Featured
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Correspondence |
Why can’t researchers agree about consciousness? Because it’s all in the mind
- Jose Luis Perez Velazquez
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News Feature |
The consciousness wars: can scientists ever agree on how the mind works?
There are dozens of theories of how the brain produces conscious experience, and a new type of study is testing some of them head-to-head.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Obituary |
Evelyn Fox Keller (1936–2023), philosopher who questioned gender roles in science
Mathematical biologist, philosopher and historian of science who challenged the vision of science as a masculine activity.
- Marga Vicedo
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Perspective |
Role play with large language models
By casting large-language-model-based dialogue-agent behaviour in terms of role play, it is possible to describe dialogue-agent behaviour such as (apparent) deception and (apparent) self-awareness without misleadingly ascribing human characteristics to the models.
- Murray Shanahan
- , Kyle McDonell
- & Laria Reynolds
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News |
Consciousness theory slammed as ‘pseudoscience’ — sparking uproar
Researchers publicly call out theory that they say is not well supported by science, but that gets undue attention.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
If AI becomes conscious: here’s how researchers will know
A checklist derived from six neuroscience-based theories of consciousness could aid in the assessment.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Correspondence |
Consciousness: unicellular organisms know the secret
- Arthur S. Reber
- , William B. Miller
- & František Baluška
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News |
Decades-long bet on consciousness ends — and it’s philosopher 1, neuroscientist 0
Christof Koch wagered David Chalmers 25 years ago that researchers would learn how the brain achieves consciousness by now. But the quest continues.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: Can giant surveys of scientists fight misinformation on COVID, climate change and more?
Hoping to improve public debate and policymaking, multiple efforts have been launched to gather researchers' consensus views.
- David Adam
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News Feature |
Can giant surveys of scientists fight misinformation on COVID, climate change and more?
Shocked by the COVID-19 infodemic, several efforts have launched to gather researchers’ consensus views, with the hope of improving public debate and policymaking.
- David Adam
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Book Review |
How mathematics stopped being defined by reality — and started to invent new ones
Abstraction is a powerful mathematical technique that has influenced everything from quantum theories of gravity to nuclear deterrence theory. But has it gone too far?
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Book Review |
A tour of the evolution of minds
An informative guide takes in archaea, birds, primates and more — overconfidently.
- Philip Ball
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Career Column |
Tips for collaborating with scientists, from a philosopher
Make language inclusive and agree on your aims in advance.
- Michael Paul Nelson
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Career Column |
How a holistic research retreat can help our science
After an existential crisis, we realized we needed to think more deeply about our careers, say Örjan Bodin and Christopher M. Weible.
- Örjan Bodin
- & Christopher M. Weible
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Correspondence |
Chilean polymath Humberto Maturana remembered
- Francisco J. Parada
- , Alejandra Rossi
- & Daniel Rojas-Líbano
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Career Column |
How philosophy is making me a better scientist
Rasha Shraim’s education helped her to think more deeply about ethics, logic and other big questions.
- Rasha Shraim
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News Feature |
Can lab-grown brains become conscious?
A handful of experiments are raising questions about whether clumps of cells and disembodied brains could be sentient, and how scientists would know if they were.
- Sara Reardon
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Book Review |
Neuroscience needs some new ideas
A history of the metaphors behind brain research faces a dark past and disquieting future. By Stephen Casper.
- Stephen Casper
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Book Review |
From Big Bang to cosmic bounce: an astronomical journey through space and time
A physicist and humanist takes us on a grand tour of all time. By Philip Ball
- Philip Ball
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Books & Arts |
The social-media war, reclaiming classics from the alt-right, and a fusion of physics and dance: New in paperback
Mary Craig reviews the highlights of this season’s releases.
- Mary Craig
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Outlook |
A more human approach to artificial intelligence
Philosopher Andy Clark reflects on what it will take for artificially intelligent agents to become more capable.
- Michael Segal
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Books & Arts |
A realist takes on quantum mechanics
Graham Farmelo parses Lee Smolin’s takedown of the most successful physics theory ever.
- Graham Farmelo
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News |
Largest overhaul of scientific units since 1875 wins approval
Official metal kilogram relinquishes its role to constants, but won’t yet retire — and more changes to scientific units are set to come.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Career Column |
Can we engineer ourselves to be lucky scientists?
Good fortune is tricky to plan for, but researchers might be able to encourage it to come their way.
- Andy Tay
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Comment |
Don’t deploy negative emissions technologies without ethical analysis
Climate policy advice is being undermined by value-laden choices over risky mitigation strategies, warn Dominic Lenzi and colleagues.
- Dominic Lenzi
- , William F. Lamb
- & Jan C. Minx
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Innovations In |
How Much Can We Know?
The reach of the scientific method is constrained by the limitations of our tools and the intrinsic impenetrability of some of nature’s deepest questions.
- Marcelo Gleiser
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Books & Arts |
A physicist probes the metaphysical
Anil Ananthaswamy examines Alan Lightman’s reflections on the tensions between empiricism and experience.
- Anil Ananthaswamy
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Books & Arts |
Taking Greenland’s geology to another dimension
Ted Nield admires a layered exploration of research in the edgelands.
- Ted Nield
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Comment |
Robust research needs many lines of evidence
Replication is not enough. Marcus R. Munafò and George Davey Smith state the case for triangulation.
- Marcus R. Munafò
- & George Davey Smith
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Books & Arts |
How Viennese scientists fought the dogma, propaganda and prejudice of the 1930s
Jordi Cat on a history of empirical thinkers whose world view was a beacon in an irrational era.
- Jordi Cat
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Books & Arts |
Computer science: Visionary of virtual reality
Aldo Faisal explores the immersive journey of technology pioneer Jaron Lanier.
- Aldo Faisal
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Books & Arts |
Cognitive science: Dennett rides again
Dan Jones relishes the philosopher's latest exploration of minds and memes.
- Dan Jones
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Autumn Books |
Theoretical physics: Windows on the weird
Robert P. Crease weighs up a theoretical-physics study that cracks open a strange vista.
- Robert P. Crease
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Books & Arts |
Physics: Material to meaning
Robert P. Crease assesses Sean Carroll's attempt to construct morality out of quantum field theory.
- Robert P. Crease
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News |
Human mind excels at quantum-physics computer game
Revelation could have implications for how scientists approach quantum problems.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News & Views |
50 & 100 Years Ago
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Books & Arts |
Mathematics: Logic and Lewis Carroll
As Alice's Adventures in Wonderland reaches 150, Francine Abeles surveys its creator's wide-ranging legacy.
- Francine F. Abeles
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Outlook |
Q&A: David Deutsch
Physicist David Deutsch is considered the founding father of quantum computing. In his 2011 book, The Beginning of Infinity, Deutsch argues that there is such a thing as objective beauty.
- Kristin Lynn Sainani
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News & Views |
50 & 100 Years Ago
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Books & Arts |
Physics: The impulse of beauty
Joseph Silk revels in Frank Wilczek's treatise on how symmetry and harmony drive the progress of science.
- Joseph Silk
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News |
Scientist registry unveils plan to recognize efforts of peer-reviewers
Movement to publicly record peer-reviewing activity gains momentum.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
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Books & Arts |
Physics: Fighting for time
Graham Farmelo enjoys an account of Einstein's clash with philosopher Henri Bergson.
- Graham Farmelo
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News Feature |
Quantum physics: What is really real?
A wave of experiments is probing the root of quantum weirdness.
- Zeeya Merali