Featured
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Technology Feature |
Old-school computing: when your lab PC is ancient
Maintaining outdated PCs can be a matter of necessity — and a labour of love.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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News & Views |
From the archive
Nature’s pages report Einstein’s travel woes in 1921, and science lectures for the public in 1871.
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Career Column |
A cartoon guide to bioinformatics by a novice coder
Ed Himelblau was a cartoonist before he learnt to write code. Now, the geneticist hopes his drawings will help others who embrace bioinformatics later in their careers.
- Ed Himelblau
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News |
The most detailed 3D map of the Universe ever made
Cosmologists have unveiled a trove of fresh data, but the measurements do not settle earlier questions about the Universe’s unexpected smoothness.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Hundreds of gibberish papers still lurk in the scientific literature
The nonsensical computer-generated articles, spotted years after the problem was first seen, could lead to a wave of retractions.
- Richard Van Noorden
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News & Views |
Nanocrystals form a superfluorescent lattice mimicking the atomic structure of perovskite materials
Nanocrystals with tailored shapes and compositions have been shown to form ‘superlattice’ arrays analogous to the ionic lattices of perovskite compounds. One such superlattice exhibits a phenomenon called superfluorescence.
- Gerd Bacher
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Article |
Long-range nontopological edge currents in charge-neutral graphene
Nanoscale imaging of edge currents in charge-neutral graphene shows that charge accumulation can explain various exotic nonlocal transport measurements, bringing into question some theories about their origins.
- A. Aharon-Steinberg
- , A. Marguerite
- & E. Zeldov
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Book Review |
AI — the people and places that make, use and manage it
Two books offer complementary insights into how artificial intelligence is shaping society.
- Virginia Dignum
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Article |
Perovskite-type superlattices from lead halide perovskite nanocubes
Through precise structural engineering, perovskite nanocrystals are co-assembled with other nanocrystal materials to form a range of binary and ternary perovskite-type superlattices that exhibit superfluorescence.
- Ihor Cherniukh
- , Gabriele Rainò
- & Maksym V. Kovalenko
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Article |
Evidence of hydrogen−helium immiscibility at Jupiter-interior conditions
Hydrogen and helium mixtures can be compressed to the extreme temperature and pressure conditions found in the interior of Jupiter and Saturn, and the immiscibility revealed supports models of Jupiter that invoke a layered interior.
- S. Brygoo
- , P. Loubeyre
- & G. W. Collins
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News & Views |
Trip frequency is key ingredient in new law of human travel
An analysis of mobile-phone tracking data has revealed a universal pattern that describes the interplay between the distances travelled by humans on trips and the frequency with which those trips are made.
- Laura Alessandretti
- & Sune Lehmann
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Article |
The universal visitation law of human mobility
Using large-scale mobility data from diverse cities around the globe, a simple and robust scaling law that captures the temporal and spatial range of population movement is revealed.
- Markus Schläpfer
- , Lei Dong
- & Geoffrey B. West
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Research Highlight |
Remaking a classic: a landmark measurement of the electron’s charge goes visual
Scientists adapt a renowned experiment to make it visible with the naked eye.
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long-read: How harmful are microplastics?
Scientists are trying to figure out whether these pervasive plastic specks are dangerous.
- XiaoZhi Lim
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Book Review |
A physicist goes in search of our origins
CERN experimentalist offers sweeping history of the Universe, in science and culture.
- Andrea Taroni
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Research Summary |
An array of four germanium qubits
A four-qubit quantum processor based on germanium hole spin quantum dots is presented. Universal quantum logic is demonstrated on qubits that are positioned in a two-by-two grid, revealing that spin qubits can be coupled in two dimensions.
- Nico W. Hendrickx
- & Menno Veldhorst
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Research Highlight |
Microbes teach a master class in how to clean polluted water
Chemists take a cue from bacterial enzymes that degrade perchlorate, a contaminant found in drinking water.
