Nau mai haere mai – welcome to this week’s newsletter.

At the end of the G7 summit earlier this week, leaders joined forces in support of US president Biden’s call for a new investigation to determine the exact starting point of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the heart of this is the question of whether the virus, SARS-CoV-2, jumped from a wild animal host to a person or whether the first infection happened in a laboratory, through an experimental virus.

Allen Rodrigo, an expert in the molecular evolution of viruses, argues we cannot dismiss the lab-leak hypothesis, because we already know of 27 cases of laboratory-acquired infections that happened between 1982 and 2016 in the Asia-Pacific region alone.

The dengue fever virus and the SARS coronavirus were among the pathogens transmitted in these cases, and accidental infections have happened in labs with the highest biosafety accreditation. As he writes, this makes a lab-leak scenario at least plausible and therefore important to investigate.

There’s plenty more to read here and on our homepage, including human rights expert Claire Breen’s analysis of the debate over transgender athletes in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympic Games next month and the latest advice on COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.

As always, many thanks for your readership and support. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa.

Veronika Meduna

New Zealand Editor: Science, Health + Environment

Chen Jimin/China News Service via Getty Images

The COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis is plausible because accidents happen. I should know

Allen Rodrigo, University of Auckland

There are several earlier examples of people studying infectious pathogens being infected in the laboratory, even while working under strict biosafety conditions.

www.shutterstock.com

The debate over transgender athletes’ rights is testing the current limits of science and the law

Claire Breen, University of Waikato

With both sides claiming unfair discrimination, the science disputed and law contradictory, where do transgender athletes turn?

www.shutterstock.com

Auckland is the world’s ‘most liveable city’? Many Māori might disagree

Ella Henry, Auckland University of Technology

Auckland has risen to the top of a global liveable cities survey on the back of the country's pandemic response. But that's not the full picture.

Aleksandar Malivuk/Shutterstock

Climate explained: could biofuels replace all fossil fuels in New Zealand?

Troy Baisden, University of Waikato

A complete switch to biofuels is neither feasible nor desirable, but they could replace some fossil fuels in transport and heating. If biofuels are produced from waste products, that's even better.

Shutterstock/MIA Studio

Research now backs routinely offering pregnant women the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine

Michelle Wise, University of Auckland

The latest advice is to offer COVID-19 vaccines to women at any stage of pregnancy to protect them from a higher risk of severe disease – and to give their babies an early boost of antibodies.

In February, the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Minganie Regional County Municipality declared the Muteshekau Shipu (Magpie River) a legal person, a move that may provide greater certainty for this majestic river’s future. (Boreal River)

Rights for nature: How granting a river ‘personhood’ could help protect it

Justine Townsend, University of Guelph; Alexis Bunten; Catherine Iorns, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Lindsay Borrows, University of Alberta

A recent declaration of a river as a legal person in Canada recognizes Indigenous laws and governance, and champions people as the guardians of nature.

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Proceed to your nearest (virtual) exit: gaming technology is teaching us how people respond to emergencies

Ruggiero Lovreglio, Massey University

Researchers are using mixed reality technologies to investigate how people behave in in emergency situations. The findings are helping shape disaster responses.

Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (2017). AAP

The COVID-19 lab leak theory highlights a glaring lack of global biosecurity regulation

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato

We may never know whether the pandemic began with a leak at the Wuhan lab. But even the possibility shows we need a universal biosafety code to prevent something similar happening in future.

From our foreign editions

Fifty-nine labs around world handle the deadliest pathogens – only a quarter score high on safety

Filippa Lentzos, King's College London; Gregory Koblentz, George Mason University

A large proportion of scientific research on coronaviruses is carried out in countries with no oversight of experiments designed to make pathogens more deadly.

Netanyahu may be ousted but his hard-line foreign policies remain

David Mednicoff, University of Massachusetts Amherst

After 12 years in power, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's influence will last long beyond his time in office.

NASA is returning to Venus to learn how it became a hot poisonous wasteland – and whether the planet was ever habitable in the past

Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University

Two new NASA missions – VERITAS and DAVINCI+ – are headed to Venus. The missions will use radar and a probe to learn about Earth's hard-to-study and potentially prophetic neighbor.

The sex organs of baobab flowers may solve the puzzle of trees that bear more fruit

Glynis V. Cron, University of the Witwatersrand; Ed Witkowski, University of the Witwatersrand; Kelsey Glennon, University of the Witwatersrand; Sarah Venter, University of the Witwatersrand

Baobab flowers have male and female parts but individual trees appear to be favouring one rather than the other. To keep tree populations healthy and fruitful, both types are needed.

Tackling burnout: How to deal with stress and safety in the workplace

Kristen Deuzeman, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

Burnout as the result of workplace stress has big implications for employers. Occupational health and safety standards require employers to protect both the physical and mental health of workers.

G7 showed that post-Trump, the world has shifted

Tony Walker, La Trobe University

Scott Morrison may have found the meeting of the leaders of the world's liberal democracies that aligning himself so closely with former US President Donald Trump was not the most prudent course.

Grenfell: four years after the disaster, are our buildings safer?

Paresh Wankhade, Edge Hill University

New regulations, training systems and research are underway but there's much still to be done.

Do aliens exist? We asked five experts

Noor Gillani, The Conversation; Chynthia Wijaya, The Conversation

Even if aliens exist, are intelligent like humans and interested in making contact with us, what are the chances they'll be close enough for us to hear them screaming their presence into the cosmos?