Nature – Bianca Nogrady

Enzyme loss linked to age related muscle wasting

May 5, 2023No Comments

From Nature Middle East, 22 March 2023: Deficiency of an enzyme vital for the integrity of the membranes that encase muscle fibres is behind age-related muscle wasting and an inherited genetic disorder that causes severe neurological and muscle problems, researchers have found.In humans, genetic mutations affecting the function of the enzyme phosphatidylethanolamine cytidyltransferase (PCYT2) lead … Continue reading Enzyme loss linked to age related muscle wasting

The plain truth about North America’s horse history

May 5, 2023No Comments

From Nature Middle East, 6 April 2023: Horses have long held a special place in the culture, spirituality and day-to-day lives of North America’s Indigenous people, such as the Lakota and Comanche of the American southwest and Great Plains.Until recently, horses were thought to have been introduced to North America by European colonisers. Now, an … Continue reading The plain truth about North America’s horse history

Hyperauthorship: the publishing challenges for ‘big team’ science

March 2, 2023March 2, 2023No Comments

From Nature, 27 February 2023: The existence of the Higgs boson was first posited in a trio of papers in 1964. Two of those were authored solely by UK theoretical physicist Peter Higgs and the other was co-authored by his US and Belgian counterparts Robert Brout and François Englert. Nearly half a century later, the … Continue reading Hyperauthorship: the publishing challenges for ‘big team’ science

Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants

April 20, 2022No Comments

From Nature News, 10 March 2022: Researchers in Australia have endorsed a proposal to remove government ministers’ power to veto grant-funding decisions made by expert science committees. They say this veto ability is just one example of Australia’s political overreach in research, and is a threat to academic freedom. Legislators in Australia are considering whether … Continue reading Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants

Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants

March 15, 2022No Comments

From Nature, 10 March 2022: Researchers in Australia have endorsed a proposal to remove government ministers’ power to veto grant-funding decisions made by expert science committees. They say this veto ability is just one example of Australia’s political overreach in research, and is a threat to academic freedom. Legislators in Australia are considering whether to … Continue reading Australian researchers push to end politicians’ power to veto grants

Atmospheric rivers dust the Alps

December 10, 2021No Comments

From Nature Middle East, 7 December 2021: Atmospheric rivers are long stretches of cloud that can carry enormous quantities of water vapour from the tropics towards the poles. They were first described in 19941 and since then have come to be understood as the major mechanism transporting moisture from lower latitude oceans to higher latitude … Continue reading Atmospheric rivers dust the Alps

Scientists say Australian plan to cull up to 10,000 wild horses doesn’t go far enough

November 29, 2021No Comments

From Nature, 1 November 2021: Up to 10,000 feral horses might be killed or removed from Australia’s largest alpine national park under a draft plan to control the rapidly growing population of non-native animals. Scientists have welcomed the idea of removing them, but are alarmed that the plan still allows for thousands to remain, threatening … Continue reading Scientists say Australian plan to cull up to 10,000 wild horses doesn’t go far enough

‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists

October 14, 2021No Comments

From Nature, 14 October 2021: Infectious-diseases physician Krutika Kuppalli had been in her new job for barely a week in September 2020, when someone phoned her at home and threatened to kill her. Kuppalli, who had just moved from California to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, had been dealing with online abuse … Continue reading ‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists

Most fossil-fuel reserves must remain untapped to hit 1.5 °C warming goal

September 17, 2021No Comments

From Nature, 8 September 2021: Nearly 90% of economically viable global coal reserves must be left in the ground to have even a 50% chance of hitting internationally agreed climate-change goals, according to an updated model of limits to fossil-fuel extraction, published today in Nature. For a 50% chance of remaining below 1.5 °C of … Continue reading Most fossil-fuel reserves must remain untapped to hit 1.5 °C warming goal

First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route

September 17, 2021No Comments

From Nature, 26 August 2021: The 7,000-year-old skeleton of a teenage hunter-gatherer from Sulawesi in Indonesia could be the first remains found from a mysterious, ancient culture known as the Toaleans, researchers report this week in Nature1. The largely complete fossil of a roughly 18-year-old Stone Age woman was found in 2015 buried in a … Continue reading First ancient human DNA found from key Asian migration route