina Krämer

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