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Long-haired people who want to keep their shower drain clear already know that a hairball can be made dense enough to toss into the bin by rubbing and rolling it between your palms. Scientists have used the same approach — densifying using a combination of compression and shear forces — to clear up dangerous blood clots. A tiny prototype device can be poked into blood vessels, where it spins and sucks blood clots until the red blood cells are forced out, leaving a blob of protein strands that can be easily vacuumed out.
Nature | 2 min video
Hundreds of policies across China have been launched to recruit the top scientific talent from within the country and around the world. Several cities and provinces are offering large lump sums of money to attract talent to their institutions, in addition to benefits such as housing and generous salaries. These efforts could benefit from the recent tightening of US immigration rules, particularly those targeting Chinese nationals, say researchers. But to retain talent long term, China will need to address concerns about academic autonomy, institutional transparency and quality of life, says Marina Zhang, who studies Australia-China relations.
Nature | 5 min read
Landmark trials using stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease in the United States and Japan have marked a turning point for stem-cell therapy in neurodegenerative diseases. Among brain diseases, Parkinson’s disease is widely considered the perfect target for such treatments, because it involves the loss of a single, well-characterized type of neuron, which stem-cell therapies could replace or protect. “If we can make this work, it opens the door to tackling much more complex conditions,” says neurosurgeon Viviane Tabar, who co-led the US project.
Nature Medicine | 7 min read
Road to the COP30 climate conference in Brazil
News
A fresh analysis of ocean acidification suggests that it has already crossed over a ‘planetary boundary’ — an influential concept that defines the limits of what Earth can support before human activities make it uninhabitable. In fact, pH levels might have already started crossing safe limits in much of the ocean five years ago, say researchers. Increasing acidity reduces the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, weakens coral reefs and harms sea life. The situation is “a ticking timebomb for marine ecosystems and coastal economies,” says marine ecologist Steve Widdicombe, who is the director of science at the lab that did the research.
Reference: Global Change Biology paper
Research analysis
Governments have been trying harder to reduce fossil-fuel subsidies — but most of these efforts fail. A recent analysis of the 21 countries that shell out the most to prop up polluting fuels found that since 2016, more than 90% of subsidy reforms failed to last longer than 3 years. “Low-cost fuel is popular and hard to change,” is the blunt assessment of political scientists Paasha Mahdavi, Michael Ross and Evelyn Simoni in their policy document accompanying the study. They recommend that policy-makers:
• Concentrate subsidy-slashing efforts on the most damaging types of fuel, especially coal.
• Look for ways to reduce demand by incentivizing fuel efficiency and greener transport.
• Focus on more-durable policies, such as investing in public transit and promoting electric vehicles.
Nature Climate Change | 5 min read (from April)
Reference: Nature Climate Change paper
Nominations are open for a new award focused on providing funding to early-career researchers in three disciplines: gastrointestinal and inflammatory diseases, neuroscience and oncology. The Takeda Innovators in Science Award with Nature will award US$75,000 to each category winner, plus there is one additional grand prize of US$175,000. And all shortlisted nominees will receive a 12-month Nature Masterclasses career development programme.
For those of us who are neither biomedical researchers nor early in our careers, I don’t come empty-handed. We can rejoice together in the news that the plethora of penguin poop in Antarctica could help cool the planet. Yup, the gaseous ammonia produced by the guano of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) appears to help seed sun-reflecting clouds.
Thanks for reading,
Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing
With contributions by Jacob Smith
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