Pretty much all biology this month. The ongoing pandemic is really giving a big boost to all kinds of biomedical research.

• Perhaps the most predictable outcome of our extensive measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic is that it has also reduced the genetic diversity of known subtypes of influenza. Prior to the pandemic, there were worries that clades of the virus family that causes influenza were drifting apart genetically, making it more difficult to formulate a vaccine that covers all of the strains. During the pandemic it seems that one of the clades has disappeared, though it’s likely that it’s present somewhere but transmission rates have dropped enough that it isn’t seen in circulation. This means that it becomes easier to make a vaccine for influenza again, at least for a while.
• The really big news this month is the announcement that scientists from a consortium of labs all around the world have finally sequenced the entire human genome. This is some 20 years since the first drafts of the human genome were first published. The long delay is because the final 8% of the missing genome has been particularly difficult to sequence, such as the centromeres, the points where the arms of the two chromosomes intersect. New techniques had to be devised to deal with these challenging sections but now that the entire genome is complete it will constitute a complete reference with no gaps and that could be very useful to all types of research.
• Next is the news that old-fashioned laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, seems to be a viable treatment for a particularly serious form of depression that is resistant to other forms of medication. Most people are likely familiar with the gas as a mild sedative sometimes used by dentists. The treatment here uses a much lower concentration of the gas and seems successful at reducing the symptoms of depression for months at a time. I honestly cannot understand why it wasn’t known earlier as it seems like an obvious thing to try.
• Most people should know that long period of physical activity very quickly leads to muscle loss and a drop in bone density in humans. At the same time, we also know that bears hibernate for months at a time yet they don’t seem to suffer from osteoporosis. A new paper describes the mechanisms that make this possible. In particular, the genes that code for bone resorption and apoptosis are turned down during hibernation but then so are the genes that code for the formation of new bone. It seems that all biological processes that changes the structure of the bone are turned off during hibernation. Needless to say, the ability to regulate bone activity in this way is worth investigating to develop a treatment for osteoporosis in humans.
• Finally here’s a paper about banded mongooses in Africa are able to maintain a more equal community by having all mothers give birth to pups on the same night. Thereafter they are seemingly unable to differentiate which pups belong to which mothers and so the community cares for the pups as a whole. It makes for an uplifting story but it’s too close to a just-so to ward off my skepticism.