Daily briefing: COVID-19 drug might be spurring new variants

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How India is battling deadly rain storms

Grassroots action such as the flood early-warning system along the Meenachil River run by Eby Emmanuel is doing something India’s country-wide forecasts can’t: collating local knowledge to warn people of deadly rainstorms. The South Asian summer monsoon is a notoriously complex weather phenomenon. “Climate change is making [extreme rainfall] more erratic and the weather forecasting models are unable to account for that increase in chaos,” says climate scientist Roxy Koll. And forecasting models created in the United States and Europe do not account for how much South Asia’s farming practices and population can change the weather.

Nature | 14 min read

COVID drug might drive viral mutations

Molnupiravir, a drug widely used to treat COVID-19, might be spurring the evolution of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. The drug works by peppering the coronavirus’s genome with mutations, which add up to make SARS-CoV-2 worse at replicating. But scientists have raised the possibility that, in rare cases, molnupiravir treatment might not entirely eliminate SARS-CoV-2, allowing some individuals who have taken the drug to continue to transmit the virus. Now, a preprint study (which is not yet peer reviewed) of more than 13 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences has uncovered sequences that bear molnupiravir’s fingerprints. Quantitative bioscientist Rustem Ismagilov says the study underscores the need to quickly assess the risk of continued use of the drug. “If we are playing Russian roulette, we’d better know our odds.”

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: medRxiv preprint (not peer-reviewed)

UK departments for science and net zero

UK scientists have largely welcomed the symbolic value of a new government department dedicated to science and technology. But the research community, which has been battered by the repercussions of the country’s exit from the European Union, remains focused on tangible progress in key issues such as retaining access to the huge Horizon Europe funding programme. The United Kingdom will also get a new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which has raised hopes that the country can reinvigorate its position as a green-energy leader.

Nature | 4 min read & Business Green | 5 min read

Codebreakers decrypt lost royal letters

Three scientists have decrypted 57 letters by Mary, Queen of Scots, written in cipher in the years before she was executed in 1587 for plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England. The trio stumbled on the long-lost documents by accident: they had been sitting as an unmarked file in the French national library’s online archive, where they had been mistakenly placed in the Italy section. Deciphering the symbols revealed correspondence from Mary, who was imprisoned at the time, to her ally Michel de Castelnau, the French ambassador to Elizabeth I. The letters describe, among many other topics, Mary’s efforts to maintain secure communication with her network of associates and her frantic response when she found out that her son had been abducted.

Gizmodo | 3 min read

Reference: Cryptologia paper

Features & opinion

Learn from disastrous COVID response

The World Health Organization has drafted a pandemic treaty to avoid repeating what it calls the “catastrophic failure of the international community in showing solidarity and equity” during COVID-19. Decisions would be made through a conference of the parties (COP) — an expensive and slow process. As the COPs for climate and biodiversity have shown, a forum of 200-odd countries is arguably not the best way to ensure compliance, argues a Nature Editorial, especially when the onus for action lies with a small number of high-income nations.

Nature | 5 min read

Famed Keeling Curve is back online

Researchers have found a way to restart data collection for the Keeling Curve, a key record of atmospheric carbon dioxide that has been maintained almost continuously for more than 60 years. The experiment usually sits on top of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, but was disrupted by the eruption that began there in November. Researchers are battling snowstorms and lava to gather measurements from the neighbouring volcano, Mauna Kea, for the first time.

The New York Times | 8 min read

The everyday chemicals that make us fatter

“There are at least 50 chemicals, probably many more, that literally make us fatter,” says environmental-health scientist Leonardo Trasande. He is among those researching ‘obesogens’ — chemicals, such as fungicides and flame retardants, that seem to make animals — or their descendants — gain fat. The term was coined by cell biologist Bruce Blumberg, who discovered in 2006 that tributyltin chloride promoted fat formation in mice. His advice? “Do not eat packaged processed food. It’s full of obesogens. Buy fresh ingredients and make a meal.”

Chemistry World | 12 min read

Reference: Molecular Endocrinology paper (from 2006)

Image of the week

Two unfortunate salamanders have fallen victim to a carnivorous northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) in this winning image in the Close-up Photographer of the Year competition. Pitcher plants usually feed on insects and other small invertebrates, but a population of plants in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada, regularly consumes vertebrate prey.

See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team. (Samantha Stephens/cupoty.com)