Daily briefing: The NIH is at a crossroads

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The NIH is at a crossroads

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) achieved “an accomplishment for the ages” during the early stages of the pandemic by super-charging the high-speed development of medicines and vaccines to fight SARS-CoV-2. But with the departure of geneticist Francis Collins in December, the director post is vacant for the first time in 12 years — and the the world’s largest funder of biomedical research is at a crossroads. Researchers share four lessons from the pandemic that they hope will inform the agency’s progress:

• Embrace fast innovation and reduce bureaucracy

• Tackle funding inequities based on a researcher’s institution, career stage, race or research area

• Build bridges with social and behavioural science to grapple with issues such as vaccine hesitancy

• Look outside the agency for insights to break out of the “insular ivory tower”

Nature | 9 min read

Fossil hints at colourful pterosaur feathers

A remarkable fossil reveals that pterosaurs might have been covered in brightly coloured feathers. The exquisitely preserved Tupandactylus imperator shows the soft tissues of the animal’s crest and filament structures that suggest that it had true feathers. The fossil also preserves melanosomes: tiny organelles that contain melanin and cause much of the colouring in features and skin. Researchers found different types of melanosome, suggesting that it sported various colours — and that its feathers weren’t just to keep it warm. The fossil was repatriated to Brazil earlier this year after appearing under mysterious circumstances in Belgium (unauthorized fossil-hunting in Brazil has been illegal for 80 years).

Scientific American | 5 min read

Reference: Nature paper

Why Iceland’s seas are falling

Melting ice in Iceland is flowing away, lightening the load on the rock below and causing the ground to rise. The huge scale of melting in nearby Greenland is also causing water to move away because of the reduced gravitational pull on the ocean. In parts of Iceland, the land is rising by almost 4 centimetres a year, threatening the livelihoods of fishers who face the risk of shipwreck. Meanwhile, the lost ice contributes to sea-level rise elsewhere.

CNN | 7 min read

Features & opinion

How big institutions can sprout biodiversity

A deep dive into the biodiversity footprint of the University of Oxford, UK, shows how large organizations can reverse biodiversity loss. Researchers looked at everything from utility bills to cafeteria food and found that “the absolute size of the university’s greenhouse-gas footprint is astonishingly large — comparable to that of the eastern Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia”. Much of the harm specifically to biodiversity is tied to university activities that are not under its direct control — for example, supplies of laboratory equipment have much greater impacts overall than do international flights, the university’s consumption of electricity or its use of construction materials.Oxford’s goal of a net gain in biodiversity will not be achieved using its current approach that focuses primarily on preventative measures, such as reducing flights. It will require substantial offsetting, which will have to be carefully monitored — and could offer win–wins on both biodiversity and climate. All this would be a lot easier if supply chains were more transparent. Large organizations often don’t know which country their commodities (such as cotton, flour or cement) come from — let alone which supplier or what kinds of biodiversity are being affected as a result.

Nature | 15 min read

No rift between academic and support staff

It’s time to remove arbitrary distinctions between academics and support staff, argue three scientists who have straddled the dividing lines between these conventional divisions. Those who work in roles such as data stewards, research software engineers, scientific community managers and programme managers are not ‘failed academics’, but crucial contributors. They should be subject to fair visa and remuneration rules, and be allowed to host and supervise scientists, apply for grants and do research.

Nature | 5 min read

More than one way to make a baby

There are more than 150 known examples of live birth evolving separately in vertebrates, providing a rich environment to study the mechanisms underlying convergent evolution. Researchers analysed the genes involved in pregnancy and live birth in three live-bearing species of lizards, a shark and two mammals: rats (Rattus norvegicus) and opossums (Monodelphis domestica). Despite similarities in the anatomy and physiology involved — such as the need to protect the foetus from the mother’s immune system — each species uses a completely different set of genes, write the authors. “Despite not being what we expected, this finding also makes sense,” they say. “Different animal lineages may have different ‘toolboxes’ of genes to draw from, due to their unique evolutionary histories.”

The Conversation | 5 min read

Reference: Molecular Biology and Evolution paper

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