---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Nature Briefing Date: Fri, Jul 19, 2024 at 3:19 PM Subject: ‘Oh my God, there’s nothing here’: what it’s like to attend a predatory conference To: What matters in science | View this email in your browser https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?e=301f6b984d&u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=023a7f4e2e Friday 19 July 2024 [image: Nature Briefing] https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=375767df58&e=301f6b984d Hello *Nature *readers, Today we feel for the VIPER Moon rover, which is all dressed up with nowhere to go. Plus, we discover a signalling molecule that could play a key role in long COVID and learn how to spot a predatory conference before you end up at one. [image: NASA's VIPER rover assembled in a clean room flooded with blue light.] https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=fc2c0e1296&e=301f6b984d The completed Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) sits in a cleanroom at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. (NASA) For sale: Moon rover, never used https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=e70a687c0e&e=301f6b984d NASA has cancelled a mission to drill for ice on the Moon — even though the rover has already been completed https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=1b47c4e661&e=301f6b984d. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) has already cost US$450 million and would have required millions more — threatening funding for other launches. If you’re in the market for a Moon rover, NASA is looking for someone to take it on — otherwise it will be dismantled and its components used for other projects. Nature | 4 min read https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=1e180ef3aa&e=301f6b984d Immune protein linked to long COVID https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=dceb05e802&e=301f6b984d A signalling molecule that helps to kick-start inflammation in the lungs could play a key part in aggravating some long COVID symptoms https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=8e3a96eff2&e=301f6b984d. Previous research has shown that people with long COVID have elevated levels of the molecule, called interferon gamma (IFN-γ). By inhibiting IFN-γ in mice with COVID-19, “we were able to dampen the chronic conditions after infection”, says immunology researcher and study co-author Jie Sun. “In the future, we could target this pathway for potential treatment of long COVID.” Nature | 4 min read https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=57766e1ae6&e=301f6b984d Reference: *Science Translational Medicine * https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=618c021bf5&e=301f6b984d paper https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=f96e132091&e=301f6b984d Image of the week [image: A close up on a colourful Erythrina caffra flower cluster against a blue sky.] https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=aa64a8cb2e&e=301f6b984d From 2026, plants such as this coast coral tree will get a name change — in its case, from *Erythrina caffra *to *Erythrina affra*. (‘Caffra’ comes from a word also used as a racial slur; ‘affra’ recognizes Africa.) More than 200 plants, fungi and algae species names will be affected https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=6209101636&e=301f6b984d. Botanists at the International Botanical Congress in Madrid also voted yesterday to form an ethics committee that can reject new names that are deemed derogatory. (Nature | 4 min read https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=ea090763cb&e=301f6b984d) (Orazio Puccio/Alamy) Features & opinion A roadmap for affordable genetic medicines https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=de011b6f96&e=301f6b984d Nineteen genetic therapies have been approved in the United States, including the breakthrough CRISPR genome-editing therapy for sickle cell disease, Casgevy. But most people will never be able to afford them — Casgevy, for example, costs US$2.2 million per patient. A task force of genomic-therapy luminaries shares its suggestions to increase affordability and access https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=0c26fdae7f&e=301f6b984d, including a pricing structure that could reduce per-patient cost tenfold. Nature | 45 min read https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=5651ad5519&e=301f6b984d Watch out for predatory conferences https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=a5825c348f&e=301f6b984d The signs of a predatory conference can be hard to spot — until you walk into an empty room. “I just remember the feeling of my heart starting to pound, like ‘Oh my God, there’s nothing here’,” recalls communications researcher Vicki Mayer, who travelled from the US to the UK for a conference that never materialized https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=7e7c88ed33&e=301f6b984d. But not every scientist involved is getting suckered — some are seizing an opportunity, no matter how dubious, to further their careers. “When I started my research, I assumed that most academics were unwittingly attending,” says business-administration scholar James McCrostie. “Most, but certainly not all, either know the conference has no value or they want to pretend to themselves they don’t know.” Nature | 9 min read https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=10e9be8c62&e=301f6b984d Futures: Threading the needle https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=a74480992c&e=301f6b984d A precocious rule-breaker is seen for who he really is in the latest short story for https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=de4b8eb63b&e=301f6b984d *Nature* https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=7af32ec13a&e=301f6b984d’s Futures https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=a92268b5db&e=301f6b984d series. Nature | 6 min read https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=ba5a8de6da&e=301f6b984d Podcast: throw this plastic in your compost https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=22293bdf94&e=301f6b984d Researchers have enhanced a biodegradable plastic with an enzyme so that it doesn’t need a special high-temperature facility to break down. They isolated a new enzyme — dubbed PAM (protease from *Actinomadura*) — from a bacterium and beefed it up so that it could survive the high temperatures required to make plastic in the first place. Then they came up with a process to produce PAM-packed plastic that would biodegrade in home compost and soil https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=c8a12fafbd&e=301f6b984d — while still being robust enough to use as packaging. 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[image: Click to listen] https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=7934904b9a&e=301f6b984d Quote of the day “Like the rest of the planet, the skies are telling a story of change: the invisible hand of global warming is stirring the atmosphere in unexpected ways.” https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=39a044942d&e=301f6b984d Climate change is altering atmospheric behaviour, causing an increase in incidents of invisible ‘clear-air turbulence’ — such as the one that killed a passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight in May. Better predictive models can help ensure aviation safety, writes fluid mechanics researcher Haoxuan Yu. (Nature | 5 min read https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=640c93b45b&e=301f6b984d) Today our penguin-seeking game features the dramatic rock formations in Köprülü Canyon in Turkey. Can you find Leif Penguinson https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=ca19d46d6e&e=301f6b984d ? The answer will be in Monday’s e-mail, all thanks to Briefing photo editor and penguin wrangler Tom Houghton. This newsletter is always evolving — tell us what you think! Please send your feedback to briefing@nature.com. *Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing * *With contributions by Katrina Krämer and Gemma Conroy* Want more? 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