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Animated sequence captured from NASA's Mars Perseverance rover, showing Ingenuity’s flight.

A series of frames captured by the Perseverance rover shows Ingenuity hovering.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Lift off! First flight on Mars

Ingenuity has made the first powered flight on another world. Today, the robot rotorcraft — part of NASA’s Perseverance mission — lifted off from the surface of Mars for almost 40 seconds. Ingenuity’s counter-rotating carbon-fibre blades spun at more than 2,400 revolutions per minute to lift the craft 3 metres into the air. The US$85-million drone hovered there, and then, in a planned manoeuvre, turned 90 degrees and descended safely back to the Martian surface. Software issues that kept the helicopter from transitioning into flight mode had delayed the flight from 11 April.

Nature | 6 min read

NIH reverses fetal-tissue restrictions

The United States will remove significant limits on fetal-tissue research set by former president Donald Trump’s administration. The move will allow government scientists to resume studies using the biological material and cancel a controversial grant-reviewing ethics panel. Researchers use fetal tissue, obtained from elective abortions, to study a range of subjects — from infectious disease to human development — and say it is crucial for studying some illnesses. Some minor Trump-era restrictions on fetal-tissue research are still in place and could continue to pose hurdles.

Nature | 4 min read

Sword of Damocles over Antarctica’s ice

If we allow global temperatures to reach 4 ℃ above pre-industrial levels, around half a million square kilometres of floating ice — more than one-third of the total ice-shelf area around Antarctica — is at risk of collapsing into the ocean. But if we limit global warming to 2 ℃, half of those ice shelves could be saved. Losing ice shelves wouldn’t directly contribute to rising sea levels, because they float. But the shelves serve as a buffer preventing Antarctica’s terrestrial ice streams from discharging into the ocean unhindered. “When they collapse, it's like a giant cork being removed from a bottle, allowing unimaginable amounts of water from glaciers to pour into the sea," says climate scientist Ella Gilbert.

Live Science | 4 min read

Reference: Geophysical Research Letters paper

COVID-19 coronavirus update

News explainer

The key questions about blood clots

As safety concerns delay the use of the Johnson & Johnson and Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, Nature looks at the questions that scientists want answered. These include what the connection is between blood clots and the vaccines and whether that link exists with other vaccines. Scientists are also trying to pin down exactly how rare the condition is and who is most at risk.

Nature | 8 min read

Feature

What happened to convalescent plasma

The United States’s big push to use plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 to treat those with the disease — including ad campaigns featuring immunologist Anthony Fauci and actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson — has ground to halt. The evidence has not backed up early hope for the treatment: the plasma arm of the large RECOVERY trial in the United Kingdom was halted early, in February, after finding no benefit for people hospitalized with COVID-19. Some scientists have called for the US emergency authorization of the treatment to be rescinded, although research continues. In the meantime, heavy use of plasma in hospitals where no other treatments are available further illustrates the country’s yawning health inequalities.

New York Times | 13 min read

Features & opinion

The braided river of a science career

The idea of a ‘pipeline’ that progresses predictably through graduate education into career-length government or academic positions no longer captures the reality of modern careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), argue atmospheric scientist Rebecca Batchelor and five colleagues. Instead, they imaginet a braided river that feeds into an inclusive workforce — a model inspired by nature and underpinned by mentorship and support. “Envision a new model that captures the opportunity, variability, and responsiveness of a modern STEM career; that embraces the diversity and experiences of the people who engage in it; that recognizes the many on-ramps, pathways, and career pivots that real life induces; and that provides a framework in which there is a place in STEM for everyone,” ther write. “This is the braided river model.”

Eos | 10 min read