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The entrance of the Simons Observatory’s Massive Aperture Telescope Receiver, the biggest receiver for observing the cosmic microwave background constructed to this point.Credit score: Mark Devlin/College of Pennsylvania
In a couple of weeks, a brand new observatory excessive in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert can be able to map the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with unprecedented sensitivity. One of many targets of the Simons Observatory is to search out fingerprints left within the CMB by gravitational waves that originated from the Huge Bang itself. These would offer incontrovertible proof for cosmic inflation, a quick second when the enlargement of the early universe is believed to have accelerated massively. There isn’t any assure that the inflation signature, if it exists, is powerful sufficient for the Simons Observatory to detect, says cosmologist Suzanne Staggs, who’s the observatory’s co-director. “However oh my gosh — in the event that they have been proper there, it might be wonderful.”
Nature | 7 min learn
A 62-year-old man with end-stage renal failure has turn out to be the primary dwelling particular person to obtain a pig kidney transplant. The kidney was taken from a miniature pig carrying a document 69 genomic edits, which have been aimed toward stopping rejection of the donated organ and lowering the chance {that a} virus lurking within the organ might infect the recipient. Thus far, the affected person is recovering effectively and the pig kidney is producing urine and displaying different indicators of a working organ. This early success has raised researchers’ hopes for bigger medical trials involving pig organs. It follows from information final week that surgeons say they’ve transplanted a genetically modified pig liver into an individual for the primary time.
Nature | 6 min learn
Research in mice and people recommend that being pregnant can improve an individual’s ‘organic age’ by a few years — however giving start reverses these adjustments. Organic age could be estimated from patterns of DNA methylation, which happens when chemical methyl teams are added to DNA. The patterns replicate the stresses {that a} physique accrues over time. The work helps the concept that “organic age is kind of versatile; it’s a fluid parameter. It may go up and down”, says biomedical scientist Vadim Gladyshev.
Nature | 5 min learn
Reference: Cell Metabolism paper
China has launched a spacecraft to the Moon that may act as a communications hyperlink between Earth and the lunar far aspect.Queqiao-2, named after a folktale through which magpies type a bridge throughout the sky, will help China’s Chang’e-6 mission, set to launch in Could. Chang’e-6 goals to turn out to be the primary mission to gather samples from the far aspect of the Moon, which is completely hidden from Earth. Queqiao-2 may even help future Chinese language missions to the lunar south pole and can take over from its predecessor, Queqiao-1.
Learn extra on Queqiao-1: Chinese language satellite tv for pc launch kicks off bold mission to Moon’s far aspect (Nature | 4 min learn, Nature paywall)
Options & opinion
There’s a sort of take a look at for infections reminiscent of COVID-19 that’s nearly as correct as a polymerase chain response (PCR) take a look at — which must be achieved by a laboratory — and as simple and fast because the fast antigen exams many people have used at dwelling. They’re ‘isothermal exams’ — so-called as a result of they function at a constant temperature, eliminating the necessity for the repetitive heating and cooling cycles of PCR. They’re comparatively costly and have stumbled over bureaucratic hurdles. Nonetheless, builders are pushing ahead, concentrating on functions reminiscent of at-home testing for sexually transmitted infections.
Nature | 10 min learn
This text is a part of the editorially unbiased complement Nature Outlook: Medical diagnostics, produced with monetary help from Seegene.
A examine that checked out home-grown meals and group gardens in the USA and Europe unveiled a stunning conclusion: the carbon footprint of meals from city agriculture is six instances larger than the traditional, industrial model. Allotmenteers recoiled from the consequence, however the authors — eager home-growers themselves — emphasize that their findings may also help make city efforts (which have worthwhile social advantages) extra carbon-efficient. Upcycling refuse as infrastructure reminiscent of raised beds, utilizing gear for a very long time, accumulating rainwater for irrigation and practising optimum composting can all assist. And for some carbon-intensive industrial merchandise, reminiscent of tomatoes, rising regionally is already on par with huge farms.
Reference: Nature Cities paper
Peggy Oti-Boateng, a Ghanaian biochemist, and Lise Korsten, a South African food-security researcher, are on the helm of the African Academy of Sciences at a important time. They’ve a brand new strategic plan, with 5 areas of focus, and a need to recruit scientists within the African diaspora as members. “Now we have misplaced a bunch of younger lecturers who ought to have now been leaders on the continent, the professors of the longer term — and perhaps we will partially carry them again,” says Korsten, the academy’s first feminine president.
Nature | 5 min learn
The place I work
Mariton Antonia Bornas is chief of the Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division of PHIVOLCS in Quezon Metropolis.Credit score: Dave Tacon for Nature
“Now we have numerous pure disasters within the Philippines,” says Mariton Antonia Bornas, pictured right here standing subsequent to a monitoring station overlooking Taal volcano, which erupted in January 2020. As chief of the Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division, her job is to supply early warning of potential eruptions and to observe ranges of dangerous emissions. The toughest a part of the job is “coping with the non-science,” she says. “Responding to individuals on-line — even to psychics predicting an eruption — is a part of my job and it doubles my work. I’ve to be a communicator, not only a scientist.” (Nature | 2 min learn)
Quote of the day
Engineer Caleb Chung, who invented Furby — a big-eyed toy that gave the look of being a kind of proto-chatbot — chimes in on individuals’s tendency to ascribe personalities to AI methods reminiscent of ChatGPT. (The New Yorker | 14 min learn)
Final week in our penguin-search puzzle, Leif Penguinson was having fun with the river panorama of Oulanka Nationwide Park in Finland. Did you discover the penguin? If you end up prepared, right here’s the reply.
Thanks for studying,
Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing
With contributions by Katrina Krämer, Smriti Mallapaty and Sarah Tomlin
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