Featured
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News & Views |
Helium nucleus measured with record precision
The size of the helium nucleus has been determined using exotic helium atoms in which one electron has been replaced with its heavier cousin, a muon. The result sheds light on a decade-old puzzle regarding the proton radius.
- Wilfried Nörtershäuser
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Article |
Metastability of diamond ramp-compressed to 2 terapascals
X-ray diffraction measurements of solid carbon compressed to pressures of about two terapascals (approximately twenty million atmospheres) find that carbon retains a diamond structure even under these extreme conditions.
- A. Lazicki
- , D. McGonegle
- & J. S. Wark
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Article
| Open AccessMeasuring the α-particle charge radius with muonic helium-4 ions
The 2S–2P transitions in muonic helium-4 ions are measured using laser spectroscopy and used to obtain an α-particle charge-radius value five times more precise than that from electron scattering.
- Julian J. Krauth
- , Karsten Schuhmann
- & Franz Kottmann
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Book Review |
Meteorites: ‘a story written across light years down the barrel of a microscope’
Chemical clues reveal stories from the birth of the Solar System.
- Meenakshi Wadhwa
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Research Highlight |
A material cracks barriers to asymmetrical toughness
Precise engineering generates a structure that fractures more easily in one direction than the other.
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Research Highlight |
Chemists’ riff on melanin makes a rainbow
An adaptation to the body’s pigment formula produces particles that outshine melanin.
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Obituary |
Akito Arima (1930–2020)
Theoretician who simplified nuclear physics and revamped Japan’s science.
- David Swinbanks
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News & Views |
Mechanical memory written and read remotely
A device has been developed that consists of mechanical bits, analogous to the magnetic bits used in computer hard drives. Information encoded in the bits programs the mechanical properties of the device.
- Corentin Coulais
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News & Views |
Electrons broken into pieces at crystal defects
Fractional electric charges have been observed at crystal defects in artificial structures resembling materials called topological crystalline insulators. Such fractional charges could have various engineering applications.
- Carmine Ortix
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News Feature |
Ten computer codes that transformed science
From Fortran to arXiv.org, these advances in programming and platforms sent biology, climate science and physics into warp speed.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
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Article |
A reprogrammable mechanical metamaterial with stable memory
A reprogrammable mechanical metamaterial constructed of bistable unit cells that can be switched independently and reversibly between two stable states with distinct mechanical properties using magnetic actuation is demonstrated.
- Tian Chen
- , Mark Pauly
- & Pedro M. Reis
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Article |
Trapped fractional charges at bulk defects in topological insulators
It is experimentally shown that crystallographic defects may trap fractional charges, as well as topological states, in the bulk of topological crystalline insulators.
- Christopher W. Peterson
- , Tianhe Li
- & Gaurav Bahl
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Article |
A stable low-temperature H2-production catalyst by crowding Pt on α-MoC
A stable, low-temperature water–gas shift catalyst is achieved by crowding platinum atoms and clusters on α-molybdenum carbide; the crowding protects the support from oxidation that would cause catalyst deactivation.
- Xiao Zhang
- , Mengtao Zhang
- & Ding Ma
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Article |
Wetting regulates autophagy of phase-separated compartments and the cytosol
A theoretical model, in vitro reconstitution and in vivo experimentation show that competition between droplet surface tension and membrane sheet instability dictates the form and function of autophagosomal membranes.
- Jaime Agudo-Canalejo
- , Sebastian W. Schultz
- & Roland L. Knorr
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Article |
Bulk–disclination correspondence in topological crystalline insulators
It is experimentally shown that topological states exist at crystallographic defects in the bulk and that disclination defects trap fractional charges characteristic of topological crystalline insulators.
- Yang Liu
- , Shuwai Leung
- & Jian-Hua Jiang
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Article |
Observation of the onset of a blue jet into the stratosphere
Observations from the International Space Station show a blue jet that is initiated by an intense blue flash in the top of a thunderstorm cloud.
