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  • Safe and just Earth system boundaries | Nature
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06083-8

    The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked1,2,3, yet their interdependencies are generally under-recognized; consequently, they are often treated independently4,5. Here, we use modelling and literature assessment to quantify safe and just Earth system boundaries (ESBs) for climate, the biosphere, water and nutrient cycles, and aerosols at global and subglobal scales. We propose ESBs for maintaining the resilience and stability of the Earth system (safe ESBs) and minimizing exposure to significant harm to humans from Earth system change (a necessary but not sufficient condition for justice)4. The stricter of the safe or just boundaries sets the integrated safe and just ESB. Our findings show that justice considerations constrain the integrated ESBs more than safety considerations for climate and atmospheric aerosol loading. Seven of eight globally quantified safe and just ESBs and at least two regional safe and just ESBs in over half of global land area are already exceeded. We propose that our assessment provides a quantitative foundation for safeguarding the global commons for all people now and into the future.

  • Les courants océaniques profonds ralentissent des décennies plus tôt que prévu sous l’effet de la fonte des glaces antarctiques
    https://www.lemonde.fr/climat/article/2023/05/27/antarctique-les-courants-oceaniques-profonds-ralentissent-plus-tot-que-prevu

    Selon une étude parue dans « Nature Climate Change », le ralentissement des courants océaniques profonds se produit « en avance sur le calendrier », menaçant la vie marine et risquant d’accélérer le réchauffement climatique.

    Le ralentissement des courants océaniques profonds, causé par la fonte des glaces de l’Antarctique, arrive plus tôt que prévu. De longue date, les scientifiques ont averti qu’une accélération de la fonte des glaces antarctiques et de la hausse des températures, entraînée par l’émission des gaz à effet de serre d’origine humaine, devrait avoir un effet significatif sur le réseau mondial des courants océaniques qui transportent les nutriments, l’oxygène et le carbone.
    [...]
    Mais l’étude publiée jeudi 25 mai dans Nature Climate Change, fondée, elle, en grande partie sur des données d’observations recueillies par des centaines de scientifiques au fil des décennies, montre que ce processus a en fait déjà ralenti de 30 % entre les années 1990 et 2010. « Nos données montrent que les impacts du changement climatique sont en avance sur le calendrier », a déclaré l’auteur principal Kathryn Gunn, de l’agence scientifique australienne Csiro et de l’université britannique de Southampton. « D’une certaine manière, le fait que cela se produise n’est pas surprenant. Mais le timing lui l’est » davantage, a souligné la scientifique.

    Pour aller plus loin dans la compréhension de ces phénomènes et appréhender leurs potentielles capacités de nuisance :

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01678-5
    Sea surface warming patterns drive hydrological sensitivity uncertainties

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01667-8
    Recent reduced abyssal overturning and ventilation in the Australian Antarctic Basin

  • 2 milliards d’humains souffriront de chaleurs mortelles
    https://reporterre.net/Des-chaleurs-mortelles-pour-deux-millards-d-humains

    Des chaleurs mortelles vont toucher deux milliards d’humains. Voici les résultats d’une étude publiée le 22 mai dans la revue Nature Sustainability.

    Selon les chercheurs, la hausse des températures, +2,7 °C minimum d’ici 2100 par rapport à l’ère pré-industrielle, va exposer plus d’un cinquième de l’humanité à des chaleurs extrêmes et potentiellement mortelles.

    Source: Quantifying the human cost of global warming | Nature Sustainability
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01132-6

    #climat

  • https://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2015/08/14/70-ans-apres-hiroshima-pourquoi-rendre-les-microbes-plus-dangereux_4725092_1 .

