Nature

The mutation that helps Delta spread like wildfire

A key amino-acid change might underlie the coronavirus variant’s ferocious infectivity.

Baby bats babble like human infants

Repeated vocalizations could help young bats to practise the sounds they will need as adults.

Max Kozlov
News 19 Aug 2021
Decades-old SARS virus infection triggers potent response to COVID vaccines

Dramatic antibody production in people infected during the 2002–04 outbreak furthers hopes of a vaccine against many coronaviruses.

Smriti Mallapaty
News 18 Aug 2021
The Montreal Protocol protects the terrestrial carbon sink

Modelling suggests that the Montreal Protocol may be mitigating climate change by protecting the land carbon sink, as well as by protecting the ozone layer and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Paul J. Young
Anna B. Harper
Rolando R. Garcia
Article 18 Aug 2021
Daily briefing: Health researchers report pressure to suppress results

Survey finds that government-funded trials sometimes face efforts to suppress results. Plus, hopeful signs for a ‘pan-coronavirus’ vaccine and a rare pair of all-white orca whales.

Flora Graham
Nature Briefing 19 Aug 2021
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Current Issue 19 Aug 2021

News & Comment

Gene errors, electric cars — the week in infographics

Nature highlights three key infographics from the week in science and research.

News 20 Aug 2021
The mutation that helps Delta spread like wildfire
- Ewen Callaway
News 20 Aug 2021
Home seismometers provide crucial data on Haiti’s quake
- Alexandra Witze
News 20 Aug 2021
Baby bats babble like human infants
- Max Kozlov
News 19 Aug 2021
Delta’s rise is fuelled by rampant spread from people who feel fine
- Smriti Mallapaty
News 19 Aug 2021
COVID vaccines protect against Delta, but their effectiveness wanes
- Katharine Sanderson
News 19 Aug 2021
Great Barrier Reef: accept ‘in danger’ status, there’s more to gain than lose
- Tiffany H. Morrison
World View 18 Aug 2021

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- Fructose in the diet expands the surface of the gut and promotes nutrient absorption
  
  Feeding mice high-fructose corn syrup, a widely used sweetener in human diets, has been found to drive an increase in the surface area of the gut that is associated with enhanced absorption of dietary nutrients and weight gain.
  
  Patrícia M. Nunes
  Dimitrios Anastasiou
  
  News & Views 18 Aug 2021
- Supersolids go two-dimensional
  
  Supersolids are exotic materials whose constituent particles can simultaneously form a crystal and flow without friction. The first 2D supersolid has been produced using ultracold gases of highly magnetic atoms.
  Bruno Laburthe-Tolra
  
  News & Views 18 Aug 2021
- Chronically lonely flies overeat and lose sleep
  
  The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a social animal. Flies kept in chronic social isolation have now been found to show dysregulated sleep and feeding patterns, casting light on how prolonged absence of social contact affects health.
  Joel D. Levine
  
  News & Views 18 Aug 2021
- From the archive
  
  Nature’s pages feature a 1921 look at the origin of some English place-names, and an 1871 report of a polar expedition.
  
  News & Views 17 Aug 2021
- ‘Polluter pays’ policy could speed up emission reductions and removal of atmospheric CO₂
  
  To meet climate targets, technologies that remove atmospheric carbon dioxide will probably be needed. An analysis shows how their development and use could be accelerated if carbon emitters are obliged to remove their own CO₂.
  David A. Stainforth
  
  News & Views 16 Aug 2021
- Ubiquitin protein helps cells to recover from stress
  Titus Franzmann
  Simon Alberti
  
  News & Views 16 Aug 2021
- A microscopy technique that images single reaction events in total darkness
  Frédéric Kanoufi
  Neso Sojic
  
  News & Views 11 Aug 2021
- A persistent look at how tumours evade therapy
  Karen Gomez
  Raul Rabadan
  
  News & Views 11 Aug 2021
- A brain signal that coordinates thought with metabolism
  Manfred Hallschmid
  Jan Born
  
  News & Views 11 Aug 2021

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Latest Research articles

Mobility gradients yield rubbery surfaces on top of polymer glasses

Surface enhancements in glass mobility are complicated in polymers by the interplay of the surface mobile layer thickness with a second length scale (the size of the polymer chains), giving rise to a transient rubbery surface even in polymers with short chains.

Zhiwei Hao
Asieh Ghanekarade
Biao Zuo
Article 18 Aug 2021
Neuro-mesenchymal units control ILC2 and obesity via a brain–adipose circuit

Signals from the sympathetic nervous system act via mesenchymal stromal cells to regulate the function of group 2 innate lymphoid cells and control adipocyte metabolism.

Filipa Cardoso
Roel G. J. Klein Wolterink
Henrique Veiga-Fernandes
Article 18 Aug 2021
The Montreal Protocol protects the terrestrial carbon sink

Modelling suggests that the Montreal Protocol may be mitigating climate change by protecting the land carbon sink, as well as by protecting the ozone layer and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Paul J. Young
Anna B. Harper
Rolando R. Garcia
Article 18 Aug 2021
DAXX represents a new type of protein-folding enabler

A protein chaperone system is identified that consists of proteins with poly-Asp/Glu sequence, and may have an important role in diseases characterized by protein aggregation.

Liangqian Huang
Trisha Agrawal
Xiaolu Yang
Article 18 Aug 2021
Two-dimensional supersolidity in a dipolar quantum gas

Two-dimensional supersolidity is demonstrated using highly magnetic, ultracold dysprosium atoms.

Matthew A. Norcia
Claudia Politi
Francesca Ferlaino
Article 18 Aug 2021

Researchers are rethinking the nature and potential of matter. From new metal mixes that form more efficient catalysts to bio-inspired super-black products, their work is driving advances in manufacturing, drug discovery and product design.

Nature Index 30 Jun 2021