Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Tonnes of microplastics in the air mostly come from roads. Plus, the race for antiviral drugs to beat COVID and what we can learn about leadership from plants.
Authorities in the United States want to stop using the vaccine while links to rare blood clots are investigated. Plus: a virtual-reality system that converts spiderweb vibrations to sound.
Restrictive travel policies could further privilege global-health professionals from high-income countries. Plus: Joe Biden’s plans to increase science funding, and why our brains favour adding over subtraction.
Researchers are starting to delve into possible rare side effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Plus: the month’s best science images and everything you need to know about Plan S.
The benefits of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine still outweigh the risks, but rare side effects are something to be aware of. Plus, the science of sex in sport and a call for clearer rules on science espionage in the US.
It’s fiendishly challenging to prove that an ‘adverse event’ following immunization was caused by the vaccine itself. Plus, hope for Huntington’s disease and how stress might cause hair loss.
Early data suggests Pfizer–BioNTech works and is safe in 12-to-15-year-olds. Plus, a long-awaited muon physics experiment and the WHO report into pandemic origins.
Nowhere left on Earth to view the stars without light pollution from space junk and satellites. Plus, how to make indoors safe again and the US is urged to invest in solar-geoengineering studies.
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine’s rollercoaster ride of a week might be coming to a welcome end. Plus, the first known gene transfer from plant to insect and watch an octopus change colour during active sleep.
Policymakers need insight from humanities and social sciences to tackle the pandemic, argues The British Academy’s Hetan Shah. Plus, the facts about the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID vaccine and ten great environmental books.
The world’s only surviving Stone Age wood carving is even older than previously thought. Plus, electronic skin and the fight against fake-paper factories.
Rare COVID reactions might hold key to variant-proof vaccines. Plus: Biden’s pick for the next head of NASA and carbon emissions from bottom trawling exceed those from air travel.
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.
First measurements reveal the radius of the Martian core. Plus, climate records discovered in Hawaiian-language newspapers and has the COVID-19 pandemic peaked?
The search for COVID vaccines that can be self-administered, fight new variants and survive the heat. Plus, tear-gland organoids that cry and the winners of the Abel Prize.