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News & Views |
Future ice loss captured by historical snapshots
Archival images of glacial ice on a Norwegian archipelago, together with the islands’ climatic diversity, enable application of an innovative method for making long-term projections of ice loss using short-term observations.
- Twila A. Moon
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Article |
Historical glacier change on Svalbard predicts doubling of mass loss by 2100
Historical photographs, modern observations, and a simple space-for-time substitution approach predict that glacier mass loss from Svalbard is poised to double over the twenty-first century.
- Emily C. Geyman
- , Ward J. J. van Pelt
- & Jack Kohler
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Article
| Open AccessGlobal fine-scale changes in ambient NO2 during COVID-19 lockdowns
The satellite instrument TROPOMI is used to assess ambient NO2 levels at approximately one-kilometre resolution across 215 cities worldwide during COVID-19 lockdowns, finding about 30% lower NO2 concentrations in countries with strict lockdowns.
- Matthew J. Cooper
- , Randall V. Martin
- & Chris A. McLinden
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Correspondence |
Countries should boycott Brazil over export-driven deforestation
- Lucas Ferrante
- & Philip M. Fearnside
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Correspondence |
Portugal leads with Europe’s largest marine reserve
- Filipe Alves
- , João G. Monteiro
- & João Canning-Clode
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Correspondence |
Put defence money into planetary emergencies, urge Nobel winners
- Matteo Smerlak
- & Carlo Rovelli
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News |
Tonga volcano eruption created puzzling ripples in Earth’s atmosphere
Powerful waves ringing through the atmosphere after the eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai are unlike anything seen before.
- David Adam
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World View |
Message to mayors: cities need nature
Urban areas must invest in ecosystems, not just in roads, pipes and homes.
- Akanksha Khatri
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News Feature |
The devastating mudslides that follow forest fires
Regions that never used to burn are now suffering from forest fires — and that raises the risks of dangerous mudslides that are hard to forecast.
- Jane Palmer
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News & Views |
Extreme rainfall slows the global economy
Excessive rainfall can cause catastrophic socio-economic losses to a community or nation. An analysis of changes in gross regional product identifies ways in which extreme precipitation affects global economic productivity.
- Xin-Zhong Liang
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Article
| Open AccessAge of the oldest known Homo sapiens from eastern Africa
Geochemical analyses correlating the stratum that overlies the sediments containing the Omo fossils with material from a volcanic eruption suggest that these fossils (the oldest known modern human fossils in eastern Africa) are over 200,000 years old.
- Céline M. Vidal
- , Christine S. Lane
- & Clive Oppenheimer
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Article |
Air pollution exposure disparities across US population and income groups
Different racial/ethnic populations and income groups are found to have been exposed to different levels of air pollution in the USA during the years 2000 to 2016.
- Abdulrahman Jbaily
- , Xiaodan Zhou
- & Francesca Dominici
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Article |
The effect of rainfall changes on economic production
A global assessment shows that increases in the number of wet days and extreme daily rainfall adversely affect economic growth, particularly in high-income nations and via the services and manufacturing sectors.
- Maximilian Kotz
- , Anders Levermann
- & Leonie Wenz
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Correspondence |
Wind power versus wildlife: root mitigation in evidence
- Tim Schmoll
- & Frank M. Schurr
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Correspondence |
Two million species catalogued by 500 experts
- Mark John Costello
- , R. Edward DeWalt
- & Olaf Banki
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Correspondence |
EU Nature Restoration Law needs ambitious and binding targets
- Kris Decleer
- , Jordi Cortina-Segarra
- & Aveliina Helm
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Research Highlight |
Cosmic crash explains a mystery on the Moon
Simulations show how a violent impact long ago might have led to lopsided lunar chemistry.
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News |
Landmark Colombian bird study repeated to right colonial-era wrongs
A re-run of a 100-year-old, US-led bird survey will inform future conservation efforts — but be helmed by local researchers.
- Luke Taylor
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Where I Work |
Pleistocene dreams: recreating ancient grasslands to save the planet
Sergey Zimov is rewilding a remote part of northeastern Siberia to help fight climate change.
- Olga Dobrovidova
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News |
Landmark Webb observatory is now officially a telescope
The observatory has flawlessly unfurled its mirrors and sunshield — although more steps are needed before the science can begin.
- Alexandra Witze
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Research Highlight |
The tricky ‘hotspot’ volcanoes that belie the name
Seismic waves reveal unexpectedly cool temperatures for certain volcanoes classified as hot.
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Editorial |
How researchers can help fight climate change in 2022 and beyond
COP26 energized the global effort to halt global warming. Research is now crucial to monitoring progress and creating solutions.
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Research Briefing |
The magnetic field of a molecular cloud revealed
A combination of standard and new observational techniques has been used to detect the magnetic field of a molecular cloud — a region of the interstellar medium that collapses during star formation. The results suggest that such clouds are primed for collapse earlier than was typically assumed.
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Article
| Open AccessDepressed 660-km discontinuity caused by akimotoite–bridgmanite transition
X-ray diffraction experiments indicate that the depression of the Earth’s 660-kilometre seismic discontinuity beneath cold subduction zones is caused by a phase transition from akimotoite to bridgmanite, leading to slab stagnation.
