Nature

Five reasons why COVID herd immunity is probably impossible

Even with vaccination efforts in full force, the theoretical threshold for vanquishing COVID-19 looks to be out of reach.

Pandemic whistle-blower: we need a non-political way to track viruses

Rick Bright exposed former US president Donald Trump’s political meddling. Now he’s spearheading a privately funded initiative to rapidly contain coronavirus variants and outbreaks of other pathogens.
Amy Maxmen

News Q&A 19 Mar 2021
Rare COVID reactions might hold key to variant-proof vaccines

Some people mount an immune response able to fend off a menagerie of coronavirus variants.
Ewen Callaway

News 19 Mar 2021
Identification of bacteria-derived HLA-bound peptides in melanoma

HLA peptidomic analysis identifies recurrent intracellular bacteria-derived peptides presented on HLA-I and HLA-II molecules in melanoma tumours, revealing how bacteria can modulate immune functions and responses to cancer therapies.
Shelly Kalaora
Adi Nagler
Yardena Samuels

Article 17 Mar 2021
Daily briefing: French researcher with nearly 200 papers doesn’t exist

Non-existent author ‘Camille Noûs’ is a stand-in for collective efforts in science in France. Plus. why achieving COVID herd immunity is probably impossible and understanding humans is hardwired in dog DNA.
Flora Graham

Nature Briefing 19 Mar 2021
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Current Issue 18 Mar 2021

News & Comment

Vera Rubin, astronomer extraordinaire — a new biography

She confirmed dark matter, probed spiral galaxies and fought inequality
Alison Abbott

Book Review 22 Mar 2021
The latest on Biden’s science team: former senator to lead NASA
Nidhi Subbaraman
Jeff Tollefson
Alexandra Witze

News 19 Mar 2021
Rare COVID reactions might hold key to variant-proof vaccines
Ewen Callaway

News 19 Mar 2021
COVID research updates: Older people are at higher risk of getting COVID twice

News 19 Mar 2021
Five reasons why COVID herd immunity is probably impossible
Christie Aschwanden

News Feature 18 Mar 2021
Has COVID peaked? Maybe, but it’s too soon to be sure
Smriti Mallapaty

News 18 Mar 2021
The accidental Nobel laureate, what we owe to our voices and the philosophy of touch: Books in Brief
Andrew Robinson

Book Review 17 Mar 2021

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- First complete model of the human embryo
  
  Early in development, human embryos form a structure called the blastocyst. Two research groups have now generated human blastocyst-like structures from cells in a dish, providing a valuable model for advancing human embryology.
  
  Yi Zheng
  Jianping Fu
  
  News & Views 17 Mar 2021
- Argument technology for debating with humans
  
  A fully autonomous computer system has been developed that can take part in live debates with people. The findings hint at a future in which artificial intelligence can help humans to formulate and make sense of complex arguments.
  
  Chris Reed
  
  News & Views 17 Mar 2021
- Bacterial peptides presented on tumour cells could be immunotherapy targets
  
  Protein fragments from bacteria that invade tumour cells can be presented on the tumour-cell surface and recognized by the immune system. This discovery could have implications for cancer immunotherapies.
  
  Angelika B. Riemer
  
  News & Views 17 Mar 2021
- Oceanic fault zones reconstructed
  
  Tectonic-plate material is generally thought to be neither created nor destroyed at plate boundaries called oceanic transform faults. An analysis of sea-floor topography suggests that this assumption is incorrect.
  
  Garrett Ito
  
  News & Views 17 Mar 2021
- A new phase in meiotic cell division
  
  The exchange of DNA between pairs of chromosomes is key to sexual reproduction. It emerges that one step in this process — the introduction of DNA breaks by the enzyme Spo11 — relies on condensation of proteins into liquid-like droplets.
  
  Kevin D. Corbett
  
  News & Views 17 Mar 2021
- Gut microbes regroup to aid defence after infection
  
  Melissa M. Kendall
  Vanessa Sperandio
  
  News & Views 15 Mar 2021
- Improving reporting standards for polygenic scores in risk prediction studies
  
  Hannah Wand
  Samuel A. Lambert
  Genevieve L. Wojcik
  
  Perspective 10 Mar 2021
- Ultra-weak gravitational field detected
  
  Christian Rothleitner
  
  News & Views 10 Mar 2021
- Giant ice cube hints at the existence of cosmic antineutrinos
  
  Carla Distefano
  
  News & Views 10 Mar 2021

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Latest Research articles

Ex utero mouse embryogenesis from pre-gastrulation to late organogenesis
Alejandro Aguilera-Castrejon
Bernardo Oldak
Jacob H. Hanna

Article 17 Mar 2021
Primate cell fusion disentangles gene regulatory divergence in neurodevelopment

Cortical organoids derived from tetraploid human–chimpanzee fused induced pluripotent stem cells provide a platform for untangling unique molecular features of human brain development.
Rachel M. Agoglia
Danqiong Sun
Hunter B. Fraser

Article 17 Mar 2021
Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate

Using a globally coordinated strategic conservation framework to plan an increase in ocean protection through marine protected areas can yield benefits for biodiversity, food provisioning and carbon storage.
Enric Sala
Juan Mayorga
Jane Lubchenco

Article 17 Mar 2021
DPP9 sequesters the C terminus of NLRP1 to repress inflammasome activation

Structures of NLRP1–DPP9 alone and with a small-molecule inhibitor of DPP9 reveal the mechanisms through which NLRP1 is regulated, providing insights into the role of this complex in inflammasome regulation.
L. Robert Hollingsworth
Humayun Sharif
Hao Wu

Article 17 Mar 2021
Enabling conditions for an equitable and sustainable blue economy

The capacity to create an equitable and sustainable ‘blue economy’ from ocean resources will be determined by addressing social conditions, governance and infrastructure, not just resource availability, as shown by a fuzzy logic model incorporating multidisciplinary criteria.
Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor
Marcia Moreno-Báez
Yoshitaka Ota

Article 17 Mar 2021