Daily briefing: Earth’s next supercontinent will be a giant desert

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Earth, 250 million years in the future

Up to 92% of Earth could be uninhabitable to mammals in 250 million years. As the planet’s landmasses drift, a merged Afro-Eurasian continent will eventually crash into the Americas to form a new supercontinent: Pangaea Ultima. The supercontinent’s creation will drive volcanism, which will increase carbon dioxide levels and turn most of the land into a barren, hot desert. In a worst-case scenario, just 8% of the planet’s surface would be habitable to most mammalian life, which would lead to a mass extinction. “I think life will make it through this one,” says geologist Hannah Davies. “It’s just kind of a grim period.”

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Nature Geoscience paper

COVID vaccines linked to vaginal bleeding

Women who don’t menstruate — including postmenopausal women and those on contraceptives — were several times more likely to experience unexpected vaginal bleeding after COVID-19 vaccination than before the vaccines were offered, according to a survey of more than 21,000 people. Unexplained bleeding can be a sign of cancer, so knowing that this is a possible side effect of vaccination can help physicians to put womens’ symptoms into context. “The most important contribution of this and other documentation will be that female bleeding patterns are included as end points, or monitored, in clinical trials of new vaccines — and perhaps even drug trials,” says public-health researcher and study co-author Kristine Blix.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: Science Advances paper

Millions exposed to mining pollution

An estimated 23 million people worldwide live on ground contaminated with potentially dangerous concentrations of toxic metal-mining waste, such as lead, zinc, copper and arsenic. Researchers analysed how waste from 22,609 active metal mines — and seven times as many abandoned ones — is distributed by rivers and deposited in floodplains. “Whether those people will be affected by that contamination, we simply can’t tell with this research,” says ecologist and study co-author Chris Thomas. “But there is agriculture and irrigation in many of those areas.” Crops and livestock can accumulate high levels of harmful metals.

BBC | 4 min read

Reference: Science paper

Academic freedom could be protected by law

In response to some European governments tightening their political grip on universities, a member of the European Parliament has proposed a legal basis to safeguard research freedom across the continent. Existing European Union laws make it difficult to prove a legal violation of academic freedom, says Kurt Deketelaere, head of the League of European Research Universities. “It would be very nice if we get a legal text, which clearly states the rules of the game,” he says. The process to establish a law could take several years.

Nature | 5 min read

Features & opinion

Dolly the sheep’s legacy lives on

The method used to create Dolly the sheep — the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell — in 1996 is “alive and kicking”, says developmental biologist Kevin Sinclair. “But it’s flying under the radar.” Initially, scientists envisioned that mass-produced cloned livestock would produce pharmaceuticals in their milk. But cloning remains too technically intensive and inefficient for widespread use in agriculture. Today, cloning is the basis for CRISPR–Cas9 gene-edited animals, such as sheep with conditions that mimic human genetic diseases or pigs with organs that can be transplanted into humans.

Nature | 5 min read

UK turns from climate leader to laggard

On 20 September, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a shock announcement that the country will delay its decarbonization plans. A ban on the sale of new polluting cars and gas-fired boilers will be postponed, a plan for offshore wind energy is on hold and there will be new licences for oil and gas extraction. On the plus side, there will be more money for climate adaptation and mitigation in low- and middle-income countries and for research into green technologies. Sunak’s speech rehashed “decades-old arguments” about the costs of decarbonization, says a Nature editorial. And Sunak said the country will still get to net zero in 2050 — “the government’s own expert advisers do not agree”, says the editorial. “Sunak’s announcement sadly also reintroduces politics into climate policy, ending a carefully constructed cross-party, cross-sector, science-based consensus.”

Nature | 6 min read

Where I work

Environmental scientist Elizabeth Hilborn has an unusual side hustle: honeybee veterinarian. “I saw an opportunity to serve pollinators,” says Hilborn, who in her day job at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies the effects of pollution on human and animal health. “I advise bee owners on the health of their hives and good pest control: I consult on habitat design, diagnose diseases and prescribe treatments,” she explains. “I work weekends and during holidays, around my EPA job.” (Nature | 3 min read)