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Stray puppies play inside a never-completed cooling tower at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine.Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty
How the dogs of Chernobyl survive
DNA collected from some of the hundreds of feral dogs that live in Chernobyl seems to confirm that they are descendants of the pets left behind after the 1986 nuclear disaster. The finding is the first step in a larger project aimed at determining how the dogs have adapted to survive in one of the most radioactive places on Earth. Because they are large, relatively long-lived mammals that eat foods found in the human diet, the dogs could offer a natural experiment revealing how a similar situation might affect people. “We’ve never had an opportunity to do this work in an animal that reflects us as well as dogs,” says Elaine Ostrander, a geneticist and co-author of the study.
Reference: Science Advances paper
COVID pill cuts short positive-test time
An antiviral called ensitrelvir accelerates recovery from mild to moderate COVID-19 by about one day. It’s the first drug shown to significantly cut the number of days people test positive for the virus. It might also reduce the risk of long COVID. The drug’s manufacturer, Shionogi, says that participants who had a relatively high number of symptoms during the illness's early stages had a 14% risk of developing long COVID if they took the antiviral, compared with a 26% risk for similar participants in the placebo group. But the trial was not initially designed to investigate long COVID, so more research is needed to confirm this result.
Moon missions could ruin lunar silence
A boom in lunar exploration could ruin the radio silence on the far side of the Moon. The far side is the perfect spot for telescopes to listen to radio waves because it is protected from all the human-made electromagnetic noise coming from Earth. In 2026, the first dedicated mission to take advantage of the quiet will try to measure the ‘cosmic dawn’, which would reveal the Universe’s very first stars. More than 250 lunar missions are expected over the coming decade, each potentially creating a new source of noise. “Will the far side remain dark?” asks astronomer Joseph Lazio. “You should already be nervous that I’m asking the question.”
Teaching skills becoming more sought after
Teaching and student-supervision skills are high on academic employers’ wanted list, just below research experience. An analysis of almost 41,000 European job ads posted between 2016 and 2021 found that for full professor positions, teaching was more requested (in 68% of the posts) than research (63%). This points to a shift in the definition of an academic career, says chemist Nicola Dengo. “Right now, professorship is more like management of a research group.”
Reference: Studies in Higher Education paper
Features & opinion
Researchers are sick of ‘hustle culture’
Some researchers are ditching unpaid, unrecognized or underappreciated tasks such as conference participation, peer-reviewing duties, committee memberships or mentoring efforts. This practice is sometimes called ‘quiet quitting’, although many note that they’re neither quitting nor being quiet about their desire to create healthier work–life boundaries, prioritize their mental health and reject toxic workplace cultures. In a Nature poll of 1,700 researchers, almost 70% cited burnout as the main reason for dialling back. “I think the main thing universities can do is change their priorities to take care of employees and create a workplace where people feel appreciated and seen,” says mathematician Isabel Müller.
Everyday objects that made the world
Nails, wheels, springs, magnets, lenses, string and pumps: these are the seven everyday objects that made the modern world, according to structural engineer Roma Agrawal. In her new book, Nuts and Bolts, she explores the science and impact of each of these mini machines. The reader can’t help but be swept along in Agrawal’s enthusiasm, but she’s at pains to point out that ‘progress’ isn’t always good, writes reviewer and Nature subeditor Anna Novitzky.
Five best science books this week
Andrew Robinson’s pick of the top five science books to read this week includes an engrossing study of happiness, a vivid first-hand account of the radioactive leak that turned Brookhaven National Laboratory’s 50th anniversary into a “year of chaos” and the story of an Amazonian farmer’s fight to bring to justice the land baron who ordered her husband’s death.
