Huge marine reserve to be revoked
The Pacific nation of Kiribati, which in 2008 created the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, then the world’s biggest marine protected area, announced this week it will abolish the reserve and allow fishing. Officials said the nation did not receive compensation donors promised it for revenue lost after its 2015 ban on fishing in the reserve, which is the size of Japan. “Strictly managed fishing under conservation measures” will now be allowed in the reefs around the islands, as well as industrial fishing, mostly for skipjack tuna for canning, in the rest of the reserve, the fisheries ministry secretary said. Marine scientists decried the decision, saying it would harm coral reef ecosystems and populations of tuna, which spawn in the reserve. Allowing fishing there is “a terrible mistake,” said marine scientist Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Pandemic clampdown in Europe
Facing record-breaking rates of coronavirus infection, several European countries have imposed new restrictions on businesses and residents, especially for those who are not vaccinated. This week, Austria imposed a new “lockdown” for anyone over the age of 12 who is not fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2; they can only leave their homes for work, school, grocery shopping, exercise, medical appointments, or other “important reasons.” Those who break the rules face fines of up to €1450. Roughly 65% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated. In neighboring Germany, this week several regions imposed rules that only allow vaccinated people, or those recently recovered from COVID-19 and therefore likely naturally immune, into hair salons, restaurants, bars, theaters, and concerts. On 12 November, the Netherlands imposed a 3-week partial lockdown in which shops and restaurants close at 8 p.m. and spectators are banned from sporting events. After lifting all pandemic-related restrictions in September, Denmark this week reintroduced the “corona pass” that allows only the vaccinated, recovered, and those with a recent negative coronavirus test into restaurants, bars, and concerts.
Psilocybin depression success
Psilocybin, the psychedelic substance in magic mushrooms, was reported to be effective in the largest trial of it yet for treatment-resistant depression. In an unpublished randomized trial involving 233 people for whom at least two antidepressant drugs had failed, COMPASS Pathways, a mental health care company based in London, found that almost one-third of patients who took a single 25-milligram dose of psilocybin experienced remission 3 weeks later, compared with 7.6% of those in a control group. Almost one-quarter of patients who received 25 milligrams remained in remission after 12 weeks. Most participants experienced mild or moderate adverse effects such as headache and insomnia, although 12 people had severe ones, including suicidal behavior and self-injury. The company expects to start a large, phase 3 trial next year.
Fungi coaxed to draw
For centuries, woodworkers have prized “spalted” wood, in which fungi create decorative patterns of lines and color. Now, scientists in Switzerland have sped up and controlled the process, creating images such as a sunset (above). By carefully applying strains of fungi to specific kinds of wood and adjusting temperature, acidity, and moisture levels, the researchers can prompt the microbes to draw circles, rectangles, and lines that are curved, straight, or zigzagged. The technique could make otherwise inexpensive and fast-growing types of wood, such as ash and beech, more attractive for furniture and other applications.
Chaco Canyon drill ban planned
President Joe Biden this week proposed a 20-year ban on drilling within 16 kilometers of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, a sacred site to Indigenous peoples. Efforts under former President Donald Trump to expand oil and gas extraction from federal lands around Chaco Canyon, where Ancestral Puebloans built a network of great houses, kivas, and roads from about 850 C.E. to 1250 C.E., had drawn fierce opposition from Native American tribes and archaeologists. The planned ban would pause that push. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will now set aside the land for 2 years while it conducts an environmental analysis, consults with tribes, and solicits public comment on the ban, which is sure to draw praise from environmental groups and criticism from energy companies.
Califf gets FDA nod—again
Cardiologist Robert Califf, who once led Duke University’s clinical research efforts, could get a second stint as head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). President Joe Biden last week nominated Califf to be FDA commissioner, a post he also held for 1 year under former President Barack Obama. Califf will need to be confirmed by the Senate, where several lawmakers have expressed concern about his ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
COVID-19 vaccine developer looks ahead
Uğur Şahin, the oncologist and immunologist who is CEO of BioNTech, has vaulted to prominence in the past 20 months as his company paired up with Pfizer to produce a powerful messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against COVID-19. During his trip last week to a conference in Washington, D.C., Science spoke with him about SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens. His responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Do you think healthy 18- to 64-year-olds need coronavirus vaccine booster shots?
A: The message is very clear: We have absolutely no chance to control the pandemic without providing boosters to everyone. The protection against infection drops to below 50% after 8, 9 months. We now have complete evidence from real-world data that with a booster strategy, Israel managed to get control of the situation. This was not only the elderly. This was the 16-plus population.
Q: Do you agree with the notion that the virus has likely run through its playbook of significant mutations—and that we’re not going to see another huge leap like with the Delta variant? Is that naïve?
A: I would not say naïve. But I would not count on that. You can never deal with the unknown unknown. We need to be careful with gain-of-function mutations. We need to monitor whether the virus will mutate to use different host cell receptors.
Q: Are you watching any mRNA vaccine candidates for other infectious diseases?
A: There aren’t so many mRNA companies at the moment. Moderna has launched several clinical trials based on mRNA candidates. We have encouraging preclinical data for a flu vaccine we are developing with Pfizer. That trial started recently. There are diseases where we believe this should not be a big challenge to get an approved vaccine in a reasonable time because the targets are well known, the mechanism is well known. So you have to just recapitulate previous science with mRNA. There are other infectious diseases, like malaria and TB [tuberculosis], that are not low-hanging fruits.
Superconductor criticism removed
A critique of one of the highest profile results in physics in recent years has itself come under fire, and the journal that published the critique “temporarily removed” it from its website last week. In September, Jorge Hirsch, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, published a paper taking aim at a report in Nature in October 2020 of the first-ever material to conduct electricity without resistance at room temperature. Hirsch’s critique, which appeared in Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications, argued that some of the data in the Nature paper looked suspiciously like data in another paper, from 2009. (The authors have rejected those allegations.) In an email to Hirsch, Mary Ma, publisher of Physica C, wrote that the editors were concerned that Hirsch published private communication with another scientist and revealed data from other researchers, both without permission. Ma said the paper has been removed until an inquiry is completed.
Strike creates space debris
A Russian missile blew up a defunct Soviet radio satellite this week, creating more than 1500 pieces of large debris in low-Earth orbit that threaten other satellites. The high-speed debris cloud, the second largest ever created by military means, forced astronauts and Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station to temporarily take shelter. Debris from the antisatellite test, the first conducted by Russia, will linger for years before it falls out of orbit, U.S. Space Command said. The United States and India have also shot satellites out of low orbit, creating smaller clouds of space junk that lasted several years. Debris from a 2007 Chinese strike in higher orbit remains a hazard to spacecraft.
Source: Science Mag