Featured
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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
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Correspondence |
Climate policy must integrate blue energy with food security
- Yuyan Gong
- , Liuyue He
- & Jiangning Zeng
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News Feature |
Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat — is climate change making it worse?
Researchers are studying how extreme weather and rising temperatures can encourage the spread of drug-resistant infections.
- Carissa Wong
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Research Highlight |
A bounty of rice comes at a price: soaring methane emissions
The spread of rice paddies in sub-Saharan Africa helps to drive up atmospheric concentrations of a potent greenhouse gas.
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Where I Work |
How badly does climate change affect coral? I dive to find out
By putting on my scuba suit and keeping track of corals in French Polynesia, I hope to determine how much stress they’re under.
- Patricia Maia Noronha
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Nature Video |
Festive parody songs from the Nature Podcast
The Nature Podcast team have rewritten two popular holiday songs in honour of some of the biggest science stories of in 2023.
- Noah Baker
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World View |
How a surge in organized crime threatens the Amazon
The global community needs to break the web of transnational crime networks and corruption threatening one of the world’s largest carbon sinks.
- Bram Ebus
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Obituary |
Saleemul Huq (1952–2023), climate visionary
A relentless climate scientist who was the voice of the voiceless in the global climate fight.
- Achala C. Abeysinghe
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Nature Podcast |
The Nature Podcast festive spectacular 2023
Games, seasonal science songs, and Nature’s 10.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Noah Baker
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News |
Surge in extreme forest fires fuels global emissions
Climate change and human activities have led to more frequent and intense forest blazes over the past two decades.
- Xiaoying You
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Article |
Global population profile of tropical cyclone exposure from 2002 to 2019
A global profile of tropical cyclone population exposure for the period 2002–2019 shows a steady increase, with approximately 560 million people exposed yearly and a disproportionate exposure among those with lower socioeconomic status.
- Renzhi Jing
- , Sam Heft-Neal
- & Zachary Wagner
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Correspondence |
Short-sighted policies are fuelling Brazilian deforestation
- Richard Fuchs
- , Joanna Raymond
- & Mark Rounsevell
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Where I Work |
How I’m protecting Clanwilliam sandfish
Cecilia Cerrilla’s PhD project is to protect a tiny species of fish from predatory bass.
- Jack Leeming
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Research Briefing |
Oceans can capture more carbon dioxide than previously thought
The strength of the biological carbon pump was estimated using direct measurements of nutrients collected over decades. The findings indicate that ocean waters can capture and store larger amounts of carbon dioxide than previously estimated. This might have implications for climate-change models.
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News |
The science events to watch for in 2024
Advanced AI tools, Moon missions and ultrafast supercomputers are among the developments set to shape research in the coming year.
- Miryam Naddaf
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Article
| Open AccessUnequal climate impacts on global values of natural capital
Country-level changes in economic production and the value of non-market ecosystem benefits show unequal impacts on the global values of natural capital resulting from climate-change-induced shifts in terrestrial vegetation cover.
- B. A. Bastien-Olvera
- , M. N. Conte
- & F. C. Moore
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News |
Scientists drilled through 500 metres of Greenland’s ice — here’s what they found at the bottom
Bedrock extracted from beneath the island’s frozen covering offers hints of the ice sheet’s past and future.
- Alexandra Witze
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Outlook |
Water and warfare: the battle to control a precious resource
Climate change could intensify the role of this vital and strategic asset in armed conflict.
- Elie Dolgin
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News Feature |
Nature’s 10: ten people (and one non-human) who helped shape science in 2023
An AI pioneer, an architect of India’s Moon mission and the world’s first global heat officer are some of the people behind this year’s big stories.
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News Feature |
How Earth’s first global heat officer is tackling climate change
Eleni Myrivili is helping the world to prepare for the threats of climate change as the United Nations chief heat officer.
- Alexandra Witze
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Spotlight |
The climate disaster strikes: what the data say
A series of impact assessments highlight India’s vulnerability to extreme weather events and the risks they pose to human health.
- Shannon Hall
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News |
COP28 climate summit signals the end of fossil fuels — but is it enough?
As nations make historic pledge to ‘transition’ energy systems away from fossil fuels — some scientists are disappointed by the softened wording.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News Feature |
Amazon protector: the Brazilian politician who turned the tide on deforestation
As Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva helped to rein in rampant deforestation and rebuild institutions that were weakened by the previous government.
- Meghie Rodrigues
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Correspondence |
Generate verifiable soil carbon credits from croplands
- Peng Fu
- , David Schurman
- & James R. Kellner
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Research Highlight |
Where ‘green ghost’ lightning gets its emerald hue
A range of elements in planetary dust provide the colour for high-altitude natural fireworks.
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News & Views |
From the archive: London fog, and an expedition team to envy
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Editorial |
COP28: the science is clear — fossil fuels must go
Phasing out fossil fuels is not negotiable. World leaders will fail their people and the planet unless they accept this reality.
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Research Highlight |
Earth is warming but Mount Everest is getting chillier
Winds triggered by climate change sweep cold air down from the summit of Mount Everest and other Himalayan peaks, leading to a cooling trend.
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News |
The best science images of 2023 — Nature’s picks
Cosmic dust, microscopic syrup, a flying gecko and more.
- Emma Stoye
- , Nisha Gaind
- & Carissa Wong
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Nature Podcast |
The low carbon cost of alleviating poverty
New modeling study suggests that reducing global poverty does not have to derail decarbonization efforts
- Alex Lathbridge
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Nature Careers Podcast |
Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art
Researchers who are as skilled in the studio as they are in the lab are forced to choose between disciplines.
- Julie Gould
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News |
Eat less meat: will the first global climate deal on food work?
A declaration on reducing the eye-watering emissions from food production is a start, say researchers — but it sidesteps contentious issues in the role of food production in global climate change.
- Carissa Wong
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News |
Catastrophic change looms as Earth nears climate ‘tipping points’, report says
Polar ice, coral reefs and other Earth systems could cross irrevocable thresholds soon, but urgent action could stave off the worst effects.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Research Highlight |
How immense mountains create one of the rainiest places on Earth
The western coast of Colombia can get more than 26 metres of rain a year, thanks to the influence of air jets hitting the Andes range.
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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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News |
India and climate: what does the world’s most populous nation want from COP28?
India wants to be the voice of the global south at the climate conference. It is also massively dependent on coal.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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Article
| Open AccessBiological carbon pump estimate based on multidecadal hydrographic data
By using several decades of hydrographic data and an inverse biogeochemical model that implicitly accounts for all known export pathways, a top-down estimate of the strength of the biological carbon pump is calculated.
- Wei-Lei Wang
- , Weiwei Fu
- & François W. Primeau
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Correspondence |
Nature-based climate solutions: align policy with science
- Trevor F. Keenan
- , Kimberly A. Novick
- & Caroline P. Normile
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Correspondence |
A system-transitions report for the next IPCC assessment cycle
- Carl-Friedrich Schleussner
- , Christopher Trisos
- & Aditi Mukherji
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World View |
Climate researchers need support to become scientist-communicators
Scientific institutions must create roles so that researchers can provide the deep public engagement necessary to respond effectively to the escalating impacts of climate change.
- Daniel Swain
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Editorial |
Combat corporate greenwashing with better science
Companies must be transparent about how they calculate their emissions goals. Researchers must help to clear up doubts about the system.