Daily briefing: Three decades of Dolly

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Thirty years ago this week, a sheep named Dolly was born — the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. “It was absolutely bonkers,” recalls biotech researcher Bruce Whitelaw. “We weren’t ready for that.” Reproductive cloning is now being used to create cattle with no horns, pigs with more transplant-friendly organs and copies of cherished pets.

But fears of cloned humans have, so far, been unfounded, notes a Nature editorial. “The success rate is too low to consider the method in humans, and the risk of abnormalities resulting from the process is too high.” Dolly’s greatest legacy, it suggests, could have been a better system for preparing for the societal impact of genetic and reproductive technologies — a promise that is yet unfulfilled.

Metro | 5 min read & Nature Editorial | 7 min read

Reference: Nature paper (from 1997)

The 11 British ships that brought the first European colonizers to Australia in 1788 also brought smallpox, suggests new research — and its impact was enormous. Researchers modelled the spread of the disease and found that the outbreak originated with the ‘First Fleet’ — perhaps from material brought to inoculate against the disease. A second modelling study suggests that the continent might have been home to more than 2.5 million people at the time — meaning that the colonial invasion led to the deaths of almost 2.4 million people.

Science | 10 min read

Reference: Research Square preprint 1 & Research Square preprint 2 (not peer reviewed)

Climate change is making heatwaves more frequent, longer and more intense — and heat is the deadliest type of weather. New Scientist lays bare the facts of extreme heat in five graphs that show why heat is so dangerous — and what cities can do to adapt.

New Scientist | 6 min read (free registration required)

Image of the week

This 4-million-year-old fossil of a tapir (Tapirus arvernensis) excavated in Spain is one of the best-preserved skeletons of the species, which went extinct 2.6 million years ago.

See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team. (Gerard Campeny/IPHES-CERCA)

Features & opinion

A growing number of ambitious clinical trials aim to pin down the effects of lifestyle factors such as a healthy diet and social stimulation on reducing a person’s risk of dementia. So far, data suggest that even intensive interventions help only slightly, and none have reduced dementia incidence. But some researchers argue that any reduction in cognitive decline is worth the effort of implementing such programmes. Others are concerned that research focuses too much on personal responsibility when risk factors such as air pollution and access to education are mostly outside of people’s control.

Nature | 12 min read

Exposure to many dementia risk factors, such as physical inactivity or drinking alcohol, could have occurred over decades, and it’s unclear whether changing them in mid-life will undo damage that’s already been done.

The Hubble Space Telescope should remain operational for as long as technically feasible to continue collecting invaluable data on the Universe, argues astrophysicist Rogier Windhorst. Keeping Hubble active into its fifth decade will require NASA to boost the telescope into a higher, more stable orbit. Any viable options to enable that deserve serious consideration, Windhorst writes. “Scientific progress depends on continuity as much as it does on innovation.”

Nature | 5 min read

“It is pretty hard to publish a scientific case report about a grandma reaching 88 years old, but if she manages 122 you might even squeeze a book out of it,” notes researcher Saul Justin Newman in his book Morbid, which aims to debunk modern longevity science. He argues that the field is beset with questionable data, tarnishing research findings and skewing policy decisions. For example, a government investigation found that 80% of Japanese centenarians on the books were missing or had died.

The New Yorker | 19 min read

As someone who suffers from an excess of attractiveness to mosquitos, today I’m delighting in the news that a lotion with a little bit of catnip oil in it appears to be just as effective a repellent as DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide). Not only can DEET be a bit harsh, it’s also too expensive for some of the people who need it most — and catnip (Nepeta cataria) can be grown cheaply at home. Unfortunately I’m also allergic to cats, and the researchers didn’t test whether the lotion would attract moggies while repelling mozzies.

One thing I’ll always welcome is your feedback on this newsletter. Please get in touch at [email protected].

Thanks for reading,

Flora Graham, chief editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Jacob Smith and Felicity Nelson

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