Variant of mpox virus is getting better at human-to-human transmission

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here.

A blockbuster weight-loss drug sharply reduces pain from obesity-related knee arthritis and improves a person’s ability to engage in activities such as climbing stairs. A clinical trial of 400 participants across five continents showed that semaglutide, a drug sold as Wegovy for treating obesity, provided pain relief on a par with opioid drugs. At the end of the trial, many participants’ pain had subsided enough that they were no longer eligible for the study, says rheumatologist Henning Bliddal. “They got a therapy that was so effective that they more or less were treated out of the study,” he says.

Nature | 4 min read

Reference: New England Journal of Medicine

Detailed maps that pinpoint the positions of cells in tumours and probe the tumours’ biology are offering insights into the development of several cancers, and could provide leads for potential treatments. Researchers from the Human Tumor Atlas Network analysed hundreds of thousands of cells from human and animal tissues. Their results describe extremely detailed 3D maps of tumour cells and trace the cellular changes that lead to cancer with ‘molecular clocks’. The clocks reveal other factors, beyond just size, that could help to evaluate the risk of pre-cancerous growths.

Nature | 6 min read

Reference: Package of twelve papers in Nature journals — start with this beautifully illustrated introductory page.

A reaction between the amino acid cysteine with short-chain carbon molecules forms small, two-tailed lipids that spontaneously arrange themselves into a membrane-like sphere. Researchers suggest these ‘protocell’ spheres could mimic an early stage of cell membrane evolution. The membranes of our cells are made of large lipids with two tails, called phospholipids. But these phospholipids were probably scarce on Earth before life began. The earliest cells might therefore have relied on smaller lipids, like the ones formed in this reaction.

Science | 5 min read

Reference: Nature Chemistry paper

Genomic analysis shows that a strain of the virus that causes mpox appears to be spreading from person to person in an outbreak in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Previously, the variant, called clade Ia, was known to transmit predominantly from animals to humans in Central Africa. The pathogen spreading between humans, possibly through sexual contact, could further complicate efforts to halt transmission of the disease in the region. “We don’t know how far these adaptations can go, and we are gathering data to understand how this evolution is occurring,” says Placide Mbala, head of epidemiology and global health at Kinshasa’s National Institute of Biomedical Research.

Nature | 6 min read

Reference: Preliminary results posted on Virological (not peer reviewed)

What makes the human brain so special?

The human brain develops slowly compared to other animals. It takes almost 30 years, roughly half our average lifespan, to mature and refine its connections. A mouse brain, however, fully develops in just 5% of its lifespan. (Illustration by Phil Wheeler)

Our brains allow us to do all sorts of things unique to humans: use sarcasm, solve crossword puzzles, envision our future. Their complexity also leaves us susceptible to conditions we don’t see in animals, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. An avalanche of data has started to reveal key differences between human and animal brains, but exactly what gives rise to our unique cognitive skills still isn’t totally clear.

Nature | Leisurely scroll

Brain size is tightly correlated with body size in most animals, but humans buck the trend. Given our body size, our brains are much bigger than expected.

Researchers often use a ratio called the encephalization quotient (EQ) to get an idea of how much larger or smaller an animal’s brain is compared to what would be expected given its body size. The EQ is 1.0 if the brain to body mass ratio meets expectations, but the EQ of human brains exceeds this by around 7.5 times.

But it’s not just size that sets the human brain apart. For instance, neurons in the human brain are longer and make more connections with each other than those in chimpanzee brains do, and our brains contain 2.5 more interneurons — a class of cells that dampen neural activity and control excitation — than do the brains of mice.

And there’s plenty more to discover about how our brains make us so talkative, sociable and intelligent.

Features & opinion

Today marks Halloween, the celebration of all things spooky. As children take to the streets dressed in their best ghoulish costumes, Nature asked nine scientists who study unusual animals and plants what drew them to their favourite — often misunderstood — subjects, from the common raven (Corvus corax) to the corpse plant (Amorphophallus titanum).

Nature | 11 min read

Today I’m giggling at the celestial ‘googly eye’ caught by NASA’s Perseverance rover. Phobos, one of Mars’s moons, cast a silhouette as it passed in front of the Sun, briefly turning its orange surface into an iris, with Phobos as a pupil.

Let me know what I should be keeping an eye on at [email protected].

Thanks for reading,

Jacob Smith, associate editor, Nature Briefing

Want more? Sign up to our other free Nature Briefing newsletters:

• Nature Briefing: Careers — insights, advice and award-winning journalism to help you optimize your working life

• Nature Briefing: Microbiology — the most abundant living entities on our planet — microorganisms — and the role they play in health, the environment and food systems

• Nature Briefing: Anthropocene — climate change, biodiversity, sustainability and geoengineering

• Nature Briefing: AI & Robotics — 100% written by humans, of course

• Nature Briefing: Cancer — a weekly newsletter written with cancer researchers in mind

• Nature Briefing: Translational Research — covers biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma