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Health-care workers in sub-Saharan Africa continue to work without the protection of COVID vaccines. Plus, million-year-old Mammoth DNA is the oldest ever sequenced and a three-device quantum network.
European Space Agency seeks parastronauts, real-world evidence for COVID vaccine safety and thunderstorm gamma rays could solve the mystery of lightning.
Fierce competition between nineteenth century astronomers has inspired our fascination with the red planet over the years. Plus: why scientists think the virus that causes COVID-19 is here to stay.
Sponges and other animals spotted after drilling through 900 metres of ice. Plus, how ‘killer’ T cells could fight new COVID variants and a call to sequence three million genomes across Africa.
Celebrate 20 years since the publication of the first drafts of the human genome. Plus, Neanderthal-like ‘mini-brains’ created in the laboratory with CRISPR, and Stonehenge was erected in Wales first.
Rogue CFC emissions have halted after scientists raised the alarm. Plus, a WHO team’s visit to China has left some questions unanswered and prozac pollution can zombify fish.
The broken promise that undermines human genome research. Plus, China and UAE missions have both successfully reached Mars, and we are flushing away valuable phosphorus.
Collaborative online games to help with social-distancing blues. Plus, hundreds of ‘predatory’ journals indexed on Scopus and a call to invest now in variant-proof vaccines.
Mysterious einsteinium sheds light on the transplutonium elements, testing the benefits of mixing COVID vaccines and early evidence that coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 increases the risk of dying.
Hundreds of scientists are urging that SARS-CoV-2 genome data should be shared more openly. Plus, the long road to long-read assembly, and an algorithm that creates tough new maths problems for humans to solve.
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s much-maligned data rule is no more. Plus, explore the gut–brain axis and consider the pandemic’s impact on mental health.
Russian vaccine has 91.6% efficacy in phase III trials, why researchers should learn to love the command line and how one university is protecting its town from the pandemic.
The challenges of studying psychiatric psychedelics, how to support assistance dogs in the lab, and the question on online courses that continue after the lecturer has died.
The technologies to watch in 2021, the strongest challenge yet to the claim of life on Venus and the first evidence that COVID vaccines protect against variants.
Scientists welcome the US’s science-based plan, but see a tough road ahead. Plus, reminisce with Operation Warp Speed’s Moncef Slaoui and consider a different perspective on satellite images.
Germany’s Christian Drosten on everything from new virus variants to staying off Twitter. Plus, Nature Electronics’s 2021 technology of the year and an ambitious project to map cancer vulnerabilities.
Most citations of discredited Surgisphere research fail to mention retractions. Plus, why the world’s pandemic warning system failed when COVID hit and how uncertainty can sharpen our thinking.