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Protein-structure prediction for the people
More scientists are set to get access to the top tools built to tackle one of biology’s grandest challenges: predicting the 3D structures of proteins from their amino-acid sequences. Google’s AI firm DeepMind has released an open-source version of its deep-learning neural network, AlphaFold 2, which dominated a protein-structure prediction competition last year. And an academic team has released the code for RoseTTaFold, an up-and-coming protein-prediction tool inspired by AlphaFold 2. The team has also set up a server into which researchers can plug a protein sequence and get a predicted structure. These approaches make predictions in milliseconds — rather than the hours or days required by existing lab techniques such as X-ray crystallography — and help researchers to better understand diseases and design drugs.
US boosts funding for research monkeys
The US government is investing heavily to breed more monkeys at the national facilities that house primates for biomedical research. The goal is to offset an ongoing shortage of these animals, which grew worse in 2020 as scientists tested scores of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments on primates before trials began in people. “What happens if [a pandemic] happens again, with another virus in three years?” says the National Institutes of Health’s James Anderson. “We want to be ready for that.”
Zhurong spots its own parachute on Mars
China’s Zhurong rover has driven some 350 metres south of its landing site to visit the discarded parachute and backshell that helped bring it safely to the red planet. Zhurong arrived on Mars on 14 May and has now travelled at least 450 metres. It is more than two-thirds of the way through its three-month mission on Mars.
Read more: First video and sounds from China’s Mars rover intrigue scientists (Nature | 4 min read)
Features & opinion
Maths proof hints at true nature of infinity
A landmark mathematical proof seems to disprove a long-standing hypothesis about the nature of infinity. The upshot is that there are many sizes of infinity: all the ‘real’ numbers, all the ‘natural’ numbers… I could go on. The new result strengthens the case that an extra size of infinity sits between the first and second infinitely large numbers. Still, things are far from settled — and that’s the fun part. “It’s one of the most intellectually exciting, absolutely dramatic things that has ever happened in the history of mathematics, where we are right now,” says mathematical logician and philosopher Juliette Kennedy.
Reference: Annals of Mathematics paper
Five best science books this week
Andrew Robinson’s pick of the top five science books to read this week includes cooperation’s pros and cons, how construction can decarbonize via ancient Rome, and a colourful study of wild animal–human interactions.
Podcast: How heat waves kill unequally
A growing body of research has revealed the environmental injustices that have left some city dwellers baking in vast expanses of asphalt while those in other neighbourhoods benefit from green parks, spacious lawns and sprawling trees. Science also suggests solutions to reduce the dangers.
Nature Podcast | 36 min listen
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