- Torsten Neubert
- , Olivier Chanrion
- & Victor Reglero
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Article |
Correlation-driven topological phases in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene
Correlation-driven topological phases with different Chern numbers are observed in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene in modest magnetic fields, indicating that strong electronic interactions can lead to topologically non-trivial phases.
- Youngjoon Choi
- , Hyunjin Kim
- & Stevan Nadj-Perge
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News |
COVID curbed carbon emissions in 2020 — but not by much
Despite sharp drops early in the pandemic, global emissions of carbon dioxide picked up in the second half of the year, new data show.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News & Views |
Accurate machine learning in materials science facilitated by using diverse data sources
A strategy for machine learning has been developed that exploits the fact that data are often collected in different ways with varying levels of accuracy. The approach was used to build a model that predicts a key property of materials.
- Rohit Batra
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Research Highlight |
A pair of whirlpools delicately move an embryo — contact-free
Vortex ‘tweezers’ can pick up and transport particles just 1 millimetre wide.
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News & Views |
Giant photon avalanches observed in nanoparticles
In some materials, the absorption of a single photon can trigger a chain reaction that produces a large burst of light. The discovery of these photon avalanches in nanostructures opens the way to imaging and sensing applications.
- Andries Meijerink
- & Freddy T. Rabouw
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Comment |
Tiny robots and sensors need tiny batteries — here’s how to do it
Improve materials and architectures to shrink microscopic devices.
- Minshen Zhu
- & Oliver G. Schmidt
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Article |
Giant nonlinear optical responses from photon-avalanching nanoparticles
Room-temperature photon avalanching realized in single thulium-doped upconverting nanocrystals enables super-resolution imaging at near-infrared wavelengths of maximal biological transparency and provides a material platform potentially suitable for other optical technologies.
- Changhwan Lee
- , Emma Z. Xu
- & P. James Schuck
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Article |
A bright γ-ray flare interpreted as a giant magnetar flare in NGC 253
The γ-ray burst GRB 200415A is probably a giant flare emitted from a magnetar in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253.
- D. Svinkin
- , D. Frederiks
- & R. Starr
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Article |
Rapid spectral variability of a giant flare from a magnetar in NGC 253
Observations of a giant flare associated with the starburst galaxy NGC 253 suggest that the flare is probably associated with relativistic plasma in the magnetic field of a magnetar.
- O. J. Roberts
- , P. Veres
- & E. Burns
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News & Views |
Cosmic electromagnetic bomb sheds light on the origins of γ-ray bursts
Celestial eruptions known as giant magnetar flares have been seen in our cosmic backyard, but were so bright they blinded observational instruments. The discovery of a more distant flare finally reveals details of these emissions.
- Christopher Thompson
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Article |
Entangling logical qubits with lattice surgery
Two logical qubits are encoded in ensembles of four physical qubits through the surface code, then entangled by lattice surgery, which is a protocol for carrying out fault-tolerant operations.
- Alexander Erhard
- , Hendrik Poulsen Nautrup
- & Thomas Monz
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Where I Work |
‘I was no longer pretending or hiding’: a trans scientist finds a lab to call home
Materials scientist Clara Barker praises the University of Oxford for creating a welcoming space.
- Josie Glausiusz
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Technology Feature |
Sharper signals: how machine learning is cleaning up microscopy images
Computers trained to reduce the noise in micrographs can now tackle fresh data by themselves.
- Amber Dance
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Article |
Transporting and concentrating vibrational energy to promote isomerization
Infrared absorption by a thick CO crystal produces many vibrational quanta that can be transported and concentrated at a salt interface to drive orientational isomerization of CO molecules with enhanced efficiency.
- Jascha A. Lau
- , Li Chen
- & Alec M. Wodtke
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Research Highlight |
Taking tenuous helium molecules for a spin
Zapping helium ‘dimers’ with lasers allows a glimpse into a fleeting relationship.
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News & Views |
Artificial intelligence accelerated by light
The explosive growth of artificial intelligence calls for rapidly increasing computing power. Two reported photonic processors could meet these power requirements and revolutionize artificial-intelligence hardware.
