Scientific community articles within Nature Communications

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  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Sustainability of African weather and climate information can only be ensured by investing in improved scientific understanding, observational data, and model capability. These requirements must be underpinned by capacity development, knowledge management; and partnerships of co-production, communication and coordination.

    • Benjamin Lamptey
    • , Salah SAHABI ABED
    •  & Erik W. Kolstad

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Millions of skeletal remains from South Asia were exported in red markets (the underground economy of human tissues/organs) to educational institutions globally for over a century. It is time to recognize the personhood of the people who were systematically made into anatomical objects and acknowledge the scientific racism in creating and continuing to use them.

    • Sabrina C. Agarwal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Researchers developed an open-hardware structured illumination microscopy add-on. This affordable upgrade provides super-resolution capabilities for normal optical microscopes. Detailed instructions enable easy reproduction to help democratize advanced microscopy.

    • Mélanie T. M. Hannebelle
    • , Esther Raeth
    •  & Georg E. Fantner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Information on the occurrence of aneuploidies in prehistory human populations are rare. Here, from a large screen of ancient human genomes and osteological examination, the authors find genetic evidence for six cases of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) and one case of trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome) in historic and prehistoric infants.

    • Adam Benjamin Rohrlach
    • , Maïté Rivollat
    •  & Kay Prüfer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extracting scientific data from published research is a complex task required specialised tools. Here the authors present a scheme based on large language models to automatise the retrieval of information from text in a flexible and accessible manner.

    • John Dagdelen
    • , Alexander Dunn
    •  & Anubhav Jain

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithic cutting-edge productivity is a way of quantifying prehistoric human technological evolution. Here, the authors examine the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition across eight assemblages in the eastern Mediterranean, finding the transition to be later than expected and associated with bladelet technology development.

    • Seiji Kadowaki
    • , Joe Yuichiro Wakano
    •  & Sate Massadeh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, the authors report NMR lipids Databank to promote decentralised sharing of biomolecular molecular dynamics (MD) simulation data with an overlay design. Programmatic access enables analyses of rare phenomena and advances the training of machine learning models.

    • Anne M. Kiirikki
    • , Hanne S. Antila
    •  & O. H. Samuli Ollila

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Innovative pharmacogenomic approaches (genetic variation related to medication response) are needed to reduce disease and disparities in Indigenous communities. We support community-based pharmacogenomics research, inclusive of Indigenous values and priorities, to improve the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples.

    • Katrina G. Claw
    • , Casey R. Dorr
    •  & Erica L. Woodahl

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    While the research community continues to develop novel proposals for intrinsic biocontainment of genetically engineered organisms, translation to real-world deployment faces several challenges.

    • Dalton R. George
    • , Mark Danciu
    •  & Emma K. Frow

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Authors of scientific papers are generally discouraged from citing works that had no direct influence on their research. This paper uses simulations to show that such rhetorical citations may have underappreciated effects on the scientific community, such as deconcentrating attention away from already highly-cited papers.

    • Honglin Bao
    •  & Misha Teplitskiy

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Underutilised crops or orphan crops are important for diversifying our food systems towards food and nutrition security. Here, the authors discuss how the development of underutilised crop genomic resource should align with their breeding and capacity building strategies, and leverage advances made in major crops.

    • Oluwaseyi Shorinola
    • , Rose Marks
    •  & Mark A. Chapman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reproducibility is essential for the progress of research, yet achieving it remains elusive even in computational fields. Here, authors develop the rworkflows suite, making robust CI/CD workflows easy and freely accessible to all R package developers.

    • Brian M. Schilder
    • , Alan E. Murphy
    •  & Nathan G. Skene

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Accurately benchmarking small variant calling accuracy is critical for the continued improvement of human genome sequencing. Here, the authors show that current approaches are biased towards certain variant representations and develop a new approach to ensure consistent and accurate benchmarking, regardless of the original variant representations.

