Featured
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Technology Feature |
What can you do to make your lab greener?
DIY approaches help to minimize plastic use and energy waste in science research.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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News |
Cyber-spinach turns sunlight into sugar
Combination of biological membrane and artificial chemistry could power future synthetic organisms.
- Colin Barras
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Editorial |
Australia: show the world what climate action looks like
The fires are a wake-up call. The country’s leaders must now act on overwhelming evidence and public opinion.
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Nature Index |
Remastering matter: materials science goes to market
The search for new industries is getting more sophisticated.
- Catherine Armitage
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Nature Index |
Energy harvesters pick up power
New technologies are channelling incidental energy into practical uses.
- Mark Zastrow
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Editorial |
How California can use its research muscle to keep the lights on
The state’s universities can help to design and build a clean and resilient power grid.
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Career Column |
Quiz: how green is your lab?
Is your lab full of sustainability champions or single-use scientists? Use our quiz to find out.
- Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar
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News |
Australia’s capital city switches to 100% renewable energy
Canberra will be the first major region in the Southern Hemisphere to purchase all its energy from renewable sources.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Letter |
Hindered dialkyl ether synthesis with electrogenerated carbocations
A route to the synthesis of hindered ethers is developed, in which electrochemical oxidation is used to liberate high-energy carbocations that are then captured by an alcohol.
- Jinbao Xiang
- , Ming Shang
- & Phil S. Baran
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Research Highlight |
A ‘skin’ of movable solar panels helps buildings keep their cool
Swivelling panels balance solar-energy generation and interior temperatures.
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News Feature |
The reality behind solar power’s next star material
Companies say they are close to commercializing cheap perovskite films that could disrupt solar power — but are they too optimistic?
- Andy Extance
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Books & Arts |
A brief history of slime
Christopher Howe delights in a new book on the planet’s most powerful organisms — algae.
- Christopher Howe
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News & Views |
Dynamic polymer network points the way to truly recyclable plastics
Crosslinked polymer networks known as thermoset plastics have many applications, but can’t be reshaped or recycled. A thermoset with reorganizable crosslinks retains its useful properties, but has recyclability built in.
- Coralie Jehanno
- & Haritz Sardon
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Career Guide |
Germany faces its future as a pioneer in sustainability and renewable energy
The country’s future-proofing programmes face profound challenges.
- Andrew Curry
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News & Views |
Solar cells boosted by an improved charge-carrying material
The commercialization of a promising class of solar cell has been hindered by issues associated with the components needed to construct it. A possible solution has now been reported.
- Liyuan Han
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Spotlight |
High-pressure research and a return to China: meet Haiyan Zheng
The chemist talks about her work at a Beijing research institute, and about equality in Chinese science.
- Sarah O’Meara
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Spotlight |
The Chinese researcher painting the printing industry green
Chemist Yanlin Song uses nanomaterials to reduce the pollution caused by conventional lithography.
- Sarah O’Meara
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Outlook |
Brewing nanotechnology from tea
Quantum dots, which have potential uses in medical imaging and solar cells, could be made with help from the polyphenols found in tea leaves.
- Neil Savage
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Research Highlight |
Aquifers could store enough energy to power a nation for months
Compressed air made with renewable energy could be stashed in underground deposits for lean times.
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Fast Radio Bursts and new year future gazing
Join Benjamin Thompson and Noah Baker for the latest science news.
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Research Highlight |
Solar panels high on snowy mountains yield peak power
Arrays sited in thin air could help to fill winter solar-power gap.
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Research Highlight |
Record-breaking battery saves sunshine for a rainy day
Device combines solar-cell and battery technology to store energy from the Sun with unprecedented efficiency.
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Spotlight |
How Earth-observation scientists are weathering budget cuts and political scepticism
Researchers are forging a way through an uncertain funding landscape to better understand a changing climate.
- Kristopher James Kent
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Research Highlight |
Green power in Europe comes at a cost
The fickle nature of wind and solar power could challenge utility companies and drive price volatility.
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Correspondence |
Now India is electrified, bring on the renewables
- Shekhar Chandra
- & Lawrence E. Susskind
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Nature Index |
In the line of fire
By modelling the course of climate change, scientists are building an arsenal to prepare for its impact.
- Katherine Bourzac
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Nature Index |
Paving the way to an urban future
The scale of growth in cities challenges scientists and policy-makers.
- Catherine Armitage
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News |
German scientists hope for windfall from incoming government
Research budget could rise to 3.5% of gross domestic product if agreement struck during coalition talks holds.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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News |
European Union moves to strengthen renewable-energy goals
European Parliament says that 35% of energy should be clean by 2030 — but target is not yet legally binding.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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Editorial |
Chemists go green to make better blue jeans
An environmentally friendly way to dye denim could usher in a long-overdue new fashion.
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Spotlight |
India’s commitment to science begins to pay off
A push to reverse its brain drain is providing the expertise to tackle its domestic problems.
- T. V. Padma
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News |
Rare mineral is the key to long-lasting ancient concrete
Roman recipe lasted 2,000 years thanks to strengthening reactions with seawater.
- Alexandra Witze
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Comment |
Catch wave power in floating nets
Zhong Lin Wang proposes a radically different way to harvest renewable energy from the ocean using nanogenerator networks.
- Zhong Lin Wang
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News Feature |
How heat from the Sun can keep us all cool
As demand for air conditioning climbs, some see a solution in the very thing that makes us sweat: the Sun.
- XiaoZhi Lim
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News & Views |
Deep-sea secrets of butane metabolism
Anaerobic microbes have been found to break down the hydrocarbon butane by a pathway with some similarities to anaerobic methane breakdown. Harnessing the butane pathway might enable biofuel generation. See Article p.396
- Stephen W. Ragsdale
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News & Views |
Twenty-five years of low-cost solar cells
In 1991, an energy-efficient solar cell was reported that was both simple in design and relatively inexpensive. This invention has since inspired the development of solar cells that have even higher efficiencies.
- Mohammad K. Nazeeruddin
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News |
Solar on the steppe: Ukraine embraces renewables revolution
Former Soviet nation bids for independence from Russian fossil fuels.
- Quirin Schiermeier