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Neanderthals might have lived in small groups, with females regularly arriving and leaving.Credit: S. Plailly/E. Daynes/SPL
A Neanderthal nuclear family
For the first time, researchers have identified a set of closely related Neanderthals: a father, his teenage daughter and two other more distant relatives. The discovery of the family and seven more individuals in Chagyrskaya Cave in southern Siberia, along with two more from a nearby site, nearly doubles the number of known Neanderthal genomes. Genetic clues found in the individuals’ DNA hint that the population of breeding adults was low, and that there was more diversity in maternally inherited mitochondrial genomes — suggesting that mothers left their communities to build new families.
Reference: Nature paper
Orangutan genome mix-up
A landmark genetic study of orangutans mistakenly muddled which sequences belonged to which species, with knock-on effects on hundreds of subsequent manuscripts. The slip-up might have implications for captive breeding programmes, which try to avoid hybridizing orangutan species. It also highlights how easy it can be for mistakes to enter the scientific record. “In some ways, we’re lucky that this was just orangutans,” says Graham Banes, who led a reanalysis of the flawed paper. “What if this was a biomedical paper and people were developing therapies based on published data?”
References: Original Nature paper (now corrected) & Scientific Data paper that reveals the mistake
The lasting legacy of bubonic plague
The bubonic plague, which was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, might have left its mark on the genes involved in the modern human immune system. Four DNA variants, in particular, seem to have become more common after the Black Death, and might have contributed to survival. The protection afforded by those variants could have come at a cost: today, two of them are associated with an increased risk of autoimmune disorders, such as Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
Read more: evolutionary biologist David Enard analyses the research in the Nature News & Views article (5 min read, Nature paywall)
Racism in science special issue
Martha Gilmore studies the geology of Venus, Mars and Earth.Credit: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn for Nature
Scientists bear witness to racism
Racism is, in the words of Black geoscientist Martha Gilmore, a “persistent current in everyday interactions” — of belittlement, of denial of opportunity, of feeling that you do not belong. Those are persistent themes in this series of profiles, in which Gilmore and four other Black and Indigenous researchers tell of their personal experiences of discrimination.
‘It’s a constant hum’: a planetary geologist calls out racism in academia
Martha Gilmore has faced not only accusations of theft and lying, but also quiet isolation and the pain of watching racism bear down on others.
The first Indigenous female surgeon in Canada is battling for health justice
Nadine Caron was appalled to hear racist views about Indigenous health from a project adviser. So she’s fighting to change perceptions.
The geoscientist fighting for universities to confront systemic racism
Christopher Jackson felt obligated to speak out against racism in UK institutions, but a lack of support left him disillusioned with academia.
‘There’s no space for us’: an Indigenous-health researcher battles racism in Australia
Chelsea Watego saw a message in the cold, cramped office space she was given. She decided to fight back.
‘I was treated as if I was dirty’: a paediatrician decries racism against African scientists
Nadia Sam-Agudu is tired of how international funders and collaborators infantilize her and her colleagues.
Racism in science special issue
Martha Gilmore studies the geology of Venus, Mars and Earth.Credit: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn for Nature
Scientists bear witness to racism
Racism is, in the words of Black geoscientist Martha Gilmore, a “persistent current in everyday interactions” — of belittlement, of denial of opportunity, of feeling that you do not belong. Those are persistent themes in this series of profiles, in which Gilmore and four other Black and Indigenous researchers tell of their personal experiences of discrimination.
‘It’s a constant hum’: a planetary geologist calls out racism in academia
Martha Gilmore has faced not only accusations of theft and lying, but also quiet isolation and the pain of watching racism bear down on others.
The first Indigenous female surgeon in Canada is battling for health justice
Nadine Caron was appalled to hear racist views about Indigenous health from a project adviser. So she’s fighting to change perceptions.
The geoscientist fighting for universities to confront systemic racism
Christopher Jackson felt obligated to speak out against racism in UK institutions, but a lack of support left him disillusioned with academia.
‘There’s no space for us’: an Indigenous-health researcher battles racism in Australia
Chelsea Watego saw a message in the cold, cramped office space she was given. She decided to fight back.
‘I was treated as if I was dirty’: a paediatrician decries racism against African scientists
Nadia Sam-Agudu is tired of how international funders and collaborators infantilize her and her colleagues.
Where I work
Damian Cohall is a senior lecturer and head of preclinical and health sciences at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, in Barbados.Credit: Micah B. Rubin for Nature
“Across the Caribbean, medicinal plants grow everywhere,” says pharmacologist Damian Cohall, shown here with a West Indian bay tree (Pimenta racemosa) and wearing a dashiki gifted to him on a visit to Ghana. “When I started studying plants and their historical uses, I realized there was a greater mission — to understand the culture of our ancestors,” he says. “I’m using ethnopharmacology to try to change the narrative on what traditional medicine is: to show that it is indeed scientific, and always has been.”
(Nature | 3 min read) (Micah B. Rubin for Nature)
