Tag: What we know about COVID origins

Hello Nature readers,
Today we learn how big horses make such high-pitched sounds, consider the science jobs that could be made obsolete by AI tools and explore what we do and don’t know about the origins of COVID.

Horses’ whinnies are two-in-one sounds

Horses (Equus ferus caballus) make the noise of their characteristic whinnies by producing two sounds at once: a low-frequency sound made in their vocal folds, and a high-pitched whistle produced by forcing air through the cartilage of their larynx. This ability makes horses one of a small group of animals that can make two-toned sounds, including several bird species and human beat boxers and throat singers. Researchers theorize that this multilayered vocalization enables horses to convey complex messages to each other.

Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Current Biology paper

The science jobs under fire from AI

Artificial intelligence tools are already reducing demand for jobs that involve writing code or doing basic data analysis, researchers tell Nature. For example, research programmer roles — dedicated to creating scientific software and tools — “are now obsolete,” says computational biologist Brian Hie. Some scientists warn of potential dangers if the loss of such jobs removes the stepping stones for early-career researchers. “You might temporarily get more research per dollar,” says computational biologist Claus Wilke, “but the cost would be a collapse of your pipeline and long-term decline”.

Nature | 6 min read

Japan moves to approve stem-cell treatments

Japan’s health ministry has endorsed issuing conditional approval for two first-of-a-kind medicines made from reprogrammed stem cells. The therapies, one for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and the other for severe heart failure, have shown promise in clinical trials, but have only been tested in 7 and 8 people, respectively — far fewer than is needed to ensure the treatments are safe and effective, say researchers. “This is a risky regulatory experiment,” says stem-cell researcher Paul Knoepfler. “It feels like early days to be talking about commercialization of such products.”

Nature | 6 min read

Iron Age grave reveals gender-based violence

A mass grave from a ninth-century site in Serbia has been revealed to contain the bodies of dozens of women and children who died in targeted attacks — an unprecedented case of gender-based violence in the early Iron Age. The findings give clues to shifts in power and gender relations in Iron Age Europe, a period marked by frequent population movements. The study’s authors speculate that many of the victims were part of migrating communities drawn to new lands or were experiencing forced migration or displacement.

Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature Human Behaviour paper

Inside China’s assault on Alzheimer’s

China’s ageing population means that something like 66 million people could be living with dementia there by 2050 — an estimate that is driving the country to push research forward. Scientists have been working on new drugs and innovative — if controversial — surgical techniques. The government has also encouraged the development of treatments derived from traditional Chinese medicine. And researchers are accelerating the search for biological markers that precede the onset of Alzheimer’s disease to help identify it earlier.

Nature | 9 min read

Scientists can stand against nuclear arms

The expiration of the New START treaty between the United States and Russia has put the world into an even more precarious era of escalating nuclear risks, writes physicist Karen Hallberg, who leads the Pugwash Conferences, a nuclear-disarmament group sparked by Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. “US and Russian leaders can take unilateral action by simultaneously committing to observe a one-year moratorium on exceeding the treaty’s established limits and parameters,” she writes. “Researchers can also have a crucial role in maintaining diplomatic channels and keeping lines of communication open between opposing parties.”

Nature | 7 min read

COVID’s origins: what we do and don’t know

After more than three years of deliberations, a World Health Organization advisory group last year concluded its independent assessment of how the COVID pandemic started. “Most of the peer-reviewed scientific evidence supports the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 has a zoonotic origin, meaning that it came from an animal,” write 23 of the 27 original members in a Nature Comment article reflecting their personal views. “But until requests for additional information are met or more data become available, there can be no certainty about when, where and how SARS-CoV-2 entered the human population.” There is a continued need for a thorough, unbiased investigation, they say — and the longer we wait, the harder it will be to find firm answers.

Nature | 19 min read