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Swimming is for the dogs: research shows that dog breed does not predict behaviour, such as an eagerness for a doggy paddle.Credit: Kay MacCoubrey/Getty
Good doggos in all breeds
A dog’s breed has less influence on its personality than you might think. Researchers surveyed thousands of dog owners about their pets’ traits, ranging from whether they had a propensity to eat grass to how likely they were to chase toys. The researchers then sequenced the DNA of a subsection of the survey dogs and found that breed explained only around 9% of the variation in dog behaviour. “When you adopt a dog based on its breed, you’re getting a dog that looks a certain way,” says computational biologist and co-author Elinor Karlsson. “But as far as behaviour goes, it’s kind of luck of the draw.”
Climate change will boost viral outbreaks
Over the next 50 years, climate change could drive more than 15,000 new cases of mammals transmitting viruses to other mammals, according to a study published in Nature. The research predicts that many of these transmissions will happen when species end up together in cooler locales as temperatures rise. And it projects that this will occur in species-rich ecosystems at high elevations, particularly in areas of Africa and Asia, and in areas that are densely populated by humans, including Africa’s Sahel region, India and Indonesia. “This work provides us with more incontrovertible evidence that the coming decades will not only be hotter, but sicker,” says disease ecologist and co-author Gregory Albery.
Telescope-on-a-plane faces termination
NASA and Germany’s space agency are permanently shutting down the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a telescope-on-a-plane that has been scrutinized for years for its high cost and comparatively low scientific output. SOFIA has measured magnetic fields in galaxies, spotted water on sunlit portions of the Moon and detected the first type of ion that formed in the Universe, helium hydride. But it costs NASA around US$85 million a year to operate, which is nearly as much as the operational expenses for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Features & opinion
How ancient DNA hit the headlines
A new book by historian of science Elizabeth Jones is a fun and thought-provoking introduction to the origins, politics and motivations of research into age-old genomes, writes evolutionary biologist and reviewer Victoria Herridge. Buoyed by the excitement sparked by the 1990 cinema blockbuster Jurassic Park, ancient-DNA research became a media darling. “She makes a powerful case that ancient-DNA research feeds off media attention as much as the media feeds off it,” writes Herridge. “They are twin stars locked in a binary system, each with storytelling at its core.”
Futures: science fiction from Nature
In this week’s helping of short stories for Nature’s Futures series:
• A couple finds hope in spite of a world that doesn’t value them as it should in ‘This story is for Emily’.
• A message from the beginning of time goes unanswered in ‘Dead letter’.
Video: virtual meetings can limit creative ideas
Fewer ideas are generated by teams working together in video conferences than by teams meeting in person. However, there is no difference between the two collaborative approaches in terms of the quality of the ideas selected. Learn why — and see me try to come up with ideas for frisbees and bubble wrap — in the latest Nature video.
