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Understanding how animals' capacity to count evolved and works at the neural level could benefit research on human cognition.[Image: see text]

Understanding how evolution generates and maintains redundancy to cope with damage and loss of function in living systems could inspire applications from new therapies to resilient computer networks.[Image: see text]

Buildings should serve the people who live and work there. Buildings for research should encourage and symbolize communication, transparency and interactions among scientists.[Image: see text]

Better knowledge of marine carbon cycles, their effect on global warming, and the important role of fish in both, can convince politics to establish more sustainable fishery policies.[Image: see text]

Human challenge trials to deliberately infect volunteers with SARS‐CoV‐2 should inspire wider debates about research ethics and participants’ motivations to take part in such studies. [Image: see text]

Human actions have caused an increasing number of species to go extinct. Do the available data support concerns about a new mass extinction event? [Image: see text]

Various viruses can affect the brain directly or indirectly. The specter of Long COVID has focused research on how respiratory viruses can cause infection and inflammation of brain cells. [Image: see text]

Postdocs are at a challenging step in the career ladder and research organisations could do more to help them along the way.[Image: see text]

Open Science calls for transparent science and involvement of various stakeholders. Here are examples of and advice for meaningful stakeholder engagement.

Plant biologists have begun to unravel the molecular mechanisms behind grafting, yielding insights into plant evolution and expanding the scope of this technique.[Image: see text]

Lessons learned from the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 has encouraged research and vaccine development aimed at mustering strong T cell responses against the pathogen.

Synthetic biology could harness the ability of microorganisms to use highly toxic cyanide compounds for growth applied to bioremediation of cyanide-contaminated mining wastes and areas.

AlphaFold is the most ground-breaking application of AI in science so far; it will revolutionize structural biology, but caution is warranted.

A survey of academics in Germany shows a lack of and a great demand for training in leadership skills.

Non‐technical summaries of research projects allow tracking the numbers and purpose of animal experiments related to SARS‐CoV2 research so as to provide greater transparency on animal use.

Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses occasionally infect humans, but currently do not transmit efficiently among humans. The viral haemagglutinin (HA) protein is a known host-range determinant as it mediates virus binding to host-specific cellular receptors. Here we assess the molecular changes in HA that would allow a virus possessing subtype H5 HA to be transmissible among mammals. We identified a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus-comprising H5 HA (from an H5N1 virus) with four mutations and the remaining seven gene segments from a 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus-that was capable of droplet transmission in a ferret model. The transmissible H5 reassortant virus preferentially recognized human-type receptors, replicated efficiently in ferrets, caused lung lesions and weight loss, but was not highly pathogenic and did not cause mortality. These results indicate that H5 HA can convert to an HA that supports efficient viral transmission in mammals; however, we do not know whether the four mutations in the H5 HA identified here would render a wholly avian H5N1 virus transmissible. The genetic origin of the remaining seven viral gene segments may also critically contribute to transmissibility in mammals. Nevertheless, as H5N1 viruses continue to evolve and infect humans, receptor-binding variants of H5N1 viruses with pandemic potential, including avian-human reassortant viruses as tested here, may emerge. Our findings emphasize the need to prepare for potential pandemics caused by influenza viruses possessing H5 HA, and will help individuals conducting surveillance in regions with circulating H5N1 viruses to recognize key residues that predict the pandemic potential of isolates, which will inform the development, production and distribution of effective countermeasures.

From immunology to manufacturing to social science: COVID-19 has been a boon for research and development in many research areas.

The Physalis community science project shows how citizen science not just communicates with and engages people in research but also how it can inform and benefit the professional scientists. [Image: see text]

Until COVID‐19, coronaviruses were largely overlooked by virologists. Yet, their abundance in mammalian species could cause new spillover events into humans. [Image: see text]

ヒト胚研究のルールを変更することの意味. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-09-02., Science is based on promises, not on mere rules. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-09-06.

As humans, many animal species that communicate via vocalization show a wide range of accents and dialects driven by environmental and social factors. [Image: see text]

New biotechnologies such as gene drives and engineered viruses herald a viral era that would give humans exceptional power over any organism at the level of the genotype.

