Featured
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News Feature |
Is a boost to height a boost to health? Dwarfism therapies spark controversy
Emerging treatments for achondroplasia pose difficult choices for parents. Proponents say they are changing lives. Others fear they will feed stigma and erase identity.
- Cassandra Willyard
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Correspondence |
WHO: a global boost for evidence-based traditional medicine
- Bhushan Patwardhan
- , L. Susan Wieland
- & Shyama Kuruvilla
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News |
WHO’s first traditional medicine summit splits opinions
The World Health Organization says the world-first summit will take an evidence-based approach — some are sceptical that much progress will be made.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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Outlook |
In search of a vaccine for leishmaniasis
Researchers hope that immunization will provide much needed protection against the neglected parasitic disease in conflict zones.
- Anthony King
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News |
Can the world really stop wild polio by the end of 2023?
Given that global efforts to eradicate the poliovirus were recently described as unsuccessful, how are Afghanistan and Pakistan now on the verge of eliminating it?
- Clare Watson
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Nature Podcast |
Racism in health: the roots of the US Black maternal mortality crisis
Reproductive health-care is fraught with racism. In this podcast, we explore how.
- Tulika Bose
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News |
Key alert system for disease outbreaks is in crisis — can it be saved?
ProMED staff members look for rescue options, after going on strike and calling for new leadership and financing.
- Max Kozlov
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News Feature |
How a controversial US drug policy could be harming cancer patients worldwide
The FDA’s accelerated-approval process was designed to help people access life-saving drugs. But gaps in communication could mean that people are undergoing treatments known to be ineffective.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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Correspondence |
Control side effects of the psychedelic renaissance
- Christoph Bublitz
- , Nicolas Langlitz
- & Dimitris Repantis
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Arts Review |
Dr Semmelweis review: Mark Rylance play shows how hand washing saved hundreds of lives
Professional pride and personal tragedy stymied ideas about how infections spread in the nineteenth century, suggests a show about maverick Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis.
- Georgina Ferry
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Clinical Briefing |
Tight budgets lead to fewer language-diverse participants in academic than industry trials
Individuals with limited English proficiency were less likely to participate in, and sign consent documents in their primary language for, clinical trials led by academia than those led by industry. This retrospective analysis shows that inadequate funding for translation is a barrier to equitable trial enrolment and appropriate informed consent in academic trials.
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Article |
Consent document translation expense hinders inclusive clinical trial enrolment
The availability of translated consent documents improves recruitment of patients with limited English proficiency to clinical trials, indicating a potentially modifiable barrier to the inclusion of patients with limited English proficiency.
- Maria A. Velez
- , Beth A. Glenn
- & Edward B. Garon
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News |
NIH launches trials for long COVID treatments: what scientists think
World’s largest study of long COVID will evaluate potential therapies for brain fog, sleep disruption and more.
- Max Kozlov
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Nature Index |
Critics wary over plans to fast-track UK drug-approval model
The UK regulator’s proposal to piggyback on other countries’ decisions might lead to an over-reliance on their systems.
- Nic Fleming
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News |
Dengue is breaking records in the Americas — what’s behind the surge?
Increasing temperatures contribute to longer dengue seasons, and could drive the geographical expansion of the disease.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Article |
Sub-1.4 cm3 capsule for detecting labile inflammatory biomarkers in situ
A biosensor comprising bacteria engineered to respond to transient inflammatory signals has been packaged with electronic readout and transmission circuits in a small device that could be swallowed to monitor gastrointestinal health.
- M. E. Inda-Webb
- , M. Jimenez
- & T. K. Lu
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World View |
Saving tens of millions of children a year from the effects of lead poisoning is a surprisingly solvable problem
Funding to help nations eliminate lead paint and other sources of exposure would avert millions of deaths and one trillion dollars a year in income loss.
- Nafisatou Cissé
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Career Feature |
All through the night: sleep-deprived scientists share their stories
Nature’s investigation into the sleep of scientists drew a range of responses from our audience.
- Nikki Forrester
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Nature Podcast |
Disrupting snail food-chain curbs parasitic disease in Senegal
Intervention against schistosomiasis also shows agricultural and economic benefits, and the successful launch of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
A sustainable way to control the parasitic disease schistosomiasis
A trial in Senegal has tested an innovative method for tackling a common human parasitic disease. The approach reduced infection numbers and also offered agricultural and economic benefits.
- Nathan C. Lo
- & Benjamin Arnold
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Clinical Briefing |
A framework for identifying targets for individualized therapy in genetic disease
Researchers have developed a system to classify genetic mutations that could be addressed by therapeutic interventions that use ‘splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides’. This framework identified multiple eligible mutations among 235 people with the genetic disorder ataxia–telangiectasia. An oligonucleotide that was specific to one of these mutations was advanced to a proof-of-concept individualized trial.
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Article
| Open AccessLarge language models encode clinical knowledge
Med-PaLM, a state-of-the-art large language model for medicine, is introduced and evaluated across several medical question answering tasks, demonstrating the promise of these models in this domain.
- Karan Singhal
- , Shekoofeh Azizi
- & Vivek Natarajan
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Article |
A planetary health innovation for disease, food and water challenges in Africa
By harvesting aquatic vegetation that provides habitat for snails that harbour Schistosoma parasites and converting it to compost and animal feed, a trial reduced schistosomiasis prevalence in children while providing wider economic benefits.
