Correspondence |
Featured
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Research Highlight |
Hydrogen could help China’s heavy industry to get greener
Providing the clean fuel to manufacturing plants would be a cost-effective way to tackle the country’s climate goals.
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News & Views |
Machine assembly of carbohydrates with more than 1,000 sugar units
Efforts to probe the biological functions of carbohydrates have long been limited by the lack of such molecules with well-defined structures. An automated carbohydrate synthesizer has been developed that could remedy this.
- Hanchao Cheng
- & Peng George Wang
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Nature Index |
The national and institutional connections driving research in affordable and clean energy
A broad and narrow look at the collaborations in the field.
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Nature Index |
Solving the energy crisis
Research collaboration and a diversified approach to generation could pay dividends.
- Bec Crew
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Nature Index |
Data are key to proving green-energy benefits
Scientists are working with poorer communities worldwide to improve access to clean and safe energy sources.
- Gemma Conroy
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Nature Index |
Three scientists at the cutting edge of new energy solutions
Technology to produce, convert and store energy is central to these researchers’ efforts.
- Chris Woolston
- & Sandy Ong
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Nature Index |
The search for perovskite durability
Solar energy’s promising new technology is cheap to make but can researchers find a form that lasts?
- James Mitchell Crow
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Spotlight |
Why Japan is building smart cities from scratch
Purpose-built sustainable communities can boost energy efficiency and support an ageing population.
- Tim Hornyak
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Nature Index |
Four rising stars who are reshaping nanoscience
From nano-filters for tackling water pollution to protein fingerprinting that treats disease, these researchers are making their mark on the field.
- Gemma Conroy
- & Benjamin Plackett
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Correspondence |
Decarbonize pedagogy — apply sustainable development goals
- Paul G. Leahy
- & Benjamin K. Sovacool
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News Feature |
Why chemists can’t quit palladium
A retracted paper highlights chemistry’s history of trying to avoid the expensive, toxic — but necessary — catalyst.
- Ariana Remmel
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Research Highlight |
Flower power: ‘Sunflower’ system churns out useful energy
Solar-powered apparatus converts roughly two-thirds of the energy it harvests into usable outputs.
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News |
This Arctic town wants to make renewable energy work at the top of the world
Partnering with a northern settlement in Greenland, researchers are designing wind and solar devices that can survive and thrive in extreme conditions.
- Freda Kreier
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Editorial |
Chemistry education must change to help the planet: here’s how
The subject has a history in heavy industry and fossil fuels, but teachers should focus on sustainability and climate science.
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News & Views |
Tailor-made enzymes poised to propel plastic recycling into a new era
Waste streams of the plastic poly(ethylene terephthalate) that can be recycled into material suitable for food packaging are limited, creating a shortfall of feedstocks. An enzyme has been discovered that widens the feedstock options.
- Eggo U. Thoden van Velzen
- & Giusy Santomasi
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Article |
Computer-designed repurposing of chemical wastes into drugs
A forward-synthesis platform, Allchemy, computationally determines how to ‘close the circle’, or use waste chemicals to make valuable pharmaceutical or agrochemical products, ranking possible routes by environmental, geospatial, and other factors.
- Agnieszka Wołos
- , Dominik Koszelewski
- & Bartosz A. Grzybowski
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Research Highlight |
Bacteria spin sugar for a greener and better plastic
Genetic modification equips microbes to make precursor molecules for a nylon-like polymer with a smaller carbon footprint.
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Nature Podcast |
We could still limit global warming to just 2˚C — but there's an 'if'
A roundup of some recent stories from the Nature Briefing, including using leeches to survey wildlife, a potential interstellar meteorite, and more.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Research Highlight |
A blast of light gives Styrofoam and other plastics new purpose
Polystyrene products can be recycled into a widely used compound thanks to a light-driven reaction.
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Perspective |
Critical advances and future opportunities in upcycling commodity polymers
Methods for the transformation of plastics into materials with value, known as plastic waste upcycling, are outlined, and their advantages and challenges in terms of a sustainable plastics economy are discussed.
- Coralie Jehanno
- , Jill W. Alty
- & Haritz Sardon
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Research Highlight |
Green energy goes greener with a way to recycle solar panels
The silicon in solar cells is difficult to reuse in new cells, but it can be converted into useful materials.
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Editorial |
Landmark treaty on plastic pollution must put scientific evidence front and centre
United Nations resolution on greening plastics is a positive step. As negotiations begin, they must be evidence-based.
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Research Highlight |
Rare metal helps to turn sunlight into fuel, day and night
Molecule that incorporates a light-sensitive ruthenium compound can store solar energy, then release it later to form hydrogen fuel.
