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An economist believes that a five-year aid effort in a dozen villages across Africa can teach the world how to defeat poverty. Sarah Tomlin reports on the project's progress in Rwanda.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

A study of SARS-CoV-2 variants examining their transmission, infectivity, and potential resistance to therapies provides insights into the biology of the Delta variant and its role in the global pandemic.

In this randomized controlled trial, Gennetian et al. evaluated the impacts of cash transfers on family investments. Families with low income were randomized to receive monthly unconditional cash starting at childbirth. Households spent more money and time on child-specific goods and learning activities.

Environmental metabarcoding of soil samples suggests that protists comprise the greatest eukaryotic diversity in tropical rainforests, and are dominated by phyla that parasitise arthropods and other animals.

Vaccination is effective in protecting from COVID-19. Here the authors report immune responses and breakthrough infections in twice-vaccinated patients receiving anti-TNF treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, and find dampened vaccine responses that implicate the need of adapted vaccination schedules for these patients.

Health care workers (HCW) are a high-risk population for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, the authors determine seroprevalence against SARS-CoV-2 in HCWs of a large Spanish reference hospital and find a cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection (presence of antibodies or past or current positive rRT-PCR) of 11%.

China’s former ancient capital Xi’an has a scientific plan for development.

Long-term characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 antibody kinetics is needed to understand the protective role of the immune response. Here the authors describe antibody levels and neutralisation activity in healthcare workers over seven months and investigate the role of immunity to endemic human coronaviruses.

A new phylogenomic tree for butterflies is constructed using 391 genes from 2,300 species, representing 92% of genera. It suggests that butterflies originated around 100 million years ago in what is now the Americas and originally fed on Fabaceae.

Bonn puts pressure on public utilities

Multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 are inhibited by a trispecific DARPin.

Cadherins are typically involved in cell-cell adhesion, however cadherin-11 promotes cell migration through an undefined mechanism. Langhe et al.show that cadherin-11 mediates adhesion to the cell matrix at focal adhesions through interaction with syndecan-4.

A large-scale, five-year study in Indonesia finds that enriching oil palm-dominated landscapes with patches of trees bolsters biodiversity and ecosystem functioning without impairing oil palm yields but should not replace forest protection.

The immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection is variable but has been linked to prognosis and the development of severe immunopathology. Here the authors assess a range of immune parameters in both peripheral blood and respiratory samples, providing a comparative assessment of the immune response between these compartments and their potential impact on immune-pathogenesis.

Cities may host surprisingly diverse and functionally distinct biological communities. This global analysis on 5302 vertebrate and invertebrate species finds evidence of 4 trait syndromes in urban animal assemblages, modulated by spatial and geographic factors.

Analysing responses of 378 bird species to deforestation in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, the authors show that sensitivity to habitat loss is dependent on where a population is located within its range.

People willing to incur significant costs to help strangers, ‘extraordinary altruists’, are shown to have an increased subjective valuation of the welfare of distant others, rather than a misconception of the social distance of strangers.

The discrepancy between the components of the oceanic carbon budget — export of carbon from the surface and its conversion into carbon dioxide by water-column biota at depth — is reconciled using field data and a steady-state model which indicates that synergy between microbes and zooplankton is an important factor.

The European–Latin American Research Consortium towards Eradication of Preventable Gallbladder Cancer (EULAT Eradicate GBC) is identifying geographical, environmental, lifestyle, genetic and molecular risk factors for gallbladder cancer. Collaborative research is essential to improve prevention of this aggressive tumour, especially in high-incidence, low-income and middle-income regions.

Analysis of the spread of the 20E (EU1) variant of SARS-CoV-2 through Europe suggests that international travel and insufficient containment, rather than increased transmissibility, led to a resurgence of infections.

Predictions suggest that a high proportion of plant species will be threatened with extinction in the near future. A global assessment of the threat status of cacti suggests that these iconic plants are amongst the most threatened taxonomic groups, with 31% of the 1,478 evaluated species at risk of extinction.

Landscape-level diversity – the number of different ecosystems in a 250 m by 250 m area – is positively related to landscape-wide primary production across North America, according to remote sensing observations and statistical analyses.

A sequencing study comparing ancient and contemporary genomes reveals that most present-day Europeans derive from at least three highly differentiated populations: west European hunter-gatherers, ancient north Eurasians (related to Upper Palaeolithic Siberians) and early European farmers of mainly Near Eastern origin.

Pocillopora species, sampled on the TARA Pacific Expedition, have greater phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental variables than Porites species, whose phenotypes were dictated by coral host genetics and past climate, according to extensive multi-biomarker analysis.

Potential host range and spillover risk for novel viruses can be predicted using a network informed by known virus-host associations.

Cities are vital for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), but different local strategies to advance on the same SDG may cause different ‘spillovers’ elsewhere. Research efforts that support governance of such spillovers are urgently needed to empower ambitious cities to ‘account globally’ when acting locally on SDG implementation strategies.