+++ Hola lectores de Nature, Hoy descubrimos los desagradables hábitos de hurgarse la nariz del aye-aye, exploramos cómo las lecciones de la pandemia de COVID-19 pueden ayudar al mundo a prepararse para futuros brotes y descubrimos lo que el tercer mandato de Xi Jinping podría significar para la ciencia en China.

 

View this email in your browser Thursday 27 October 2022

Hello Nature readers, Today we discover the unsavoury nose-picking habits of the aye-aye, explore how lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic can help the world to prepare for future outbreaks and find out what Xi Jinping’s third term might mean for science in China. -- Hola lectores de Nature, Hoy descubrimos los desagradables hábitos de hurgarse la nariz del aye-aye, exploramos cómo las lecciones de la pandemia de COVID-19 pueden ayudar al mundo a prepararse para futuros brotes y descubrimos lo que el tercer mandato de Xi Jinping podría significar para la ciencia en China.

The aye-aye inserts ‘the entire length of its extra-long, skinny and highly mobile middle finger into the nasal passages’. (imageBROKER/Alamy)

Nose-picking primates eat their own snot Researchers have discovered that aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis) — round-eyed, nocturnal primates found in Madagascar — use their long, skinny middle fingers to pick their noses, and eat the mucus. Biologist Anne-Claire Fabre recalls her surprise when she first saw a captive aye-aye picking and licking, because the creature’s whole middle finger seemed to disappear up its nose. “It is nearly 8 centimetres — it is really long, and I was wondering where this finger is going,” she says. To solve the anatomical puzzle, researchers carried out CT scans to build 3D models of the aye-aye’s head and hand, revealing that the creature’s long digit could extend into its sinus, throat and mouth. The Guardian | 4 min read Reference: Journal of Zoology paper

What Xi Jinping’s third term means for science At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th congress, Xi laid out his vision for science and innovation to drive the country’s growth, having been reinstated as general secretary of the party for a third term. Xi’s speech noted that China already has “the largest cohort of research and development personnel in the world”. He said that, to boost innovation, investments in the country’s skilled workforce will continue. Analysts say that China’s epic investment in science is also likely to continue, and the country is expected to prioritize research in aerospace — including space science — defence, climate change, clean energy and agriculture. Nature | 6 min read

India to scrap hundreds of science awards Indian scientists were surprised to learn that the government plans to scrap nearly 300 science awards. Although many researchers acknowledge problems in how the awards’ winners are selected, they say the decision to discontinue them without explanation is demotivating and will not fix the issues. “Scrapping these will demoralize the scientific community and weaken the pursuit of science in India,” says physicist Soumitro Banerjee. The government does plan to introduce a new prize, the Vigyan Ratna award, which will be India’s version of a Nobel Prize, but the details have not yet been provided. Nature | 4 min read

Features & opinion

How to avert a looming water crisis Intensive irrigation and climate change are depleting groundwater reserves in Bangladesh, which is home to a network of hundreds of rivers and the world’s largest river delta. To improve the country’s water security, researchers need more information on water use, quality, flows and forecasts. Nature | 11 min read

Outlook (Illustration: Sam Falconer) Preparing the world for the next pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic can teach us many valuable lessons that, if acted on, will put the world in a much better position to respond to future outbreaks. Researchers are studying viruses that jump from animals to people — most pandemics in recent decades have emerged in this way. Machine learning could help to predict what the next pandemic-causing pathogen will be, or where it might first infect people. Climate modelling could also inform plans for infectious-disease outbreaks. Countries must also ensure that they are better prepared to deal with pandemics. Health-care professionals must have the tools and training to spot an outbreak and limit its spread. Delaying transmission is crucial to fighting infectious diseases, which, as history tells us, are very difficult to eradicate after they have gone global. Some strategies that could help to achieve this can operate in the background — far-ultraviolet lamps, for example, could disinfect the air in public spaces. But many others require public support, and the sometimes confused messaging around COVID-19 revealed weaknesses in how public-health authorities communicate health advice. Nature Outlook: Pandemic preparedness is an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of AstraZeneca and Moderna.