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News |
China’s Mars rover returns first images — scientists say the view is promising
Images snapped from Zhurong’s cameras hint at a wide, flat landscape in Mars’s northern hemisphere that’s ripe for exploration.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Article |
A radical approach for the selective C–H borylation of azines
Selective borylation of azines—nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocycles used in the synthesis of many pharmaceuticals—is made possible by forming a radical from an aminoborane using a photocatalyst.
- Ji Hye Kim
- , Timothée Constantin
- & Daniele Leonori
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Research Highlight |
The world’s biggest seaweed patch sows doubt about a climate fix
Data from the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt suggest that floating seaweed farms are no climate panacea.
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News & Views |
Ultracold chemical reactions reveal the quantum mechanism of product formation
Quantum chemistry is challenging to model computationally. An ultracold chemical reaction has now been used to test models with great precision, providing a benchmark for future quantum-chemistry calculations.
- Nandini Mukherjee
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Perspective |
The data-driven future of high-energy-density physics
This Perspective discusses how high-energy-density physics could tap the potential of AI-inspired algorithms for extracting relevant information and how data-driven automatic control routines may be used for optimizing high-repetition-rate experiments.
- Peter W. Hatfield
- , Jim A. Gaffney
- & Ben Williams
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News & Views |
Iron and nickel vapours are present in most comets
The detection of iron and nickel vapours in a broad range of Solar System comets, and of nickel vapour in a comet from outside the Solar System, provides a glimpse into the organic chemistry of young planetary systems.
- Dennis Bodewits
- & Steven J. Bromley
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Article |
Iron and nickel atoms in cometary atmospheres even far from the Sun
High-resolution ultraviolet and optical spectra of a large sample of comets show that Fe i and Ni i lines are ubiquitous, even when the comets are far from the Sun.
- J. Manfroid
- , D. Hutsemékers
- & E. Jehin
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Article |
Discovery, characterization and engineering of ligases for amide synthesis
A family of enzymes—coronafacic acid ligases, involved in the synthesis of bacterial phytotoxins—are found to catalyse amide bond formation with a wide range of substrates.
- Michael Winn
- , Michael Rowlinson
- & Jason Micklefield
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Article |
Precision test of statistical dynamics with state-to-state ultracold chemistry
The chemical reaction 2KRb → K2 + Rb2 is studied under ultralow temperatures at the quantum state-to-state level, allowing unprecedented details of the reaction dynamics to be observed.
- Yu Liu
- , Ming-Guang Hu
- & Kang-Kuen Ni
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Article |
Tunable non-integer high-harmonic generation in a topological insulator
High-harmonic generation from the Dirac-like surface state of a topological insulator is separated from bulk contributions and continuously tuned by the carrier-envelope phase of the driving lightwave.
- C. P. Schmid
- , L. Weigl
- & R. Huber
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Article |
Gaseous atomic nickel in the coma of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov
Atomic nickel vapour is found in the cold coma of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov at a distance of 2.3 astronomical units, equivalent to an equilibrium temperature of 180 kelvin.
- Piotr Guzik
- & Michał Drahus
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Where I Work |
Designing nano-sized chemotherapy
Nanoparticles carrying chemotherapeutic drugs could help people with cancer escape some of the drugs’ side effects, hopes Silvia Giordani.
- Virginia Gewin
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News |
First nuclear detonation created ‘impossible’ quasicrystals
Their structures were once controversial. Now researchers have discovered quasicrystals in the aftermath of a 1945 bomb test.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Book Review |
The singing neutrino Nobel laureate who nearly bombed Nevada
From desert to gold mine — Frederick Reines was a larger-than-life physicist who did larger-than-life experiments.
- Alison Abbott
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Article |
Ultrahigh-energy photons up to 1.4 petaelectronvolts from 12 γ-ray Galactic sources
Observations of γ-rays with energies up to 1.4 PeV find that 12 sources in the Galaxy are PeVatrons, one of which is the Crab Nebula.
- Zhen Cao
- , F. A. Aharonian
- & X. Zuo
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Obituary |
C. Austen Angell (1933–2021)
Visionary explorer of glasses and the limits of the liquid state.