    .https://www.wax-science.fr/carton-vert-pour-le-combat-de-simon-wain-hobson-mission-impossible-2bis
    Déjà en 2015 des scientifiques s’inquiètent que les labos américains travaillent des virus existants pour les rendre encore plus méchants ou virulent https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/lab-made-coronavirus-triggers-debate-34502 Ils ont discutés a cause de fuites qu’il y a eu !
    Mais on continué dans des labos dans le monde entiers dans des pays soumis à leurs lois ..J’ai trouvé ces articles qui le prouvent les labos inventent des nouveaux virus « chimères » a partir de ceux qui existent déjà : https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debate-over-risky-research-1.18787 ? mais personne pour relever cela ..si ils inventent des vaccins ça rapporte beaucoup d’argent .Trump a menti il savait qu’il y aurait une grosse m.......Ils avaient même leurs plans .https://fr.scribd.com/document/454422848/Pentagon-Influenza-Response .
    https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/health/2020/may/rfid-chip-may-be-tied-to-the-new-coronavirus-vaccine Une puce RFID

  • Defending Earth’s terrestrial #microbiome | Nature Microbiology
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01228-3

    (PDF https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/213168201/Defending_Earth_s_terrestrial_microbiome.pdf
    Via « naked capitalism »)

    [T]here is an emerging realization that Earth’s microbial biodiversity is under threat.

    Here we advocate for the conservation and restoration of soil microbial life, as well as active incorporation of microbial biodiversity into managed food and forest landscapes, with an emphasis on soil fungi.

    We analyse 80 experiments to show that native soil microbiome restoration can accelerate plant biomass production by 64% on average, across ecosystems. Enormous potential also exists within managed landscapes, as agriculture and forestry are the dominant uses of land on Earth.

    Along with improving and stabilizing yields, enhancing microbial biodiversity in managed landscapes is a critical and underappreciated opportunity to build reservoirs, rather than deserts, of microbial life across our planet.

    As markets emerge to engineer the ecosystem microbiome, we can avert the mistakes of aboveground ecosystem management and avoid microbial #monocultures of single high-performing microbial strains, which can exacerbate ecosystem vulnerability to pathogens and extreme events.

    Harnessing the planet’s breadth of microbial life has the potential to transform ecosystem management, but it requires that we understand how to monitor and conserve the Earth’s microbiome.

    #sols #marché

  • Massive mosquito factory in Brazil aims to halt dengue
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01266-9


    A World Mosquito Program (WMP) staff member releases Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in Niterói, Brazil.
    Credit: WMP Brasil.

    Facility will produce up to five billion bacteria-infected mosquitoes per year.

    The non-profit World Mosquito Program (WMP) has announced that it will release modified mosquitoes in many of Brazil’s urban areas over the next 10 years, with the aim of protecting up to 70 million people from diseases such as dengue. Researchers have tested the release of this type of mosquito — which carries a Wolbachia bacterium that stops the insect from transmitting viruses — in select cities in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Vietnam. But this will be the first time that the technology is dispersed nationwide.

    The mosquito strategy that could eliminate dengue
    A mosquito factory will be built in a location yet to be determined in Brazil to supply the WMP’s ambitious initiative, in partnership with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a Brazilian public science institution in Rio de Janeiro. The facility should begin operating in 2024 and will produce up to five billion mosquitoes per year. “This will be the biggest facility in the world” to produce Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes, says Scott O’Neill, a microbiologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and head of the WMP. “And it will allow us in a short period of time to cover more people than in any other country.” Brazil has one of the highest rates of dengue infection in the world, reporting more than two million cases in 2022.

    Despite the positive results from past mosquito releases, researchers expect that it will be challenging to operate the technology at such a massive scale.
    […]
    Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes have already been approved by Brazilian regulatory agencies. But the technology has not yet been officially endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which could be an obstacle to its use in other countries. The WHO’s Vector Control Advisory Group has been evaluating the modified mosquitoes, and a discussion about the technology is on the agenda for the group’s next meeting later this month.

