News & Views |
Featured
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Technology Feature |
Starfish enterprise: finding RNA patterns in single cells
Combining the data-analysis tool Starfish with technologies to pinpoint RNA’s cellular locations can add spatial detail to in situ transcriptomics.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
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Outlook |
How to map the brain
As efforts to chart the brain’s neurons gather pace, researchers must find a way to make the accumulating masses of data useful.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Article |
Neural signatures of sleep in zebrafish
Fluorescence-based polysomnography in zebrafish reveals two major sleep signatures that share features with those of amniotes, which suggests that common neural sleep signatures emerged in the vertebrate brain over 450 million years ago.
- Louis C. Leung
- , Gordon X. Wang
- & Philippe Mourrain
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Technology Feature |
The new techniques revealing the varied shapes of chromatin
Researchers are realizing that the DNA–protein complex doesn’t just have one form but many.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
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Article |
Self-organization and symmetry breaking in intestinal organoid development
Single-cell-based imaging and sequencing approaches are used to characterize organoid development and the intestinal regeneration process, which is driven by transient activation of YAP1.
- Denise Serra
- , Urs Mayr
- & Prisca Liberali
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Outlook |
How artificial intelligence is helping to prevent blindness
Machine learning is being used to automate the detection of eye diseases.
- Sandeep Ravindran
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Outlook |
Eyes hint at hidden mental-health conditions
Eye examinations could enable clinicians to detect early signs of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions.
- Marcus Woo
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Outlook |
Machine diagnosis
The medical benefits of bringing artificial intelligence to eye care outweigh the risks, says Aaron Lee.
- Aaron Lee
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Article |
Visualizing DNA folding and RNA in embryos at single-cell resolution
Optical reconstruction of chromatin architecture and multiplex RNA labelling traces the DNA path in single cells and its relationship to transcription.
- Leslie J. Mateo
- , Sedona E. Murphy
- & Alistair N. Boettiger
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News |
How an ordinary camera can see around corners
Digital cameras have been used to reconstruct rough images of hidden objects just by analysing light that bounces off a wall.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
The best science images of the year: 2018 in pictures
California’s worst wildfires, cloned monkey twins, the world’s smallest house and more.
- Mićo Tatalović
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News |
Black holes, shark skin and cockatoo tools — November’s best science images
The month’s sharpest science shots — selected by Nature’s photo team.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Research Highlight |
Thar she blows! Whales seen exhaling from space
Satellite used by intelligence agencies can identify some large whale species down to the flipper.
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News Feature |
The world’s strongest MRI machines are pushing human imaging to new limits
Researchers look to scanners with 10.5-tesla magnets and beyond for unprecedented detail about the brain.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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Research Highlight |
A deep-space camera that can spot a volcano’s puffs
Ash clouds from eruptions large and small are detected by a climate satellite’s imaging instrument.
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Books & Arts |
Promises and pitfalls of imaging the brain
Chris Baker enjoys Russell Poldrack’s clear-eyed account of attempts to decode brains scans.
- Chris Baker
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News |
Rotating plots to form diamonds could prevent correlation-causation confusion
Researchers suggest tilting scatter plots by 45 degrees to make the viewer question assumptions about correlation.
- Matthew Warren
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Books & Arts |
Probing the genetics of the mind
Douwe Draaisma weighs up Eric Kandel’s study on mental illnesses as brain diseases.
- Douwe Draaisma
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Outlook |
Alzheimer’s disease is getting easier to spot
Confirming a diagnosis of the condition used to be possible only after the patient’s death. Soon, it might be detected even before symptoms appear.
- Elie Dolgin
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News |
3D image reveals hidden neurons in fruit-fly brain
Researchers hope the data will speed the understanding of how the brain affects behaviour.
- Jeremy Rehm
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Research Highlight |
'Eyes in the sky' spot hidden threat to Italy’s olive trees
Airborne sensors find early signs of lethal infection.
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News |
Silica nanograins form perfect 12-sided cages
Researchers have created and imaged a self-assembling silica dodecahedron. Measuring only 11.8nm across, this 'nanocage' could one day be used in cancer therapies.
- Noah Baker
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Career Feature |
Technology and satellite companies open up a world of data
It is now easier than ever to interrogate vast realms of mapping information for your research.
- Gabriel Popkin
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Article |
Diametric neural ensemble dynamics in parkinsonian and dyskinetic states
In mouse models of Parkinson’s disease and dyskinesia, striatal spiny projection neurons of the direct and indirect pathways have abnormal, imbalanced levels of spontaneous and locomotor-related activity, with the two different disease states characterized by opposite abnormalities.
