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Several student teachers in the library, reaching for books or studying, at Fort Portal Teacher Training College in Uganda.

Researchers want to expand scientific terms in African languages including Luganda, which is spoken in East Africa. Pictured: student-teachers in Kampala.Credit: Eye Ubiquitous/Alamy

Scientific terms in African languages

Many words common to science have never been written in African languages. Now, researchers from across Africa are changing that. Members of a research project called Decolonise Science plan to translate 180 scientific papers from the AfricArXiv preprint server into 6 African languages that are collectively spoken by around 98 million people: isiZulu and Northern Sotho from southern Africa; Hausa and Yoruba from West Africa; and Luganda and Amharic from East Africa.

Nature | 6 min read

Health researchers report funder pressure

Almost one-fifth of respondents to a survey of public-health researchers reported that they had, on at least one occasion, felt pressured by funders to delay reporting, alter or not publish findings. Public-health research has a history of interference from industry funders, so the team behind the study, led by health scientist Sam McCrabb, expected researchers running industry-funded studies to be those most commonly acting under duress. “But we didn’t find any instances of that,” she says. Instead, government-funded trials were the ones most commonly faced with efforts to suppress results that were deemed ‘unfavourable’ by the agencies or departments that had commissioned them.

Nature | 6 min read Reference: PLoS One paper

Cuttlefish recall times and places

Cuttlefish can remember what, when and where information about specific things that happened — even in old age. Researchers taught six older common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) that a seafood snack in their tanks changed location depending on the time of day. The old cuttlefish learnt to associate the time and location just as well as six young cuttlefish did. “The pedestal upon which humans place themselves in terms of neurological abilities continues to crumble,” says biologist Malcolm Kennedy.

The Guardian | 3 min read Reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B paper

COVID-19 coronavirus update

Fresh hope for ‘pan-coronavirus’ vaccine

People who were infected almost two decades ago with the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) generate a powerful antibody response after being vaccinated against COVID-19. Their immune systems can fight off multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as related coronaviruses found in bats and pangolins. The results offer hope that vaccines can be developed to protect against all new SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as other coronaviruses that could cause future pandemics. The study is a “proof of concept that a pan-coronavirus vaccine in humans is possible”, says viral immunologist David Martinez.

Nature | 7 min read

Reference: New England Journal of Medicine paper

Delta’s rise fuelled by people who feel fine

People infected with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 are more likely to spread the virus before developing symptoms than are people infected with earlier versions. Exhaustive test data from an outbreak in Guangdong, China, included 101 people who were infected with Delta between May and June this year and their close contacts. On average, people began having symptoms 5.8 days after infection with Delta — 1.8 days after they first tested positive for viral RNA. That left almost two days for individuals to shed viral RNA before they showed any sign of COVID-19.

Nature | 3 min read

Reference: medRxiv preprint

Vaccines eventually wane against Delta

Data from the United Kingdom suggest that the Pfizer–BioNTech and Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines are effective against Delta after two doses, but that the protection wanes with time. The Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine was 92% effective at keeping people from developing a high viral load — a high concentration of the virus in their test samples — 14 days after the second dose. But the vaccine’s effectiveness fell to 78% after 90 days. The Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine’s effectiveness against a high viral load lowered from 69% to 61% over the same time gap. The drop shouldn’t be cause for alarm, says medical statistician Sarah Walker. For “both of these vaccines, two doses are still doing really well against Delta”.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: Univ. Oxford preprint

Antibodies reveal Moderna protection

Antibody levels in blood can predict the level of protection provided by Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. After receiving the vaccine, people with relatively low levels of antibodies were more likely to develop symptomatic infections than were those who mounted a stronger antibody response. A new analysis looked at levels of neutralizing antibodies in nearly 50 people who developed breakthrough infections during the trial of the vaccine’s efficacy and compared them with those of matched controls who were not diagnosed with COVID-19.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: medRxiv preprint

Notable quotable

“I never thought that my expertise on pandemics and mass child bereavement would be relevant to the United States. And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.”

For every 13 or so US COVID-19 deaths, a child loses a parent, writes social epidemiologist Rachel Kidman. She outlines how lessons from the HIV epidemic can help them to lead healthy lives and succeed in school. (Nature | 10 min read)

Features & opinion

Yes, the Great Barrier Reef is ‘in danger’

There’s more to gain than lose by adding the Great Barrier Reef to the list of ecosystems ‘in danger’, argues Tiffany Morrison, who studies the governance of approximately 250 ecosystems with World Heritage status. She urges the Australian government to embrace the assessment of the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO. The 2009 listing of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System offers hope for what can result: with technical and financial support for restoration from the World Heritage Fund, it has been taken off the list.

Nature | 5 min read

Image of the week

A group of orcas swimming in the ocean, two of which are pure white

Credit: Goijiraiwa Kanko Whale Watching

Around 1 in 1,000 orcas in the western north Pacific are white. There have been several sightings before, but this is thought to be the first time two white orcas have been seen together. Whale watchers spotted this pair off the coast of Japan on 24 July. Their colour could be caused by albinism or leucism — conditions that affect the production of dark pigmentation in the skin. The visible scratches on their bodies are rake marks made by the teeth of other orcas, possibly from play-fighting. Black-and-white orcas have these, too, but they show up more easily on pale skin.

See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.

Quote of the day

“In less than a century, climate change has upended conditions that have sustained life in the Mesophotic Zone for millions of years.”

After 45 years studying nautiluses, biologist Peter Ward fears he is witnessing the twilight of the iconic creature. (Nautil.us | 11 min read)