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Charles Lieber leaves federal court

Chemist Charles Lieber leaves the courthouse during his trial earlier this month.Michael Dwyer/AP/Shutterstock

Lieber found guilty of lying about China ties

On 21 December, nanotechnology researcher Charles Lieber was convicted of hiding his ties to China’s Thousand Talents Program. His arrest in January 2020 shocked scientists: he is a Harvard University department chair, won the 2012 Wolf Prize in Chemistry and has been listed as a potential Nobel prizewinner. Leiber’s Nobel aspirations were part of what led him to conceal his links to China, said the prosecuting US attorney. The trial is seen as a crucial test of the United States’s controversial crackdown on researchers with connections to China.

The Harvard Crimson | 5 min read & Science | 10 min read

Journals adopt AI to spot duplicated images

Some science publishers have started using artificial intelligence (AI) software to flag duplicated images in submitted manuscripts before they are published. The software still needs editorial oversight, but specialists say image-screening AI could sweep through the industry as science publishers try to weed out doctored images in papers. There are concerns that the AI tools haven’t been publicly compared with standard tests, however.

Nature | 8 min read

What ‘Build Back Better’ could accomplish

US President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats in Congress are struggling to enact a US$2-trillion budget bill that would boost US investments in technologies for fighting climate change to record levels. Some scientists say that the legislation — dubbed the ‘Build Back Better’ act — could put the United States on a path to reduce greenhouse gases to 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. “If Build Back Better passes, it basically buys us a decade of climate progress in the United States,” says energy-systems modeller Jesse Jenkins.

Nature | 7 min read

COVID-19 coronavirus update

Omicron overpowers antibody treatments

Preliminary experiments suggest that most of the antibody treatments for COVID-19 are powerless against the Omicron variant. Monoclonal antibody treatments use artificial versions of natural antibodies to treat COVID-19 in people who are at high risk of severe disease. The new evidence comes from a slew of preprint studies, which have not yet been peer reviewed. But some of the companies that manufacture antibody therapies already concede that their products have lower potency against Omicron than against other variants.

Nature | 5 min read

Vaccine hesitancy in developing nations

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is emerging as an issue in some of the world’s poorest countries — although limited supply is still the main problem. “We have more hesitant people in the global south than we ever thought we did,” says behavioural scientist Rupali Limaye. Factors include safety concerns, misinformation and shaky trust in some governments and in the goodwill of the West. Scientists fear that persistent pools of unvaccinated people around the world will present a greater risk for the emergence of new variants of concern, such as Omicron.

Nature | 6 min read

Features & opinion

Farewell to three great friends of nature

Palaeoanthropologist, conservationist and political leader Richard Leakey died on 2 January, aged 77. Leakey never attended university, but followed in the fossil-hunting footsteps of his trail-blazing parents, Louis and Mary Leakey. His discoveries, such as the nearly complete skull of an early human ancestor, Australopithecus boisei, helped to prove that humans evolved in Africa. He used his fame to boost science in his native Kenya, where he became a member of parliament, and conservation projects such as a high-profile battle against the ivory trade. “He made everything he touched larger than life,” says palaeoanthropologist Carol Ward. “He did that for paleoanthropology, and because of his visionary touch, his legacy extends far beyond the science.” (Science | 6 min read)

Conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy, who coined the term biological diversity, died on 25 December 25, aged 80. Lovejoy spent more than 50 years working in the Amazon rainforest and, in 1980, published the first estimate of global extinction rates. “To know Tom was to know an extraordinary scientist, professor, advisor, and unyielding champion for our planet,” said the National Geographic Society’s chief executive Jill Tiefenthaler. (National Geographic | 5 min read)

Naturalist Edward O. Wilson died on 26 December, aged 92. The entomologist, Pulitzer-prizewinning author and influential environmentalist was lauded by David Attenborough, who called Wilson “a magic name to many of us working in the natural world”. Stay tuned for the Nature obituary of Wilson.

Molecular biologists: reconnect with nature

Edith Heard, the director-general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), calls on colleagues to step out of the lab to explore how life really works. “How Darwin’s ‘struggle for life’ happens has been largely unexplored at the molecular level,” she writes. “In my view, molecular and cellular biologists must go back out into the world to study life in its natural context.” The EMBL is launching a programme to pursue new ways of doing this, such as by launching mobile labs equipped with state-of-the-art molecular technologies.

Nature | 5 min read

Quote of the day

“We’re not trying to make money… We just want to see people get vaccinated.”

Pediatrician and molecular virologist Peter Hotez co-developed CORBEVAX, a low-cost, open-source COVID-19 vaccine that has been authorized for use in India. (The Washington Post | 5 min read)