The loneliest trees: can science save these threatened species from extinction?

Hello Nature readers,
Today we learn that smoking, drinking alcohol and obesity are the biggest contributors to cancer worldwide. Plus, we explore how scientists are trying to save the world’s rarest trees and consider how to avoid deadlock at COP27.

Almost half of cancer deaths are preventable

Nearly 50% of cancer deaths worldwide are caused by preventable risk factors. The largest study yet of the link between cancer burden and risk factors used estimates of cases and deaths from more than 200 countries. Smoking, alcohol use and a high body-mass index — which can be indicative of obesity — were the biggest contributors to cancer. The study did not include some other known risk factors, including exposure to ultraviolet radiation and certain infections — such as HPV, which can cause cervical cancer.

Billion-dollar centre for pandemic therapies

A new Aus$1.5-billion (US$1 billion) initiative aims to develop a drug-creation platform that can be repurposed to find treatments for a wide range of future pandemic threats. Similar efforts have been set up elsewhere, but they mostly focus on creating small-molecule drugs that are similar to existing antivirals. The Australian centre’s approach could work for influenza, coronaviruses and even antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics will be launched with an initial Aus$250-million donation from businessperson Geoffrey Cumming.

Genomics reveals medieval mass burial

Genomic analysis suggests that remains recovered from a medieval well in Norwich, UK, were probably those of Jews murdered in the twelfth century. Radiocarbon dating established that the bodies of 6 adults and 11 children had been deposited between 1161 and 1216 — a time frame encompassing a historically documented antisemitic massacre in Norwich in 1190. The DNA of six of the individuals hinted that they were more closely related to today's Ashkenazi Jewish populations than to modern non-Jewish ones in England. And they were predisposed to some genetic conditions, such as primary ciliary dyskinesia, that are prevalent in modern Ashkenazi Jews. The finding sheds light on both the events of medieval Norwich and the genetic history of Ashkenazi people.

The fight to save the last tree standing

There are trees so rare that only a single specimen remains. Scientists protect their seeds like rare jewels, use ladders and brushes to gingerly collect pollen for hand fertilization, and wait years for a single precious flower. But there are more threatened tree species than there are restoration projects. And climate change is altering ecosystems so fundamentally that some trees will never be able to thrive in their natural homes again.

Steel our resolve against monkeypox

“A cycle of panic and neglect shadows public health,” writes epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers. “Frenzied action tends to be followed by loss of interest as a threat recedes.” She notes that glimmers of hope are emerging in the global fight against the monkeypox epidemic and warns against taking our eyes off the ball. “All the tools needed to contain monkeypox already exist,” she writes. “The global public-health community must fortify its resolve to beat back monkeypox, just as it did SARS and Ebola.”

How to avoid COP27 stalemate

COP27 will be deadlocked if the climate adaptation funding promise is broken, argues a Nature editorial. The next Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Egypt, is less than three months away. The last COP meeting, in the United Kingdom last November, ended with a hard-won and historic commitment: richer nations will provide low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with US$40 billion annually in ‘adaptation finance’, from 2025, to help communities to protect themselves against the impacts of climate change. But $40 billion is increasingly understood to be a small fraction of what is needed — and pledges by donor nations are not on track to achieve even that. The editorial supports researchers’ calls for a trusted third party to oversee whether loans, as well as grants, count against the bottom line.