- Jason R. Rohr
- , Alexandra Sack
- & Caitlin Wolfe
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News & Views |
From the archive: infant mortality, and a guidebook about fossils
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Editorial |
The best medicine for improving global health? Reduce inequality
The COVID pandemic knocked back progress towards improving public health. Without addressing the underlying social and economic causes of ill health, it could completely stall.
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News Feature |
What does ‘brain dead’ really mean? The battle over how science defines the end of life
Ideological differences threaten to muddy the definition of death in the United States — with potentially negative consequences for clinicians and people awaiting organ transplants.
- Max Kozlov
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Career Q&A |
How building a phage directory can mean life or death for patients
Jessica Sacher works to develop tools for phage therapy, with the aim of overcoming antimicrobial resistance.
- Andy Tay
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Editorial |
Hunger and famine are not accidents — they are created by the actions of people
Hundreds of millions of people are going hungry as conflicts affect food supplies. There is also growing evidence that food producers are exploiting the situation to increase their profits.
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News Feature |
Lab-grown meat: the science of turning cells into steaks and nuggets
Companies making cultured meat are attracting billions of dollars of investment. Here are their biggest challenges.
- Nicola Jones
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News Feature |
Fungi bacon and insect burgers: a guide to the proteins of the future
Humanity needs to eat less meat. Here are seven alternatives.
- Nicola Jones
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Comment |
COVID-19 digital contact tracing worked — heed the lessons for future pandemics
For all the controversy over decentralized contact-tracing apps, data show that these privacy-preserving tools saved thousands of lives during the pandemic. National and international authorities must invest in the technology now.
- Marcel Salathé
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News |
New COVID jabs are coming — who should get them?
Countries rolling out updated vaccines weigh up whether to restrict them to high-risk individuals.
- Max Kozlov
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Outlook |
Battling a health crisis in the Amazon
Scientists are racing to control malaria in northern Brazil where the disease is playing a major part in the current health emergency threatening the region’s Indigenous people.
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Outlook |
Can malaria researchers slow the spread of drug resistance?
Concerns that artemisinin combination treatments are losing their effectiveness against Plasmodium parasites have set scientists looking for alternatives.
- T. V. Padma
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Outlook |
Malaria: highlights from research
A mosquito hibernation mystery solved, parasites grown in dishes for the first time, and other studies and trials.
- Laura Vargas-Parada
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Outlook |
Monoclonal antibodies show promise for malaria prevention
Immunologist Robert Seder and malaria epidemiologist Kassoum Kayentao talk to Nature about their work and how they think the parasitic disease could be controlled in the future.
- Cassandra Willyard
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News Explainer |
Long COVID: answers emerge on how many people get better
Studies are shedding light on rates of recovery as well as the prevention and treatment of the complex condition.
- Michael Marshall
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Book Review |
Why phage viruses could be the key to treating deadly infections — if they can be harnessed safely
Interest is growing in how little-known viruses could be used to overcome drug-resistant bacteria.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
After Roe v. Wade: dwindling US abortion access is harming health a year later
Researchers are monitoring the consequences of the Supreme Court abolishing the right to an abortion.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Spotlight |
By the numbers: China’s changing diet
Data show that the Chinese middle class is eating a higher-fat, less-healthy diet — a trend reflected in the increases in heart disease and childhood obesity.
- Yvaine Ye
- & Jack Leeming
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Career Q&A |
From process to outcome: working toward health equity
Health-equity work requires thinking about strengths and assets instead of just disadvantages, says Aletha Maybank.
- Nikki Forrester
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Technology Feature |
How scientists are hacking the genetic code to give proteins new powers
By modifying the blueprint of life, researchers are endowing proteins with chemistries they’ve never had before.
- Diana Kwon
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News |
Global ‘pandemic treaty’: nations wrestle with how to fairly share virus data
Researchers say a plan is needed to ensure countries aren’t being exploited, if the world is to prevent the next pandemic.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Career Q&A |
Pay, perks and culture shocks: a toolkit for scientists moving to industry
Don’t underestimate the steep learning curve involved when you switch sectors, says Jonathan Bowen.
- Anne Gulland
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News |
‘Bold’ study that gave people COVID reveals ‘supershedder’ phenomenon
A small subset of infected people spew huge amounts of virus into the air — despite having only mild symptoms.
- Saima Sidik
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Career Q&A |
How I mixed microbiome research with public-health advocacy
Evolutionary geneticist Aashish Jha studies the gut microbiome of infants while advocating for better hygiene and health care in their marginalized communities.
- Saugat Bolakhe
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Spotlight |
From tea to tofu: why Chinese dietary staples are rich pickings for research
Public-health researchers are exploring the nutritional benefits of some familiar favourites of the Chinese table.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Spotlight |
Why China’s changing diet is a bellyache for public health
The shift from traditional cuisine to an increasingly Western diet is creating issues for nutrition researchers and countering other steps forward in public health.
- Yvaine Ye
- & Jack Leeming
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Editorial |
Vaccine-derived polio is undermining the fight to eradicate the virus
Wild polio has almost been eradicated, but vaccine-derived strains retain the potential to paralyse. Better vaccines have arrived — but they are only part of the answer.