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Credit: Greg Rouse, Scripps Oceanography
The month’s best science images
Meet Peinaleopolynoe elvisi, a newly described species of species of deep-sea worm whose iridescent scales evoke glittery-jumpsuit-era musical icon Elvis Presley. Four such stunning species were collected from the bottom of the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and an area near Costa Rica, using a crewed research submarine and remotely operated vehicles. Researchers used DNA sequencing to place all four in the Peinaleopolynoe genus, a group of scale worms distantly related to earthworms.See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.
COVID-19 coronavirus update
As labs reopen, researchers must navigate technical issues alongside new requirements for social distancing and personal protective equipment.Credit: Misha Friedman/Getty
Coronavirus-related closures have forced researchers to make the painful decision to downsize Drosophila colonies, kill laboratory animals and freeze delicate stem-cell lines and patient-derived samples. Getting those experiments up and running again — while maintaining social distancing — will take time. And the knock-on effects on supplies and long-term projects are myriad. “I’ve been surprised at the number of things we take for granted in terms of lab maintenance,” says microbiologist Ami Bhatt. “It’s daunting to think of bringing all that back up.”
China struggles to rein in animal markets
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, China vowed to curb the consumption of wild animals, thought to be a likely source of the virus. But as animal purveyors struggle to make ends meet, the government has made compromises. Dogs have been removed from the menu, but emus and muscovy duck were added. The government has also made exceptions for the use of controversial animal products, such as bear bile and scales from endangered pangolins, in traditional Chinese medicine.
Hope wanes for hydroxychloroquine
Hydroxychloroquine does not help people survive COVID-19, according to results that have not yet been peer-reviewed. The findings come from the Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial, which is assessing six different medications for treating the disease. Almost 4,700 people hospitalized with COVID-19 were randomly assigned either to take hydroxychloroquine or to a control group. Trial leaders say there was no benefit in terms of lifespan or recovery time. That arm of the trial has been stopped. The malaria drug has been bedevilled with hype, mixed findings about its efficacy against the coronavirus and a spate of retractions of papers that called its safety into question. “This is a hugely important finding that will likely end use of the drug in hospitalized COVID patients,” says physician and medical-policy researcher Walid Gellad — though it is still an open question whether the medicine might work earlier in the disease.
Reference: University of Oxford press release
Coronapod: The heavy toll on people of colour
The coronavirus is killing a disproportionate number of people of colour. As systemic injustices are brought to the fore across the world, the Nature news team discusses how scientists and policymakers can address the virus’s unequal burden.
Nature Coronapod podcast | 26 min listen
Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts or Spotify.
Features & opinion
Ocean data need a sea change
New technology platforms collected more data on the oceans in 2018 than was gathered during the entire twentieth century. This is the kind of real-time information that we need to protect our oceans and those who sail on them — but it is scattered, warn ten ocean scientists. They call for improvements in how we collect, share and access that data to power a global response to climate change, overfishing and pollution.
Source: World Ocean Database
What it will take to save corals
Researchers are investigating last-resort conservation measures to help corals to adapt to hotter, more acidic oceans caused by climate change. For example, scientists in the Florida Keys are trying to maintain the reef system by hand-rearing coral samples that have survived the pollution and rising temperatures naturally. Expanding marine protected areas can help to buy time for these ‘underwater forests’ — and the wildlife and livelihoods that depend on them. But scientists emphasize that these innovations will not be enough unless global leaders support them with urgent action to slow the rate of global warming.
National Geographic | 10 min read
The smelly business of space agriculture
Since the early Space Age, researchers have studied what it would take for humans to survive long-term either in space or on another planet, and have even grown lettuce on the International Space Station and gotten a seed to sprout on the Moon. Experts — who often admit they look to science fiction for inspiration — say it will be crucial to save human excrement to use as fertilizer. “That’s your starter kit, what you need to get started in the soil,” says ecologist Wieger Wamelink. “Actually, The Martian is totally correct there. It may be smelly, but it’s so important.”
