Featured
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News |
The immune system can sabotage gene therapies — can scientists rein it in?
People treated with gene therapy cannot receive a second dose for fear of a dangerous immune response. Researchers hope to find a way around this.
- Heidi Ledford
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Nature Index |
Guidelines for academics aim to lessen ethical pitfalls in generative-AI use
Researchers warn against normalizing the use of AI without safeguarding against risks.
- Liam Drew
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Outlook |
Are robots the solution to the crisis in older-person care?
Social robots that promise companionship and stimulation for older people and those with dementia are attracting investment, but some question their benefits.
- Tammy Worth
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Arts Review |
Las Borinqueñas remembers the forgotten Puerto Rican women who tested the first pill
Clinical trials of the first oral contraceptive recalled in a bold theatre production.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News Feature |
Lethal AI weapons are here: how can we control them?
Autonomous weapons guided by artificial intelligence are already in use. Researchers, legal experts and ethicists are struggling with what should be allowed on the battlefield.
- David Adam
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News |
Do insects have an inner life? Animal consciousness needs a rethink
A declaration signed by dozens of scientists says there is ‘a realistic possibility’ for elements of consciousness in reptiles, insects and molluscs.
- Mariana Lenharo
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World View |
AI-fuelled election campaigns are here — where are the rules?
Political candidates are increasingly using AI-generated ‘softfakes’ to boost their campaigns. This raises deep ethical concerns.
- Rumman Chowdhury
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News |
How papers with doctored images can affect scientific reviews
Scientists compiling a review scan more than 1,000 papers and find troubling images in some 10%.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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Correspondence |
Superconductivity case shows the need for zero tolerance of toxic lab culture
- Juan Pablo Fuenzalida Werner
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Correspondence |
Meaningfulness in a scientific career is about more than tangible outputs
- Anna Alexandrova
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Editorial |
A fresh start for the African Academy of Sciences
New leadership is giving the academy a stronger voice for the continent’s scientists, following one of its most testing periods.
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News |
How to stop ‘passing the harasser’: universities urged to join information-sharing scheme
The Misconduct Disclosure Scheme would make it harder for perpetrators to hide their past, advocacy group says.
- Sarah Wild
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Correspondence |
On the ethics of informed consent in genetic data collected before 1997
- Martin Zieger
- , Yann Joly
- & Maria Eugenia D’Amato
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Correspondence |
Stockholm declaration on AI ethics: why others should sign
- Ross D. King
- , Teresa Scassa
- & Hiroaki Kitano
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News |
200 years of naming dinosaurs: scientists call for overhaul of antiquated system
Some palaeontologists want more rigorous guidelines for naming species, along with action to address problematic historical practices.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News Explainer |
How journals are fighting back against a wave of questionable images
Publishers are deploying AI-based tools to detect suspicious images, but generative AI threatens their efforts.
- Nicola Jones
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News |
Fake research papers flagged by analysing authorship trends
A new approach to detecting fraudulent paper-mill studies focuses on patterns of co-authors rather than manuscript text.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
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Career Column |
‘Obviously ChatGPT’ — how reviewers accused me of scientific fraud
A journal reviewer accused Lizzie Wolkovich of using ChatGPT to write a manuscript. She hadn’t — but her paper was rejected anyway.
- E. M. Wolkovich
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News Feature |
Unethical studies on Chinese minority groups are being retracted — but not fast enough, critics say
Campaigners who want scrutiny of biometrics research on Uyghurs, Tibetans and other groups are frustrated by slow progress.
- Dyani Lewis
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Correspondence |
Tech developers must respect equitable AI access
- Michał Choraś
- , Marek Pawlicki
- & Aleksandra Pawlicka
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News |
Medical AI could be ‘dangerous’ for poorer nations, WHO warns
The rapid growth of generative AI in health care has prompted the agency to set out guidelines for ethical use.
- David Adam
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Editorial |
There are holes in Europe’s AI Act — and researchers can help to fill them
Scientists have been promised a front-row seat for the formulation of the EU’s proposed AI regulatory structures. They should seize this opportunity to bridge some big gaps.
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News |
AI consciousness: scientists say we urgently need answers
Researchers call for more funding to study the boundary between conscious and unconscious systems.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Correspondence |
Should scientists delegate their writing to ChatGPT?
- Christopher Basgier
- & Shyam Sharma
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Correspondence |
Can AI deliver advice that is judgement-free for science policy?
- Stefano Canali
- & Francesco Barone-Adesi
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News |
Surge in number of ‘extremely productive’ authors concerns scientists
Some researchers publish a new paper every five days, on average. Data trackers suspect not all their manuscripts were produced through honest labour.
- Gemma Conroy
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Editorial |
How the ‘right to science’ can help us overcome the many crises we face today
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights — proclaimed 75 years ago — describes science as fundamental to humanity. Upholding this right has never been more relevant than it is now.
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Nature Podcast |
Polio could be eradicated within 3 years — what happens then?
How to ensure polio doesn’t return after eradication, and the space explosion that’s baffling scientists.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Career Feature |
Why a climate researcher pushed the limits of low-carbon travel — and his employer’s patience
A refusal to fly to Papua New Guinea for fieldwork took Gianluca Grimalda the long way across 22,000 kilometres and 12 countries.
- Christine Ro
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News Feature |
The rise of brain-reading technology: what you need to know
As implanted devices and commercial headsets advance, what will the real-world impacts be?
- Liam Drew
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News |
How big is science’s fake-paper problem?
An unpublished analysis suggests that there are hundreds of thousands of bogus ‘paper-mill’ articles lurking in the literature.
- Richard Van Noorden
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World View |
Protect the ‘right to science’ for people and the planet
Upholding human rights can ensure that environmental policy is driven by facts and evidence, not denialism, greed and profit.
- Volker Türk
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Editorial |
Why the UK-led global AI summit is missing the point
Robust regulation of AI technologies will be crucial to protecting against harms. Researchers’ voices must be heard.
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Outlook |
How robots can learn to follow a moral code
Ethical artificial intelligence aims to impart human values on machine-learning systems.
- Neil Savage
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Career Feature |
Campus surveillance: students and professors decry sensors in buildings
Privacy campaigners fear that the devices could be used for disciplinary purposes, and some universities have deactivated them after protests.
- Anne Gulland
- & Fayth Tan
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Correspondence |
The EU must stick to its animal-welfare commitments
- Eugénie Duval
- & Benjamin Lecorps
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Career Column |
ChatGPT use shows that the grant-application system is broken
The fact that artificial intelligence can do much of the work makes a mockery of the process. It’s time to make it easier for scientists to ask for research funding.
- Juan Manuel Parrilla
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Career Column |
Dear journals: stop hoarding our papers
Why single-submission policies need to die (and what to do in the meantime).
- Dritjon Gruda
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Nature Podcast |
This isn’t the Nature Podcast — how deepfakes are distorting reality
The rise of AI-generated fakes, evidence of the earliest-known wooden structure, and how NASA’s OSIRIS-REx brought asteroid samples back to Earth.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Career Column |
How my broken elbow made the ableism of computer programming personal
Amy Ko’s accident gave her an insight into the degree to which her discipline caters mainly to non-disabled people, reinspiring her to invent more accessible programming languages.
- Amy Ko
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News Feature |
Human trials of artificial wombs could start soon. Here’s what you need to know
US regulators will consider clinical trials of a system that mimics the womb, which could reduce deaths and disability for babies born extremely preterm.
- Max Kozlov