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Although science affects humankind’s knowledge, its practice has largely been restricted to a small group of people. The advance of citizen science challenges this idea.
A task group recommends values for many constants in fundamental theories of physics and chemistry. Eite Tiesinga and Peter Mohr tell some of the constants’ stories.
Scientists have long preferred the simplest possible explanation of their data. More recently, a worrying trend to favour unnecessarily complex interpretations has taken hold.
The merits of conventional particle accelerators range from fundamental science to applications like radiotherapy. Plasma-based accelerators are getting up to speed and may overtake conventional ones in the near future.
The coexistence of qualitative and quantitative scales characterizes advances in earthquake measurements. Although often confused, intensity and magnitude refer to very different things, as Leonardo Benini explains.
The establishment of a global metric system of units as agreed upon in the Metre Convention relies on international as well as national institutes and organizations, of which Stefanie Reichert gives an overview.
The Guided Open Access pilot we are trialling with five other journals in the Nature Portfolio will continue into 2022. We highlight some of the main lessons we’ve learned so far.
To celebrate the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, James Gallagher tells the story of the British thermal unit, a unit for heat.
