Readers respond Correspondence Early-career Boost for Africa’s In memory of a Australian bush researchers: research must game-changing fires and fuel loads choose change, protect its haematologist not complicity biodiversity David Bowman and colleagues Haematology has lost a giant: incorrectly cite our work Early-career researchers We write on behalf of Paul Sylvain Frenette died in to support their claim that generally are ardent supporters 209 scientists (see go.nature. July, aged 56. His research led politicians and the media of greater diversity, equity and com/3sa16p9) to endorse a directly to the development of misled the public by blaming inclusion, work–life balance and new initiative by the African therapies that changed clinical Australia’s 2019–20 wildfires on mental well-being in academia. Research Universities Alliance practice. And he taught us — his inappropriate land management Yet the precariousness of our and the Guild of European former trainees — by example (D. Bowman et al. Nature 584, careers seems to demand a Research-Intensive Universities and shaped our careers. 188–191; 2020). default to an academic system (see go.nature.com/3b364hj). Frenette was the inaugural In our article (M. A. Adams that perpetuates injustices and This calls for greater investment director of the Ruth L. and David et al. Glob. Change Biol. poor quality of life (K. N. Laland by the African Union and the S. Gottesman Institute for Stem 26, 3756–3758; 2020), we Nature 584, 653–654 (2020); European Union in Africa’s Cell Biology and Regenerative emphatically acknowledged E. N. Satinsky et al. Sci. Rep. 11, universities, to help them Medicine at Albert Einstein that hot, dry weather (and 14370; 2021). We must apply address global challenges such College of Medicine in New generally drying climates) had the changes we wish to see in as public health, climate change York City, where he built one of created conditions that typically academia to our own lives if and good governance. We the strongest interdisciplinary precede large Australian fires. the system is to work better for strongly encourage expansion stem-cell programmes in the We also offered empirical data everyone. of the initiative to encompass United States. He developed showing that loads of litter We need to recognize that environmental and biodiversity new paradigms across a range of fuel — which drives fire intensity many junior researchers cannot issues that are crucial to the haematology topics. — had reached critical levels. safeguard their careers by continent’s future. For example, he helped Although a political issue, buying into current academic Safeguarding Africa’s to discover the mechanisms litter fuels can be managed to norms because of their life extraordinary natural resources mediating vaso-occlusion in mitigate fire risks (see F. Moreira circumstances (having also and biodiversity — the backbone sickle-cell disease (A. Turhan et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, to act as carers, for example), of much of its economy and et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 99, 011001; 2020). or because their identities livelihood — demands a new 3047–3051; 2002); to define how Our empirical data (see are marginalized (people of generation of African scientists the nervous system regulates M. Neumann et al. Ecosphere colour, for example). When trained in environmental haematopoiesis (Y. Katayama 12, e03693; 2021) are backed by those who can choose to uphold sciences. Experts are needed et al. Cell 124, 407–421; 2006); an extensive literature on litter problematic standards do so, in conservation science and and to identify fundamental decomposition. As climates those who cannot are further environmental economics, as components and mechanisms dry, decomposition slows and disadvantaged. Moreover, this well as in the collection, curation through which the bone marrow litter fuel accumulates faster. complicity punts issues to the and analysis of biological data. niche regulates haematopoietic Measured fuel loads frequently next generation. We should As Julius Nyerere, the former stem cells (see, for example, exceed those predicted by leave a better legacy for our president of Tanzania, put it S. Méndez-Ferrer et al. Nature Bowman et al. (see, for example, pupils and children. 60 years ago in a speech now 466, 829–834; 2010). D. M. J. S. Bowman et al. Plant To create a more equitable, known as the Arusha Manifesto: As a stellar academic, Frenette Cell Environ. 44, 347–355; collaborative, healthy academia, “The conservation of wildlife and trained and influenced many 2021), based on models with we must lead by example. wild places calls for specialist scientists. He encouraged us to arbitrary limits reached within Let’s start by discussing what knowledge, trained manpower identify the key significance of 10–20 years of previous fires. academic values we support and and money, and we look to other our hypotheses and to do the how we can practise them now. nations to co-operate with us in best experiments to prove them. Mark Adams Swinburne this important task — the success University of Technology, Lucrecia K. Aguilar Harvard or failure of which not only Daniel Lucas Cincinnati Children’s Melbourne, Australia. University, Cambridge, affects the continent of Africa Hospital Medical Center, [email protected] Massachusetts, USA. but the rest of the world as well.” Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. [email protected] [email protected] Mathias Neumann University Nils Chr. Stenseth University of of Natural Resources and Life Oslo, Norway. Christoph Scheiermann University Sciences, Vienna, Austria. [email protected] of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Sebsebe Demissew Addis Ababa Andrés Hidalgo National Centre University, Ethiopia. for Cardiovascular Research, [email protected] Madrid, Spain. Nature | Vol 597 | 2 September 2021 | 31 ©2021 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All rights reserved. .