The biological cause for the increase in Autism Spectrum Disorder may be fathers’ older age and the epigenetic marks it leaves on sperm cells.[Image: see text]

Even if the predominant model of science communication with the public is now based on dialogue, many experts still adhere to the outdated deficit model of informing the public.

Giant viruses continue to yield fascinating discoveries from ancient eukaryotic immune defenses to viruses’ role in the global carbon cycle.[Image: see text]

Farmers’ opinions and concerns are rarely considered in public debates about the use of gene‐editing technologies to modify farm animals.

Proteomics research infrastructures and core facilities within the Core for Life alliance advocate for community policies for quality control to ensure high standards in proteomics services. The CRG/UPF Proteomics Unit is a member of the ProteoRed PRB3 consortium which is supported by grant PT17/0019 of the PE I + D+i 2013‐2016 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and ERDF. We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013‐2017”, SEV‐2012‐ 0208, and “Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya” (2017SGR595). The VIB Proteomics Core acknowledges support from the VIB Tech Watch Fund and FWO‐SBO Project S006617N. Research in the Mechtler lab was supported by the ERA‐CAPS I 3686 project of the Austrian Science Fund. We acknowledge support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 823839 (EPIC‐XS)

Giving undergraduate students an opportunity to partake in a research project pays back for both students and the lab. [Image: see text]

Governments' measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic and public reaction hold important lessons for science and risk communication in times of crisis.

Modern biotechnology holds great potential for expanding the scope of fermentation to create novel foods and improve the sustainability of food production. [Image: see text]

There is no doubt that sleep is good for health. Yet, understanding how sleep exerts its healing effects has been a formidable challenge. [Image: see text]

Policymakers should treat DIY‐biology laboratories as legitimate parts of the scientific enterprise and pay attention to the role of community norms.[Image: see text]

The Research Center Borstel developed a bottom-up approach based on communication and team scouts to create a culture that fosters research integrity.

Japanese students’ seeming low proficiency of English is not caused by lack of efforts to internationalize, but rather changing career preferences.[Image: see text]

The ongoing lockdowns provide ideal conditions to study the relationship between wildlife and humans but among humans themselves.

Since COVID-19 hit last year, lecturers and professors have been exploring digital and other tools to teach and instruct their students.

Ethical challenges should be addressed before gene editing is made available to improve the immune response against emerging viruses.

Despite its limited resources, Portugal has gained a prominent position in research on malaria. Several historical and personal factors have contributed to this achievement. [Image: see text]

The COVID‐19 pandemic highlights how our ancient fear response can be exploited for nefarious purposes with social media lending a helping hand.

Biosafety is a major challenge for developing for synthetic organisms. An early focus on application and their context could assist with the design of appropriate genetic safeguards.

The rumen microbiome ‐ a remarkable example of obligatory symbiosis with high ecological and social relevance[Image: see text]

Brain imaging and research on bilinguals and patients with speech disorders is helping to unravel semantic processing – the way how the brain interprets and stores sentences and stories.[Image: see text]

This year’s Nobel prize for the CRISPR/Cas system is an illustrative example of how scientific breakthroughs rests on preceding work: the discovery of guide RNAs in the 1990s.[Image: see text]

Global climate change and the increasing human population require crop varieties with higher yield and draught resistance. But meeting both goals is not an easy task for breeders and plant science.[Image: see text]

China and the WHO's promotion of herbal and traditional medicines, most of which were not tested for safety and efficacy, have raised public health concerns.[Image: see text]

The transition to a carbon‐neutral bioeconomy becomes increasingly urgent in light of climate change. It will require a whole set of policies to stimulate research, investments and public support. [Image: see text]

The COVID-19 crisis has further highlighted the challenges for open science and data sharing in biomedical research and the need for more traceability and transparency.

Social media companies have resorted to censorship to suppress misinformation about the COVID‐19 pandemic. This is not the most prudent solution though given the uncertainties about the disease.

Social media has been an effective vector for spreading disinformation about medicine and science. Informational hygiene can reduce the severity of falsehoods about health.

A toolkit for mentoring minority students and trainees in science.[Image: see text]