Infographic of the week

Progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — a set of commitments that aim both to end poverty and protect the environment — has stalled, in part owing to a failure to adjust institutions of science and governance to meet the SDGs. Since the goals were agreed in 2015, the rate at which research from high-income countries on, or about, the SDGs is being published has mostly either plateaued or is falling. It’s a different story for low- and middle-income countries, where funding and policy systems are clearly more aligned with the goals. Two-thirds of research published in the poorest countries has some connection to the SDGs, compared with around 35% in high-income countries. (Nature | 5 min read) See more of the week’s key infographics, selected by Nature’s news and art teams. (Source: Changing Directions report)

QUOTE OF THE DAY “We've got to take climate change with us wherever we go — into the classrooms, into the boardrooms, into the voting booth, over the dinner table.” Ahead of this year’s COP27 climate conference, UN Secretary General António Guterres says the world needs to re-focus on climate change or face catastrophe. (BBC News | 5 min read)

There’s still time to enter Nature’s #ScientistAtWork photo competition. We’re on the lookout for excellent images that capture your research and workplace, whether it’s in the laboratory, field, office or anywhere else. Winning entries will appear in Nature, and winners will receive a free subscription and a £500 voucher or charity donation. The competition closes on Monday — head to our website for more information on how to enter. Thanks for reading, Emma Stoye, senior news editor, Nature

Join our community

You received this newsletter because you subscribed with the email address: lukymlg@gmail.com Please add briefing@nature.com to your address book. Enjoying this newsletter? You can use this form to recommend it to a friend or colleague — thank you! Want to switch to the weekly edition or change your email address? Update your preferences. Had enough? Unsubscribe from the Nature Briefing. Fancy a bit of a read? View our privacy policy. Forwarded by a friend? Get the Briefing straight to your inbox: subscribe for free. Want to master time management, protect your mental health and brush up on your skills? Sign up for our free short e-mail series for working scientists, Back to the lab. Get more from Nature: Register for free on nature.com to sign up for other newsletters specific to your field and email alerts from Nature Research journals. Would you like to read the Briefing in other languages? Sign up for the weekly round-up e-mail in Arabic, curated and translated by the editors of Nature Arabic Edition. هل تود أن تقرأ هذا الموجز باللغة العربية؟ سَجِّل الآن لتصلك نشرة العلوم الموجزة أسبوعيًّا، التي يختار محتواها ويترجمه فريق محرري "نيتشر الطبعة العربية". Follow Nature Portfolio on WeChat for a weekly round-up post in Chinese, curated and translated by our team in China. 关注Nature Portfolio官方微信订阅号，每周二为您推送Nature Briefing精选中文内容——自然每周简报。 Nature | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature Research, part of Springer Nature. © 2022 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.

+++ Meet the nose-picking primates that eat their own snot

Recibidos

View this email in your browser Thursday 27 October 2022

Hello Nature readers, Today we discover the unsavoury nose-picking habits of the aye-aye, explore how lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic can help the world to prepare for future outbreaks and find out what Xi Jinping’s third term might mean for science in China.

The aye-aye inserts ‘the entire length of its extra-long, skinny and highly mobile middle finger into the nasal passages’. (imageBROKER/Alamy)

Nose-picking primates eat their own snot Researchers have discovered that aye-ayes (Daubentonia madagascariensis) — round-eyed, nocturnal primates found in Madagascar — use their long, skinny middle fingers to pick their noses, and eat the mucus. Biologist Anne-Claire Fabre recalls her surprise when she first saw a captive aye-aye picking and licking, because the creature’s whole middle finger seemed to disappear up its nose. “It is nearly 8 centimetres — it is really long, and I was wondering where this finger is going,” she says. To solve the anatomical puzzle, researchers carried out CT scans to build 3D models of the aye-aye’s head and hand, revealing that the creature’s long digit could extend into its sinus, throat and mouth. The Guardian | 4 min read Reference: Journal of Zoology paper

What Xi Jinping’s third term means for science At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th congress, Xi laid out his vision for science and innovation to drive the country’s growth, having been reinstated as general secretary of the party for a third term. Xi’s speech noted that China already has “the largest cohort of research and development personnel in the world”. He said that, to boost innovation, investments in the country’s skilled workforce will continue. Analysts say that China’s epic investment in science is also likely to continue, and the country is expected to prioritize research in aerospace — including space science — defence, climate change, clean energy and agriculture. Nature | 6 min read

