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3D view of human interleukin-12 bound to its receptor

The structure of human interleukin-12 protein bound to its receptor, as predicted by machine-learning software.Credit: Ian Haydon, UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design

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.

Nature | 4 min read

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.”

Nature | 6 min read

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.

SpaceNews | 3 min read

Read more: First video and sounds from China’s Mars rover intrigue scientists (Nature | 4 min read)

COVID-19 coronavirus update

COVID deaths very rare among children

Data from England suggests that COVID-19 carries a lower risk of dying or requiring intensive care among children and young people than was previously thought. The disease caused 25 deaths in under-18s in the country between March 2020 and February 2021. About half of those were in children with an underlying complex disability with high health-care needs, such as tube feeding or assistance with breathing. The research did not look at less-severe illness or debilitating ‘long COVID’ symptoms. “The low rate of severe acute disease is important news, but this does not have to mean that COVID does not matter to children,” says paediatrician Danilo Buonsenso. “Please, let’s keep attention — as much as is feasible — on immunization.”

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: medRxiv preprint 1, medRxiv preprint 2 & medRxiv preprint 3

Africa grapples with vaccine hesitancy

Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, which often starts life in Europe or the United States, has found fertile ground in Africa. Public-health workers face a complex array of factors in their efforts to undo the damage, including anti-vaccine messages from influential leaders. The late Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who died in March, was vehemently opposed to the vaccines and claimed that prayer had eradicated the disease in his country — despite being a former science teacher himself.

Nature Medicine | 11 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.

Quanta | 13 min read

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.

Nature | 3 min read

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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Quote of the day

“What I would want people to get out of this is that it’s not over. I went through testing and found out the worst news, but then life went on and I used that knowledge to make a difference.”

Katie Moser, who chose to find out that she carries the gene that will cause her to get incurable Huntington’s disease, gives an update on her 40th birthday. (Twitter post and The New York Times newsletter | 3 min read)