    Despite the mosquitoes’ success, Luciano Moreira, a senior scientist at Fiocruz and one of WMP’s collaborators in Brazil, cautions that governments shouldn’t abandon other public-health measures, such as dengue vaccines. “The Wolbachia method is complementary, and we should work with integrated methods to control dengue, Zika and chikungunya,” he says. “This is not a silver bullet.”

  • The evolution of #SARS-CoV-2 | Nature Reviews Microbiology
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-023-00878-2

    […] focusing on the epidemiology of the pathogen, it is important to bear in mind that the transition from a pandemic to future endemic existence of SARS-CoV-2 is likely to be long and erratic, rather than a short and distinct switch, and that endemic SARS-CoV-2 is by far not a synonym for safe infections, mild COVID-19 or a low population mortality and morbidity burden.

  • #Long_COVID exercise trials proposed by NIH raise alarm
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00900-w

    Patients and patient advocates are calling on the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to reconsider its decision to include exercise trials in its RECOVER initiative, which aims to study and find treatments for long COVID.

    They argue that a large proportion of people with long COVID have reported experiencing post-exertional malaise (PEM) — a worsening of symptoms such as fatigue, difficulty regulating body temperature and cognitive dysfunction, after even light exercise — and worry that putting certain RECOVER participants through exercise trials could cause them harm. In a petition and multiple letters, the advocates request that the NIH and affiliated physicians explain their rationale for this testing and share the trial protocols.

    #covid_long #post_covid

  • Une modélisation pour limiter la transmission des maladies infectieuses dans les aéroports et les gares - Salle de presse de l’Inserm
    https://presse.inserm.fr/une-modelisation-pour-limiter-la-transmission-des-maladies-infectieuses-dans-les-aeroports-et-les-gares/66702


    Le modèle s’intéresse au cas de Heathrow à Londres.
    © Unsplash

    Dans les lieux à forte densité de population, comme dans les aéroports ou les gares, la distanciation sociale peut difficilement être maintenue et le risque de transmission des maladies infectieuses est accru. Afin de réduire ce risque, il est essentiel de mieux comprendre les dynamiques de transmission dans ces espaces et les mesures d’atténuation efficaces qui peuvent être mises en place à moindre coût. C’est l’objectif d’un modèle mathématique développé par des équipes de l’Inserm et de Sorbonne Université à Institut Pierre Louis d’épidémiologie et de santé publique avec l’Institut espagnol CSIC-IFISC.

    En prenant l’exemple de l’aéroport de Heathrow à Londres et de maladies comme la grippe H1N1 et la Covid-19, ce modèle permet d’identifier les lieux où le risque de transmission est le plus grand au sein d’espaces à forte densité de population. En ciblant uniquement ces lieux avec des mesures comme la filtration de l’air ou l’utilisation de lampe Far-UVC, les scientifiques montrent aussi qu’il est possible de réduire les contaminations de manière significative. Les résultats complets sont publiés dans Nature Communications.

    • l’article original

      Spatial immunization to abate disease spreading in transportation hubs | Nature Communications
      https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36985-0


      Heatmap showing the cells in the airport area in which contagions occur when running the SIR model. In a, after one day of simulation and in b after two days. Color code normalized for each period considered.

      Abstract
      Proximity social interactions are crucial for infectious diseases transmission. Crowded agglomerations pose serious risk of triggering superspreading events. Locations like transportation hubs (airports and stations) are designed to optimize logistic efficiency, not to reduce crowding, and are characterized by a constant in and out flow of people. Here, we analyze the paradigmatic example of London Heathrow, one of the busiest European airports. Thanks to a dataset of anonymized individuals’ trajectories, we can model the spreading of different diseases to localize the contagion hotspots and to propose a spatial immunization policy targeting them to reduce disease spreading risk. We also detect the most vulnerable destinations to contagions produced at the airport and quantify the benefits of the spatial immunization technique to prevent regional and global disease diffusion. This method is immediately generalizable to train, metro and bus stations and to other facilities such as commercial or convention centers.

