Where long COVID is understudied and ignored

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Hello Nature readers, Happy new year! Today, we discover that reindeer can also do what I achieved while on my holiday break: snoozing and chewing at the same time. Plus, we review the anti-semitism controversy that has engulfed Ivy League campuses in the United States and learn what long COVID looks like worldwide.

Researchers disrupted reindeers' usual sleep time by talking loudly, stroking them and enticing them with fresh food. (Henry Lo/500px via Getty)

Reindeer can chew while they doze Eurasian tundra reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) put their brains into a sleep-like state during rumination — the process of regurgitating and re-chewing food. The more they ruminated, the less actual sleep the reindeer seemed to need. The ability probably helps to maximize food intake during bountiful Arctic summers, suggests study author and neuroscientist Melanie Furrer. Nature | 4 min read Reference: Current Biology paper

Psychedelic drug banishes PTSD Ibogaine, a psychoactive substance made from the bark of the shrub Tabernanthe iboga, could help treat the psychological effects of traumatic brain injury. A study of thirty male US veterans found that the drug decreased symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression by more than 80% on average, one month after treatment. Researchers did not administer the drug — study participants had sought out treatment in Mexico, where the use of ibogaine is not restricted. The study is a "proof of concept" that proper screening and administration can lower the risk of harmful side effects, says clinical psychologist Maria Steenkamp. Nature | 5 min read Reference: Nature Medicine paper

Harvard president resigns Political scientist Claudine Gay, the first Black president of Harvard University, resigned on 2 January following controversial testimony in the US Congress over anti-semitism on campus. Gay was subject to mounting allegations of plagiarism in her scholarly work, while facing "repugnant and in some cases racist vitriol" from some critics, said Harvard's primary governing board. University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill stepped down just days after testifying at the same congressional hearing. Nature | 6 min read

Features & opinion

The double curse of long COVID Much of the world's research on long COVID is conducted in wealthy countries, leaving sufferers in poor regions understudied and ignored. Long COVID is a complex condition linked to more than 200 symptoms, including brain fog, chronic fatigue and muscle weakness. A lack of data and recognition is hampering action and treatment in many countries, including Brazil. Nature | 9 min read

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What worms tell us about ageing well In her new book How We Age, geneticist Coleen Murphy gives a lively and personal account of the state of ageing research. Murphy doesn't provide any silver bullets for remaining youthful, writes reviewer and geneticist Linda Partridge. But she does offer a paean to invertebrate model organisms, such as worms and fruit flies, in which genes that prolong life suggest that ageing is a malleable process. Nature | 7 min read

Podcast: What to expect in 2024 On this week's podcast, Nature reporter Miryam Naddaf takes us on a whistle-stop tour of some of the developments set to shape research in 2024, including: Results from a solar telescope with a 10-metre-long magnet that aims to capture dark-matter particles called axions. The second round of neuroscience experiments to test two leading hypotheses about the neural basis of consciousness — after the first round ended in favour of philosophy. An opinion from the International Court of Justice on whether nations are legally obliged to combat climate change. Nature Podcast | 14 min listen Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify, or use the RSS feed.

Half the world's mines are undocumented Scientists Victor Maus and Tim Werner reviewed satellite images of almost 120,000 square kilometres and found that more than half of the mines they spotted were operating off the radar, with no production information listed in the most popular commercial database. Some are illegal, some abandoned and some just aren't reported. The result is "we know surprisingly little about what's going on in the sector globally and how mining affects the environment and communities near mines," they write. They propose four steps "to address the 'known unknowns' of the mining sector". Nature | 11 min read

Where I work

Some of the corals in this artificial nursery in Mo'orea, French Polynesia, have turned white. "This bleaching happens when the water temperature rises above normal for a long period," explains aquariology engineer Yann Lacube. The coral polyps expel the microalgae they rely on for food and eventually starve. Lacube wants to find out whether certain polyps are more resilient to temperature stress. "Finding answers might help us to protect corals, but of course what would really help is an end to pollution and global warming," he says. (Nature | 3 min read) (Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty)

Quote of the day "The impact on our research community is a really disastrous side effect of an otherwise quite routine bit of business extortion." Cyberattackers who have hobbled the computer system of the British Library since October probably had no idea that they were striking at one of the world's great centres of knowledge, says an anonymous cybersecurity expert familiar with the case. (The New Yorker | 11 min read)

If you've got room for one last bit of festive fun, I was delighted to be invited to play the annual Nature Podcast quiz. Listen in to find out what I could remember about some of the thousands of science stories we covered in 2023, including some of our absolute favourites. Thanks for reading, Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing With contributions by Katrina Krämer and Sarah Tomlin

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