Nature

Can COVID vaccines stop transmission? Scientists race to find answers

Controlling the pandemic will require shots that prevent viral spread, but that feature is difficult to measure.

No sign of Planet Nine? Trail runs cold for hypothetical world

Analysis of three astronomical surveys provides some of the best evidence yet against the existence of a giant planet at the fringes of the Solar System.
Jonathan O'Callaghan

News 19 Feb 2021
Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon

Advice to the Biden administration as it seeks to account for mounting losses from storms, wildfires and other climate impacts.
Gernot Wagner
David Anthoff
James H. Stock

Comment 19 Feb 2021
Million-year-old DNA sheds light on the genomic history of mammoths

Siberian mammoth genomes from the Early and Middle Pleistocene subepochs reveal adaptive changes and a key hybridization event, highlighting the value of deep-time palaeogenomics for studies of speciation and long-term evolutionary trends.
Tom van der Valk
Patrícia Pečnerová
Love Dalén

Article 17 Feb 2021
Daily briefing: China has doubled its list of protected species

China adds to its protected animals list for the first time in 32 years. Plus, Perseverance lands on Mars and dreamers can answer questions and do math while asleep.
Flora Graham

Nature Briefing 19 Feb 2021
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Current Issue 18 Feb 2021

News & Comment

Fuel for world’s largest fusion reactor ITER is set for test run

Nuclear fusion experiments with deuterium and tritium at the Joint European Torus are a crucial dress rehearsal for the mega-experiment.
Elizabeth Gibney

News 22 Feb 2021
COVID research updates: A delayed second jab means better protection against COVID

News 22 Feb 2021
Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon
Gernot Wagner
David Anthoff
James H. Stock

Comment 19 Feb 2021
Can COVID vaccines stop transmission? Scientists race to find answers
Smriti Mallapaty

News 19 Feb 2021
No sign of Planet Nine? Trail runs cold for hypothetical world
Jonathan O'Callaghan

News 19 Feb 2021
Touch down! NASA’s Mars landing sparks new era of exploration
Alexandra Witze

News 18 Feb 2021
How to shape a productive scientist–artist collaboration
Virginia Gewin

Career Feature 17 Feb 2021

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- Glowing nanocrystals enable 3D X-ray imaging
  
  Persistently luminescent nanocrystals have been used to make flexible X-ray detectors that produce better images of 3D objects than do the flat-panel detectors currently widely used in radiography.
  
  Albano N. Carneiro Neto
  Oscar L. Malta
  
  News & Views 17 Feb 2021
- Cells use loop extrusion to weave and tie the genome
  
  A study reveals that a process called loop extrusion, which is central to the folding and function of chromosomes, also seems to play a key part in the repair of double-strand DNA breaks.
  
  Leonid A. Mirny
  
  News & Views 17 Feb 2021
- 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
  
  News & Views 17 Feb 2021
- Million-year-old DNA provides a glimpse of mammoth evolution
  
  DNA has been retrieved from mammoth specimens that are more than one million years old. Comparing the genomes of these animals and their descendants provides insights into the changes that occurred as one species evolved into another.
  
  Alfred L. Roca
  
  News & Views 17 Feb 2021
- Some antibodies can dampen antiviral defences in people with severe COVID
  
  Defects in the immune defences induced by the protein interferon are associated with some severe cases of COVID-19. An analysis of patients’ blood samples sheds light on how antibodies might contribute to these defects.
  
  Matteo Gentili
  Nir Hacohen
  
  News & Views 16 Feb 2021
- How the human genome transformed study of rare diseases
  
  Fowzan S. Alkuraya
  
  News & Views 10 Feb 2021
- Dynamics of RNA–protein interactions studied in living cells
  
  Olivia S. Rissland
  
  News & Views 10 Feb 2021
- Shedding squeezed light on dark matter
  
  Igor G. Irastorza
  
  News & Views 10 Feb 2021
- Breaking through the unknowns of the human reference genome
  
  Karen H. Miga
  
  News & Views 10 Feb 2021

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Latest Research

Genomic Insights into the Formation of Human Populations in East Asia
Chuan-Chao Wang
Hui-Yuan Yeh
David Reich

Article 22 Feb 2021
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

Article 17 Feb 2021
High-resolution X-ray luminescence extension imaging

Using lanthanide-doped nanomaterials and flexible substrates, an approach that enables flat-panel-free, high-resolution, three-dimensional imaging is demonstrated and termed X-ray luminescence extension imaging.
Xiangyu Ou
Xian Qin
Xiaogang Liu

Article 17 Feb 2021
Structure and inhibition mechanism of the human citrate transporter NaCT

Structures of the human sodium-dependent citrate transporter NaCT in complexes with citrate or a small-molecule inhibitor reveal how the inhibitor—which binds to the same site as citrate—arrests the transport cycle of NaCT.
David B. Sauer
Jinmei Song
Da-Neng Wang

Article 17 Feb 2021
Creatine kinase B controls futile creatine cycling in thermogenic fat

Upon induction by thermogenic stimuli, creatine kinase B traffics to mitochondria to trigger the futile creatine cycle in thermogenic fat.
Janane F. Rahbani
Anna Roesler
Lawrence Kazak

Article 17 Feb 2021