    • Tim Dunn
    •  & Satish Narayanasamy

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Drawing on perspectives from West and Southern Africa, this Comment critically examines the current state of neuroscience progress in Africa, describing the unique landscape and ongoing challenges as embedded within wider socio-political realities. Distinct research opportunities in the African context are explored to include genetic and bio-diversity, multilingual and multicultural populations, life-course development, clinical neuroscience and neuropsychology, with applications to machine learning models, in light of complex post-colonial legacies that often impede research progress. Key determinants needed to accelerate African neuroscience are then discussed, as well as cautionary underpinnings that together create an equitable neuroscience framework.

    • Sahba Besharati
    •  & Rufus Akinyemi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Over their careers, medicinal chemists develop a gut feeling for what is a promising molecule. Here, the authors use machine learning models to learn this intuition and show that it can be successfully applied in several drug discovery scenarios.

    • Oh-Hyeon Choung
    • , Riccardo Vianello
    •  & José Jiménez-Luna

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rare Mendelian disorders pose a major diagnostic challenge, but evaluation of automated tools that aim to uncover causal genes tools is limited. Here, the authors present a computational pipeline that simulates realistic clinical datasets to address this deficit.

    • Emily Alsentzer
    • , Samuel G. Finlayson
    •  & Isaac S. Kohane

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The availability of maker resources such as 3D printers, makerspaces, and public repositories enable researchers to share information with research peers, educators, industry, and the general public. This broadens the impact of research and inspires its extension and application.

    • Larry L. Howell
    •  & Terri Bateman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent estimates of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) intake are generally unavailable. Here the authors show a global SSBs intake of 2.7 servings/week in 2018 in adults (range: 0.7 South Asia, 7.8 Latin America/Caribbean); intakes were higher among males, younger, more educated, and urban adults.

    • Laura Lara-Castor
    • , Renata Micha
    •  & Rubina Hakeem

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    In this Review article, the authors discuss emerging efforts to build ethical governance frameworks for data science health research in Africa and the opportunities to advance these through investments by African governments and institutions, international funding organizations and collaborations for research and capacity development.

    • Clement A. Adebamowo
    • , Shawneequa Callier
    •  & Sally N. Adebamowo

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    WHO guidelines for classification of malaria elimination in a country require that the risk of human infection from zoonotic, as well as nonzoonotic, malaria parasites is negligible. In this Comment, the authors discuss the implications of this policy for countries, such as Malaysia, with no recent reported nonzoonotic cases but ongoing zoonotic transmission.

    • Kimberly M. Fornace
    • , Chris J. Drakeley
    •  & Kamruddin Ahmed

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aberrant coagulation and thrombosis are associated with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, the authors show that the E protein are associated with coagulation disorders in COVID-19 patients and could directly enhance platelet activation and thrombosis through a CD36/p38 MAPK/NF-kB signaling axis.

    • Zihan Tang
    • , Yanyan Xu
    •  & Tingting Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Linking microscale cellular structures to macroscale features of the brain is required to fully understand its structure and function. Here, the authors present a resource which combines multi-contrast microscopy and MRI of a single whole macaque brain to facilitate multimodal analyses.

    • Amy F. D. Howard
    • , Istvan N. Huszar
    •  & Karla L. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To ensure the privacy of processed data, federated learning approaches involve local differential privacy techniques which however require communicating a large amount of data that needs protection. The authors propose here a framework that uses selected small data to transfer knowledge in federated learning with privacy guarantees.

    • Tao Qi
    • , Fangzhao Wu
    •  & Xing Xie

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    This comment explores ethical aspects in developing and testing minimal-risk devices, such as wearables and biomedical sensors. Authors outline the process of independent review, emphasizing the different levels of review depending on the research design and risk level. They also share examples of practical scenarios, highlighting key ethical considerations.

    • Anna Wexler
    •  & Emily Largent

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    We address a controversy over use of the term “gene drive” to include both natural and synthetic genetic elements that promote their own transmission within a population, arguing that this broad definition is both practical and has advantages for risk analysis.

    • Stephanie L. James
    • , David A. O’Brochta
    •  & Omar S. Akbari

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Establishing sustainable approaches for human space exploration is key to achieve independency from terrestrial resources, as well as for ethical considerations. Here the authors highlight microbial biotechnologies that will support sustainable processes for space-based in situ resource utilization and loop-closure, and may be translatable to Earth applications.

