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A thin slice of rock from oceanic crust at Atlantis Bank in the Indian Ocean, where slow-living bacteria have been found.Credit: Frieder Klein/WHOI

In one of the deepest layers of Earth’s crust ever explored, researchers are finding life. An analysis of rock samples from the bottom of the Indian Ocean has revealed microbes adapted to life within nutrient-poor hairline fractures in the Earth. Researchers found several species of bacteria, fungi and archaea that live in the rocks and feed on carbon from fragments of amino acids and other organic molecules carried in deep ocean currents.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Nature paper

By the numbers 70% The proportion of all microbes on Earth that are thought to live in places long deemed inhospitable, such as deep sediments under the oceans, the cold deserts of Antarctica and the stratosphere.

The European and Russian space agencies have pushed back the launch of a rover that will search for signs of life on Mars. The Rosalind Franklin probe was meant to launch in July but will now depart in 2022 to allow key tests to take place. The space agencies also cited the global coronavirus pandemic as a reason for the delay. The epidemiological situation in Europe has “left our experts practically no possibility to proceed with travels to partner industries”, said Dmitry Rogozin, director-general of Roscosmos.

Nature | 4 min read

Researchers in China have developed an experimental vaccine that can protect pigs for life from a lethal virus that has wiped out 40% of the country’s 440 million pigs. Virologists say the vaccine still requires clinical trials and large-scale vaccine production. The country has suffered huge economic losses as a result of the virus since it appeared in 2018, although it is mostly under control now.

Nature | 4 min read

Heavy rains, war and a lack of funding have been hampering efforts to control the biggest locust outbreak in more than a quarter of a century. Locust monitoring in Africa is severely underfunded, with many countries facing unpaid bills to the organization that provides a locust early-warning system and helps to control outbreaks. In Yemen, the ongoing war and the humanitarian crisis it has caused put the country in no position to deal with the pests. The United Nations has appealed for urgent funding as scientists scramble to model outbreaks and find safe countermeasures.

Nature | 4 min read

Features & opinion

Rosamund Pike plays Marie Curie in Radioactive.Credit: StudioCanal and Amazon Content Services

Who was Marie Skłodowska Curie, and how did she become the only person ever to win Nobel prizes in two scientific disciplines? A new biopic, Radioactive, gives only a partial answer, writes reviewer Georgina Ferry. By falling into the ‘lone heroes’ trap, the film gives little insight into Curie’s own motivations or her respected place in the international scientific community.

Nature | 5 min read

A skull found perfectly preserved in amber might belong to the world’s smallest dinosaur — and reveal a whole new lineage of birds. Hear more in this week’s Nature Podcast.

Nature Podcast | 27 min listen

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Where I work

Rose A. Marks is a postdoctoral researcher in molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.Credit: Jennie Lyn Pretorius for Nature

Biologist Rose Marks scales a 100-metre quartzite cliff in South Africa to measure and take samples of the ‘resurrection’ plant (Myrothamnus flabellifolia), which can survive for years in a completely desiccated state. “Understanding what makes these plants so resilient could help us to develop crops that will survive drought,” says Marks. (Nature | 3 min read)