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Female wild bonobo with three infants

Bonobo mother Marie is engulfed by biological daughters Marina and Margaux (left and right), aged 5 and 2, and adopted daughter Flora (lower middle), aged almost 3.Nahoko Tokuyama

Bonobos adopt orphaned outsiders

Adoption is rare in the animal kingdom, but now researchers have witnessed bonobos taking care of orphaned infants from outside their own communities. Two females named Marie and Chio, who live in the Luo Scientific Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, took charge of infants who were unrelated to any female in their family group. Researchers sometimes attribute adoptions to females practicing maternal care or helping their kin and advancing their genes, but those ideas can’t explain these new observations. Seeing caretaking for unrelated infants “blew me away”, says ethologist Cat Hobaiter.

Science News | 4 min read

Reference: Scientific Reports paper

Former senator-in-space to lead NASA

Bill Nelson, a former Democratic senator from Florida, is US President Joe Biden's choice to lead NASA. In 1986, he flew as a payload specialist on a space shuttle — the second sitting member of Congress to do so. Nelson, a politician, initially criticized the appointment of former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, saying that the job should not go to a politician. Nelson is still to be confirmed for the role by the Senate.

Nature | 11 min read

Bottom trawling carbon exceeds air travel

A huge amount of carbon stored at the bottom of the ocean is released every year as massive nets are dragged along the sea bed, whirling up marine sediment. Scientists estimate that CO2 emissions from bottom trawling amount to one billion tonnes per year on average — exceeding carbon emissions from global air travel. The bulk — more than 750 million tonnes — comes from trawling activities in coastal waters in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of China, followed by the EEZs of Russia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Denmark and France. Expanding protected areas, including in heavily-trawled national waters, could greatly reduce the industry’s carbon footprint. At a biodiversity conference later this year, nations will discuss plans to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030. “One notable priority for conservation is Antarctica, which currently has little protection,” says ecologist David Mouillot.

The Guardian | 4 min read

Reference: Nature paper

Research highlights: 1-minute reads

• Jointed legs allow a quadrupedal machine to shape-shift for optimal energy use. The machine can autonomously extend and contract its limbs to suit the terrain.

• Can people get too much exercise? Mitochondria hint that the answer is yes. A new analysis suggests that highly intensive exercise blunts the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar because it impairs mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell.

• Clusters of ancient fortresses that loom over the Himalayas could have relayed signals to each other using fire or smoke. Each network of strongholds could represent either a state within the Katyuri kingdom, which controlled the region from the eighth to the twelfth century, or an independent chiefdom from the eleventh century. The visually linked forts might have facilitated the region’s fifteenth-century unification, say researchers.

Get more of Nature’s Research Highlights: short picks from the scientific literature.

COVID-19 coronavirus update

Q&A: Pandemic whistleblower Rick Bright

Rick Bright was director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority when he put his career on the line to blow the whistle on how the US government was handling the coronavirus pandemic last year. Now, he is trying his hand at curbing outbreaks from outside the government, where he is focusing on genomic surveillance of viruses. “If we had an early-warning system that was neutral, and non-political, and was just like the weather report, individuals wouldn’t need to rely on someone in the White House to tell them what was happening,” says Bright.

Nature | 6 min read

The future of variant-proof vaccines

This month, updated versions of Moderna’s vaccine — based on the genetic sequence of the B.1.351 variant of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in South Africa — were given to clinical-trial participants for the first time. These efforts got a boost by new data showing that people infected with B.1.351 develop immune responses that can fend off multiple variants. And scientists want to learn from people who recover from COVID-19 and make antibodies that, over time, become more capable of blocking diverse coronavirus variants. “Getting vaccines that will tackle the variants that are currently circulating is an eminently solvable problem,” says virologist Paul Bieniasz. “It might be that we already have that solution.”

Nature | 7 min read

Notable quotable

“One of the worst things we can do is when this is over, we just go back to normal. If you don't learn from it, then history will repeat itself.”

Infectious-disease physician Dale Fisher contributes to an overview of what we’ve learnt about how to successfully contain outbreaks. (BBC Panorama | 8 min read)

Features & opinion

Vera Rubin: Grit and family

Astronomer Vera Rubin’s extraordinary achievements fill a new biography by astronomers Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton. As Rubin’s namesake observatory ramps up to begin observations in 2023, the time is ripe to learn more about how she confirmed dark matter, probed spiral galaxies and fought inequality, writes reviewer Alison Abbott.

Nature | 5 min read

How industry internships boost careers

Industry internships can be a ‘golden ticket’ to a prosperous career, say heath scientists Eric Juskewitz, Kathleen Anne Heck and Nancy Saana Banono. They each took a break from their PhD programmes for a stint that enriched their CVs and improved their chances of career success. “The positive feedback from our work, the skills we got to apply and the insight we gained allowed us to prove our worth as scientists,” they write. “A change is as good as a rest.”

Nature | 7 min read

Job Announcement

If science journalism is your bag, Nature’s news team is hiring a paid, full-time intern based in our Washington DC office. Find out more here.

https://career5.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/jobreqcareer?jobId=35652&company=C0001215517P

Life as a Black scientist

Life scientist Antentor Hinton and laser physicist Carla Faria discuss inspirational Black scientists, the pros and cons of diversity panels and mentoring styles in the latest Science diversified podcast. Both emphasize the need to manage the tension between doing diversity work and focusing on your research. “I have to balance power and time,” says Faria. “Otherwise, you're going to be sacrificing your whole scientific career at the altar of diversity.”

Nature Careers Podcast | 17 min listen

Quote of the day

“We need to challenge outdated notions that insecure research roles are a stepping stone to secure academic career paths and ask why insecure contracts are so endemic in the first place.”

Employers must address job security in research, says University and College Union official Jane Thompson. (Wellcome blog | 8 min read)