Science Minister Patrick Vallance: The KAKENHI budget crisis is needed to regain Japan’s competitiveness in the light of the COVID epidemic

The new UK government’s science minister has been named as clinical researcher Patrick Vallance, who gained a high profile for his sober TV appearances as the government’s chief scientific adviser during the COVID pandemic. Vallance does not have any ministerial experience. His hiring is a positive sign that the research community has someone with experience who understands what they are doing, according to a former civil servant and researcher.

Hundreds of thousands of scientists in Japan have signed a petition calling on the government to increase funds for Japan’s most important source of basic-science funding, KAKENHI. The budget for KAKENHI has not changed over the past decade, totaling more than $242 billion (US$ 1.5 billion). The organizers of the petition said double this amount was needed to regain the country’s competitiveness. The country needs to change its funding mechanisms, according to others.

Evidence of Cerebrospinal Fluid as a Cause of Aural Migdal Instability in Mice (Natural | 8 min read)

There is research showing that brain activity can cause aural migraines. It suggests that the ‘aura’ phase before the headache — when people experience symptoms such as blind spots — temporarily changes the content of the cerebrospinal fluid, the clear liquid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The researchers suggest that this altered fluid travels through a previously unknown gap to the brain where it can cause inflammation and pain. “Migraine is actually protective” in that it signals something abnormal is happening in the brain, says neuroscientist and study co-author Maiken Nedergaard. “The pain is protective because it’s telling the person to rest and recover and sleep.”

Furaha Asani said that the narrow scope of degrees makes it difficult for researchers to build trust, do work relevant to the public and be innovative and creative. The 12 min read is nature.

There will be benefits for health care and research with full-body, continuous Wearable Ultrasonics. Wearables that can collect data from within a couple of millimetres below the skin tend to be smart watches. The use of sound waves to image the inside of the body can be used to make medical scans more affordable. Researchers have to make these devices more comfortable to wear, stretch their battery life, and refine theirDurability, Flexibility, and Accuracy. (Nature | 8 min read)

Source: Daily briefing: Spinal fluid causes aural migraine pain, suggests research in mice

Why a mini sauna can help protect endangered amphibians from diseases like chytridiomycosis? Andrew Robinson’s picks for top science books

Endangered Australian green and golden bell frogs (Litoria aurea) who take a ‘mini sauna’ in sun-warmed bricks can develop resistance to chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease that has driven at least 90 amphibian species to extinction. It helps them to become resistant to infections at cooler temperature and anyone can build one in their backyard. Anna Savage co- wrote an accompanying Nature News & Views article about a piece of scientific research she found to be very easy to understand.

A book based on a national survey about whether climate anxiety is affecting people’s decisions about procreation and a book about 30 European scientists who were turned away from the UK during World War II are Andrew Robinson’s picks for the top science books to read this week.

Lynn Brielmaier was a 59-year-old father with a demanding, physical job as a maritime electronics engineer when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was able to gain hope from a US programme that would allow expanded access to experimental therapies. The track is filled with bureaucratic hurdles, he writes. People with fatal diseases deserve access to treatments that may help prolong their lives, and that’s what a seamless system can do.

Breaking the Rules: What scientists do when they lose their blood: tackling the problem of losing the tiger mammal, Dunnart, a mouse-esque mammalian

Andrew is checking the stem cells of the fat-tailed dunnart, a mouse-esque mammal which is the closest living relative to the Tasmanian tiger. The main project is to return the tylacine. The team is trying to make a complete genome for the species and conduct in-vitro fertilization for the animals. People say we’re playing God with our work. But we played God when we wiped out the thylacine. My research is looking at ways to heal lost biodiversity.” 3 min read.

On 29 May, Stuart Cantrill (the editorial director of the physics and chemistry Nature journals) was present when the final report of the United Kingdom’s Infected Blood Inquiry was delivered. The report’s damning verdict: a litany of failures in the country’s National Health Service, more than 30,000 people infected with HIV and hepatitis from blood and blood products, and successive governments who failed to respond adequately to the unfolding scandal. Many died before the inquiry even began, including my dad. “The devastation wrought on my family cannot be undone, but if lessons are actually learned and real change implemented in patient safety culture, that will at least bring some comfort.”

In the latest Nature Careers advice column, a biology postdoc who wants to break into industry keeps receiving impersonal, early-stage rejections even for jobs they were well suited for. An industry scientist, a career development leader and a sales specialist have tips on how to stop your application disappearing into a black hole.

At the Kyoto Protocol’s signing, climate scientist Peter Stott was a junior researcher. A new stage play based on the event “feels as relevant today as the summit did in 1997”, he writes. “The denouement was as thrilling in Kyoto the play as it was in Kyoto the city.”

The emotional burden of studying a disappearing species and the bureaucratic hoops that have to be traveled to get an animal listed as “endangered” is just some of the challenges that biologists face. Collaboration and connecting with other people helps them to cope. And occasionally, a small miracle — such as when ecologist Luis Coloma saw evidence of an iconic Ecuadorian jambato toad (Atelopus ignescens) that was thought to be extinct. “I couldn’t believe it. I lost the faith that I would see these frogs again,” he says. “It was a dream.”

Source: Daily briefing: 15-minute reaction turns old clothes into useful molecules

Dielectric Termites in the Buffels River: Breaking Down Cotton and Polyester in a Simple Chemical-Processing Process

Southern harvester termites (Microhodotermes viator) have been living their best lives in mounds along the Buffels River in South Africa since woolly mammoths roamed the Earth. Researchers estimate that the mounds are 34,000 years old, making them the oldest known inhabited mounds. “We knew they were old, but not that old,” says soil scientist Michele Francis.

A chemical-processing technique breaks down polyester fabrics into reusable molecules in only 15 minutes. It can break down polycotton, leaving the cotton to be recovered. The researchers estimate that a refined version of the process could recycle 88% of clothing worldwide. Dionisios Vlachos, a co-author of the study, says that they have a simple process that can be scaled to treat large quantities of clothing. We are really confident that it can be used in the real world.