Daily briefing: Psilocybin blocks side-effect of chemotherapy in mice

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The psychoactive compound psilocybin seems to protect mice from a debilitating side-effect of chemotherapy called neuropathy. As many as 60% of people treated with platinum-based chemotherapy drugs can experience neuropathy, which causes a constant feeling of burning, or pins and needles, in their hands and feet. Just two doses of psilocybin administered before chemo completely prevented the adverse effect in mice, which could argue for expanding the use of psychedelic compounds beyond the conventional uses in mental-health conditions such as depression, says oncologist and study co-author Moran Amit.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Science paper

Sixteen people with autoimmune conditions have had their symptoms relieved by a treatment that produces disease-fighting immune cells inside their bodies. Researchers used a modified virus to deliver the genetic instructions for making chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) on participants’ T cells. These CAR T cells target antibodies produced by other immune cells, which attack the body’s own healthy tissue in autoimmune diseases. The findings are a proof of concept for in vivo CAR-T-cell therapy, says clinician-researcher David Simon, which is cheaper and faster to produce than is lab-made CAR-T.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: New England Journal of Medicine paper

Results from a small clinical trial show that the drug daraxonrasib (Rasonque) could be an effective treatment for lung cancer. The findings come just one week after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the medicine for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. A larger study in which people with lung cancer are randomly assigned to receive daraxonrasib or standard chemotherapy is now under way, the results of which could inform the FDA’s decision to approve the drug as a lung cancer treatment.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: New England Journal of Medicine paper

Ig Nobel prizes

The tongue-in-cheek celebration of science known as the Ig Nobel prizes took place last night in Switzerland — the first time in its 36-year history that it was held outside the United States, which the organizers say “has become unsafe for our guests to visit”. The winners included an economics prize for research showing that wealthier individuals take more from a bowl of sweets meant for children than did less-wealthy people; a physics prize for a splash-proof urinal; and a peace prize for evidence that people value friends who are mean to those that they dislike.

Nature | 9 min read

A breath of fresh air (and a deluge of aeroplanes)

Last night, the Ig Nobel prize ceremony lived up to its promise to “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. I’ve watched past events online, but it was another thing entirely to experience traditions such as ‘the paper aeroplane deluge’ in person. I wasn’t sure about my choice of a front-row seat when I realized that many of those planes were heading for the back of my head, but it paid off when I caught one of the pairs of autographed cotton underpants thrown into the audience by the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel in soil science, who buried hundreds of similar pants to investigate soil health.

The prizes are handed out by winners of the other Nobel prize (the Swedish one), who also receive gifts in turn. This year, these included pairs of the aforementioned underpants — and the sight of Swiss astrophysicist Michel Mayor, on his home turf, gamely wearing them on his head made the trip even more worthwhile.

Playfulness creates space for unexpected insights. Maybe more importantly, it feeds the soul. I certainly felt recharged by this unabashedly nerdy celebration of what makes science so much fun: finding things out. It’s a feeling that will be keeping me going until next year. See you in Antwerp!

Features & opinion

A pair of rebels lose their way in an AI-generated metropolis in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.

Nature | 6 min read

In Time’s Second Arrow, mineralogist Robert Hazen and planetary scientist Michael Wong argue that the natural world’s shift from chaos to intricate order was inevitable. The authors propose the existence of a new law of physics, one that opposes the second law of thermodynamics’ requirement that disorder always increases. “The book is engagingly written and remarkably thought-provoking,” writes geologist Graham Shields in his review. The authors’ argument is “by no means a slam dunk”, but it will probably spark debate among philosophers, he says.

Nature | 6 min read

DNA damage seems to underlie many of the hallmarks of ageing, including chronic inflammation, metabolic malfunctions and protein-folding problems. But our bodies already have a wonderfully efficient DNA-repair system that heals countless wounds to this molecule — from ultraviolet light, for example — every day. Scientists are asking: if DNA damage is at the root of ageing, can boosting DNA repair slow the process, keeping people healthy for longer? Research into relatively long-lived species, such as bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) and naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber), and into the genetics of human centenarians, is sparking fresh optimism about the approach.

Nature Podcast | 18 min listen

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