Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
A computational tool called CellOracle can predict how networks of genes interact to program cell identity during embryonic development. The tool should help to hone efforts to understand how development is regulated.
An object in the distant Solar System has been shown to have a ring that is unusually far from its host — prompting speculation about how the ring material has avoided clumping together to form moons.
An assessment of juniper tree-ring samples from central Turkey, together with other types of dating analysis, demonstrate that a devastating drought in 1198–1196 bc contributed to the end of the Hittite empire.
Signals from gut microorganisms to the brain might be involved in neurodegeneration. It emerges that the gene APOE — variants of which each confer a different risk of Alzheimer’s disease — has a role in modulating this gut–brain communication.
A 319-million-year-old fossil provides the oldest known evidence of preserved vertebrate brain tissue. This specimen offers insights into the brain evolution of ray-finned fishes, the most diverse group of living vertebrates.
A light-activated ‘plasmonic’ catalyst, made from abundant elements, produces as much hydrogen from ammonia as do the most-used heat-activated catalysts based on a rarer element, suggesting a strategy for sustainable chemical production.
When a semiconductor material called black phosphorus is hit with intense laser light, the behaviour of its electrons is found to change. The discovery opens a route to time-dependent engineering of exotic electronic phases in solids.
Antibodies that activate stimulatory or inhibitory receptors are of great therapeutic interest for the treatment of cancer or autoimmune diseases. It emerges that such antibodies work better if they don’t bind to receptors too tightly.
What ingredients and processes underlay mummification in ancient Egypt? The molecular analysis of labelled pots excavated from an embalming workshop provides some answers to this question.
Engineering the energies of ultracold molecules when they collide has been shown to enhance the probability that they will form complexes — an exciting prospect for precisely controlled chemistry.
The discovery of bacterial compounds that have antifungal properties opens up opportunities for the development of agents that protect crops from a devastating disease.
Experiments on ultracold atoms reveal that disorder doesn’t stop a quantum system of interacting particles from reaching thermal equilibrium. Instead, small thermalized regions ripple like an avalanche through the whole system.
High-resolution structures of the bacterial Rho protein in complex with an RNA polymerase enzyme and partner proteins provide support for the long-held model of how Rho helps to terminate gene transcription.
The study of how chemical reactions work is key to the design of new reactions, but relies on hard work and expert knowledge. A machine-learning tool has been developed that could change the way this challenge is approached.
Impaired sensory-nerve function is a common complication of diabetes. Evidence in mice indicates that deficiency of the amino acid serine causes these complications — and suggests that supplements could help to treat them.
This Perspective reviews the evidence for and against the existence of a fetal microbiome and concludes that detected microbial signals are most likely the result of contamination, suggesting that the ‘sterile womb’ hypothesis is correct.
A trio of tracers has debunked a long-held model of the origins of spring water on Mount Fuji, revealing interactions between shallow and deep aquifer layers, and providing a fresh approach for probing mountain groundwater flow.