  • UN high seas treaty is a landmark – but science needs to fill the gaps
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00757-z

    As the planet warms, the Arctic’s permanent ice cover is melting, and China is planning a shipping route through the Central Arctic #Ocean. This could become a regular passageway for shipping between Asia and Europe within a decade. In the Pacific, mining companies are exploring the deep sea bed for metals that they say are needed for the batteries that will power the coming green-energy transition. But these activities won’t face scrutiny under the treaty, because the treaty’s provisions don’t overrule regulations laid down by the authorities that oversee existing high seas activities. These include the International Maritime Organization, which is responsible for shipping; the International Seabed Authority, which oversees deep-sea mining; and some 17 regional fisheries management organizations tasked with regulating fisheries in various parts of the ocean, including Antarctica. Military activities and existing fishing and commercial shipping are, in fact, exempt from the treaty.

    This means, for example, that the treaty cannot create protected areas in places already covered by fishing agreements, even if that fishing is unsustainable and depleting stocks. This is a gaping hole. [...] Once the treaty becomes law (after it has been ratified in the national parliaments of at least 60 countries), it can demand that proposed ocean activities — such as climate-intervention experiments — are subject to stringent environmental impact assessments. But it cannot do the same for activities already under way.

    Nor will the treaty end current offshore environmental violations. [...]

    Nonetheless, as humanity’s first serious attempt to challenge the carnage that prevails offshore, the high seas treaty is a triumph for diplomacy, particularly at a time when multilateralism is under sustained pressure. At present, just 1% of international waters are protected. That proportion is now set to grow, and this will help to maintain the health of our oceans and stem biodiversity loss. In securing this deal, the international community has given itself a fighting chance of coming good on earlier promises — most recently reiterated under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity — to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.

    #haute_mer

  • Google Translate : « L’examen par les pairs est au cœur du processus scientifique et de l’avancement professionnel des scientifiques, mais les préjugés à diverses étapes du processus d’examen désavantagent certains auteurs. Ici, nous utilisons les données d’examen par les pairs de 312 740 manuscrits de sciences biologiques dans 31 études pour (1) examiner les preuves des résultats différentiels de l’examen par les pairs en fonction de la démographie des auteurs, (2) évaluer l’efficacité des solutions pour réduire les biais et (3) décrire le paysage actuel de politiques d’examen par les pairs pour 541 revues d’écologie et d’évolution. Nous avons trouvé des résultats d’examen nettement moins bons (par exemple, des taux d’acceptation globaux plus faibles) pour les auteurs dont les affiliations institutionnelles étaient en Asie, pour les auteurs dont la langue principale du pays n’est pas l’anglais et dans les pays avec des indices de développement humain relativement faibles. Nous avons trouvé peu de données évaluant l’efficacité des interventions en dehors de la réduction des préjugés sexistes par le biais d’un examen en double aveugle ou de la diversification des comités d’examen/de rédaction. Malgré les preuves d’écarts de résultats d’examen basés sur la démographie des auteurs, peu de revues mettent actuellement en œuvre des politiques visant à atténuer les biais (par exemple, 15,9 % des revues pratiquaient l’examen en double aveugle et 2,03 % avaient des directives d’examen mentionnant les questions de justice sociale). Le manque d’équité démographique signale un besoin urgent de mieux comprendre et de mettre en œuvre des stratégies d’atténuation des biais fondées sur des données probantes. »

    Peer review perpetuates barriers for historically excluded groups | Nature Ecology & Evolution
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-01999-w

