Hello Nature readers,
Today we hear hopeful results for the first mRNA bird-flu vaccine for cattle, explore the ‘Gollum effect’ that makes researchers hoard data and learn what happened when a Nature reporter designed his own protein using AI.

Bird-flu vaccine for cows shows promise

Researchers have developed the first mRNA bird-flu vaccine for cattle. Early results suggest that the vaccine triggers a strong immune response to the virus, and curbs infection in calves given milk from H5N1-infected cows — a suspected route of transmission among cattle. A widely-used vaccine for livestock could reduce the risk of animal-to-human transmission of a virus that poses a “real pandemic threat”, says virologist and study co-author Scott Hensley. He and his team are working on further trials in adult lactating cows.

Blood, urine reveal ultra-processed foods

Molecules in blood and urine can reveal how much of a person’s diet comes from ultra-processed foods — industrially manufactured items that often contain ingredients such as additives and emulsifiers. These measurements provide a way to track consumption of such foods that doesn't rely on self-reporting — and would be useful for investigating links to diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Tool flags risk of postpartum depression

Researchers have created a machine-learning tool that can predict, to some extent, who might be at high risk for developing postpartum depression. The tool was trained and validated with data from more than 29,000 people who gave birth in the United States. Of the people that the model flagged as having a high risk of postpartum depression, 30% went on to develop the condition. “Even some degree of prediction can be helpful because we simply don’t have the resources to give everyone the follow-up care that we wish we could as far as postpartum mental health,” says psychiatrist Roy Perlis.

NSF cut to ‘overhead costs’: what’s at stake

Research organizations in the United States are locked in a court battle with the administration of US president Donald Trump over its plan to cap payments for indirect costs. This funding has typically topped up research grants by up to 70% to cover expenses such as electricity and IT — an amount that was already insufficient in some cases to cover the real cost of doing research, say observers. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has temporarily paused a move to cap overhead payments on new research grants at 15%. A coalition of 13 US universities and 3 academic associations are seeking to stop the policy, alleging that there are several restrictions on the NSF’s ability to change overhead rates abruptly or unilaterally.

‘Gollum effect’ plagues academia

Almost half of the scientists who responded to a survey have experienced the ‘Gollum effect’ — possessive behaviours, attempts to undermine others, and efforts to restrict access to data, resources or opportunities from other scientists. Of those affected, nearly half said that the perpetrator was a high-profile researcher, and one-third said it was their own supervisor. These gatekeeping behaviours “damage careers, particularly of early-career and marginalized researchers”, says study author Jose Valdez. “Most alarming was that nearly one in five of those affected left academia or science entirely.”

‘I used AI to design an awful protein’

When Nature reporter Ewen Callaway tried making a protein using an artificial-intelligence (AI) protein language model, it didn’t change the world: the molecule probably couldn’t be made in the laboratory, let alone do anything useful. But a new generation of AI tools offers new hope to dabblers in computational biology. These tools take instructions in plain language and turn them into proteins and other molecules, including potential drugs. The models also allow researchers to ‘talk’ to cells in ordinary English to decipher their inner workings and glean other biological insights.

East India Company’s ‘organized looting’

In her new book Monopolizing Knowledge, historian of science and technology Jessica Ratcliff documents how manuscripts and specimens gathered by the East India Company formed the foundation of modern science in the United Kingdom. These included “many accumulated through organized looting and plunder”, notes sociologist Zaheer Baber in his review. These items were eventually donated or sold to museums — a colonial legacy that leaves these institutions with a “huge dilemma”, writes Ratcliff.

How to survive teaching evaluations

As a new professor, marketing scholar Lan Nguyen Chaplin felt bruised by the scattershot negativity in anonymous student evaluations. With experience, she came to realize that “the same qualities that made me some students’ ‘best professor’ were exactly what others found ‘annoying’ or made my class ‘a waste of time’”, she writes. “The evaluations were as much about students’ diverse preferences and expectations as about me.” Now she focuses on the feedback about her work as an educator, and treats comments about her voice, clothing and facial expressions as “noise”.