- Artem Chanyshev
- , Takayuki Ishii
- & Tomoo Katsura
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Correspondence |
Push for ethical practices in geoscience fieldwork
- Giuseppe Di Capua
- , Martin Bohle
- & Simon Schneider
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Research Highlight |
Rivers buffer a vast sea against climate-change impacts
As global temperatures rise, parts of the Gulf of Mexico are undergoing less acidification than expected — for now.
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World View |
Molecular biologists: let’s reconnect with nature
A New Year’s resolution for bench scientists is to step out of the lab to study how life really works.
- Edith Heard
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Nature Podcast |
Our podcast highlights of 2021
The Nature Podcast team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months.
- Shamini Bundell
- , Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News |
Webb telescope blasts off successfully — launching a new era in astronomy
Hundreds of engineering steps must now take place as the observatory unfurls and travels to its new home.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Q&A |
Mars mission is China’s ‘first step’ in planetary exploration
Nature talks to Zhang Rongqiao, architect of the China National Space Administration’s Tianwen-1 mission, which landed the Zhurong rover on Mars.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Nature Podcast |
The Nature Podcast annual holiday spectacular
Games, seasonal science songs, and Nature’s 10.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Noah Baker
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News Round-Up |
Imperilled glacier, COVID immunity and ‘touching’ the Sun
The latest science news, in brief.
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Article |
Single-year radiocarbon dating anchors Viking Age trade cycles in time
Disturbances in the radiocarbon record anchor a precisely dated archaeological stratigraphy of a medieval trading emporium in Denmark in time, revealing that the Viking expansion was associated with competition for trade routes rather than with raids.
- Bente Philippsen
- , Claus Feveile
- & Søren M. Sindbæk
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Article
| Open AccessRapid microbial methanogenesis during CO2 storage in hydrocarbon reservoirs
Microbial methanogenesis converts up to 19% of the carbon dioxide injected into an oil field to methane, suggesting that microbial methanogenesis may be a globally important subsurface process.
- R. L. Tyne
- , P. H. Barry
- & C. J. Ballentine
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Article |
Non-syntrophic methanogenic hydrocarbon degradation by an archaeal species
‘Candidatus Methanoliparum’ overexpresses genes encoding alkyl-coenzyme M and methyl-coenzyme M reductases—markers of archaeal multicarbon alkane and methane metabolism—and thrives on a variety of long-chain alkanes and n-alkylcyclohexanes, and n-alkylbenzenes with long n-alkyl (C≥13) moieties.
- Zhuo Zhou
- , Cui-jing Zhang
- & Lei Cheng
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Correspondence |
Half measures in One Health fail people and the environment
- Andrew Peters
- & Carlos das Neves
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Editorial |
Sustainability at the crossroads
A look back at 2021 through the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Article
| Open AccessOstrich eggshell beads reveal 50,000-year-old social network in Africa
By tracing the changing size of ostrich eggshell beads, climate is shown to have an important role in influencing when and where regional African populations interacted.
- Jennifer M. Miller
- & Yiming V. Wang
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Nature Video |
Pluto’s mysterious polygons explained
Surface patterns seen by New Horizons mission are driven by sublimation.
- Shamini Bundell
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Where I Work |
A partridge in hand on the Spanish steppe
As part of his PhD research into the effects of farming and hunting on endangered bird populations in Spain, Xabier Cabodevilla tracked birds and collected faecal samples from roosting sites.
- Jack Leeming
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News & Views |
Gravity, AlphaFold and neural interfaces: a year of remarkable science
Highlights from News & Views published this year.
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News |
The science events to watch for in 2022
Omicron, Moon missions and particle physics are among the themes set to shape research in the coming year.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
What Biden’s $2-trillion spending bill could mean for climate change
Research models shed light on how the Build Back Better bill might reshape the US energy landscape.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Article |
Deep-mantle krypton reveals Earth’s early accretion of carbonaceous matter
The krypton isotopic pattern of Earth’s deep mantle indicates that volatile-rich material from the outer Solar System was delivered early in Earth’s accretion history.
- Sandrine Péron
- , Sujoy Mukhopadhyay
- & David W. Graham
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Article |
A large West Antarctic Ice Sheet explains early Neogene sea-level amplitude
Variations in Miocene sea level can be explained by a large marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
- J. W. Marschalek
- , L. Zurli
- & Zhifang Xiong
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Nature Podcast |
Pluto's strange ice patterns explained by new theory
An explanation for giant ice structures on Pluto, and dismantling the mestizo myth in Latin American genetics.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Article |
Uncovering global-scale risks from commercial chemicals in air
A new framework is proposed for assessing the risks of the atmospheric transformation products of commercial chemicals, combining laboratory and field experiments, advanced techniques for screening suspect chemicals, and in silico modelling.
- Qifan Liu
- , Li Li
- & John Liggio
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Perspective |
Biogeochemical extremes and compound events in the ocean
High-temperature, high-acidity and low-oxygen extremes may pose a particular threat to marine ecosystems, requiring a major effort to understand them and the ability of marine life to respond to them.
- Nicolas Gruber
- , Philip W. Boyd
- & Meike Vogt
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Article |
Sublimation-driven convection in Sputnik Planitia on Pluto
A modelling study describing the formation of the polygonal surface structures in Sputnik Planitia on Pluto shows that convection driven by ice sublimation can generate planetary-scale surface patterns.
- Adrien Morison
- , Stéphane Labrosse
- & Gaël Choblet