Nature Podcast15 Okt 2025

New bird flu vaccine could tackle multiple variants with one shot

00:46 A multi-variant avian flu vaccine that could enhance pandemic preparedness

A vaccine capable of protecting against multiple strains of avian influenza virus might be a step closer, according to new research. The H5 subtype of avian influenza viruses has spilled over into mammals and is particularly concerning to researchers because of the risk that one of its variants may evolve to cause a pandemic. But because there are multiple variants of these viruses, it has been hard to pre-prepare vaccines. Now, a team has used information on how H5 viruses changed over time to design a vaccine that in animal studies provided protection against different H5 variants. They hope their approach could be applied to create stockpiles of a vaccine that could be used in the event of a pandemic, regardless of the variant that causes it.

Research Article: Kok et al.

10:53 Research Highlights

Making muon beams without a huge particle accelerator — plus, the bats hunting migrating birds in mid-air.

Research Highlight: Portable muon beam could accelerate archaeology scans

Research Highlight: European bats capture migrating birds and eat them on the wing

13:34 Briefing Chat

A new search engine that can sift through the staggering volumes of biological data, and the multiple failings revealed by an assessment of 25 years of carbon offsetting data.

Nature: ‘Google for DNA’ brings order to biology’s big data

The Guardian: Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

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