- Huaqiang Wu
- & Qionghai Dai
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News & Views |
Machine learning reveals the complexity of dense amorphous silicon
Transitions between amorphous forms of solids and liquids are difficult to study. Machine learning has now provided fresh insight into pressure-induced transformations of amorphous silicon, opening the way to studies of other systems.
- Paul F. McMillan
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Article |
Design of biologically active binary protein 2D materials
Design of a two-component protein array enables robust formation of complex large-scale ordered biologically active materials.
- Ariel J. Ben-Sasson
- , Joseph L. Watson
- & David Baker
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Article |
Origins of structural and electronic transitions in disordered silicon
Machine learning models enable atomistic simulations of phase transitions in amorphous silicon, predict electronic fingerprints, and show that the pressure-induced crystallization occurs over three distinct stages.
- Volker L. Deringer
- , Noam Bernstein
- & Stephen R. Elliott
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Article |
Competing magnetic orders in a bilayer Hubbard model with ultracold atoms
A bilayer Fermi–Hubbard model is realized in two coupled two-dimensional layers of fermionic ultracold atoms by tuning the interlayer coupling strength to create a crossover between magnetic orderings.
- Marcell Gall
- , Nicola Wurz
- & Michael Köhl
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Review Article |
Core-collapse supernova explosion theory
The factors affecting how and why supernovae occur are discussed, and the current status of core-collapse supernova explosion theory is reviewed.
- A. Burrows
- & D. Vartanyan
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Article |
Single-defect phonons imaged by electron microscopy
State-of-the-art electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope maps the detailed phonon spectra of single defects in silicon carbide
- Xingxu Yan
- , Chengyan Liu
- & Xiaoqing Pan
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Article |
Parallel convolutional processing using an integrated photonic tensor core
An integrated photonic processor, based on phase-change-material memory arrays and chip-based optical frequency combs, which can operate at speeds of trillions of multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations per second, is demonstrated.
- J. Feldmann
- , N. Youngblood
- & H. Bhaskaran
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Article |
An integrated space-to-ground quantum communication network over 4,600 kilometres
A quantum network that combines 700 fibre and two ground-to-satellite links achieves quantum key distribution between more than 150 users over a combined distance of 4,600 kilometres.
- Yu-Ao Chen
- , Qiang Zhang
- & Jian-Wei Pan
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Article |
11 TOPS photonic convolutional accelerator for optical neural networks
An optical vector convolutional accelerator operating at more than ten trillion operations per second is used to create an optical convolutional neural network that can successfully recognize handwritten digit images with 88 per cent accuracy.
- Xingyuan Xu
- , Mengxi Tan
- & David J. Moss
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Article |
Control of osteoblast regeneration by a train of Erk activity waves
The rate of scale regeneration in zebrafish is controlled by the frequency of rhythmic travelling waves of Erk activity, which are broadcast from a central source to induce ring-like patterns of osteoblast tissue growth.
- Alessandro De Simone
- , Maya N. Evanitsky
- & Stefano Di Talia
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Research Highlight |
Brilliant X-rays reveal what might be a new type of star
A strange and unstable astronomical object seems to have formed from the merger of two white dwarfs.
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Article |
Landau quantization and highly mobile fermions in an insulator
Pronounced quantum oscillations in magnetoresistance, a phenomenon that was only expected in metals with highly mobile carriers, are observed in the strongly insulating state of two-dimensional WTe2.
- Pengjie Wang
- , Guo Yu
- & Sanfeng Wu
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Nature Podcast |
Our podcast highlights of 2020
The Nature Podcast team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Dan Fox
- & Nick Howe
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News Round-Up |
Asteroid treasure, COVID vaccine and public peer review
The latest science news, in brief.
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Obituary |
Jack Steinberger (1921–2020)
Particle physicist who shared Nobel for discovering muon neutrinos.
- Christine Sutton
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News & Views |
High-resolution 3D printing in seconds
A 3D-printing technique has been developed that can produce millimetre- to centimetre-scale objects with micrometre-scale features. It relies on chemical reactions triggered by the intersection of two light beams.
- Cameron Darkes-Burkey
- & Robert F. Shepherd