Featured
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News |
Trump versus Biden: what the rematch could mean for three key science issues
Depending on the winner of November’s election, researchers anticipate two completely different paths ahead for the environment, public health and more.
- Jeff Tollefson
- , Natasha Gilbert
- & Mariana Lenharo
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Nature Podcast |
These tiny fish combine electric pulses to probe the environment
Elephantnose fish share electric pulses to extend their senses, and the bumblebees that show a uniquely human trait.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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World View |
Megafires are here to stay — and blaming only climate change won’t help
It’s not just global warming that’s driving the growth in destructive wildfires. Better land management is the first step to mitigating the risks.
- Renata Libonati
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News Feature |
How five crucial elections in 2024 could shape climate action for decades
Some of the world’s biggest carbon emitters are going to the polls this year — the results could determine whether humanity can correct its trajectory of dangerous global warming.
- Smriti Mallapaty
- , Jeff Tollefson
- & Nisha Gaind
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Research Highlight |
Why sunsets were a weird colour after Krakatau blew its top
Evening skies, which are usually red after a volcanic eruption, were instead emerald after the 1883 event.
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News |
This methane-sniffing satellite will leave climate polluters nowhere to hide
Set to launch as early as next week, MethaneSAT will partner with Google to map leaks from the oil and gas industry and beyond.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Career Q&A |
I returned my neuroscience grant to devote my career to the climate crisis
US psychologist Adam Aron says it’s time to act to alleviate the devastating consequences of the planet’s current trajectory.
- Christina Szalinski
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News |
Buried microplastics complicate efforts to define the Anthropocene
Plastic particles in sediments could help to pin down the start of a new geological epoch. But their ability to migrate to older layers is muddying the waters.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Editorial |
Science can drive development and unity in Africa — as it does in the US and Europe
A plan to establish Africa’s first continent-wide science fund should not be delayed any longer.
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News Feature |
Scientists under arrest: the researchers taking action over climate change
Fed up with a lack of political progress in solving the climate problem, some researchers are becoming activists to slow global warming.
- Daniel Grossman
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Article
| Open AccessProgressive unanchoring of Antarctic ice shelves since 1973
Pinning-point changes over three epochs spanning the periods 1973–1989, 1989–2000 and 2000−2022 were measured, and by proxy the changes to ice-shelf thickness back to 1973–1989 were inferred.
- Bertie W. J. Miles
- & Robert G. Bingham
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Book Review |
Greener cities: a necessity or a luxury?
Are urban trees and parks essential to improving the environment and human health — or just a sop to middle-class ideals of gentrification? Two books debate these opposing views.
- Timon McPhearson
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News |
Why is Latin America on fire? It’s not just climate change, scientists say
Rampant planting of flammable non-native species has helped to fuel deadly blazes — even in places known for cool, damp weather.
- Andrew J. Wight
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Analysis
| Open AccessCritical transitions in the Amazon forest system
Analyses of drivers of water stress are used to predict likely trajectories of the Amazon forest system and suggests potential actions that could prevent system collapse.
- Bernardo M. Flores
- , Encarni Montoya
- & Marina Hirota
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Correspondence |
Deep-sea mining opponents: there’s no free lunch when it comes to clean energy
- Saleem H. Ali
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Correspondence |
Replace Norway as co-chair of High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy
- Diva J. Amon
- , Douglas J. McCauley
- & Henrik Österblom
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Editorial |
EU climate policy is dangerously reliant on untested carbon-capture technology
Europe’s ambition for emissions reductions is to be welcomed — but look at the detail, and significant hazards emerge.
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News |
Climatologist Michael Mann wins defamation case: what it means for scientists
Jury awards Mann more than US$1 million — raising hopes for scientists who are attacked politically because of their work.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Article |
Elevated Southern Hemisphere moisture availability during glacial periods
Contrary to expectations from pollen and dust records, Southern Hemisphere subtropical regions experienced the greatest climatic moisture during glacial periods of the Late Pleistocene, which may not have been an obstacle to movement and expansion of animals and plants.
- Rieneke Weij
- , J. M. Kale Sniderman
- & Jay Gordon
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Nature Podcast |
Cancer’s power harnessed — lymphoma mutations supercharge T cells
Genetic changes that help tumour cells thrive can be co-opted to improve immunotherapy’s effectiveness, and looking at the electric vehicle batteries of the future.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News |
EU unveils controversial climate target: what scientists think
The goal leans heavily on the largely unproven approach of carbon removal, concerning researchers.
- Katharine Sanderson
- & Carissa Wong
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News |
The world has warmed 1.5 °C, according to 300-year-old sponges
By the time that official temperature records began, global temperatures had already risen by half a degree.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Nature Careers Podcast |
‘Blue foods’ to tackle hidden hunger and improve nutrition
Aquatic foods have been overlooked in moves to end food insecurity. That needs to change, says Christopher Golden.
- Dom Byrne
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Research Highlight |
A glacier’s ‘memory’ is fading because of climate change
The environmental record preserved in ice high atop a Swiss mountain has been partially lost.
