Volume 603 Issue 7903, 31 March 2022

The European Union needs to go further and faster in embracing a temporary waiver on COVID-19 intellectual property.

The societal forces that drive people to join a belief system matter more than the specifics of what they believe.

Redesigning social media to improve society requires a new platform for research.

The response to ‘non-essential’ amino acids, which can be made in the body, might help animals to seek out more important nutrients.

A comprehensive tally identifies 30 trees more than 2 millennia old, almost all growing at high altitudes.

An asteroid strike kicked sulfur-infused dust so high that it contributed to catastrophic cooling 66 million years ago.

Among the most intensive sources are the Hubble Space Telescope and, on Earth, the Very Large Telescope.

Scientists genetically engineer the widely consumed microorganism to produce protein-based pharmaceuticals.

A toothsome pizza base is achieved by bubbling gas through balls of dough.

A boa avoids suffocation by inflating its lungs with one part of its ribcage and wrapping prey with another.

The latest science news, in brief.

Origin investigations typically take years, but some researchers say China is delaying the process for political reasons as international tensions rise.

Many analysts expected an unprecedented level of cyberattacks when Russia invaded Ukraine — which so far haven’t materialized.

Most studies linking features in brain imaging to traits such as cognitive abilities are too small to be reliable, argues a controversial analysis.

Around 90% of deceased people tested at a Lusaka facility during coronavirus surges were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting flaws in the idea of an ‘African paradox’.

Study adds to evidence suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 infection doesn’t cause an inflamed-toe condition called chilblains, but it doesn’t close the door.

Companies are scrambling to turn the greenhouse gas into useful products — but will that slow climate change?

Some people develop multiple sclerosis after an infection. Could a vaccine prevent that — and what does it reveal about the long-term effects of viruses?

Speeding up development of new vaccines won’t help much in the next pandemic, unless world leaders work faster to roll out vaccination globally.

Innovation challenges offer valuable lessons and resources for researcher-entrepreneurs.

Chia-Hsuan Hsu’s conservation efforts combine social science and ecological research.

Adding particles or polymers to a fluid can make bacteria swim straighter — and therefore faster — than they do through water, by inducing a torque that changes their body alignment.

Ancient records of Earth’s magnetic field seem to contradict a conceptual picture of how regions of volcanic activity form. Statistical modelling now reconciles these data with our understanding of mantle fluid dynamics.

Higher than normal secretion of mucin, a molecular component of mucus, is a feature of many lung diseases. The development of a peptide that blocks mucin secretion in airway epithelial cells might lead to therapies.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

A higher number of damaging variations in certain genes is associated with an increased likelihood that a man will be childless. A geneticist and an anthropologist discuss what can — and can’t — be learnt from this finding.

Methods for the transformation of plastics into materials with value, known as plastic waste upcycling, are outlined, and their advantages and challenges in terms of a sustainable plastics economy are discussed.

A massive star at a redshift of 6.2, corresponding to 900 million years after the Big Bang, is magnified greatly by lensing of the foreground galaxy cluster WH0137–08.

Bacteria swimming in colloidal suspensions are shown to behave similarly to those in polymer solutions revealing a mechanism for motile behaviour in complex fluids.

A catalogue of the naturally occurring three-dimensional stoichiometric materials with flat bands around the Fermi level provides a powerful search engine for future theoretical and experimental studies.

Atomic-level imaging of photocurrents in a single molecule is achieved by combining a tunable laser with scanning tunnelling microscopy, revealing how photons turn into electric current via a photoexcited molecule.

In situ scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals the dynamic nature of the early stages of two-dimensional (2D) polymer formation and crystallization at the solid–liquid interface.

Analysis of tide gauge observations shows that, in contrast to the current assumption of stationary storm surge extremes in Europe, the surge contribution to changes in extreme sea levels since 1960 is similar to that of sea-level rise, influencing future coastal planning.

Reconstruction of one billion years of mantle flow shows that mobile basal mantle structures are just as consistent with the Earth’s volcanic history as are fixed mantle structures.

In extinct species including non-avian dinosaurs, bone density is shown to be a reliable indicator of aquatic behavioural adaptations, which emerged in spinosaurids during the Early Cretaceous.

Human genetic variants that impair genes that are intolerant of damaging genetic variation are associated with lower reproductive success that is probably mediated by genetically associated cognitive and behavioural traits, particularly in males.

Machine-learning algorithms can take advantage of survey and mobile phone data to help to identify people most in need of aid, complementing traditional methods for targeting humanitarian assistance.

Evolutionary modelling shows that an initial set of inhibitory neurons serving olfactory bulbs may have been repurposed to diversify the taxonomy of interneurons found in the expanded striata and cortices in primates.

Single-cell profiling of vagal sensory neurons from seven organs in mice and calcium-imaging-guided spatial transcriptomics reveal that interoceptive signals are coded through three distinct dimensions, allowing efficient processing of multiple signals in parallel using a combinatorial strategy.

A method called vessel isolation and nuclei extraction for sequencing (VINE-seq) produces a molecular map of vascular and perivascular cell types in the human brain and reveals their contributions to Alzheimer’s disease risk.

A study describes single-cell characterization of the human cerebrovasculature, revealing human-specific transcriptomic signatures and providing insights into transcriptional changes associated with Huntington’s disease.

Studies in a mouse model of neurolisteriosis show that the effector protein InlB produced by Listeria monocytogenes protects infected monocytes in the host from T cell-mediated cell death, and thereby increases bacterial neuroinvasion, persistence and transmission.

Bacterially produced bile acids inhibit T_H17 cell function, which may be relevant to the pathophysiology of inflammatory disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease.

ACE2 binding is an ancestral, widespread trait of sarbecovirus receptor-binding domains, and many single mutations enable binding to different ACE2 receptors.

Individual antibodies identified in the blood of people triple-vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 predominantly bind spike protein and are highly effective at neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron (B.1.1.529).

A single-cell atlas of white adipose tissue from mouse and human reveals diverse cell types and similarities and differences across species and dietary conditions.

A phase I dose-escalation trial of GD2-CAR T cells in children and young adults with diffuse midline gliomas to assess the feasibility of manufacturing, safety and tolerability, and to preliminarily assess efficacy.

Results in the CheckMate 649 phase 3 trial for first-line combined nivolumab and chemotherapy treatment continue to show clinically meaningful efficacy in gastric, gastro-oesophageal junction or oesophageal adenocarcinoma after 24 months, with no new safety signals.

Peptides that disrupt Ca²⁺-triggered membrane fusion may enable the therapeutic modulation of mucin secretory pathways.