Nature

Scientists baffled by decision to stop a pioneering coronavirus testing project

Researchers looking to make tests widely available worry as regulators freeze the team that first identified US community spread.

Ten reasons why immunity passports are a bad idea

Restricting movement on the basis of biology threatens freedom, fairness and public health.
Natalie Kofler
Françoise Baylis

Comment 21 May 2020
How coronavirus lockdowns stopped flu in its tracks

Reported rates of influenza and other infections have fallen sharply, but some communicable diseases may see a rise.
Nicola Jones

News 21 May 2020
Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams

The results obtained by seventy different teams analysing the same functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset show substantial variation, highlighting the influence of analytical choices and the importance of sharing workflows publicly and performing multiple analyses.
Rotem Botvinik-Nezer
Felix Holzmeister
Tom Schonberg

Article 20 May 2020
Daily briefing: Bees bite plants to make them flower

Bumblebees bite into leaves to induce flowering up to one month earlier. Plus: Social distancing cut the flu season short and some US coronavirus testing stats are “uninterpretable”.
Flora Graham

Nature Briefing 22 May 2020
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Current Issue 21 May 2020

News & Comment

Rehabilitating the Vandals, the bearded ladies of geology, and how to get a job in academia: Books in brief

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
Andrew Robinson

Book Review 25 May 2020
These researchers spent a winter trapped in Arctic ice to capture key climate data
Shannon Hall

News Feature 22 May 2020
Scientists baffled by decision to stop a pioneering coronavirus testing project
Amy Maxmen

News 22 May 2020
Coronavirus research updates: DNA vaccines protect monkeys from coronavirus

News 22 May 2020
How coronavirus lockdowns stopped flu in its tracks
Nicola Jones

News 21 May 2020
Ten reasons why immunity passports are a bad idea
Natalie Kofler
Françoise Baylis

Comment 21 May 2020
How coronavirus dashed Ethiopia’s dream of hosting Africa’s first major AI conference
Davide Castelvecchi

News 21 May 2020

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- Galaxy disk observed to have formed shortly after the Big Bang
  
  A powerful radio telescope has peered back through time to observe a galaxy that contained a cold, rotating disk of gas not long after the Big Bang — fuelling the debate about when and how disks first formed in galaxies.
  
  Alfred Tiley
  
  News & Views 20 May 2020
- Artificial eye boosted by hemispherical retina
  
  An artificial eye has been reported that incorporates densely packed, nanometre-scale light sensors into a hemispherical retina-like component. Some of its sensory capabilities are comparable to that of its biological counterpart.
  
  Hongrui Jiang
  
  News & Views 20 May 2020
- Neuroimaging results altered by varying analysis pipelines
  
  Seventy laboratories that analysed the same neuroimaging data each produced different results. This finding highlights the potential consequences of a lack of standardized pipelines for processing complex data.
  
  Martin Lindquist
  
  News & Views 20 May 2020
- Extinct proteins resurrected to reconstruct the evolution of vertebrate haemoglobin
  
  The multi-subunit protein haemoglobin relies on complex interactions between its components to function properly. Analysis of ancient precursors suggests that its evolution from a simple monomer involved only a few steps.
  
  Michael Berenbrink
  
  News & Views 20 May 2020
- Genes silenced down the generations, thanks to tails on messenger RNA
  
  It emerges that strings of nucleotides are added to messenger RNAs that are undergoing silencing in nematode worms. The composition of these nucleotide tails promotes the formation of small RNAs that drive heritable gene regulation.
  
  Kailee J. Reed
  Taiowa A. Montgomery
  
  News & Views 20 May 2020
- CRISPR tool scales up to interrogate a huge line-up of viral suspects
  
  Gregory A. Storch
  
  News & Views 18 May 2020
- Fourth defence molecule completes antiviral line-up
  
  Niklas A. Schmacke
  Veit Hornung
  
  News & Views 13 May 2020
- A glimpse inside δ Scuti stars
  
  József M. Benkő
  Margit Paparó
  
  News & Views 13 May 2020
- Airborne particles might grow fast in cities
  
  Hugh Coe
  
  News & Views 13 May 2020
- Gut microbes tune inflammation and lifespan in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  
  Ping Fang
  Elaine Y. Hsiao
  
  News & Views 13 May 2020

Latest Research

Structure of replicating SARS-CoV-2 polymerase
Hauke S. Hillen
Goran Kokic
Patrick Cramer

Article 21 May 2020
Sialylation of immunoglobulin E is a determinant of allergic pathogenicity

A specific type of glycosylation—sialylation—is more common on immunoglobulin E from individuals with a peanut allergys than from non-atopic people, suggesting that it has a role in regulating anaphylaxis.
Kai-Ting C. Shade
Michelle E. Conroy
Robert M. Anthony

Article 20 May 2020
Preparation of cyclohexene isotopologues and stereoisotopomers from benzene

Cyclohexene isotopologues and stereoisotopomers with varying degrees of deuteration are formed by binding a tungsten complex to benzene, which facilitates the selective incorporation of deuterium into any position on the ring.
Jacob A. Smith
Katy B. Wilson
W. Dean Harman

Article 20 May 2020
Short-range order and its impact on the CrCoNi medium-entropy alloy

Metal alloys consisting of three or more major elemental components show enhanced mechanical properties, which are now shown to be correlated with short-range order observed with electron microscopy.
Ruopeng Zhang
Shiteng Zhao
Andrew M. Minor

Article 20 May 2020
Quantum entanglement between an atom and a molecule

Quantum entanglement is realized between rotational levels of a molecular ion with energy differences spanning several orders of magnitude and long-lived internal states of a single atomic ion.
Yiheng Lin
David R. Leibrandt
Chin-wen Chou

Article 20 May 2020

For a disease that is thought to affect more than 250 million people, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has long been overlooked. As prevalence climbs, researchers are working to shed new light on COPD and to meet the growing public-health problem head on.

Nature Outlook 13 May 2020