- Jones G. Parker
- , Jesse D. Marshall
- & Mark J. Schnitzer
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News |
US government considers charging for popular Earth-observing data
Images from Landsat satellites and agricultural-survey programme are freely available to scientists — but for how long?
- Gabriel Popkin
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News |
Cutting-edge microscope spies on living cells inside the body
Imaging technique captures 3D video of cells at work in unprecedented detail.
- Alex Fox
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Nature Video |
Brainwaves in motion: A wearable brain scanner
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Nature Podcast |
Conflict conservation, and the shape of a memory
Join Benjamin Thompson and Adam Levy for more of the latest science news.
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News Feature |
How to see a memory
Every memory leaves its own imprint in the brain, and researchers are starting to work out what one looks like.
- Helen Shen
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Letter |
Acoustic reporter genes for noninvasive imaging of microorganisms in mammalian hosts
Heterologous expression of engineered gas vesicles allows noninvasive, deep-tissue ultrasound visualization of engineered bacteria in vivo in mouse tumour models and in the gastrointestinal tract.
- Raymond W. Bourdeau
- , Audrey Lee-Gosselin
- & Mikhail G. Shapiro
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News & Views |
Ultrasound approach tracks gut microbes
Monitoring microbes that live deep inside the gut is a challenge. Engineering bacteria to express structures that can be tracked by ultrasound offers a way to locate such cells in vivo, and might have clinical implications.
- Ricard Solé
- & Nuria Conde-Pueyo
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Outlook |
Diagnostics: Missing the point
Conventional detection of advanced fatty liver disease relies on biopsy. Less onerous methods may help to save lives.
- Michael Eisenstein
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News & Views |
Material change for X-ray detectors
The X-ray sensitivity of radiology instruments is limited by the materials used in their detectors. A material from the perovskite family of semiconductors could allow lower doses of X-rays to be used for medical imaging. See Letter p.87
- John A. Rowlands
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News & Views |
Healthy skin rejects cancer
Live imaging shows that healthy skin cells surround and expel neighbours that have cancer-promoting mutations, revealing that tissues can recognize and eliminate mutant cells to prevent tumour initiation. See Letter p.334
- Joseph Burclaff
- & Jason C. Mills
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Research Highlight |
Innovative approach promises speckle-free scans
Image stacking can slash noise and boost resolution of medical technology.
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Letter |
Deletion of a mycobacterial divisome factor collapses single-cell phenotypic heterogeneity
The mycobacterial protein LamA functions as an inhibitor of cell wall synthesis at the nascent cell pole, contributing to asymmetry in polar growth, and could represent a much-needed target for the development of anti-tuberculosis therapies.
- E. Hesper Rego
- , Rebecca E. Audette
- & Eric J. Rubin
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News & Views |
An intracellular dance visualized
The development of a microscopy technique that enables observation of the interactions between six types of organelle, in 3D and over time, holds promise for improving our understanding of intracellular processes. See Letter p.162
- Sang-Hee Shim
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Letter |
Applying systems-level spectral imaging and analysis to reveal the organelle interactome
Using confocal and lattice light sheet microscopy, the authors perform systems-level analysis of the organelle interactome in live cells, allowing them to visualize the frequency and locality of up to five-way interactions between different organelles.
- Alex M. Valm
- , Sarah Cohen
- & Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz
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Research Highlight |
Cells spotted in see-through bone
A technique that makes bone transparent helps researchers capture images of key cells.
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News |
How lizards get their spots
Each scale on an ocellated lizard coordinates its colour with its neighbours.
- Sarah McQuate
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News |
Machine learning predicts the look of stem cells
Website contains thousands of 3D stem cell images and could eventually help with better understanding diseases like cancer.
- Amy Maxmen
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Technology Feature |
Cancer: Imaging with antibodies
Innovative techniques are giving researchers unprecedented access to the inner workings of the immune system.
- Rosie Mestel
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Research Highlights |
Super memory skills gained
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Obituary |
Peter Mansfield (1933–2017)
Physicist who developed MRI, revolutionizing medicine.
- Robert Turner
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News |
Quantum microscope offers MRI for molecules
Diamond-based imaging system uses magnetic resonance of electrons to detect charged atoms and peer at chemical reactions in real time.
- Sara Reardon
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News |
A giant neuron found wrapped around entire mouse brain
3D reconstructions show a 'crown of thorns' shape stemming from a region linked to consciousness.
- Sara Reardon
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Research Highlights |
3D-printed camera sees like an eagle
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