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.
Layers of a thin semiconductor material overlap in a particular pattern, giving rise to particle currents carrying a fraction of the charge of an electron — with potential for encoding quantum information.
A test performed on antihydrogen atoms has shown that gravity acts on matter and antimatter in a similar way. The experimental feat is the latest in efforts to probe the crossover between theories of relativity and particle physics.
Air-pollution data from pollution-monitoring stations and satellites show that wildfire smoke has influenced trends in levels of fine particulate matter in nearly three-quarters of the contiguous United States, undoing around 25% of air-quality improvements made between 2000 and 2016. Wildfires are likely to further erode air quality in the country as the climate warms.
Understanding the timeline of technological developments sheds light on early societies. A remarkable finding in Africa of a structure made from shaped wood provides clues about our hominin relatives.
Analysis of a 458-million-year-old fossil fish reveals anatomical insights about the vertebrate skull and how skull organization evolved from that of ancestral early vertebrates to that of jawed vertebrates.
The discovery that the skull has two groups of stem cell that produce similar types of descendant cell has big implications for the field of stem-cell research — and casts light on a developmental disorder that affects many children.
All newborn mammals cry. The neural circuit that stimulates mothers to look after crying offspring has been identified in mice — along with a mechanism that promotes maternal behaviour only after prolonged calls from pups.
T cells that are chronically stimulated in viral infection or cancer enter a dysfunctional state known as T-cell exhaustion. Sympathetic nerves in tissues and tumours drive T-cell exhaustion through the action of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline on the β1-adrenergic receptors of T cells, with implications for cancer treatment.
The natural toxins portimine A and B have attracted interest for their unusual chemical architecture and potent anti-cancer activity. The first total synthesis of portimines enables the identification of portimine A’s molecular target and reveals that the toxin induces programmed cell death in human cancer cells.
Most high-throughput assays to investigate the role of genes in disease involve in vitro cell models. Now a technology that targets CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing to specific cells in mice, and analyses transcriptional effects in single nuclei, has led to fresh insights into the genes involved in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.
A nickel-based compound has shown evidence of a superconducting state at a temperature of 80 kelvin. The material bridges a gap between other nickelates and a notable class of superconductor containing copper.
Scientists have had limited success in converting lignin, a structural component of plants, into high-value products. The discovery that lignin can be used as a wood glue could be a game-changer for biorefineries.
Plants communicate with neighbouring plants to activate an airborne defence against aphids. However, the genetic pathway underlying this defence mechanism is unknown. A signalling cascade centred around the gaseous form of the chemical methyl salicylate was found to control this interaction between plants.
A wide range of harmful bacteria introduce proteins into plant cells. Some of these proteins move to the cell membrane and serve as channels for water and nutrients, creating favourable conditions for bacterial growth beside plant cells.
Tumour cells tend to migrate to the vertebrae rather than to long bones, but the mechanism underlying this has been unclear. It emerges that the stem cells from which vertebrae are derived make a factor that attracts tumour cells.
The obscuration of light from a distant galaxy has raised the possibility that a type of carbon dust existed in the earliest epochs of the Universe — challenging the idea that stars had not yet evolved enough to make such material.
Electrochemical-reaction pathways in lithium–sulfur batteries have been studied in real time at the atomic scale using a high-resolution imaging technique. The observations revealed an unexpected collective charge-transfer process that could lead to improvements in the performance of these batteries.
