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The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the non-opioid painkiller suzetrigine for short-term pain management. Suzetrigine is the first pain drug given a regulatory nod in more than 20 years that works through a brand-new mechanism, without the risks of addiction or sedation. Unlike opioids, the drug doesn’t act in the brain, instead blocking certain sodium channels in pain-sensing cells in the peripheral nervous system. When it comes to chronic pain — where the need for safer, non-opioid alternatives is most pressing — trials haven’t proven suzetrigine’s efficacy, nor were they long enough to rule out side effects from long-term use.
Nature | 6 min read
Go deeper into how the NaV1.8 inhibitor works in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (11 min read)
In mice, scratching activates an immune response that helps to protect the skin against harmful infections, which could also explain why humans find a good scratch satisfying. When mice scratched itchy patches on their ears, the tissue swelled, and pain-sensing neurons released a molecule that attracts immune cells called neutrophils. Mice prevented from scratching with a ‘cone of shame’ had less swollen ears with fewer immune cells in them. Those that scratched were also less likely to have the potentially dangerous bacterium Staphylococcus aureus on their ears, which suggests that scratching has anti-bacterial benefits.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Science paper
Botanic gardens are running out of space — putting at risk efforts to save plants from extinction. Researchers recommend founding more botanic gardens close to biodiversity hotspots and forming a globe-spanning ‘meta collection’ to safeguard plant populations. They also flag regulatory barriers that have made it harder to collect wild specimens.
The Guardian | 4 min read
Reference: Nature Ecology & Evolution paper
An extra 2.3 million people in European cities could die as a result of extreme temperatures — both hot and cold — by the end of the century if decision makers don’t act to mitigate climate change. Researchers analysed temperature and mortality data from urban areas in 30 European countries to model various warming scenarios and the possible temperature-related deaths associated with them between 2015 and 2099. The results suggest that heat-related deaths will surpass those caused by cold conditions in even the most optimistic scenarios, and that temperature-related deaths overall could increase by nearly 50%.
Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature Medicine paper
DeepSeek
Table of Contents
Chinese technology start-up DeepSeek has taken the tech world by storm with the release of two large language models (LLMs) — R1 and the image generator Janus-Pro-7B — that rival industry-leading models built in the United States. But the emergence of a frontrunner out of China is no surprise to observers within the country, who cite strong government support, huge venture-capital investment and a significant population of researchers in the field. Perhaps most remarkable, say scientists, is that the work was done amid US export controls that have blocked China’s access to advanced AI computing chips since 2022 — a restriction that seems to have prompted impressive efficiency-boosting innovations.
Nature | 6 min read
Like OpenAI’s industry-leading o1, DeepSeek-R1 is a ‘reasoning’ model that uses a ‘chain of thought’ method to solve complex tasks, including sometimes backtracking and evaluating its approach — making them more adept than earlier LLMs at solving scientific problems. But, unlike o1, DeepSeek has been released as ‘open-weight’, meaning that researchers can study and build on the algorithm. There are also mini ‘distilled’ versions of R1 to allow researchers with limited computing power to play with the model. And then there’s the price. Using DeepSeek’s interface, an experiment that cost more than US$300 with o1, costs less than $10 with R1, says AI scientist Mario Krenn.
Nature | 6 min read
Source: DeepSeek
Notable quotable
“It shouldn’t take a panic over Chinese AI to remind people that most companies in the business set the terms for how they use your private data… And that when you use their services, you’re doing work for them, not the other way around.”
Security concerns raised over the fact that DeepSeek stores user data on servers in China should remind users not to disclose private information to any chatbots, notes John Scott-Railton, who studies cybersecurity, cyber warfare and disinformation. (Wired | 9 min read)
Features & opinion
“It’s not unusual for an incoming administration to take a pause until they get their new people in place,” says Monica Bertagnolli, the former head of the US National Institutes of Health, of the Trump administration’s halt on some activities at the nation’s health agencies. “But what has heightened anxiety is the expressed mandate of this administration to completely overhaul health.” For example, a mooted move away from infectious-disease research in favour of more work on chronic illnesses ignores the strong links between the two. Bertagnolli’s biggest concern, though, is for the next generation of scientists. “We know that when funding is low, and when respect for science is low, that it really hurts the next generation,” she says.
Nature | 6 min read
Mod-gifted teens make their own rules in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.
Nature | 7 min read
In 2023, a special delivery arrived in Utah, courtesy of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Inside were samples from the asteroid Bennu, which revealed the presence of organic compounds important for life, and that its parent asteroid probably contained salty, subsurface water. The samples suggest that brines might have been an important place where pre-biotic molecules were formed. “We know that we didn’t go straight from elements to some sort of thing swimming around in a brine,” says mineral scientist Tim McCoy. “We had to form more complex organic molecules which then ultimately combined to make something that could become life and we think these alkaline brines are the ideal environment for something like that to happen.”
Nature Podcast | 35 min listen
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Today, Leif Penguinson is enjoying a waterfall on the Chauveroche stream in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France. Can you find the penguin?
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Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing
With contributions by Jacob Smith and Gemma Conroy
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