    • Rosa Santomartino
    • , Nils J. H. Averesch
    •  & Luis Zea

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are conflicting results on the effectiveness of pharmacologic interventions for suicide prevention in adolescence. Here, the authors show, in a retrospective registry study from Sweden during 2016–2020, that regional utilization rates of clozapine, electroconvulsive therapy and lithium in 15–19-year-olds were associated with lower excess suicide death rates in male adolescents

    • Adrian E. Desai Boström
    • , Peter Andersson
    •  & Jussi Jokinen

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    More than a decade after the first demonstration of large-scale graphene synthesis by chemical vapor deposition, the commercialization of graphene products is limited not only by price, but also by consistency, reproducibility, and predictability. Here, the author discusses the reproducibility issues in the field and proposes possible solutions to improve the reliability of published results.

    • Peter Bøggild

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Disability has too often been peripheral to efforts to widen the STEMM pipeline, hampering research quality and innovation. Inspired by change in education delivery and research collaborations during the pandemic, we offer a structure for efforts to recruit and retain disabled scientists and practitioners.

    • Siobhán M. Mattison
    • , Logan Gin
    •  & Katherine Wander

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    While there are a growing number of human pluripotent stem cell repositories, genetic diversity remains limited in most collections and studies. Here, we discuss the importance of incorporating diverse ancestries in these models to improve equity and accelerate biological discovery.

    • Sulagna Ghosh
    • , Ralda Nehme
    •  & Lindy E. Barrett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the authors provide a global overview of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing, and estimate the proportion of cases sequenced and time to genome upload. They identify disparities and highlight the need to strengthen surveillance in lower and middle income countries.

    • Anderson F. Brito
    • , Elizaveta Semenova
    •  & Nuno R. Faria

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report findings from their study of female student participants interested in engineering at college entry who were randomly assigned to a female peer mentor, male mentor, or no mentor for their first year of college. The authors show that students assigned to a female peer mentor show benefits in psychological experiences in engineering, aspirations to pursue postgraduate engineering degrees, and emotional well-being, which persists up to one year after graduation.

    • Deborah J. Wu
    • , Kelsey C. Thiem
    •  & Nilanjana Dasgupta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While inequalities in science are common, most efforts to understand them treat scientists as isolated individuals, ignoring the network effects of collaboration. Here, the authors develop models that untangle the network effects of productivity and prominence of individual scientists from their collaboration networks.

    • Weihua Li
    • , Sam Zhang
    •  & Aaron Clauset

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    We reflect on the extent to which the UK Events Research Programme adhered to four principles of design and evaluation in assessing risk of transmission from attending such mass events as football matches and festivals, and lessons learned.

    • Theresa M. Marteau
    • , Michael J. Parker
    •  & W. John Edmunds

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is a broad range of research available on the relationship between food security and mental health. Here the authors carry out a systematic mapping of evidence on food security and nutrition related to mental health and identifies trends in themes, setting, and study design over the 20 year period studied.

    • Thalia M. Sparling
    • , Megan Deeney
    •  & Suneetha Kadiyala

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Diversity is a creative force that broadens views and enhances ideas; it increases productivity as well as the impact of our science, making our respective organisations more agile and timely. Equality of opportunity is a key to success for any research organisation. Here we argue that every research organisation, whether in academia or in industry, needs to have better inclusion policies to harness the benefits of diversity in research. Drawing from our personal experiences and perspectives as women in science, we share our suggestions on how to promote inclusion in academia and create a better research culture for all. Our shared experiences highlight the many hurdles women in science face on a daily basis. We stress that rules and regulations, as well as education for awareness, will play critical role in this much needed shift from a male-dominated scientific culture that dates from Victorian times to a modern focus on gender equality in science. The key ingredients of this new culture will be flexibility, transparency, fairness and thoughtfulness.

    • Sarah A. Teichmann
    • , Muzlifah Haniffa
    •  & Jasmin Fisher

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    A Global Forum on Synthetic Biology is needed to engage policymakers with practitioners across borders at the highest level. The international community needs a global confidence-building measure focused on discussing policy futures for the age of engineering biology.

    • Thomas A. Dixon
    • , Paul S. Freemont
    •  & Isak S. Pretorius

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