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Research Highlight |
Solar power’s need for a carbon-intensive metal is set to soar
The shift to clean energy is expected to drive the demand for aluminium, which is used in the frames and fittings of solar panels.
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Correspondence |
Wind power versus wildlife: root mitigation in evidence
- Tim Schmoll
- & Frank M. Schurr
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News |
COVID’s career impact and embryo secrets — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key infographics from the week in science and research.
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News Feature |
The start-ups chasing clean, carbon-free fusion energy
An emerging industry of nuclear-fusion firms promises to have commercial reactors ready in the next decade.
- Philip Ball
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Where I Work |
The greener route to indigo blue
Tammy Hsu is finding a way to produce fabric dye with a lower environmental impact.
- James Mitchell Crow
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News |
Scientists cheer India’s ambitious carbon-zero climate pledge
India’s 2070 goal could help limit global warming to 1.5 °C, say researchers — but it will require the nation to juggle steep emissions cuts with lifting a significant proportion of its population out of poverty.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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Nature Index |
Tracking 20 leading cities’ Sustainable Development Goals research
Local challenges help to explain why some goals are prioritized over others.
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Nature Index |
Pursuit of better batteries underpins China’s lead in energy research
Safe and efficient storage for renewable energy is key to meeting sustainability targets.
- Bec Crew
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Research Highlight |
How to turn waste wood into industrial treasure
Cleaving bonds can transform the abundant material lignin into renewable feedstocks.
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Where I Work |
Breeding the sweetest biofuels in the business
Morexa Martin-Gardiner relishes the seasonal shifts of her work on a sugar-cane research station in Barbados.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Correspondence |
Could Europe become the first climate-neutral continent?
- Nebojsa Nakicenovic
- & Peter D. Lund
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Correspondence |
Africa: renewables infrastructure avoids stranded assets
- Zhanyun Wang
- & Miriam Diamond
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Comment |
Climate policy models need to get real about people — here’s how
To predict how society and political systems might actually respond to warming, upgrade integrated assessment models.
- Wei Peng
- , Gokul Iyer
- & John Weyant
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Article |
Discovery, characterization and engineering of ligases for amide synthesis
A family of enzymes—coronafacic acid ligases, involved in the synthesis of bacterial phytotoxins—are found to catalyse amide bond formation with a wide range of substrates.
- Michael Winn
- , Michael Rowlinson
- & Jason Micklefield
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Correspondence |
Brazil: video inspires young women to work in solar energy
- Aline Cristiane Pan
- , Aline Kirsten Vidal de Oliveira
- & Izete Zanesco
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Comment |
National COVID debts: climate change imperils countries’ ability to repay
Analysis reveals three ways to boost green investment and achieve a resilient recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
- Arjuna Dibley
- , Thom Wetzer
- & Cameron Hepburn
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Research Highlight |
Solar panels that throw shade on canals are an environmental win–win
Placing solar arrays over canals would prevent water loss and improve panels’ energy harvest.
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Editorial |
Chemistry can help make plastics sustainable — but it isn’t the whole solution
How to make plastics less harmful is an urgent question in chemistry — and must be for policy, too.
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News & Views |
High-performance plastic made from renewable oils is chemically recyclable by design
Plastics are invaluable materials, but they use up petroleum resources and persist in the environment. A high-performance plastic derived from renewable oils has been designed at the molecular level to be truly recyclable.
- Charlotte K. Williams
- & Georgina L. Gregory
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Article |
Closed-loop recycling of polyethylene-like materials
Polycarbonates and polyesters with materials properties like those of high-density polyethylene can be recycled chemically by depolymerization to their constituent monomers, re-polymerization yielding material with uncompromised processing and materials properties.
- Manuel Häußler
- , Marcel Eck
- & Stefan Mecking
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Perspective |
Developing fibrillated cellulose as a sustainable technological material
Opportunities for the application of fibrillated cellulose materials—which can be extracted from renewable resources—and broader manufacturing issues of scale-up, sustainability and synergy with the paper-making industry are discussed.
- Tian Li
- , Chaoji Chen
- & Liangbing Hu
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Nature Index |
Germany’s start-up scene is booming
With record levels of funding, German start-ups are building the nation’s strength in innovation.
- Gemma Conroy
- , Natalie Parletta
- & Chris Woolston
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Research Highlight |
Technology for sterilizing medical instruments goes solar
A sunlight-powered device equipped with an a lightweight gel makes steam hot enough to kill dangerous microbes.
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News Explainer |
The US has left the Paris climate deal — what’s next?
Other nations are stepping up targets to reduce emissions — but the world will struggle to meet its goals.
- Quirin Schiermeier