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Surgeons perform the world’s first genetically modified pig kidney transplant into a living human at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston transplanted a modified pig kidney into a living person for the first time in 2024.Credit: Massachusetts General Hospital

Pig organ trial given the go ahead

The first clinical trial testing whether pig organs can be safely transplanted into people has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Six people with end-stage renal disease will receive kidneys from pigs that have been genetically modified to reduce the risk of the organ being rejected. Patients will be closely monitored for about six months for serious adverse events and signs of kidney damage, and then followed up with for the rest of their lives. Around half a dozen people have received organs from gene-edited pigs before, but these surgeries were approved on a case-by-case, compassionate basis.

Nature | 5 min read

How researchers are using AI

A survey of nearly 5,000 researchers worldwide by publisher Wiley suggests that using artificial intelligence (AI) tools for processes such as preparing manuscripts, writing grant applications and peer review will become widely accepted within the next two years. Only 45% of the first wave of respondents (1,043 researchers) said that they had actually used AI to help with their research, and the most common uses they cited were translation, proofreading and editing manuscripts. However, the majority of those surveyed expressed interest in expanding their AI use.

Nature | 6 min read

Reference: Wiley survey results

Acceptable use: Bar chart showing survey results. Researchers anticipate that most uses of AI will gain widespread acceptance within a few years.

Source: ExplanAItions report, Wiley

Trump policies ricochet through climate, health and science

News

Trump’s climate plan is bad for the US

Researchers have begun plugging US president Donald Trump’s energy and climate policies into their models, and the early results suggest far-reaching environmental, health and economic consequences. Among these estimates for the effect on the United States, by 2030, of Trump administration’s policies:

• 2 billion–4 billion tonnes more carbon dioxide emissions than what would otherwise occur

• 4 million net jobs lost as a result of a broad repeal of current energy and climate policies

• Several thousand premature deaths a year because of increased air pollution

• Energy prices rise for most people because of a lack of investment in renewables, which have lower operating costs

• At worst, Trump’s policies and abandonment of the Paris agreement could erode the global appetite for climate action

It’s not clear whether Trump will be able to accomplish his goals. Market forces are turning the tide towards green energy, and US businesses and local governments might push back against the loss of climate investments that Congress approved in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Nature | 6 min read

News

CDC withdraws papers to censor gender

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has mandated that all of its researchers’ under-review papers be withdrawn so they can be checked for compliance with a controversial executive order signed by President Trump. Manuscripts must not include any mention of terms including ‘gender’, ‘transgender’ and ‘non-binary’, among others. It is uncertain whether journals, which have their own rules for discussing gender and sex, will go along with the directive. “Unfortunately, I see two things happening: a lot of these withdrawn papers will never be published” because collaborators outside the CDC aren’t going to agree to omit data, says social epidemiologist Ayden Scheim, “and in the long term, a lot of research that focuses on health inequities for women or LGBTQ+ people will disappear”.

Nature | 6 min read

Opinion

How the WHO can thrive without the US

The decision by US President Donald Trump to withdraw the country from the World Health Organization (WHO) is a heavy blow, says a Nature editorial — but one that can be recovered from. “The organization cannot allow itself to become so reliant on a single donor again,” it argues. Instead, the WHO’s remaining 193 members — particularly the high-income and upper-middle-income nations — and philanthropic foundations should step up to fill the gap left by the United States.

Nature | 5 min read

Features & opinion

What Google and AI are doing to our brains

Is having the world’s knowledge at our fingertips tempting us to do some serious ‘cognitive offloading’ — meaning we remember less information ourselves? Some studies suggest that the Internet and digital technologies can affect performance on specific tasks: for example, people who use GPS devices seem worse at recalling routes. But there is not convincing evidence that the Internet is weakening our memory more broadly (you’re probably just getting older, says Daniel Schacter, who studies memory). That story could change with generative-AI tools, such as ChatGPT, say researchers: the output tends to be riddled with convincing errors that might seed false memories.

Nature | 10 min read

Physicists: don’t fear the fringe

“Few scientists today would welcome the idea that the progress of their disciplines owe anything to encounters with fringe or ‘pseudo’ sciences,” writes historian Richard Noakes. But the hard boundaries between “science and its shadowy other” have not always been so clear cut, he argues. For example, in the 1870s, analytical chemist William Crookes applied rigorous methods to investigate claims of contact with the spirit world, alongside his award-winning work to experimentally demonstrate a controversial mechanical effect of radiation in a vacuum.

Nature Reviews Physics | 7 min read

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We are probably the only Dark Sky community in the world that has no residential lights because they couldn’t afford to pay the bill.”

In 2020, Kairina Danforth was the mayor of Crestone, Colorado, when it ran out of money to put its streetlights on. People liked the star-strewn skies so much that the town has kept the lights off — and joined the movement to reduce light pollution. (CNN | 6 min read)