Humberto Basilio

New York

Science Journalist at Nature

Science Journalist at Freelance

Science Journalist at @Nature | Words in @NYTimes @NewsfromScience @NatGeo @ArchaeologyMag @AGU_Eos @InsideClimate and more. 🇲🇽 Signal: humbertobasilio.24

Articles

Bird Flu Vaccine for Cows Passes Early Test

2 weeks ago | scientificamerican.com | Humberto Basilio

As bird flu sweeps across US poultry and cattle farms, researchers are racing to find ways to contain the outbreaks before they ignite a human pandemic. Now, a team of scientists has developed a fresh approach: the first mRNA bird-flu vaccine for cattle. Early findings, posted this month on the preprint server bioRxiv, reveal that the experimental vaccine triggers a strong immune response to the virus, and protects against infection in calves. The results have not yet been peer-reviewed.
Bird flu vaccine for cattle aces early test

2 weeks ago | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

As bird flu sweeps across US poultry and cattle farms, researchers are racing to find ways to contain the outbreaks before they ignite a human pandemic. Now, a team of scientists has developed a fresh approach: the first mRNA bird-flu vaccine for cattle. Will bird flu spark a human pandemic?
Renewal of NIH grants linked to more innovative results, study finds

1 month ago | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

In its bid to reduce government spending and rein in ‘woke’ science, the administration of US President Donald Trump has, over the past three months, terminated about 800 active research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Baffling chronic pain eases after doses of gut microbes

1 month ago | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

What Rina Green calls her “living hell” began with an innocuous backache. By late 2022, two years later, pain flooded her entire body daily and could be so intense that she couldn’t get out of bed. Painkillers and physical therapy offered little relief. She began using a wheelchair. Green has fibromyalgia, a mysterious condition with symptoms of widespread and chronic muscle pain and fatigue. No one knows why people get fibromyalgia, and it is difficult to treat.
What makes us human? Milestone ape genomes promise clues

1 month ago | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

After more than two decades of work, researchers have achieved a genetics milestone: they have successfully sequenced the complete genomes of six ape species, a feat that seemed impossible just a few years ago1. The results, published today in Nature by a team of 123 researchers spread across multiple nations,are expected to aid ape conservation efforts and advance scientists’ understanding of how humans differ from other apes.
Big cuts to US AIDS prevention feared as NIH axes HIV research grants

2 months ago | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

The administration of US President Donald Trump has hollowed out one of the federal offices aimed at ending the nation’s HIV epidemic. The move comes as the administration has also cut hundreds of grants funding HIV and AIDS research. The changes leave researchers bewildered: during Trump’s first presidency, his administration launched a plan to eradicate HIV in the United States by 2030.
Light pollution threatens fleet of world-class telescopes in Atacama Desert

2 months ago | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

A massive green hydrogen plant proposed for construction in Chile could increase light pollution at one of the world’s most powerful telescopes by at least one-third, says the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the consortium that operates the telescope and will either host or operate others being built nearby.
‘My career is over’: Columbia University scientists hit hard by Trump team’s cuts

2 months ago | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

On Tuesday morning this week, PhD student Daniella Fodera woke up at 7 a.m. to a call from the head of her research laboratory in Columbia University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, delivering devastating news. Her F31 fellowship, a research training grant that provides the majority of her annual income, had been terminated. “It was traumatic,” Fodera says.
‘Scientists will not be silenced’: thousands protest Trump research cuts

Mar 7, 2025 | nature.com | Julian Nowogrodzki |Humberto Basilio |Heidi Ledford |Brendan Maher

Washington DC. Boston, Massachusetts. Denver, Colorado. Seattle, Washington. Trenton, New JerseyThousands of researchers and supporters of science protested in cities across the United States and Europe today against actions taken by the administration of US President Donald Trump to cut the US scientific workforce and slash spending on research worldwide.
How a PhD student’s lab size affects their chance of future academic success

Mar 7, 2025 | nature.com | Humberto Basilio

Postdoctoral students, graduate students and other junior scientists in large research groups are more likely to drop out of academia than are their peers in smaller groups, according to a new study of more than one million early-career researchers. But the analysis also found that researchers trained in large groups who stay in academia have more career success.