Nature Briefing

Hello Nature readers,
Today we learn that the United States will vaccinate California condors against avian flu, discover that anonymizing peer review equalizes the publishing playing field and see how robots are helping to reconstruct Pompeii frescoes from thousands of fragments.

Brain zapping probably does boost focus

After years of debate over whether non-invasively zapping the brain with electrical current can improve a person’s mental functioning, a massive analysis of past studies offers an answer: probably. Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) involves sending a painless, weak electrical current to the brain through electrodes on the scalp. A meta-analysis of more than 100 studies examining one type of TES found that the technique brings about moderate improvements in attention, memory and problem solving. But not everyone is convinced. “The problem I have with this paper is that it lumps together studies that are effectively different interventions,” says neurologist Alvaro Pascual-Leone.

Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Science Translational Medicine paper

US moves to protect condors from bird flu

US officials have authorized the vaccination of the critically endangered California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) against a type of avian flu that has killed hundreds of millions of birds around the world. It is the first time that the country has approved the inoculation of any bird against the virus. There is no promise that it will work — the vaccine was developed for chickens, and still needs testing in condors. But there are only around 540 condors left, after a heroic effort to save them from extinction in the 1980s and 90s. “This authorization opens the opportunity to add another tool for how we address this threat,” says Ashleigh Blackford, the California-condor coordinator at the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Nature | 6 min read

New plan not enough to save Colorado River

Seven US states this week finally agreed on a plan to cut their use of water from the iconic Colorado River, which supplies water to more than 40 million people in the United States and Mexico. The river, battered by overuse, drought and climate change, has been drying up. Scientists welcome the plan, but note that the agreement is only a temporary fix to a much thornier problem.

Nature | 6 min read

Anonymizing peer review works against bias

Hiding authors’ names and affiliations from peer reviewers helps to equalize the publishing playing field for researchers. In a trial at the journal Functional Ecology, more than 3,500 papers were randomly assigned to double-blind review, in which neither authors nor reviewers know each others’ identities. Authors from low-income or non-English-speaking countries experienced similar peer-review outcomes regardless of whether their identities were hidden. But those from high-income countries saw a boost to their review scores, and were more likely to be asked to resubmit manuscripts, when reviewers knew who they were.

Nature | 6 min read
Reference: Functional Ecology paper

How to bounce back from getting ghosted

Getting ‘ghosted’ by another scientist — such as when they go silent on an initially promising collaboration — can be emotionally wrecking, writes leadership researcher Aditya Simha. It’s impossible to know why a person has stopped replying to your e-mails, so don’t blame yourself, he advises. Do follow the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule — don’t e-mail the ghoster more than three times — and allow yourself to move on.

Nature | 5 min read

Work together to find pandemic origins

Collaboration and openness are essential to minimize the risks of future pandemics, argues virologist Marietjie Venter on behalf of the 27 members of the World Health Organization’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens. She explains how they are bringing together epidemiology, virology, human and animal infectious diseases, ecology, genomics, and biosafety and biosecurity to understand how new pathogens emerge. “Such investigations must not be seen as the responsibility of one country, and geopolitics must not be allowed to interfere with or block these,” she writes. “We urge scientists and governments to make available all data, research and reports that can help.”

Nature | 8 min read