    Peer review is central to the scientific process and scientists’ career advancement, but bias at various stages of the review process disadvantages some authors. Here we use peer review data from 312,740 biological sciences manuscripts across 31 studies to (1) examine evidence for differential peer review outcomes based on author demographics, (2) evaluate the efficacy of solutions to reduce bias and (3) describe the current landscape of peer review policies for 541 ecology and evolution journals. We found notably worse review outcomes (for example, lower overall acceptance rates) for authors whose institutional affiliations were in Asia, for authors whose country’s primary language is not English and in countries with relatively low Human Development Indices. We found few data evaluating efficacy of interventions outside of reducing gender bias through double-blind review or diversifying reviewer/editorial boards. Despite evidence for review outcome gaps based on author demographics, few journals currently implement policies intended to mitigate bias (for example, 15.9% of journals practised double-blind review and 2.03% had reviewer guidelines that mentioned social justice issues). The lack of demographic equity signals an urgent need to better understand and implement evidence-based bias mitigation strategies.

  • Fed up and burnt out: ‘quiet quitting’ hits academia

    Many researchers dislike the term, but the practice of dialling back unrewarded duties is gaining traction.

    When Isabel Müller became an assistant professor in 2021, she started working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although nobody expected her to work this much, she says, she couldn’t find a way to fit all her research, teaching and mentoring efforts into fewer hours. But as the first term progressed, Müller realized her pace was unsustainable. She needed to set boundaries if she wanted to continue working in academia: “It took another term, but now I try to stick to some rules.”

    Müller, a mathematician at the American University in Cairo, is not alone in her efforts to redefine her relationship with work by setting limits to protect her mental health and stave off burnout. The desire for work–life balance is nothing new — but the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have brought academic workers a greater appreciation of its importance. Last August, the discussion on how best to achieve work–life balance went viral with a TikTok video about ‘quiet quitting’ — the idea that workers should no longer go above and beyond their job requirements and subscribe to ‘hustle culture’. In academia, that translates into no longer performing unpaid, unrecognized or underappreciated tasks.

    To Müller, quiet quitting describes working hours that allow her to have a life outside her job and to take care of herself. “I really dislike the name. Everybody that’s trying to restrict their hours already feels horrible about it,” says Müller. “Quiet quitting has such a negative connotation; it makes you feel even worse.” Many researchers disdain the term, noting that they’re neither quitting nor being quiet about their desire to create healthier work–life boundaries, prioritize their mental health and reject toxic workplace cultures.

    Nature spoke to Müller and other researchers about how and why they’re resetting their boundaries, and what they want from their employers. Some were respondents to an online Nature poll, which ran from 7 to 15 November last year, to evaluate the prevalence of quiet quitting in scientists, their motivations for doing so and which activities they cut back on most (see ‘Dialling back’).

    Sick of the status quo

    Since the pandemic began, many scientists have reduced their working hours and cut back on extraneous projects and activities. According to Nature’s poll, 75% of the 1,748 self-selected respondents had dialled back their work efforts since March 2020. The vast majority worked in academia (73%); others were in industry (9%), government (8%), clinical roles (4%), non-profit organizations (4%) and other workplaces (3%). Respondents were also at a range of career stages: 19% were master’s or PhD students; 17% were postdoctoral fellows or research associates; 17% were research or staff scientists; 10% were assistant professors; 22% were senior professors or lecturers; 7% were middle or senior management; and 8% were in other positions.

    Nearly half of the respondents had cut back on hours or activities because they did not want to work unpaid overtime (48%), felt their supervisor did not sufficiently recognize their activities (45%), did not have enough time for their personal lives (44%) or were not receiving a financial incentive (44%). Respondents could select more than one reason, which is why percentages don’t add up to 100. However, the main reason researchers said they introduced boundaries was burnout (67%).

    “Individuals have been pushed so hard for so long, that apathy sets in, motivations wane and people are exhausted. No more bringing work home and perpetuating the imbalance between work and home life,” says one anonymous respondent (see ‘What ‘quiet quitting’ means to Nature readers’).