India to scrap hundreds of science awards Indian scientists were surprised to learn that the government plans to scrap nearly 300 science awards. Although many researchers acknowledge problems in how the awards’ winners are selected, they say the decision to discontinue them without explanation is demotivating and will not fix the issues. “Scrapping these will demoralize the scientific community and weaken the pursuit of science in India,” says physicist Soumitro Banerjee. The government does plan to introduce a new prize, the Vigyan Ratna award, which will be India’s version of a Nobel Prize, but the details have not yet been provided. Nature | 4 min read

Features & opinion

How to avert a looming water crisis Intensive irrigation and climate change are depleting groundwater reserves in Bangladesh, which is home to a network of hundreds of rivers and the world’s largest river delta. To improve the country’s water security, researchers need more information on water use, quality, flows and forecasts. Nature | 11 min read

Outlook (Illustration: Sam Falconer) Preparing the world for the next pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic can teach us many valuable lessons that, if acted on, will put the world in a much better position to respond to future outbreaks. Researchers are studying viruses that jump from animals to people — most pandemics in recent decades have emerged in this way. Machine learning could help to predict what the next pandemic-causing pathogen will be, or where it might first infect people. Climate modelling could also inform plans for infectious-disease outbreaks. Countries must also ensure that they are better prepared to deal with pandemics. Health-care professionals must have the tools and training to spot an outbreak and limit its spread. Delaying transmission is crucial to fighting infectious diseases, which, as history tells us, are very difficult to eradicate after they have gone global. Some strategies that could help to achieve this can operate in the background — far-ultraviolet lamps, for example, could disinfect the air in public spaces. But many others require public support, and the sometimes confused messaging around COVID-19 revealed weaknesses in how public-health authorities communicate health advice. Nature Outlook: Pandemic preparedness is an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of AstraZeneca and Moderna.

Infographic of the week

Progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — a set of commitments that aim both to end poverty and protect the environment — has stalled, in part owing to a failure to adjust institutions of science and governance to meet the SDGs. Since the goals were agreed in 2015, the rate at which research from high-income countries on, or about, the SDGs is being published has mostly either plateaued or is falling. It’s a different story for low- and middle-income countries, where funding and policy systems are clearly more aligned with the goals. Two-thirds of research published in the poorest countries has some connection to the SDGs, compared with around 35% in high-income countries. (Nature | 5 min read) See more of the week’s key infographics, selected by Nature’s news and art teams. (Source: Changing Directions report)

QUOTE OF THE DAY “We've got to take climate change with us wherever we go — into the classrooms, into the boardrooms, into the voting booth, over the dinner table.” Ahead of this year’s COP27 climate conference, UN Secretary General António Guterres says the world needs to re-focus on climate change or face catastrophe. (BBC News | 5 min read)

There’s still time to enter Nature’s #ScientistAtWork photo competition. We’re on the lookout for excellent images that capture your research and workplace, whether it’s in the laboratory, field, office or anywhere else. Winning entries will appear in Nature, and winners will receive a free subscription and a £500 voucher or charity donation. The competition closes on Monday — head to our website for more information on how to enter. Thanks for reading, Emma Stoye, senior news editor, Nature

Join our community

You received this newsletter because you subscribed with the email address: lukymlg@gmail.com Please add briefing@nature.com to your address book. Enjoying this newsletter? You can use this form to recommend it to a friend or colleague — thank you! Want to switch to the weekly edition or change your email address? Update your preferences. Had enough? Unsubscribe from the Nature Briefing. Fancy a bit of a read? View our privacy policy. Forwarded by a friend? Get the Briefing straight to your inbox: subscribe for free. Want to master time management, protect your mental health and brush up on your skills? Sign up for our free short e-mail series for working scientists, Back to the lab. Get more from Nature: Register for free on nature.com to sign up for other newsletters specific to your field and email alerts from Nature Research journals. Would you like to read the Briefing in other languages? Sign up for the weekly round-up e-mail in Arabic, curated and translated by the editors of Nature Arabic Edition. هل تود أن تقرأ هذا الموجز باللغة العربية؟ سَجِّل الآن لتصلك نشرة العلوم الموجزة أسبوعيًّا، التي يختار محتواها ويترجمه فريق محرري "نيتشر الطبعة العربية". Follow Nature Portfolio on WeChat for a weekly round-up post in Chinese, curated and translated by our team in China. 关注Nature Portfolio官方微信订阅号，每周二为您推送Nature Briefing精选中文内容——自然每周简报。 Nature | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature Research, part of Springer Nature. © 2022 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.