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Raptors such as the short-toed snake eagle (Circaetus gallicus) are under threat in India.Credit: David Allemand/Nature Picture Library
Hundreds of bird species decline in India
India’s first major report on the state of bird populations reveals declines in hundreds of species. The report was drawn from 10 million citizen-scientist observations on the bird-spotting app eBird. Birds of prey and waterbirds seem to have been hit particularly hard owing to habitat destruction, hunting and the pet trade.
Reference: State of India’s Birds report
Biologist exits prestigious post years after violating sexual-harassment policy
The co-director of a prestigious biology summer course has resigned after it became widely known that, several years ago, he violated the sexual-harassment policy at his home university. Warnings about biologist Richard Schneider’s past had been quietly passed around researchers involved with the residential course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, for years. But a widely seen tweet linking to past media coverage reignited the issue amid an atmosphere of growing concern about sexual harassment in academia.
COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak
Coronaviruses are so called because the projections that encircle the capsid resemble a monarch’s crown when viewed under a microscope.BSIP SA/Alamy
The race for reliable coronavirus tests
• The medical community is rallying to develop a set of rapid and reliable molecular diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2 — the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Nature Biotechnology explores 12 of the tests being developed by international groups. (Nature Biotechnology | 9 min read)
• US biotech firm Moderna says that its vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is ready for clinical trials — 42 days after the company first obtained the coronavirus’s genetic sequence. The vaccine will be tested on human volunteers in trials that could start by the end of April, reports The Wall Street Journal (paywall). (CNN | 4 min read)
Read the latest coronavirus news, continuously updated on Nature.
Features & opinion
The tools that build a genome
A powerful set of molecular tools helps synthetic biologists to assemble DNA of different sizes, from the gene to the chromosome scale. Discover more about the tools on offer, including Gibson Assembly and Golden Gate cloning.
Don’t dance on the REF’s grave
Many British academics are praying that the current round of rankings is the last for the Research Excellence Framework (REF). But critics of the United Kingdom’s system for evaluating research quality should beware unintended consequences if it is abolished, argues a Nature Editorial. “A bonfire of the REF might well appeal to many, but not if the outcome leads to cuts, or reduced autonomy for institutions,” argues the editorial.
News & views
New clue in Universe’s greatest mystery
Why is there more matter than antimatter? An incredibly precise analysis of antihydrogen provides fresh evidence that it’s not because the physics of particles and their antiparticles are different. The gaps between energy levels in antihydrogen — the simplest antimatter atom, with one antiproton and one positron — seem to be identical to those measured in ordinary hydrogen. It’s an example of charge–parity–time (CPT) symmetry — and evidence that a violation of that symmetry probably didn’t lead to the matter-antimatter imbalance after the Big Bang.
Image of the week
A research platform floats above the Yongle blue hole, whose 130-metre-wide mouth is surrounded by coral reefs.Credit: P. Yao et al./JGR Biogeosciences
A research platform floats above the Yongle blue hole, which has a 130-metre-wide mouth surrounded by coral reefs. The yawning sinkhole in the South China Sea provides a window onto unusual ocean chemistry. Researchers collected bottles of water at various intervals and found that dissolved carbon from the depths was more than 8,000 years old. (Nature | 2 min read)
