This Nature Outlook explores the elements that make up a strong science-led economy, the role of research-funding policy, and how the diverse needs of research economies around the globe could be met. It looks specifically at the science funding and policy scenes in Germany, China, Singapore, the Middle East, Rwanda, Russia, Australia and the US state of Massachusetts. Each location has lessons for policymakers as they embark on creating science-led economies.
John Dalton's 1808 A New System of Chemical Philosophy is one of the great breakthroughs in modern atomic theory. On the 250th anniversary of the English chemist's birth, Philip Ball reassesses the work alongside Dalton's ingenious solid-sphere model, devised to visualise a then-invisible reality.