Research Highlight |
Featured
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Comment |
Five steps to make MRI scanners more affordable to the world
Fifty years since the basis of magnetic resonance imaging was published, MRI scanners remain expensive — and impractical in many countries. Here’s how we are making them smaller and less costly.
- Andrew Webb
- & Johnes Obungoloch
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News |
Culling vampire bats failed to beat rabies — and made the problem worse
The timing of the cull makes all the difference.
- Jude Coleman
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Outlook |
Researchers tackle chronic kidney disease
Innovative technology and a class of drugs called SGLT2 inhibitors could help more people with this common condition.
- Herb Brody
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Outlook |
The pursuit of dialysis equity
When a transplant is out of reach, kidney failure leaves those without access to high-quality health care with few options.
- Lauren Gravitz
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Outlook |
The genetic revolution transforming kidney disease
Genetic sequencing is changing the way the often deadly disorder is diagnosed, managed, treated and prevented.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Outlook |
Could implantable artificial kidneys end the need for dialysis?
Highly engineered mechanical structures could radically improve the quality of life for people with chronic kidney disease.
- Neil Savage
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Outlook |
Stop denying kidney transplants to non-citizens
Policies that prevent undocumented immigrants in the United States from receiving a donated organ are not only cruel and unfair, but also fail the cost-effectiveness test.
- C. Elena Cervantes
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Outlook |
Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in diabetic kidney disease
Diabetes is on the rise globally, mostly in low- and middle-income countries and among minority ethnic groups in wealthier nations. This increase is behind a surge in chronic kidney disease.
- Charles Schmidt
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Outlook |
SGLT2 inhibitors breathe life into kidney-disease care
Researchers want to expand the use of drugs that protect the hearts and kidneys of people with chronic kidney disease.
- Amanda B. Keener
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Outlook |
Chronic kidney disease: highlights from research
Illuminating genetic risk, disrupting fibrosis and intercepting inflammation.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Research Highlight |
Liver failure cases fall after US clampdown on paracetamol
The number of acute liver injuries tied to paracetamol—opioid painkillers fell after a US mandate to limit pills’ active ingredients.
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News Feature |
Indoor air is full of flu and COVID viruses. Will countries clean it up?
The current pandemic has focused attention to the importance of healthy indoor air and could spur lasting improvements to the air we breathe.
- Dyani Lewis
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World View |
Sims-style ‘digital twin’ models can tell us if food systems will weather crises
From COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine, virtual models could inform global food policy before emergencies unfold.
- Zia Mehrabi
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News |
Diabetes and obesity are rising globally — but some nations are hit harder
Rates of type 2 diabetes and other conditions caused by disorders of the body’s energy-processing system are driven in part by changing food habits.
- Saima May Sidik
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News |
COVID pill is first to cut short positive-test time after infection
The antiviral ensitrelvir, which is not approved in the United States, shortens symptoms in people with mild COVID and might reduce risk of long COVID — but more data are needed.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News Explainer |
How to stop the bird flu outbreak becoming a pandemic
From tracking the disease’s spread in wild birds to updating human vaccines, there are measures that could help keep avian influenza in check.
- Saima May Sidik
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Career Q&A |
How I cope with my ‘invisible’ disabilities of anxiety and depression
Cell biologist Keisha Hardeman describes her journey with mental-health challenges, and the power of therapy.
- Esther Landhuis
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News Q&A |
Girl who died of bird flu did not have widely circulating variant
Scientist who sequenced the virus isolated from a Cambodian girl says it is not the strain causing mass deaths in birds globally.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
One MRI for 4.7 million people: the battle to treat Syria’s earthquake survivors
With only 64 X-ray and 73 kidney-dialysis machines, 7 CT scanners and one MRI machine, doctors in northwest Syria are racing against the clock to treat 8,500 injuries.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News Explainer |
US lawsuit threatens access to abortion drug: the science behind the case
Judge’s decision could ban mifepristone across the country, and weaken the Food and Drug Administration’s authority.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
Ambitious goal to slash maternal deaths in jeopardy
Data show most countries won’t meet this Sustainable Development Goal by 2030.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
FDA to require diversity plan for clinical trials
US regulatory agency makes ‘big change’ to increase the number of participants from under-represented groups in drug testing.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Puzzling planetary rings, and more — this week’s best science graphics
Three charts from the world of research, selected by Nature editors.
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News |
WHO abandons plans for crucial second phase of COVID-origins investigation
Sensitive studies in China were intended to pinpoint the source of the pandemic virus.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
WHO may soon end mpox emergency — but outbreaks rage in Africa
African health officials worry that as the mpox outbreak wanes in wealthy countries, so too will the global interest in research and funding.
