Daily briefing: Landmark bat study suggests they evolved in Europe

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Bats are special: they’re the only mammals that can fly, they can tolerate viruses without getting sick and they have exceptional longevity and cancer resistance. So scientists are welcoming a tour de force study of bat genomics: the first phase of the Bat1K Project, which aims to generate chromosome-level genomes for all living bat species. Notably, the study suggests that bats evolved in Europe, challenging previous hypotheses of African, Asian or North American origins. “This is a landmark study for bat biology, and for comparative genomics more generally,” writes evolutionary biologist Josefin Stiller in an accompanying Nature News & Views article.

The Washington Post | 8 min read & Nature News & Views | 8 min read

Reference: Nature paper

The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database — a repository of predicted structures for nearly every known protein on Earth — has been upgraded to better represent viruses. Researchers added more than 8,000 protein dimers — pairs of interacting molecules — from 23 virus families, all with human-infecting members. The addition is part of the launch of a ‘pandemic preparedness portal’ within the widely used and freely available AlphaFold database. “This is an essential resource for understanding virus diversity, evolution and function,” says virologist Edward Holmes.

Nature | 5 min read

Around 10–15% of people taking popular GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy lose little to no weight — and researchers don’t really know why. Solving this mystery might lead to new medications for people who don’t benefit from currently available drugs, and could make it possible to match individuals to treatments that are most likely to work for them.

Nature | 5 min read

Features & opinion

The criminal underworld has a new way to pass secret messages in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.

Nature | 6 min read

Andrew Robinson’s pick of five science books to read this week includes a survey of great science journalism, a dip into cold-water kelp forests and an argument in favour of giving alchemy the credit it deserves.

Nature | 4 min read

Financial abuse — a form of domestic abuse involving control over a person’s money and spending — can leave victim-survivors burdened with debts and undermine their independence, but it can be difficult to document. By comparing the anonymized bank data of UK women who have experienced financial abuse with that of those who haven’t, researchers have identified some telltale signs, such as declining credit scores and little spending on self-care. The team hopes that their findings can be used to help identify victim-survivors and inform policies to help them restore their financial freedom.

Nature Podcast | 24 min listen

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Today Leif Penguinson is hanging out at the Plaza Blanca — or as artist Georgia O’Keeffe called it, the White Place — a geological formation near Abiquiu, New Mexico. Can you find the penguin?

The answer will be in Monday’s e-mail, all thanks to Briefing photo editor and penguin wrangler Tom Houghton.

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Flora Graham, chief editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Jacob Smith

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