Science - USA (2021-12-10)

SCIENCE science.org 10 DECEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6573 1303

PHOTO: TONY HEALD/MINDEN PICTURES

that is about 23 or 24 weeks of gesta-

tion given current medical care. Justice

Sonia Sotomayor noted that a pregnant

person’s risk of death is 14 times higher in

childbirth than in abortion, and that few

scientists think fetuses feel pain before

24 weeks. But the court largely focused on

nonscience questions, such as whether to

overturn precedents and whether viability

should be the basis of any policy. A deci-

sion is expected by next summer.

Biomedical funder expands

PHILANTHROPY | The Chan Zuckerberg

Initiative (CZI), which 5 years ago set out

to devote $3 billion over 10 years to bio-

medical research, now plans to more than

double its spending and develop tools for

studying biological processes. Funded by

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and

pediatrician Priscilla Chan, who are mar-

ried, CZI’s science program launched with a

wildly ambitious goal: to prevent, manage,

or cure all disease by 2100. It funds research

in areas such as neurodegeneration and

rare diseases, as well the CZ Biohub,

which supports studies of cell biology

and infectious disease at three Northern

California universities. In the next phase,

the organization will create a network of

biohubs and two free-standing institutes—

one focused on advanced imaging and

the second to study natural and artificial

intelligence. CZI’s total commitment will

extend to $6.4 billion over 20 years.

Prizes for defending science

AWARDS | An independent science integrity

consultant and a racial health disparities

researcher who have both faced scientific or

public pushback have won this year’s John

Maddox Prize for standing up for science.

Microbiologist Elisabeth Bik received the

£3000 award for her data sleuthing, notably

uncovering duplicated or modified images

that can signal fraud and other problems.

Physician-scientist Mohammad Sharif Razai

of St George’s, University of London won

the early career prize for work that included

addressing vaccine hesitancy among ethnic

minorities and health disparities that

result from systemic racism. The award is

sponsored by the London-based charity

Sense about Science and Nature, where John

Maddox was editor until 1995.

A

study of hippo pools in Africa suggests the microscopic gut

residents of these massive animals have an unexpected

influence outside their bodies. Like almost all animals, hip-

pos (Hippopotamus amphibius) host beneficial gut microbes,

such as bacteria that aid digestion. But when hippos defecate

into the large pools they wade and swim in along the Serengeti’s

Mara River, they release living members of their intestinal micro-

biome and effectively create a poolwide “metagut,” University of

Florida ecologist Christopher Dutton and colleagues reported last

week in Scientific Reports. These microbes can change the water

chemistry, which could help explain the massive fish kills that take

place during seasonal floods, when pool water is washed down-

stream, the team proposes. The animals also share bacteria with

each other as they drink the water, possibly boosting the digestive

capabilities and immune defenses of all the hippos in the pond.

“Hippos shape the world around them through microbes associ-

ated with their feces,” says Robert Naiman, an emeritus ecologist

at the University of Washington, Seattle. Other creatures that live

in stagnant pools or slow-moving streams, such as alligators, may

do something similar, he says.

ECOLOGY

Hippo gut microbes make a splash

69,

Estimated increase in global

malaria deaths for 2020 compared

with 2019, 70% (47,000) of them

attributed to pandemic disruptions

and mostly children under 5 years

old. (World Health Organization’s

annual malaria report)

BY THE NUMBERS