GoKawiilSome researchers think the current eradication strategy is outdated. Plus, goats hurt their brains when they butt heads and what scientist will never hand over to AI.
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here.
Goats’ predilection for headbutting might cause them brain damage. Researchers allowed three young goats (Capra hircus) to headbutt freely over the course of six months, scanning their brains at the beginning and end of that period. The trio didn’t appear to have suffered serious brain damage in that time, but there were signs of mild injury, which the team suggests could worsen as the animals’ lives progressed. The findings raise the possibility of using goats as a model in which to study the link between head trauma and neurodegeneration in people.
Science | 5 min read
Reference: bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
Two virologists at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, are facing charges related to the alleged smuggling of non-infectious monkeypox virus and other biological samples into the United States. The DNA samples the two were carrying don’t require an import permit, but must be declared to federal officials — a step that the complaint alleges Munster and Kwe failed to complete. Both scientists have pleaded not guilty. The case is the latest in a string of prosecutions of researchers for smuggling biological samples since early 2025, for which some US lawmakers are trying to introduce severe sentences.
Nature | 6 min read
The mystery disease that’s been plaguing the brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus) in a lake straddling the Canada–US border has been identified as a type of transmissible cancer — only the fourth example of tumour cells that can be passed from animal to animal. Surveys have suggested that the disease, a type of melanoma that manifests as inky black skin lesions, affects around one-third of the lake’s catfish population. But it appears in both young and old individuals, suggesting that it might not cause a rapid death.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper
... continue reading