Featured
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Book Review |
How a scholarly spat shaped a century of genetic research
A fresh look at the early history of genetics reveals why a simplified view of biological inheritance came to hold sway — and argues for a revision of how genetics is taught today.
- Brian K. Hall
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News & Views |
The particle-physics breakthrough that paved the way for the Higgs boson
The discovery of ‘weak neutral currents’ at Europe’s particle-physics research centre CERN 50 years ago was a decisive step towards establishing the standard model of particle physics — a journey that continues to this day.
- Pippa Wells
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News & Views |
From the archive: computer security, and a key experiment by Pascal
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Technology Feature |
Germs, genes and soil: tales of pathogens past
Armed with DNA sequencers and powerful computational tools, archaeogeneticists are turning their attention towards ancient microbes to give bacteria their due in human history.
- Amber Dance
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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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News |
This quiet lake could mark the start of a new Anthropocene epoch
The dawn of a new geological epoch is recorded in the contaminated sediment at the bottom of Crawford Lake in Canada.
- Alexandra Witze
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Book Review |
How centuries of sexism excluded women from science — and how to redress the balance
Physicist Athene Donald’s research was dismissed as ‘cookery’. Now she’s written a primer on how to fight back.
- Karly Pitman
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Book Review |
Why economic crashes boost globalization — and tear it apart
Responses to financial crashes, pandemics and other crises spur progress, through cycles of inward and outward change.
- Mark Buchanan
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News & Views |
From the archive: chemical symbols and an octopus baby boom
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: Oxford observatory delayed, and cyclone mysteries
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Obituary |
Gordon Moore (1929–2023)
Microchip entrepreneur and architect of Moore’s Law.
- Christophe Lécuyer
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News & Views |
From the archive: hay fever, and the transit of Venus across the Sun
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Essay |
Particle, wave, both or neither? The experiment that challenges all we know about reality
Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment originally served to prove that light is a wave — but later quantum versions have made for a much fuzzier picture.
- Anil Ananthaswamy
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News & Views |
From the archive: ancient timelines and a west-side story of cities
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Book Review |
Why we can thank a polio emergency for the birth of intensive care
An outbreak of polio in 1950s Denmark led one hospital to pioneer mechanical ventilation, constant monitoring of vital signs and other innovations that are saving lives to this day.
- Eric Topol
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Obituary |
Frank Shu (1943–2023)
Astrophysicist who researched galactic structure and star formation.
- Douglas Lin
- & Fred Adams
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News & Views |
Golden jubilee for an iconic financial formula
Fifty years ago, an equation called the Black–Scholes formula revolutionized finance, leading to a rapid growth of markets and stimulating quantitatively oriented minds. But, with time, its simplicity became a liability — and yet its legacy persists.
- Blanka N. Horvath
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Arts Review |
Surgical wonders and dodgy medical ethics: the Hunterian Museum reopens
The London museum is a treasure chest of medical specimens both fascinating and ghoulish — now with a renewed focus on questions about how its collections came to be.
- Nisha Gaind
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News |
India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks — experts are baffled
Nature has learnt that the periodic table, as well as evolution, won’t be taught to under-16s as they start the new school year.
- Dyani Lewis
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Where I Work |
I use a robot to restore Pompeii’s shattered frescoes
Cultural and heritage researcher Arianna Traviglia uses robotic technology to painstakingly reconstruct 2,000-year-old mural paintings in Pompeii.
- Stav Dimitropoulos
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News & Views |
From the archive: foods of the future and cryptography secrets
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: aggressive anemones, and Louis Pasteur’s birthday
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: a history of climate, and the scent of sitting pheasants
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: sunshine statistics, and the hues and habits of aquarium fish
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Nature Podcast |
How Rosalind Franklin’s story was rewritten
Newly discovered documents reveal more about Rosalind Franklin’s role in solving DNA’s structure, and how multisensory experiences can create stronger memories in fruit flies.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
From the archive: how several artists’ works mimic impressions made on the eye’s retina, and the curious effects of blue glass on colour
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Editorial |
How Rosalind Franklin was let down by DNA’s dysfunctional team
The story of how the structure of DNA was found is one of team science from which one member was unforgivably excluded.
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Comment |
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
- Matthew Cobb
- & Nathaniel Comfort
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Book Review |
Diving deep: the centuries-long quest to explore the deepest ocean
Schemes to dive to the bottom of the sea have a surprisingly long history — but a book shows how science has rarely been the motivation.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
From the archive: essays reviewing the stages of the atomic model, and a heap of glowing wood
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Book Review |
Did the Black Death break feudalism and make capitalism? Maybe, maybe not
Pathogens and pandemics have played a huge part in shaping human history right up to COVID-19 — but their exact effects remain highly debatable.
- Hugh Pennington
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Book Review |
How sketches of the womb have empowered and oppressed women over the ages
Depictions of fetuses have helped to teach safer birthing practices and saved lives — but they can also be used to erase the person giving birth.
- Josie Glausiusz
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News & Views |
From the archive: new words to describe human–machine relationships, and a demonstration of the perceptual abilities of butterflies
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views Forum |
The medieval Moon unveils volcanic secrets
Innovative use of medieval musings about the Moon has revealed that volcanic eruptions coincided with abrupt, global-scale cooling events. The approach is exciting from the perspective of climate scientists and historians alike.
- Andrea Seim
- , Eduardo Zorita
- & Anne Lawrence-Mathers
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News & Views |
From the archive: the wonders of life contained in the soil, and the sociability of cats
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Career Column |
Dear scientists: stop calling America the ‘New World’
It’s new to you — but not to me or anyone else who grew up here, writes Fernanda Adame.
- Fernanda Adame
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Research Briefing |
Medieval Swahili people had both African and Asian ancestry
Analyses of ancient DNA from 80 individuals buried in medieval Swahili stone towns along the East African coast revealed that these individuals had both African and Asian ancestry. The findings suggest that in most cases, African women began having children with Asian men at least 1,000 years ago, at several locations along the coast.
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News & Views |
From the archive: the Channel tunnel, and a phantom island
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
Beethoven’s cause of death revealed from locks of hair
Genetic sleuthing points to liver disease, viral hepatitis and alcohol consumption as causes of the composer’s demise.
- Dyani Lewis
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News & Views |
From the archive: the cell cycle and Antarctic exploration
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Obituary |
Paul Berg (1926–2023)
Biochemist who invented recombinant DNA technology.
- Errol Friedberg
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News & Views |
From the archive: Saturn, and Charles Darwin shares animal stories
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: ancient mazes, and ants under observation
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Book Review |
Seven everyday objects that made the modern world
Nails, wheels, springs, magnets, lenses, string and pumps: a structural engineer reveals the small things that our biggest tech advances are built on.
- Anna Novitzky
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News |
Ancient genomes show how humans escaped Europe’s deep freeze
A pair of studies offer the most detailed look yet at groups of hunter-gatherers living before, during and after the last ice age.
- Ewen Callaway
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