Daily briefing: 'Super-antibodies' fight many coronavirus variants - Nature.com

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New York City residents endured near-record high temperatures in late June during a heatwave that caused power outages.Credit: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg/Getty

Why city heatwaves hit people unfairly

A growing body of research has revealed the environmental injustices that have left some city dwellers baking in vast expanses of asphalt while those in other neighbourhoods benefit from green parks, spacious lawns and sprawling trees. Science also suggests solutions to reduce the dangers. Researchers have calculated that two basic interventions in Los Angeles — planting trees and painting roofs white — could have prevented at least one-quarter of the city’s deaths attributed to recent heatwaves. Other changes can be as simple as putting in a pedestrian crossing so that people can easily reach the shady side of a street.

Nature | 11 min read

COVID-19 coronavirus update

All eyes on England’s risky ‘freedom day’

On 19 July, England is facing what has been dubbed ‘freedom day’ — the end of nearly all measures for mitigating the spread of COVID–19. Around 52% of the population is fully vaccinated, and that progress has weakened the link between infections and hospitalizations or deaths. But infection levels, driven by the rise of the Delta variant, are high — around 300 per 100,000 people — and still rising. Critics call the relaxation an unprecedented public-health experiment. Scientific and public-health experts have raised the concern that an ‘exit wave’ of infections will put children and other unvaccinated people at risk, and increase the chances of vaccine-resistant variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerging.

Nature | 7 min read

Reference: The Lancet letter

‘Super-antibodies’ fight many variants

A new generation of designer antibodies could help to treat a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants — and future coronaviruses with pandemic potential. ‘Super-antibodies’ are modelled on antibodies taken from rare individuals whose immune systems can neutralize any SARS-CoV-2 variant and related coronaviruses. In May, the United States gave emergency authorization to the drug sotrovimab, which traces its roots back to blood drawn in 2013 from a person who had recovered from the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). “We took something from nature that was broad, but not very potent, and then improved the potency while maintaining the breath to essentially make a molecule that would never arise in nature,” says antibody scientist Laura Walker.

Nature Biotechnology | 8 min read

News & views

Southeast Amazonia no longer a carbon sink

Atmospheric measurements show that deforestation and rapid local warming have reduced or eliminated the capacity of the southeastern Amazonian forest to absorb carbon — with worrying implications for future global warming. Researchers used an airplane to directly measure the concentrations of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide at four sites in Amazonia over nine years, starting in 2010. In the southeast, more carbon was emitted from decay processes than was taken up by plants for growth.

Nature | 7 min read

Read more: When will the Amazon hit a tipping point? (Nature | 11 min read, from 2020)

Reference: Nature paper

Figure 1 | Carbon fluxes in different Amazonian regions. From 2010 to 2018, Gatti et al.² measured vertical profiles of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide above four regions in Amazonia (the two locations shown in northwestern Amazonia were counted as one region), and thereby calculated regional carbon fluxes upwind of each site, measured in grams of carbon per square metre per day. In the bar charts, net biome exchange (NBE) represents the average annual balance of CO₂ absorbed by forests for photosynthesis compared with the amount of CO₂ produced by the decay of organic matter (negative NBE values indicate that the forest acts as a carbon sink); ‘fire’ represents the average carbon emissions produced by fires; and ‘total’ represents the sum of NBE and fire emissions. The NBE values indicate that most regions of Amazonia are weak carbon sinks, but southeastern Amazonia is actually a carbon source.

All four corners of the great forest have a positive net total amount of carbon emissions — much of them from fires. In the southwest and northeast, this is heavily offset by the carbon dioxide absorbed by forests for photosynthesis. However, in the southeast, this absorption has been hindered by deforestation and the intensification of the dry season. In this region, the net biome exchange (NBE) shows that the forest is producing more CO₂ (from the decay of organic matter) than it’s absorbing. And in the northwest, the NBE is close to carbon balance.

Quote of the day

“My blunt advice to those who care about research funding is to take nothing at all for granted.”

John Kingman, stepping down as head of the United Kingdom’s government funding agency, offers an incisive behind-the-scenes view into how research is — and should be — supported in the country. (The British Academy | 17 min read)

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