News & Views |
Featured
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News |
Deepfakes, trolls and cybertroopers: how social media could sway elections in 2024
Faced with data restrictions and harassment, researchers are mapping out fresh approaches to studying social media’s political reach.
- Heidi Ledford
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Editorial |
Research funders must join the fight for equal access to medicines
Pandemic treaty is a rare opportunity to ensure pandemic-related technologies are accessible and affordable to all.
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Career Feature |
How co-working labs reduce costs and accelerate progress for biotech start-ups
Shared lab spaces provide a streamlined launchpad, offering benches as well as a diverse network of industry mentors.
- Rachel Brazil
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Nature Careers Podcast |
Why we should think about more than cash when seeking to eradicate poverty
Catherine Thomas’s research explores different approaches to alleviating poverty, including cash transfers and psychosocial programs.
- Dom Byrne
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News |
Canada’s oil sands spew massive amounts of unmonitored polluting gases
Innovative aircraft-based technique records carbon emissions not tracked before from the industrial region.
- Nicola Jones
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News |
Two-faced AI language models learn to hide deception
‘Sleeper agents’ seem benign during testing but behave differently once deployed. And methods to stop them aren’t working.
- Matthew Hutson
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Comment |
To curb plastic pollution, industry and academia must unite
Collaboration is key to making plastic use greener as soon as possible. Our experience yields tips on how to set up industry–academic partnerships.
- Collin P. Ward
- , Christopher M. Reddy
- & Steven T. Perri
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News |
This robot grows like a vine — and could help navigate disaster zones
Plant-inspired machines could one day prove useful in search-and-rescue scenarios.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Medical AI could be ‘dangerous’ for poorer nations, WHO warns
The rapid growth of generative AI in health care has prompted the agency to set out guidelines for ethical use.
- David Adam
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News & Views |
From the archive: the royal ‘we’, and an experiment in telegraphy
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
A 2D route to 3D computer chips
Ultrathin materials have long been touted as a solution to the problems faced by the ever-growing semiconductor industry. Evidence that 3D chips can be built from 2D semiconductors suggests that the hype was justified.
- Tania Roy
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News |
Mission failure feared for private US Moon lander — what’s next?
Astrobotic, the firm that launched the Peregrine spacecraft, says it will learn from any missteps and look ahead to its next attempt.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Private US Moon mission launches — will it open a new era for science?
Astrobotic could be the first commercial firm to successfully deliver research equipment to the lunar surface, if it sticks the landing.
- Alexandra Witze
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Comment |
Impacts for half of the world’s mining areas are undocumented
As the race to extract minerals and metals for clean-energy technologies accelerates, researchers must take more steps to map and study mines globally.
- Victor Maus
- & Tim T. Werner
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News Feature |
The AI–quantum computing mash-up: will it revolutionize science?
Scientists are exploring the potential of quantum machine learning. But whether there are useful applications for the fusion of artificial intelligence and quantum computing is unclear.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Career Column |
How an AI-powered lion became a teaching tool
The mascot for King’s College London helped Andrés Gvirtz to teach a class, with a little help from generative artificial intelligence.
- Andrés Gvirtz
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News |
Will superintelligent AI sneak up on us? New study offers reassurance
Improvements in the performance of large language models such as ChatGPT are more predictable than they seem.
- Matthew Hutson
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Nature Index |
How research managers are using AI to get ahead
For those at the interface of funding organizations and the scientific community, platforms such as ChatGPT can tackle menial tasks and free up time for relationship-building work such as coaching and mentoring.
- Linda Nordling
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News & Views |
Contact-tracing app predicts risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
The risk of catching COVID-19 as calculated by a smartphone app scales with the probability of subsequently testing positive for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, showing that digital contact tracing is a useful tool for fighting future pandemics.
- Justus Benzler
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News |
Polar bear fur-inspired sweater is thinner than a down jacket — and just as warm
The synthetic fibre is an aerogel coated with polyurethane and is flexible, washable and wearable.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
AI consciousness: scientists say we urgently need answers
Researchers call for more funding to study the boundary between conscious and unconscious systems.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News & Views Forum |
2D materials ratchet up biorealism in computing
A transistor made from atomically thin materials mimics the way in which connections between neurons are strengthened by activity. Two perspectives reveal why physicists and neuroscientists share equal enthusiasm for this feat of engineering.
- Frank H. L. Koppens
- , James B. Aimone
- & Frances S. Chance
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News |
Scientists question cancer tests that use microscopic nematode worms
Some doctors say a troublingly high number of cancer-free people have tested positive on the tests sold by a Japanese start-up.
