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Credit: Daniel Knop/Nikon Small World
The year’s best science images
The above images show an embryonic clownfish (Amphiprion percula) as it grows inside its egg. These remarkably detailed pictures were captured on days one, three, five and nine of its development; the first was taken hours after fertilization. Photographer Daniel Knop won second place in Nikon’s Small World competition for photomicrography.See more of the best science images of 2020, selected by Nature’s photo team.
Biden plans summit on way back to Paris
US president-elect Joe Biden has announced a plan to hold a climate summit of the world’s major economies within 100 days of taking office. He will also seek to rejoin the Paris agreement on the first day of his presidency. “We look forward to a very active US leadership in climate action from now on,” says United Nations secretary-general António Guterres. “The US is the largest economy in the world, it’s absolutely essential for our goals to be reached.” Biden ran on an ambitious climate platform, including the pledge to bring the country to net-zero emissions by 2050. But it’s unclear how much his administration will be able to achieve without the support of lawmakers.
Read more: Can Joe Biden make good on his revolutionary climate agenda? (Nature | 9 min read, from November)
Hayabusa-2 did snag a piece of Ryugu
The capsule brought back to Earth by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 does indeed contain samples of the asteroid Ryugu. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) opened the container today and “a black granular sample believed to be derived from the asteroid Ryugu was confirmed inside”, it said in a statement. The main collection chamber is yet to be opened, and JAXA expects to find even more delights — in the form of gas and material — inside.
COVID-19 vaccine update
Health-care workers conduct contact-tracing amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Soyapango, El Salvador, in July.Credit: Jose Cabezas/Reuters
Which countries nailed contact tracing
Across the Western world, countries have floundered with one of the most basic and important public-health procedures for controlling infectious diseases: contact tracing. Contrast the United Kingdom and United States, where public-health authorities are struggling to reach cases and contacts, with success stories such as South Korea, Vietnam, Japan and Taiwan. The reasons for the failures are complex and systemic, including antiquated data systems and a dip in public trust. “If there’s a single lesson that every country needs to learn, it’s invest in your public-health system,” says Selina Rajan, a public-health specialist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Arab nations approve Sinopharm vaccine
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain are the first countries to approve a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine. Both nations have approved the vaccine from Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm, which underwent phase III testing in the countries. The UAE and Bahrain are also the first countries to grant full approval — not emergency authorizations or conditional approvals — for a COVID-19 vaccine. In China, the Sinopharm vaccine has been widely deployed under emergency-use authorization, and full approval is expected soon. Last week, the UAE announced that the vaccine is 86% effective at protecting against COVID-19, but Sinopharm has not confirmed that claim or released any clinical-trial data.
The news raises hopes, especially outside North America and Europe: Sinopharm has the capacity to produce billions of doses, which haven't already been bought up by richer nations. And the inactivated-virus vaccine is easier to deploy than some other front-runners, because it doesn’t have to be kept ultracold. But a lack of transparency leaves many questions unanswered.
Not-so-green pandemic recovery plans
Promises of a post-COVID-19 green recovery are failing to materialize, according to an analysis by The Guardian. Pandemic rescue packages in many of the world’s largest economies are dominated by spending that harms the environment, outweighing any positive climate benefits of their green spending. Only a handful of major countries have poured significant rescue funds into low-carbon initiatives, such as renewable power, electric vehicles and energy efficiency, the analysis finds.
Features & opinion
Kindness alone isn’t enough
Deep flaws in the research culture have led leaders, such as the funder Wellcome, to call for more respectful ways of communicating, collaborating and publishing. But, says physiologist Jessica Malisch, “We can’t rely on kindness and good intentions to correct the systemic inequity in academia.” The Working Scientist podcast explores whether postdocs and other early-career researchers need better-trained lab leaders, not just nicer ones.
Nature Careers Working Scientist podcast | 23 min listen
It’s time to change artificial intelligence
The field of artificial intelligence (AI) faces a diversity crisis. AI-powered applications and products continue to grow in influence, but the representation of researchers in the field does not. On its current path, the field could fall short of its potential as a transformative tool, say Tess Posner and Li Fei-Fei, co-founders of AI4ALL, an organization training and nurturing a diverse community of AI researchers. They offer some crucial questions for academic institutions, publishers and researchers to consider in their efforts to make the field more inclusive.
Outlook: Allergies
Credit: Illustration by Sam Falconer
An impact far beyond adverse reactions
William Frankland, who popularized the pollen count and who died earlier this year aged 108, likened the role of an allergist to that of a detective. Superior powers of observation, chance encounters and the rejection of evidence that initially seems compelling have all delivered breakthroughs in allergy medicine.
• For many years, guidelines advised parents to avoid giving foods containing peanuts to babies. Now, early oral exposure to peanuts is seen as a key strategy for preventing peanut allergy — a change that was triggered in part by one researcher’s hunch and an encounter with the popular Israeli peanut-butter corn-puff snack, Bamba. (11 min read)
• The case of a puzzling allergy to meat was cracked when researchers in Australia and the United States realized they were on the trail of the same culprit — and it was linked to tick bites. (11 min read)
• Some mysteries, however, are yet to be solved. The rate of food allergy in high-income countries has been rising since the 1990s. Many specialists think that cleaner households are responsible, and are investigating how early exposure to microbes forms a person’s response to potential allergens. (12 min read)
• CRISPR gene-editing technology has provided the opportunity to make a hypoallergenic feline that never produces Fel d 1, a protein that cats smear onto their bodies during regular tongue baths. (12 min read)
• Genetic engineering could deliver allergen-free peanuts that do not provoke a reaction, while blockchain might ultimately bring an end to confusing ‘may contain’ food labels. (5 min read)
• Bullying, anxiety and depression can have a huge impact on the lives of people with allergies and their families. “The psychological repercussions of food allergy — just thinking about and worrying about it and getting anxious over it — is sometimes more serious than the food allergy itself,” says allergist Charles Feng. (10 min read)
Read the whole Nature Outlook: Allergies collection.
Nature Outlook: Allergies is an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of Nestlé Research and Development.
