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NASA’s Orion capsule is on a path back to Earth, slated to splash down off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, on 11 December.Credit: NASA/Liam Yanulis
Orion capsule prepares for return to Earth
Over the past three weeks, NASA’s Orion spacecraft has flown to the Moon and most of the way back, in a near-flawless test of a new spaceship. It now faces its biggest challenge since launching atop a massive rocket as part of the Artemis I mission — surviving a fiery re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down in the sea on 11 December. In the process, it will test a re-entry manoeuvre that has never been used by a spacecraft that is intended to carry passengers. NASA needs to get Orion home safely to keep on track with its Artemis programme, which aims to eventually return humans to the Moon’s surface.
China to relax zero-COVID policies
The Chinese government will ease some of its strict zero-COVID policies following protests in several cities. Testing requirements and travel restrictions have been relaxed, and people infected with SARS-CoV-2 who have mild or no symptoms are, for the first time, allowed to isolate at home instead of in centrally managed facilities. But researchers worry that the swift transition — without enough time to ramp up vaccinations — could overwhelm the health-care system. “These measures will very likely lead to a messy and hasty transition process where local governments ditch all the zero-COVID measures without investing seriously in preparing for the transition,” says health-policy researcher Yanzhong Huang.
Read more: Can China avoid a wave of deaths if it lifts strict zero COVID policy? (Nature | 5 min read, from November)
Study uncovers dogs’ ‘SQUIRREL!’ genes
A study that combined behavioural data from 46,000 dogs with 4,000 dogs’ DNA sequences has pinpointed genetic variants linked to nervousness and predatory behaviour, such as chasing squirrels. The researchers scrapped the conventional breed categories — which had been found to be a poor predictor for behaviour — and sorted dogs into ten genetic lineages. Herding sheepdogs, for example, had genes that, in mice, had been associated with mothers’ instinct to protect their pups.
Reference: Cell paper
AI beats 50% of humans at code contests
An artificial-intelligence (AI) tool called AlphaCode can beat some people at competitive programming. The system, created by Google company DeepMind, was trained on human answers from software-writing competitions. But researchers say that AlphaCode can’t replace software engineers, because there’s no simple way to specify the needs of the people who are going to use the end product.
Reader poll
Last week, we read that the city of San Francisco, California, is considering allowing its police force to use robots to kill people. The 1,300 Briefing readers who responded to our poll overwhelmingly rejected implementing the idea in their areas.
“There are other options for the use of robots that are less severe,” suggested reader Berry Billingsley. “They could be used to monitor, assess, and evaluate in real time the parameters of a situation. It could be used to incapacitate by other non-lethal means.”
Many respondents said that the idea would be more palatable if there was strict oversight to prevent the use of robots leading to an unwarranted increase in deadly force. Several readers in the United States linked its terrible history of mass shootings to the debate over the need for such extreme police weaponry. And those who replied recoiled en masse from the concept — which is not at play in the San Francisco decision — that an artificial intelligence might pull the trigger, rather than a trained police officer.
Features & opinion
Indonesia’s bleeding toad (Leptophryne cruentata) is critically endangered.Credit: Pepew Fegley/Shutterstock
Can we save a million species?
One-quarter of all plant and animal species are threatened with extinction owing to factors such as climate change and pollution. At the United Nations biodiversity summit — also called COP15 — in Canada, more than 190 countries have started negotiating on a global treaty to protect 30% of Earth’s land and sea by 2030. There are still many unresolved issues, including how to finance conservation. A US$100-billion aid fund for low- and middle-income countries has not gained traction with wealthier nations.
The science behind tattoo inks
New regulations for tattoo inks in the European Union ban the use of some 4,200 chemicals known to be harmful to human health. To inform future regulations, scientists are studying what’s in inks and how these chemicals interact with skin tissue over time. Others are developing new inks, ways of delivering them and even tattooable biosensors.
Chemical & Engineering News | 12 min read
Five best science books this week
Andrew Robinson’s pick of the top five science books to read this week includes a complex portrait of the cell across living beings and why doubt is the primary essence of knowing.
Podcast: DNA surprise in ancient Greenland
Two-million-year-old DNA recovered from permafrost has revealed that the Arctic desert of northern Greenland was once a lush forest ecosystem inhabited by surprisingly large animals. Geneticist Eske Willerslev tells the Nature Podcast what it was like to see this ecosystem come to life: “There were mastodons running around, reindeers, geese, hares, also marine animals like the horseshoe crab, which suggested a much warmer environment.” He thinks that, eventually, scientists will be able to look back further in time by sequencing even older DNA.
Nature Podcast | 18 min listen
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