- Pablo G. Debenedetti
- , Peter H. Poole
- & Francesco Sciortino
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News |
China has landed its first rover on Mars — here’s what happens next
The Zhurong landing was the biggest test yet of China’s deep-space exploration capabilities. Within days, the rover could start to make geological discoveries.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Research Highlight |
How to tell the thermodynamic cost of time
Quantum and ordinary clocks alike gain accuracy as they give off more heat.
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Research Highlight |
Voyager 1 captures faint ripples in the stuff between the stars
The first spacecraft to visit interstellar space has now become the first to make continuous measurements of waves in that remote realm.
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News & Views |
Nitrogen deletion offers fresh strategy for organic synthesis
Many scientific fields and industries rely on the synthesis of small organic molecules. A chemical reagent has been developed that allows such molecules to be made by ‘deleting’ nitrogen atoms from readily accessible precursors.
- William P. Unsworth
- & Alyssa-Jennifer Avestro
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Article |
Skeletal editing through direct nitrogen deletion of secondary amines
Nitrogen is ‘deleted’ from secondary amines using anomeric amide reagents, which react with the amine to form an isodiazene, after which nitrogen gas is released and the resulting carbon radicals combine to form a carbon–carbon bond.
- Sean H. Kennedy
- , Balu D. Dherange
- & Mark D. Levin
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Nature Careers Podcast |
Business of science: Tips and tricks for a perfect investor pitch
Seasoned science entrepreneurs tell Adam Levy how to take the daunting first steps to commercializing your research.
- Adam Levy
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Article |
A dynamic stability design strategy for lithium metal solid state batteries
A multi-layered electrolyte, in which a less stable electrolyte is sandwiched between two electrolyte layers that are more stable, can inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites in highly pressurized solid-state lithium metal batteries.
- Luhan Ye
- & Xin Li
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News & Views |
Cloud droplets aid the production of formic acid in the atmosphere
Known sources of formic acid could not explain the observed atmospheric concentrations of this compound. The discovery of a previously unknown pathway that generates formic acid in the atmosphere resolves this discrepancy.
- Joost de Gouw
- & Delphine Farmer
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Nature Podcast |
The brain implant that turns thoughts into text
A new neural interface lets people type with their mind, and a crafting journey into materials science.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article |
Ultralow contact resistance between semimetal and monolayer semiconductors
Electric contacts of semimetallic bismuth on monolayer semiconductors are shown to suppress metal-induced gap states and thus have very low contact resistance and a zero Schottky barrier height.
- Pin-Chun Shen
- , Cong Su
- & Jing Kong
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Article |
CMOS-based cryogenic control of silicon quantum circuits
A cryogenic CMOS control chip operating at 3 K is used to demonstrate coherent control and simple algorithms on silicon qubits operating at 20 mK.
- Xiao Xue
- , Bishnu Patra
- & Lieven M. K. Vandersypen
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Article
| Open AccessUbiquitous atmospheric production of organic acids mediated by cloud droplets
The oxidation of hydrated formaldehyde from cloud droplets is the dominant source of atmospheric formic acid, increasing atmospheric acidity by reducing cloud and rainwater pH.
- B. Franco
- , T. Blumenstock
- & D. Taraborrelli
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Article |
Widespread six degrees Celsius cooling on land during the Last Glacial Maximum
Analyses and modelling of noble gases in groundwater show that the mean annual surface temperatures of low-altitude, low-to-mid-latitude land masses were about 6 °C cooler during the Last Glacial Maximum than during the Late Holocene.
- Alan M. Seltzer
- , Jessica Ng
- & Martin Stute
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Book Review |
From spoons to semiconductors — we are what we make
Through a tour of ten materials, a scientist explores knowing through doing.
- Anna Novitzky
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World View |
Stop the emerging AI cold war
Proliferating military artificial intelligence will leave the world less safe — so we must focus on ethics and global cooperation.
- Denise Garcia