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A nurse prepares to administer a malaria vaccine in Kenya.Credit: Baz Ratner/Reuters
Malaria vaccine booster prolongs protection
A promising malaria vaccine called R21 is up to 80% effective at preventing the disease in young children who received a booster shot one year after their initial dose, exceeding a World Health Organization (WHO) target of 75% efficacy. A century-long search has uncovered only one other successful malaria vaccine: RTS,S, also called Mosquirix. R21 seems to be more effective and will probably be cheaper and more readily available. “We hope that this will be deployed and available and saving lives certainly by the end of next year,” says vaccinologist Adrian Hill.
Reference: The Lancet Infectious Diseases paper
Researchers help Pakistan floods victims
Pakistan’s floods have displaced 32 million people, including an estimated 650,000 who are pregnant. Researchers, along with the government, international aid agencies and local organizations, are racing to provide food, shelter and medical care ahead of more rain predicted this month. Nature spoke with Sajid Soofi and Zahid Memon, who study women’s and children’s health at Aga Khan University, in Karachi, about how university employees have pivoted to provide much-needed medical aid and the challenges they face.
How to prevent monkeypox on campus
Some universities worldwide are gathering the lessons learnt from COVID-19 to develop strategies to prevent monkeypox outbreaks on campus. They are prioritizing testing and keeping students informed about the risks that come from sexual contact, packed gatherings and sharing clothing, bedding and towels. In places where monkeypox is not new, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, institutions have endured limited access to monkeypox testing, vaccines and treatments, despite grappling with the disease for more than 50 years.
Features & opinion
People-powered science
From spotting elusive echidnas to categorizing colliding galaxies, enthusiastic amateur scientists are essential to a notable number of research projects. Contributors can help to wrangle huge data sets, collect hard-to-find data, offer diverse viewpoints and local expertise, or co-create a study to ensure that it offers the best results for both scientists and volunteers. Researchers who do community science share how they successfully mobilize the power of the people.
A planetary budget to survive and thrive
We must define science-based targets to ensure that we stay within the limits of what our planet can support, argue eight sustainability and policy researchers. Next year, a global task force of natural and social scientists (including many of the authors) will issue its first report outlining these ‘Earth system boundaries’. Here, they outline how researchers can help cities and companies to understand complex, interlinked systems — water, nutrients, carbon emissions and more — to avoid cascading effects and stave off tipping points in Earth’s systems.
Sources: SBTi Progress Report 2021 (https://go.nature.com/3AWUUKG)/CDP 2021 Annual Questionnaire — Investor and Supply Chain Version/M. Meinshausen et al. Data set at Zenodo (https://doi.org/jbp9; 2021)/ M. Pathak et al. In Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds P. R. Shukla et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2022).
A commitment to using science for good
Theoretical physicist Kurt Gottfried, who advocated for scientific integrity, defended political dissidents and co-founded the Union of Concerned Scientists (USC), has died aged 93. A child of two chemists, Gottfried fled Nazi-controlled Austria as a child after his family home was invaded on Kristallnacht. After training in Canada and the United States, he mentored a generation of students at Cornell University and wrote influential textbooks. But he considered the USC — which campaigns on issues such as climate change, sustainability, nuclear safety and scientific misinformation — “much more important than any of the science I’ve done”.
The New York Times | 6 min read
Where I work
Chuchu Huang is a fermentation scientist at Mycorena in Gothenburg, Sweden.Credit: Francesco Rucci and Francesco Marinelli/contrasto
Fermentation scientist Chuchu Huang optimizes the process by which mycoprotein is grown in big vats called bioreactors. In this photograph, she is studying a desktop version of the technique. “Our product looks nothing like the mushrooms in a forest,” says Huang. “We grow mycelium, the microscopic filaments from which such mushrooms grow. The mycelium is fibrous, like animal muscles, and its neutral taste means that you can add any flavour you like.” (Nature | 3 min read)
