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Fans at the Tiwi Islands football grand final in the Northern Territory on Sunday, March 19, 2017.

A group of Indigenous Australians watch a football match on the Tiwi Islands. Genomic analysis reveals that Indigenous Australians across the country have highly different genomes.Credit: Lucy Hughes Jones/AAP via Alamy

Indigenous Australians’ genomes are special

Australian Indigenous communities are some of the most genetically distinct people on the planet, with the highest rate of genetic variation outside groups in Africa. A new pair of studies sought permission from 159 Indigenous Australians to add their genetic data to global databases, and found that as much as 12% of structural variants — variations that are at least 50 base pairs in size — are unique to these communities. The information will help to provide better health care for Indigenous Australians and others across the world.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: A Nature paper and another Nature paper

What Korea discovered about the Moon

One half of the Moon is more electrically conductive than the other, according to measurements from a South Korean spacecraft. The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, nicknamed Danuri, has been studying the Moon since beginning its orbit last December. Scientists speculate that the far side of the Moon is hotter, or perhaps contains more water in its interior than does the near side.

Nature | 4 min read

Inside the minds of farm animals

Scientists are starting to reveal that livestock animals have complex, often-overlooked mental lives: pigs will free trapped companions, goats seem to selflessly help others to reach tasty treats and cows can be potty trained. Studies such as these could offer insights into the evolution of cognitive abilities and could change the way we treat farm animals. Getting funding for studies not aimed at improving milk or meat yields remains challenging, and so is housing herds of large animals — but at least they “don’t throw poo at you like great apes”, says animal-cognition researcher Christian Nawroth.

Science | 19 min read

First glimpse at tyrannosaur’s last meal

Two small oviraptorosaurs — feathered dinosaurs with a toothless beak — were the last thing that a young Gorgosaurus libratus ate some 75 million years ago. The unique discovery of the tyrannosaurid’s fossilized stomach contents shows that the animal probably “dismembered the small prey, swallowed the legs and left the rest of the body out there” says palaeocologist and study co-author François Therrien. Perhaps this Gorgosaurus “didn’t want to be bothered having to cough up some feathers”, Therrien muses.

Scientific American | 6 min read

Reference: Science Advances paper

Infographic of the week

Bar chart shows the number of species that cats eat within each taxonomic class.

Free-ranging domestic cats have chomped on more than 2,000 species — including hundreds that are threatened, endangered or extinct. Researchers combed through more than 100 years of scientific papers, books and reports for mentions of animals eaten by Felis catus. “The study reaffirms that cats are the ultimate versatile generalist predator,” says wildlife ecologist Sarah Legge. “Cats continue to cause population decline, and more extinctions are inevitable if we don’t manage cats.” (Scientific American | 5 min read)

Reference: Nature Communications paper

Features & opinion

The true otherness of Neanderthals

In his new book, archaeologist Ludovic Slimak delves into the ‘soul’ of Neanderthals — the evidence for their artistic, ritual and symbolic natures. He questions whether others have gone too far in characterizing Homo neanderthalensis as the intellectual and creative cousins of Homo sapiens. And he casts doubt on fellow scientists who don’t have the perspective gained from doing decades of fieldwork, which he views as essential. The result is a book that is “absorbing, elegantly written and sometimes mischievously humorous, yet in places also frustratingly unbalanced”, writes archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes.

Nature | 7 min read

Futures: Travels to the end of the Universe

A starfarer finds a space-puppy at the very edge of the Universe in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.

Nature | 6 min read

Five best science books this week

Andrew Robinson’s pick of the top five science books to read this week includes a peek behind the curtain of human consciousness, a look at US politics in a time of climate crisis and a parenting guide for baby artificial intelligences.

Nature | 4 min read

Podcast: Inhaled COVID vaccine shows promise

An experimental inhaled COVID-19 vaccine that boosts the immune response in the lungs has been shown to block infection in monkeys. The rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in the study had already received a standard injection. Current vaccines used in people provide protection against severe disease — this result moves us closer to one that can block infection and stop onward transmission, too.

Nature Podcast | 8 min listen

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Quote of the day

“If you are a theorist, go to the laboratory and get your hands dirty. Look at those beautiful experiments under the microscope and, why not, design experiments of your own. If you are an experimentalist, go through those equations, understand the underlying assumptions and, why not, try to follow that derivation or code.”

Early-career scientists should be encouraged to cross boundaries so that they are better equipped to form fruitful collaborations across the theorist–experimentalist divide, write Xavier Trepat and Ricard Alert. (Nature Physics | 6 min read or see the whole collection on interdisciplinarity in biological physics)