Featured
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News & Views |
Ancient DNA traces family lines and political shifts in the Avar empire
Genetic pedigrees spanning nine generations uncover the social organization of a nomadic empire that dominated much of central and eastern Europe from the sixth to the early ninth century.
- Lara M. Cassidy
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Article
| Open Access
Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities
Analysis of ancient DNA from 424 individuals in the Avar period, from the sixth to the ninth century AD, reveals population movement from the steppe and the prolonged existence of a steppe nomadic descent system centred around patrilineality and female exogamy in central Europe.
- Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone
- , Zsófia Rácz
- & Zuzana Hofmanová
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News & Views |
Charles Darwin investigates: the curious case of primrose punishment
Birds emerge as top suspects for unexplained flower mutilation, and reflections from 1974 mark the 21st anniversary of the discovery of the DNA double helix, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News & Views |
A step along the path towards AlphaFold — 50 years ago
Paring down the astronomical complexity of the protein-folding problem, plus Isaac Newton’s ambiguous use of the word ‘axiom’, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News & Views |
The biologist who built a Faraday cage for a crab
What every biologist should know about electronics, plus a disturbing outbreak of volcanism in North Carolina, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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Editorial |
Rwanda 30 years on: understanding the horror of genocide
Researchers must support and elevate the voices of Rwanda’s scholars and survivors.
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News |
Long-lost photos reveal details of world’s first police crime lab
The archive, saved from a garage, shows pioneer of forensic science Edmond Locard at work in his laboratory in Lyon, France.
- Laura Spinney
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News Feature |
After the genocide: what scientists are learning from Rwanda
Thirty years after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Nature met with researchers who are gaining insights that could help to prevent other atrocities and enable healing.
- Nisha Gaind
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News & Views |
Why hand-operated front brakes were set to be the future of motoring
The complexity of fitting brakes to all four wheels of a car and the simplicity of John Maynard Smith’s ecological models, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News & Views |
How Sydney Harbour Bridge was shaping up 100 years ago
Plans for Sydney’s iconic landmark become concrete, plus a ‘Michelin Guide’ to superconductive tunnelling, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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Essay |
How did the Big Bang get its name? Here’s the real story
Astronomer Fred Hoyle supposedly coined the catchy term to ridicule the theory of the Universe’s origins — 75 years on, it’s time to set the record straight.
- Helge Kragh
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Editorial |
Are we in the Anthropocene yet?
Measurement matters, but should not detract from the reality that humans are altering Earth systems.
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News |
It’s final: the Anthropocene is not an epoch, despite protest over vote
Governing body upholds earlier decision by geoscientists amid drama.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
From the archive: constantly quivering eyes, and chemistry troubles
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Muse |
Do black holes explode? The 50-year-old puzzle that challenges quantum physics
Stephen Hawking’s paradoxical finding that black holes don’t live forever has profound, unresolved implications for the quest for unifying theories of reality.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News & Views |
From the archive: Brain–body connection, and cuttlefish ink distracts predators
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News Q&A |
The science of Oppenheimer: meet the Oscar-winning movie’s specialist advisers
Oppenheimer has been praised for its portrayal of the creation of the atomic bomb. Nature spoke to three scientists involved in the film’s production.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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News |
Geologists reject the Anthropocene as Earth’s new epoch — after 15 years of debate
But some are now challenging the vote, saying there were ‘procedural irregularities’.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
From the archive: New Mexico’s prehistoric pottery, and traces of the Ice Age
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Essay |
The spy who flunked it: Kurt Gödel’s forgotten part in the atom-bomb story
Robert Oppenheimer’s isn’t the only film-worthy story from the nuclear age. Kurt Gödel’s cameo as a secret agent was surprising — and itself a bomb.
- Karl Sigmund
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Nature Podcast |
Could this one-time ‘epigenetic’ treatment control cholesterol?
Regulating gene expression lowers blood cholesterol in mice, and how the Universe’s cosmic fog was lifted.
- Nick Petrić Howe
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News & Views |
From the archive: Stephen Hawking’s explosive idea, and scientific spirit
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Book Review |
How our love of pets grew from a clash of world views
Indigenous Americans’ relationships with and knowledge of animals have influenced how Europeans have thought about animals since 1492.
- Surekha Davies
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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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News |
The life and gruesome death of a bog man revealed after 5,000 years
Vittrup Man, who died in his thirties, was a Scandinavian wanderer who settled down between 3300 and 3100 bc.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
From the archive: Tutankhamun’s coffin, and Darwin shares a letter
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
The decimal point is 150 years older than historians thought
Origin of the powerful calculation tool traced back to a mathematician from the Italian Renaissance.
- Jo Marchant
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News & Views |
From the archive: river pollution, and a minister for science
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: lonely cells, and Thomas Henry Huxley backs evolution
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
Building used by Marie Curie will be dismantled to erect cancer centre
The disused and formerly radioactive Pavillon des Sources in Paris will be rebuilt nearby, after an agreement between scientists and the French culture ministry.
- Nisha Gaind
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News & Views |
From the archive: Mendelian inheritance, and an enigmatic echo
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: the mechanics of athletics, and the eating habits of jellyfish
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Book Review |
How Einstein built on the past to make his breakthroughs
The iconic physicist’s theories of relativity and atomic motions were not so revolutionary, a penetrating history argues.
- Helge Kragh
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Obituary |
John L. Heilbron (1934–2023), historian of science
Rigorous historian who shed light on how researchers’ personalities and institutions are central to the development of scientific knowledge.
- Cathryn Carson
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News |
Did the Black Death shape the human genome? Study challenges bold claim
An ancient-DNA study of medieval Cambridge found no sign of genes that helped people to survive the plague, casting doubt on an earlier study.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
From the archive: the royal ‘we’, and an experiment in telegraphy
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Essay |
How a forgotten physicist’s discovery broke the symmetry of the Universe
When Rosemary Brown identified a strange particle decay 75 years ago, it set events in motion that would rewrite the laws of physics.
- Suzie Sheehy
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News |
Ancient DNA reveals first known case of sex-development disorder
Researchers identified six ancient humans with chromosomal conditions, including the earliest case of Turner syndrome.
- Carissa Wong
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News & Views |
Prehistoric events might explain European multiple sclerosis risk
An exploration of more than 1,600 ancient Eurasian genomes suggests that genetic changes that increase autoimmune-disease risk in modern Europeans could have protected ancient Europeans from pathogens.
- Samira Asgari
- & Lionel A. Pousaz
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Article
| Open Access
100 ancient genomes show repeated population turnovers in Neolithic Denmark
Integrated data, including 100 human genomes from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods show that two major population turnovers occurred over just 1,000 years in Neolithic Denmark, resulting in dramatic changes in the genes, diet and physical appearance of the local people, as well as the landscape in which they lived.
- Morten E. Allentoft
- , Martin Sikora
- & Eske Willerslev
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News & Views |
From the archive: the other Darwin, and illegitimate access to honey
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: a towering legacy, and unseasonal wasps
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: waltzing mice, and Louis Pasteur’s beer battle
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Nature Podcast |
The Nature Podcast highlights of 2023
The team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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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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News & Views |
From the archive: scientific spelling, and ancient Egyptian art
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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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 & Views |
From the archive: London fog, and an expedition team to envy
Snippets from Nature’s past.
Las Boriqueñas remembers the forgotten Puerto Rican women who tested the first pill