    A student pursuing an experimental-physics PhD in Switzerland who, like one other researcher interviewed, asked to remain anonymous to avoid harm to their career, began dialling back their efforts when they felt burnt out and uninspired. When they started their programme in 2018, they had been highly motivated and brimming with research ideas. As the years progressed, their work received less attention from their supervisor and collaborators. “You don’t feel like you’re contributing to something important,” the student says. “You start to detach yourself from the vision of seeing yourself in that field [in the future].”

    Burnout and lack of appreciation have also led established scientists to step back from their careers. One scientist in a senior management position in government responded in the poll, “People [are] looking to stop taking on the ‘other duties as assigned’ component of their job because they believe they are not adequately compensated or appreciated.”

    A professor who taught medical students in the US midwest also dialled back her efforts once her workload felt like too much. “There came a point where I was exhausted by the demands of my job — not just the hours or workload — but by the culture of the institution and all of the emotional labour that I was performing,” she says. For instance, she spent time counselling students about problems such as domestic violence and mental-health issues, despite not having training in these areas. In response to the exhaustion, she shortened her working days from 12 hours to 8 on average, avoided going to campus when it was not required and pulled back from optional activities.

    But doing so did not make her feel better. “I never wanted to be anything other than a professor,” she says. “I felt like I was failing on every front because the demands were so excessive.”
    Culling duties

    In our poll, researchers revealed several ways that they have cut back their work efforts, to help them find a more sustainable work–life balance. Nearly two-thirds of investigators and administrative staff who responded said they had reduced their participation at conferences, and more than half have dialled back their peer-review efforts. Nearly half of senior researchers also reported limiting their committee memberships. By contrast, nearly one-quarter of early-career researchers said they had reduced their efforts in mentoring, diversity, equity and inclusion and in outreach, and one-fifth had reduced their efforts in teaching. More than one-quarter of early-career researchers commented that they had reduced their efforts in other ways, largely by focusing on fewer side projects and collaborations and limiting working hours.

    Early-career scientist Ryan Swimley set balanced work habits starting with his first industry job. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Montana State University in Bozeman, he took a position as an analytical-chemistry technician at Nature’s Fynd, a small company in Bozeman that makes fungus-based, vegan protein substitutes. He went from working up to 16 hours a day, spread among classes, research and studying, to a more regular 9-to-5 schedule at the company. “My mental health is better now. I get to figure out what hobbies I want to do outside of work and pursue them,” he says.

    Scientists are also cutting back on activities that don’t contribute to their own career growth or receive appreciation. “I’m more selective now,” says Jeroen Groeneveld, a palaeoceanographer at National Taiwan University in Taipei. “This month, I have two grant-proposal deadlines, so I’m not going to accept any requests to peer review other journal articles,” he says. (He is far from alone — earlier this month, Nature reported that peer-reviewer fatigue is at an all-time high.)

    Groeneveld studies foraminifera, single-celled organisms whose calcite shells can be preserved in marine sediments and used to reconstruct past environmental conditions. Before August 2022, he had spent a lot of time preparing and analysing samples for other researchers in his field. Now, instead, he invites them to his laboratory to learn the techniques themselves. “That is also a form of quiet quitting in the sense that it’s not saying yes to everything any more,” he says. Doing so not only saves Groeneveld time, but also establishes his lab as a place for learning new methods and for collaboration.

    Müller, the medical educator and other scientists have improved their work–life balance by not responding to e-mails or messages from students at night or weekends. Müller advocates for not scheduling exams during weekends, because it’s more inclusive for those with care responsibilities. “I try to tell my students and the other instructors, if it doesn’t fit into five days, it’s just too much.”
    More-humane workplaces

    Although scientists can restructure their own relationships with work, many argue that institutions should do more to address the conditions driving burnout in the first place. “This idea that you have to be working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, has got to change,” says the medical educator. “There’s so little acknowledgement that people have difficult, complicated lives outside of work.” She suggests that US academic institutions provide employees with more sick days, paid parental and care leave, subsidized care for children and ageing relatives, flexible tenure clocks and more automatic sabbatical breaks. Institutions could also hire more teaching, lab and administrative-support staff members to help spread out heavy workloads.

