Global emissions could already be declining, some climate scientists argue. Plus, a new malaria drug that could combat treatment-resistant parasites and a day in the life of a dairy-cow researcher.
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Malaria causes nearly 600,000 deaths each year, many of which occur in children.Credit: Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty
A new type of malaria drug successfully cured more than 97% of people that were given it in a clinical trial, outperforming existing treatments. The drug, ganaplacide–lumefantrine (GanLum), kills malarial parasites in a different way from existing treatments, many of which rely on the plant-derived compound artemisinin. As such, it could circumvent the partial resistance to artemisinin emerging among parasites in southeast Asia and several African countries. If GanLum gets regulatory approval, it could be available in 12-18 months, and would be the first new class of malaria drug approved in more than 25 years.
Nature | 4 min read
The shutdown of the US government, which shuttered science agencies, halted grant operations and left tens of thousands of federal scientists without paychecks, is over after lasting a record-breaking 43 days. Under the terms of a deal between lawmakers in Congress, federal researchers will be paid what they would have earned during the furlough, and those who were laid off will be rehired — at least for now. But ramping back up will not be easy: for example, at the US National Science Foundation, more than 300 grant-review meetings involving six to ten researchers each will need to be rescheduled. And if Congress passes neither a long-term spending package nor a stopgap spending measure by the end of January, the government could shut again.
Nature | 6 min read
Globally, greenhouse-gas emissions — which include methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases as well as carbon dioxide — are still rising. But there are signs they will peak around 2030, and some researchers argue that carbon dioxide emissions might have already begun to decline. China is the key, say researchers. The world’s biggest emitter also leads the global clean-energy sector and has promised to reduce emissions from an undefined ‘peak level’ by 2035. Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, as agreed in the Paris Agreement, will require reducing global carbon emissions to zero by around 2050 — and removing some of what’s in the atmosphere already.
Nature | 6 min read
Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production are projected to rise by 1.1%, to 38.1 billion tonnes of CO 2 this year, according to the Global Carbon Project, an international consortium of researchers. Emissions among the major industrialized countries, which are responsible for the bulk of historical emissions, have been falling for more than two decades. But they are rising nearly everywhere else.
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