- David McNeill
- & Momoko Suda
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Spotlight |
India struggles to turn science into societal benefits
Entrepreneurial researchers can find solutions for Indian problems, but the lack of a spin-off culture means the country loses out.
- David Adam
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Career Feature |
If you want something done right, do it yourself: the scientists who build their own tools
Three researchers who went out on a limb to bridge a gap in their field talk to Nature about how and why they went about designing their own, unique devices — and the challenges involved.
- Rachael Pells
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Nature Podcast |
Cat parasite Toxoplasma tricked to grow in a dish
Cat-only life-cycle stage cultured in vitro, and the mysterious giant proteins that might turn bacteria into killers.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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News Feature |
OpenAI’s chief scientist helped to create ChatGPT — while worrying about AI safety
Ilya Sutskever has played a key part in developing the conversational AI systems that are starting to change society.
- Nicola Jones
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Correspondence |
Generate verifiable soil carbon credits from croplands
- Peng Fu
- , David Schurman
- & James R. Kellner
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Book Review |
What the Ottomans did for science — and science did for the Ottomans
A hundred years after the birth of modern Turkey, a monumental research project is uncovering the untold story of science and technology during six centuries of the Ottoman Empire.
- Ehsan Masood
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Outlook |
This cyborg cockroach could be the future of earthquake search and rescue
From drivable bionic animals to machines made from muscle, biohybrid robots are on their way to a variety of uses.
- Liam Drew
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Nature Podcast |
The world’s smallest light-trapping silicon cavity
Researchers exploit intermolecular forces to carve a nanoscale hole, and investigating whether poverty can be reduced without increasing emissions.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Comment |
Generative AI could revolutionize health care — but not if control is ceded to big tech
Large language models such as that used by ChatGPT could soon become essential tools for diagnosing and treating patients. To protect people’s privacy and safety, medical professionals, not commercial interests, must drive their development and deployment.
- Augustin Toma
- , Senthujan Senkaiahliyan
- & Bo Wang
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Comment |
ChatGPT one year on: who is using it, how and why?
In just a year, ChatGPT has permeated scientific research. Seven scientists reveal what they have learnt about how the chatbot should — and shouldn’t — be used.
- Marzyeh Ghassemi
- , Abeba Birhane
- & Francisco Tustumi
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News |
How does it feel to have an octopus arm? This robo-tentacle lets people find out
Mimicking the snatch and grab of an octopus snaring its prey required a new way of thinking about robotics.
- Bianca Nogrady
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News Feature |
A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy?
Firms commercializing perovskite–silicon ‘tandem’ photovoltaics say that the panels will be more efficient and could lead to cheaper electricity.
- Mark Peplow
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News |
‘My collaborations would see me jailed’: Australian researchers fear proposed new laws
Under the proposal, technology with potential military use would need authorization to be shared with non-Australian colleagues.
- Bianca Nogrady
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News Explainer |
What the OpenAI drama means for AI progress — and safety
A debacle at the company that built ChatGPT highlights concern that commercial forces are acting against the responsible development of artificial-intelligence systems.
- Nicola Jones
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News & Views |
From the archive: a juice extractor in an insect’s gut, and amateur radio telephony
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
SpaceX Starship launch ends in explosion — what’s next for the mega-rocket?
The craft travelled into space for the first time, before it self-destructed for unknown reasons.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
‘Electrocaloric’ heat pump could transform air conditioning
Heat pumps are ubiquitous in the form of air conditioners. Scientists just invented one that avoids harmful refrigerant gases.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Career Q&A |
How my MBA helps me keep my donor-funded research centre afloat
Medicinal chemist Susan Winks shares how she keeps money flowing at the drug-discovery centre she helps to manage.
- Sarah Wild
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Nature Podcast |
Dust: the tiny substance with enormous power
Jay Owens joins us to talk about her book Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles.
- Benjamin Thompson
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Nature Index |
Hypotheses devised by AI could find ‘blind spots’ in research
Artificial intelligence is asking questions that humans hope to answer.
- Matthew Hutson
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Nature Video |
The 3D printer that crafts complex robotic organs in a single run
Combining machine vision with contactless error correction allows for even more advanced multi-material printing.
- Dan Fox
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Nature Podcast |
How to 3D print fully formed robots
Printing multi-material objects in a single run, and the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions for preventing type 2 diabetes.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Career Column |
Why postdoctoral training needs a stronger focus on innovation
Innovation straddles policy, change management, budgeting, negotiating and influencing skills. Researchers need all these and more, says David Bogle.
- David Bogle