Comment in 2017

Nature’s commentators analysed artificial intelligence, blockchain, fraud, guns and more.

Create an artificial-intelligence platform for the planet, urges Lucas N. Joppa.

Adapt to how data are made and used, urge Øystein Hov and colleagues.

Immunizations combined with antibiotics could be our best shot at combating drug-resistant microbes, argue Rino Rappuoli, David E. Bloom and Steve Black.

Decades of experience must inform future initiatives, urge Gabriel Chan and colleagues.

Artificial intelligence can speed up research into new photovoltaic, battery and carbon-capture materials, argue Edward Sargent, Alán Aspuru-Guzikand colleagues.

As debate rumbles on about how and how much poor statistics is to blame for poor reproducibility, Nature asked influential statisticians to recommend one change to improve science. The common theme? The problem is not our maths, but ourselves.

Consumer pressure could encourage regions to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of electricity, argues Christopher Kennedy.

Learning more about how pollutants enter and damage the body would reduce disease and deaths, say Jos Lelieveld and Ulrich Pöschl.

As new ways emerge to assess research, Alex Csiszar recalls how the first one transformed the practice and place of science in society.

Artificial intelligence and brain–computer interfaces must respect and preserve people's privacy, identity, agency and equality, say Rafael Yuste, Sara Goering and colleagues.

Putting a value on emissions can lower energy use, write Kenneth Gillingham, Stefano Carattini and Daniel Esty.

Thomas R. Insel's biggest lesson from his shift from NIMH director to Silicon Valley entrepreneur: academic and technology company researchers should partner up.

Chemists should thrash out discrepancies in modelling, synthesizing and applying porous materials, urge Aaron W. Peters, Ashlee J. Howarth and Omar K. Farha.

Put research goals first when prioritizing and managing national and international projects, urge Ji Wu and Roger Bonnet.

As an ambitious project to map all the cells in the human body gets officially under way, Aviv Regev, Sarah Teichmann and colleagues outline some key challenges.

Ian Goldin calls on scientists to help society to weather the disruptive transformations afoot.

As artificial intelligence puts many out of work, we must forge new economic, social and educational systems, argues Yuval Noah Harari.

Global comparisons of previous social and economic upheavals suggest that what is to come depends on where you are now, argues Robert C. Allen.

Eric D. Green, Edward M. Rubin and Maynard V. Olson speculate on the next forty years of the applications, from policing to data storage.