    Institutions and companies can provide better support for overwhelmed scientists by checking in with employees about their workloads and stress levels. Swimley notes that his direct supervisor asks about his bandwidth to take on new projects, and understands if he needs more time to complete his work. The experimental-physics student suggests that supervisors who don’t have the capacity to offer guidance or career support should reconsider bringing new students into their group. “Don’t treat people like they’re expendable,” the student says.

    Nearly half of the respondents said they have dialled back efforts because of a lack of appreciation from supervisors, or a lack of financial compensation. “I think the main thing universities can do is change their priorities to take care of employees and create a workplace where people feel appreciated and seen,” Müller says. Even simple but personalized e-mail recognition of recent publications, grant successes or positive student evaluations from supervisors would go a long way, she adds.

    When scientists set their own boundaries, it not only improves personal well-being, but also signals to peers that such limits are acceptable and healthy, says Müller. “It does not mean I’m lazy if I don’t want to answer e-mails on the weekend,” she says. “I hope it becomes the new normal to say, ‘My life matters. My work is an important part, but I decide what my life looks like, not my employer.’”

    For a few scientists, quiet quitting can progress into quitting academia altogether. In July 2021, the tenured medical educator left her institution for a position with a non-profit organization, where she still uses her education and publishing skills. Part of her new job involves facilitating meetings with subject-matter specialists, working with authors and copy-editing educational materials. “I’m constantly learning new things,” she says.

    In addition, she feels appreciated by her colleagues and grateful for her improved work–life balance. “I work 100% remote from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. At the end of the day, I shut the laptop and I walk away. No more working nights. No more working weekends,” she describes.

    Her new schedule has freed up time for her to engage more with members of her professional community. She now serves in a women’s mentoring network and facilitates a monthly mentorship group for people interested in careers outside academia.

    Although she says the transition out of academia wasn’t easy — she was concerned about how her peers would view her decision — she found that almost everyone was supportive. “I’ve gotten lots of back-door inquiries and quiet messages from people who are like, ‘How did you do that?’”

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00633-w

    #burn-out #conditions_de_travail #travail #université #ESR #enseignement_supérieur #santé_mentale #charge_de_travail

    ping @_kg_

  • The impact of satellite trails on Hubble Space Telescope observations | Nature Astronomy
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-01903-3

    The recent launch of low Earth orbit satellite constellations is creating a growing threat for astronomical observations with ground-based telescopes that has alarmed the astronomical community. Observations affected by artificial satellites can become unusable for scientific research, wasting a growing fraction of the research budget on costly infrastructures and mitigation efforts. Here we report the first measurements, to our knowledge, of artificial satellite contamination on observations from a low Earth orbit made with the Hubble Space Telescope. With the help of volunteers on a citizen science project (www.asteroidhunter.org) and a deep learning algorithm, we scanned the archive of Hubble Space Telescope images taken between 2002 and 2021. We find that a fraction of 2.7% of the individual exposures with a typical exposure time of 11 minutes are crossed by satellites and that the fraction of satellite trails in the images increases with time. This fraction depends on the size of the field of view, exposure time, filter used and pointing. With the growing number of artificial satellites currently planned, the fraction of Hubble Space Telescope images crossed by satellites will increase in the next decade and will need further close study and monitoring.

  • COVID pill is first to cut short positive-test time after infection
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00548-6

    The antiviral #ensitrelvir, which is not approved in the United States, shortens symptoms in people with mild COVID and might reduce risk of long #COVID — but more data are needed.