- Max Kozlov
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Editorial |
Indoor air pollution kills and science needs to step up
Researchers and policymakers are only now waking up to the effects of dirty indoor air. As ever, low-income and marginalized communities are most exposed.
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Comment |
Hidden harms of indoor air pollution — five steps to expose them
Dirty outdoor air might grab the headlines, but learning how pollutants inside buildings form, accumulate and affect our health is equally crucial.
- Alastair C. Lewis
- , Deborah Jenkins
- & Christopher J. M. Whitty
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Nature Podcast |
This mysterious space rock shouldn’t have a ring — but it does
How a ring around a distant solar system object is puzzling researchers, and understanding the hidden dangers of indoor air pollution.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Editorial |
Global pandemic treaty: what we must learn from climate-change errors
The WHO’s draft agreement proposes a COP-like process. That’s unlikely to improve on the world’s disastrous COVID response.
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News |
What the WHO’s new treaty could mean for the next pandemic
A draft of the agreement highlights vaccine and drug equity but lacks teeth to enforce it, say researchers.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Spotlight |
How France became the unlikely home of the insect-farming industry
The country is known for its love of meat. Could the growing insect industry help to reduce agricultural carbon emissions?
- Rachael Pells
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Nature Video |
The race to make a variant-proof COVID vaccine
Exploring the next generation of vaccines aiming to keep on top of the pandemic
- Dan Fox
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News |
When will COVID stop being a global emergency?
The World Health Organization has decided the crisis isn’t over yet — but it’s at a transition point.
- David Adam
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News |
Where infectious diseases erupt, and more — this week’s best science graphics
Three charts from the world of research, selected by Nature editors.
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Book Review |
A crash course in biotech success — and failure
The unlikely discovery of a life-changing leukaemia drug uncovers harsh realities of profit and loss.
- Heidi Ledford
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News Explainer |
Will a new wave of RSV vaccines stop the dangerous virus?
Pfizer, GSK and Moderna are ahead in the race to produce vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus — what will be their impact?
- Liam Drew
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News |
Should COVID vaccines be given yearly? Proposal divides US scientists
Some say the US Food and Drug Administration’s suggestion of updating COVID-19 vaccines each year, as happens with influenza jabs, could boost uptake.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Flu, MERS and Ebola — the disease outbreaks most frequently reported
The World Health Organization’s disease reports reflect public-health priorities and surveillance capabilities.
- Sara Reardon
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Research Briefing |
A wearable ultrasound patch for continuous heart imaging
A new ultrasound patch can image the heart while being worn, even when the wearer is moving during strenuous exercise. A customized model that uses a technique of artificial intelligence called deep learning then processes the images to extract important measures of cardiac performance.
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Article
| Open AccessA wearable cardiac ultrasound imager
Innovations in device design, material fabrication and deep learning are described, leading to a wearable ultrasound transducer capable of dynamic cardiac imaging in various environments and under different conditions.
- Hongjie Hu
- , Hao Huang
- & Sheng Xu
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World View |
Don’t wait for an Ebola outbreak to vaccinate people against it
The Ebola outbreak in Uganda was a wake-up call. We need preventive vaccination.
- Henry Kyobe Bosa
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News |
Massive health-record review links viral illnesses to brain disease
Study ties common viruses such as flu to Alzheimer’s and other conditions — but the analysis has limitations, researchers warn.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
China’s COVID wave has probably peaked, model suggests
But a lack of data is obscuring the true impact of the outbreak.
- Dyani Lewis
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Editorial |
Vaccine incentives do not backfire — policymakers take note
Rigorously designed studies can dispel suspicions that offering cash for vaccines erodes trust, and help health-care providers to design effective immunization campaigns.
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Article
| Open AccessFinancial incentives for vaccination do not have negative unintended consequences
Findings from large-scale studies in Sweden and the USA indicate that providing financial incentives for vaccination and informing about state incentive programmes do not have any negative unintended consequences.
- Florian H. Schneider
- , Pol Campos-Mercade
- & Armando N. Meier
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Comment |
Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems
Agricultural sciences have for too long ignored traditional and local knowledge about crop plants and how best to grow them. That must change if the world is to ensure future food security.
- Alexandre Antonelli
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News Feature |
Colonoscopies save lives. Why did a trial suggest they might not?
A major clinical study raised questions about one of the most celebrated cancer-screening procedures available, but a close look at the data tells a different story.
- Emily Sohn
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News |
Coronavirus variant XBB.1.5 rises in the United States — is it a global threat?
Prevalence of a new subvariant of Omicron is increasing, but whether it will cause a big surge in infections or hospitalizations isn’t clear.
- Ewen Callaway
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Correspondence |
Treating behavioural addictions that lack diagnostic criteria
- Steve Sussman
- & Deborah Louise Sinclair