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News |
How do otters protect salt marshes from erosion? Shellfishly
Sea otters inadvertently protect the vegetation that binds sandy shorelines together.
- Jude Coleman
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News |
Brazil’s deforestation ‘police’ on strike — threatening climate goals
Environmental workers in the government have stopped field operations, and might halt work altogether.
- Meghie Rodrigues
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Correspondence |
Brazil must reverse gear on Amazon road development
- Lucas Ferrante
- & C. Guilherme Becker
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News Feature |
A giant fund for climate disasters will soon open. Who should be paid first?
More than three billion people stand to benefit from a historic climate loss-and-damage fund. But spending it involves agonizing choices about who has suffered most.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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News |
First aircraft to fly on Mars dies — but leaves a legacy of science
The record-setting Mars helicopter Ingenuity broke during a final, fatal flight.
- Alexandra Witze
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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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Nature Podcast |
Toxic red mud could be turned into ‘green’ steel
Researchers extract useful metal from industrial waste, and how analysis of blood proteins could help unravel the mystery of long COVID.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Correspondence |
Resolve climate-policy uncertainties in the US and China
- Dayong Zhang
- , Kun Guo
- & Qiang Ji
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World View |
Coping with climate change could be a matter of what building you’re in
Extreme heat and cold brought on by climate change put people at risk. Beefing up building codes now could help to save lives.
- Meredydd Evans
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Research Briefing |
Greenland’s glaciers are retreating everywhere and all at once
A comprehensive analysis of satellite data finds that the Greenland ice sheet has lost more ice in the past four decades than previously thought. Moreover, the glaciers that are the most sensitive to seasonal temperature swings will probably retreat the most in response to future global warming.
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News |
Could giant underwater curtains slow ice-sheet melting?
The curtains would separate polar ice sheets from warm ocean waters — but like other geoengineering proposals, the idea divides scientists.
- Xiaoying You
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Article |
Ubiquitous acceleration in Greenland Ice Sheet calving from 1985 to 2022
Analysis of more than 236,000 observations of glacier terminus positions shows that accelerated calving reduced the ice area of Greenland by about 5,000 km2 since 1985, producing over 1,000 Gt of freshwater that could influence ocean salinity and circulation.
- Chad A. Greene
- , Alex S. Gardner
- & Joshua K. Cuzzone
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Research Briefing |
Predator die-off reshapes ecosystems in expected and unexpected ways
Mass-mortality events of predators are becoming more common, but their precise effects on food webs remain unclear. Experimentally induced predator die-offs led both to reduced predation and to fertilization from the bottom up. Together, these effects stabilized food webs.
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News |
Piracy at sea is waning — but hotspots remain
A greater understanding of pirate attacks can help to inform the development of countermeasures.
- Freda Kreier
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Nature Podcast |
This AI just figured out geometry — is this a step towards artificial reasoning?
How ‘AlphaGeometry’ solves Mathematical Olympiad-level problems, and what happens to an ecosystem after a mass predator die-off.
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Correspondence |
Safeguard Amazon’s aquatic fauna against climate change
- Miriam Marmontel
- , Ayan Fleischmann
- & Bruce Forsberg
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Editorial |
Norway’s approval of sea-bed mining undermines efforts to protect the ocean
The decision to permit exploratory deep-sea extraction of valuable minerals breaks a promise to the other nations on the Ocean Panel and to scientists.
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News |
Largest genetic database of marine microbes could aid drug discovery
A trove of more than 300 million gene groups from ocean bacteria, fungi and viruses has been made freely available online.
- Carissa Wong
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News |
Can foreign coral save a dying reef? Radical idea sparks debate
Devastation brought on by climate change and other threats prompts a last-resort proposal to rescue Caribbean corals.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
Earth boiled in 2023 — will it happen again in 2024?
With last year now officially the hottest on record, climate researchers look ahead with trepidation.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Oceans break heat records five years in a row
The heat stored in the world’s oceans increased by the greatest margin ever in 2023.
- Xiaoying You
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News & Views |
Snow loss pinned to human-induced emissions
Analysis of a large, varied data set reveals that snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has undergone marked changes in the past four decades. Evidence that humans caused the shift suggests that snow loss will accelerate in the future.
- Jouni Pulliainen
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News |
First approval for controversial sea-bed mining worries scientists
Researchers say the Norwegian government ignored warnings of potential ecosystem harm.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Article
| Open AccessEvidence of human influence on Northern Hemisphere snow loss
Snowpack reconstructions for major river basins in the Northern Hemisphere reveal that the snowpack has declined in almost half of the basins, with roughly one-third of the declines attributable to human-induced warming.
- Alexander R. Gottlieb
- & Justin S. Mankin
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Article
| Open AccessThe demise of the giant ape Gigantopithecus blacki
A multiproxy record of Gigantopithecus blacki provides insights into the ecological context of this species, which became extinct around 250,000 years ago, when increased seasonality led to a change in forest cover.
- Yingqi Zhang
- , Kira E. Westaway
- & Renaud Joannes-Boyau