WHO abandons second section of COVID-origins investigation

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The second section of the World Well being Group’s (WHO) much-anticipated investigation into the supply of SARS-CoV-2 has been quietly shelved. The staff cited ongoing challenges over makes an attempt to conduct research in China, the place the virus most certainly unfold from bats to folks. A key level of rivalry had been the inclusion of a ‘lab leak’ state of affairs within the WHO’s first report. The speculation, which advised that the virus had escaped from a Chinese language laboratory, was deemed “extraordinarily unlikely”. Understanding how precisely the virus first contaminated folks is essential for stopping future outbreaks.

Nature | 6 min learn

A crow-sized, feathered dinosaur may need used its toes to snag prey, like fashionable hawks do. Scientists who in contrast the fossilized toes of a number of non-avian dinosaur species discovered that Microraptor’s protruding toe pads, coated with spiky scales, most resembled these of birds of prey. Different researchers say that toe pads alone aren’t sufficient to declare that the dinosaur was an aerial hunter. If Microraptor may actually fly fairly than glide, it will help the debated speculation that flight developed not simply in birds, however a number of occasions amongst dinosaurs.

ScienceNews | 7 min learn

Reference: Nature Communications paper

A WHO committee met earlier this week to determine whether or not mpox remains to be a worldwide public-health emergency. Vaccines and antiviral medication have allowed rich nations to cease outbreaks, however infections are nonetheless raging throughout West and Central Africa, the place nations have been battling the monkeypox virus for many years. Well being officers fear that, with world curiosity waning, it would develop into even more durable to fund African analysis on transmission patterns and efficient responses. “We’re nonetheless working largely blindly right here,” says Dimie Ogoina, an infectious-disease doctor in Nigeria.

Nature | 6 min learn

Options & opinion

Synthetic intelligence is coming to Web search. Final week, three of the world’s largest search engines like google and yahoo — Google, Bing and Baidu — mentioned they are going to be integrating ChatGPT or related know-how into their search merchandise, permitting folks to get direct solutions or have interaction in a dialog, fairly than merely receiving an inventory of hyperlinks after typing in a phrase or query. However issues with inaccuracy and lack of transparency may trigger folks to lose confidence in chat-based search, say researchers.

Nature | 5 min learn

David (Dave) Allis was a pioneer within the biology of chromatin, which makes up chromosomes, and performed a significant half in elucidating how epigenetic modifications — these past the genome — can have an effect on human well being and illness. He has died aged 71. Allis had an infectious enthusiasm for science and a knack for pursuing a novel line of inquiry with deliberation and dedication, write his colleagues Sharon Dent and Shiv Grewal. He was additionally identified for his heat, creativity and humour, they write. “He celebrated colleagues across the globe by sending them quirky, treasured mementos to honour their findings, amongst them hats embellished with HAT [histone acetyltransferase] modifications.”

Nature | 5 min learn

In prehistoric occasions, kids accounted for a a lot larger proportion of the inhabitants than they do right now — however indicators of Ice Age children are exhausting to uncover. Their small, fragile bones are much less more likely to be discovered. And our assumption that they don’t contribute a lot to society usually pushes them out of the image, argues archaeologist and anthropologist April Nowellis. She traces the proof that’s reshaping our understanding of Palaeolithic kids, from tiny footprints preserved in mud to the strains made by little fingers in iconic cave work.

Aeon | 18 min learn

The place I work

Marine geologist Hartmut Schulz is trying again in time by sampling prehistoric sediments from the Arctic Ocean ground. “We expect we discovered a great place for reaching 400,000-year-old sediments, however it’s difficult,” he says. Traces discovered within the core samples, reminiscent of pollen, are clues that permit him to reconstruct the oceans and climates of the previous, which function analogues of right now’s warming world. (Nature | 3 min learn) (Volker Diekamp/Marum, College of Bremen)