Nature

Your brain expands and shrinks over time — these charts show how

Based on more than 120,000 brain scans, the charts are still preliminary. But researchers hope they could one day be used as a routine clinical tool by physicians.

What triggers severe COVID? Infected immune cells hold clues

Studies have revealed that infected immune cells prompt a massive inflammatory response.

Smriti Mallapaty
News 06 Apr 2022
IPCC’s starkest message yet: extreme steps needed to avert climate disaster

Radical emissions cuts combined with some atmospheric carbon removal are the only hope to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, scientists warn.

Jeff Tollefson
News 05 Apr 2022
Trends in Europe storm surge extremes match the rate of sea-level rise

Analysis of tide gauge observations shows that, in contrast to the current assumption of stationary storm surge extremes in Europe, the surge contribution to changes in extreme sea levels since 1960 is similar to that of sea-level rise, influencing future coastal planning.

Francisco M. Calafat
Thomas Wahl
Sarah N. Sparrow
Article 30 Mar 2022
Daily briefing: CRISPR-baby scientist released from prison

Biophysicist He Jiankui is out of jail following controversial research in 2018. Plus, nine research priorities to tame crypto chaos and mathematical models to optimize vaccine doses.

Flora Graham
Nature Briefing 05 Apr 2022
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Current Issue 07 Apr 2022

News & Comment

Animals that count, and the history of death: Books in brief

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

Andrew Robinson

Book Review 06 Apr 2022
Why the WHO took two years to say COVID is airborne
Dyani Lewis
News Feature 06 Apr 2022
Time to recognize authorship of open data

Editorial 06 Apr 2022
COVID vaccine plus infection can lead to months of immunity
Saima May Sidik
News 06 Apr 2022
The countries maintaining research ties with Russia despite Ukraine
Smriti Mallapaty
T. V. Padma
Ehsan Masood
News 06 Apr 2022
Your brain expands and shrinks over time — these charts show how
Max Kozlov
News 06 Apr 2022
You must be joking: funny paper titles might lead to more citations
Giorgia Guglielmi
News 06 Apr 2022

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- Solving the mystery of the missing plasmids in seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae strains
  
  The pathogen responsible for the continuing seventh cholera pandemic typically lacks self-replicating plasmids. Genetics, cell biology and bioinformatics analyses have identified two DNA-defence systems that protect bacterial populations from plasmids and bacteriophages, and that might have shaped the evolution of modern Vibrio cholerae.
  
  Research Briefing 06 Apr 2022
- Democratizing the mapping of gene mutations to protein biophysics
  
  A general method that quantifies and disentangles the effects of a gene’s mutations on the traits of its protein enables assessments of mutational effects on protein biophysics for many of the proteins of a living organism.
  
  News & Views 06 Apr 2022
- How the antibiotic fidaxomicin targets an intestinal pathogen
  
  The antibiotic fidaxomicin acts selectively on the bacterium Clostridioides difficile, a main cause of intestinal infections. Structural and biochemical experiments reveal a region in the enzyme RNA polymerase that can sensitize the pathogen to fidaxomicin, helping to explain the drug’s selective clinical activity.
  
  Research Briefing 06 Apr 2022
- Cholera-causing bacteria have defences that degrade plasmid invaders
  
  Plasmids — circular DNA molecules — are found in many bacteria, and carry genes that can give the host microorganism new features. The mystery of how a cholera-causing bacterium eliminates plasmids has now been solved.
  Didier Mazel
  
  News & Views 06 Apr 2022
- Cryogenic mastery aids bid to spot elusive matter creation
  
  A cubic metre of tellurium held at cryogenic temperatures over many years has enabled a search for matter created in a rare nuclear process. The feat bodes well for stabilizing other complex systems at low temperatures.
  Jason Detwiler
  
  News & Views 06 Apr 2022
- From the archive: Mary Leakey’s book on excavations in Africa, and physics teaching under scrutiny
  
  News & Views 05 Apr 2022
- An unexpected protein aggregate in diseased and ageing brains
  Hideyuki Takahashi
  Stephen M. Strittmatter
  
  News & Views 04 Apr 2022
- Twenty-five years of nanoscale thermodynamics
  Chase P. Broedersz
  Pierre Ronceray
  
  News & Views 04 Apr 2022
- Snippets of the Martian soundscape
  
  Research Briefing 04 Apr 2022

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Latest Research articles

FcγR-mediated SARS-CoV-2 infection of monocytes activates inflammation

Caroline Junqueira
Ângela Crespo
Judy Lieberman
Article 06 Apr 2022
Autonomous fuelled directional rotation about a covalent single bond

The molecular chemical ‘fuelling’ of the catalysis-driven motor 1-phenylpyrrole 2,2′-dicarboxylic acid, which operates by a Brownian information ratchet mechanism, facilitates dynamics that are otherwise kinetically inaccessible.

Stefan Borsley
Elisabeth Kreidt
Benjamin M. W. Roberts
Article 06 Apr 2022
Structural basis of lipopolysaccharide maturation by the O-antigen ligase

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of the bacterial O-antigen ligase WaaL, combined with genetics, biochemistry and molecular dynamics simulations, provide insight into the mechanism by which WaaL catalyses the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide.

Khuram U. Ashraf
Rie Nygaard
Filippo Mancia
Article 06 Apr 2022
Mapping the energetic and allosteric landscapes of protein binding domains

An approach that combines deep mutational scanning with neural network-based thermodynamic modelling is used to provide comprehensive maps of the energetic and allosteric effects of mutations in two common protein domains.

Andre J. Faure
Júlia Domingo
Ben Lehner
Article 06 Apr 2022
Structure deformation and curvature sensing of PIEZO1 in lipid membranes

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of PIEZO1 in liposome vesicles in curved and flattened conformations demonstrate the high deformability underlying the high mechanosensitivity and ion selectivity of PIEZO channel gating.

Xuzhong Yang
Chao Lin
Bailong Xiao
Article 06 Apr 2022