GoKawiilViral sequences from Chilean mummies confirm smallpox was introduced to the Americas from Europe. Plus, the month’s best science images and the changing patterns of Europe’s wildfires.
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Credit: Britta Jaschinski, Every Crime Leaves a Trace, 2025, Wildlife Crime Lab, Institute of Zoology (IOZ), London, UK. Earth Photo 2026 Award
Photographer Britta Jaschinski works with border-force operations and wildlife crime units across Europe to document elements of the illegal poaching trade. This striking image of a handprint on the shell of a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) confiscated at London Heathrow Airport, UK, was one of Jaschinski’s winning entries in the 2026 Earth Photo Awards.
See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.
Nature | Leisurely scroll
The demand for lithium has skyrocketed amid a boom in technology that uses rechargeable batteries. The conventional lithium-extraction methods used in Chile and Argentina are inefficient, damage ecosystems and impact local Indigenous communities, say researchers. But a wave of new techniques could make the process greener. The methods use electrochemical processes or heat to extract lithium from naturally occurring brine. These options use less fresh water than existing techniques, and could extract the metal at higher yields, but will require significant investment to scale up.
Nature | 5 min read
Viral DNA found in the mummified remains of two people in Chile has confirmed that Orthopoxvirus variola — the virus that causes smallpox — was brought to the Americas by European colonizers. The DNA revealed an unknown smallpox variant, which appeared to have split off from a European variant around the thirteenth century. The variant had fewer genes than did samples found in seventh-century Viking settlements, which suggests that the virus might have shed genes as it adapted to human hosts — a mechanism that related viruses might also be using today.
Nature | 4 min read
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