    Covid-19 : l’ensitrelvir, un nouvel antiviral japonais prometteur évalué aux États-Unis | Le Quotidien du Médecin
    https://www.lequotidiendumedecin.fr/specialites/infectiologie/covid-19-lensitrelvir-un-nouvel-antiviral-japonais-prometteur-e

    Cet essai, randomisé contre placebo, recrutera environ 1 500 patients hospitalisés à la suite d’une infection sévère par le Sars-CoV-2. Le premier jour, les patients traités recevront trois doses de 125 mg, puis une dose par jour pendant quatre jours. Le suivi total sera de 60 jours.

  • Les villes côtières américaines sous-estiment les risques que pose la #montée_des_eaux
    https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/climat-les-villes-cotieres-americaines-sous-estiment-les-risq

    “D’après une étude, plus de la moitié des villes côtières américaines sous-estiment la hausse du niveau de la mer que le réchauffement climatique pourrait provoquer dans leur région”, rapporte Nature. Les chercheurs, qui publient leurs travaux dans Earth’s Future, se sont intéressés à la façon dont les projections scientifiques sont prises en compte concrètement dans les plans d’aménagement des territoires.

    Source :
    US coastal communities underestimate the danger posed by rising seas
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00384-8

    #etats-unis #climat

  • Study: 15 million people live under threat of glacial floods | AP News
    https://apnews.com/article/floods-science-india-peru-pakistan-51368bb5eef49a240d3d466775e34ed6

    As #glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes, 15 million people across the globe live under the threat of a sudden and deadly outburst flood, a new study finds.

    More than half of those living in the shadow of the disaster called glacial lake outburst floods are in just four countries: India, Pakistan, Peru and China, according to a study in Tuesday’s Nature Communications. A second study, awaiting publication in a peer-reviewed journal, catalogs more than 150 glacial flood outbursts in history and recent times.

    It’s a threat Americans and Europeans rarely think about, but 1 million people live within just 6 miles (10 kilometers) of potentially unstable glacial-fed lakes, the study calculated.

    #source : Glacial lake outburst floods threaten millions globally | Nature Communications
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36033-x

    #inondations

  • Glacial lake floods threaten communities in Asia, South America | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/glacial-lake-floods-threaten-communities-asia-south-america-2023-02-07/?taid=63e2a46a58449200011e8733
    https://www.reuters.com/resizer/vqbGkUePiVpll2V4FeLJN0LFFTM=/1200x628/smart/filters:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/BKHZDOIYXJP2PELM3EDMTZG4QM.jpg

    Melting mountain glaciers pose a growing flood risk to some 15 million people around the world, researchers said in a report published on Tuesday, with communities in Asia facing the biggest danger.

    Runoff from melting glaciers often pools in shallow lakes, held back by rocks and debris. The risk comes when a lake overfills, bursting through its natural barrier and sending a torrent of water rushing down mountain valleys.

    Scientists have assessed for the first time how many people globally are at risk from these floods, finding that more than half of vulnerable populations live in India, Pakistan, China, and Peru.

    Glacial lake outburst floods threaten millions globally
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36033-x

    #climat #montagne #glacier #fonte #inondation

  • How quickly does COVID immunity fade? What scientists know
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00124-y

    New evidence suggests that ‘hybrid’ immunity, the result of both #vaccination and a bout of #COVID-19, can provide partial protection against #reinfection for at least eight months1. It also offers greater than 95% protection against severe disease or hospitalization for between six months and a year after an infection or vaccination, according to estimates from a meta-analysis2. Immunity acquired by booster vaccination alone seems to fade somewhat faster.

    But the durability of immunity is much more complex than the numbers suggest. How long the immune system can fend off #SARS-CoV-2 infection depends not only on how much immunity wanes over time but also on how well immune cells recognize their target. “And that has more to do with the virus and how much it mutates,” says Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. If a new #variant finds ways to escape the existing immune response, then even a recent infection might not guarantee protection.

    […]

    Thålin understands how frustrating the caveats and uncertainty can be, but says that researchers aren’t likely to pin down an answer anytime soon. “The virus is evolving so fast,” she says. “What’s true today might not be true tomorrow.”

    #immunité