Featured
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News |
Biden seeks to boost science funding — but his budget faces an ominous future
The US president proposes a 2025 budget even as negotiations continue over federal funding for 2024.
- Jeff Tollefson
- , Max Kozlov
- & Alexandra Witze
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Research Highlight |
Ancient graves reveal that facial piercing dates back at least 11,000 years
Ornaments are positioned near the lower jaw and to the sides of the head of people buried at a site in Turkey.
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Book Review |
Act now to prevent a ‘gold rush’ in outer space
As private firms aim for the Moon and beyond, a book calls for an urgent relook at the legal compact that governs space exploration.
- Timiebi Aganaba
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Career Q&A |
This geologist communicates science from the ski slopes
How Karin Kirk finds a balance between twin careers of science writing and skiing instruction.
- Miles Lizak
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Technology Feature |
No installation required: how WebAssembly is changing scientific computing
Enabling code execution in the web browser, the multilanguage tool is powerful but complicated.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
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Career Feature |
‘A beautiful way of saying a lot’: sign language brings benefits to the organic chemistry classroom
Christina Goudreau Collison works with Deaf students to develop clear signs for organic chemistry terms — which could also help students with non-conventional learning needs.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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News Q&A |
The science of Oppenheimer: meet the Oscar-winning movie’s specialist advisers
Oppenheimer has been praised for its portrayal of the creation of the atomic bomb. Nature spoke to three scientists involved in the film’s production.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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News |
Indigenous Australian fire-stick farming began at least 11,000 years ago
Analysis of a sediment core dating back 150,000 years showed that fire patterns in Australia changed with the rise of Indigenous people’s use of fire.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Career News |
Show off your science in Nature’s photo competition
The 2024 Working Scientist photo competition is open for entries. Capture your science on camera for a chance to appear in Nature.
- Jack Leeming
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Research Highlight |
Buried vases hint that ancient Americans might have drunk tobacco
Ritual vessels found in Guatemala contain traces of nicotine.
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News |
China promises more money for science in 2024
Science and innovation are central to China’s national agenda and the country’s efforts to spur economic growth.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Nature Careers Podcast |
‘There is no cookie cutter female scientist’
Teach, move to industry, be a manager. Success in science takes many forms beyond academia, says Monica Stein, marking International Women’s Day.
- Julie Gould
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World View |
Academic workplaces are still failing Black women; they must do better
Black women at universities are seldom heard. Institutions need to listen and take action.
- Nicola Rollock
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Arts Review |
159 days of solitude: how loneliness haunts astronauts
The psychological pressures of going into space might be as hard as the physical feat, a documentary reveals.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Q&A |
Meet the real-life versions of Dune’s epic sandworms
A Dune-loving worm palaeontologist makes the case that worms have been just as important on Earth as they are in the blockbuster film.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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Career Column |
How sacked whistle-blower Susanne Täuber’s career fared after she spoke out
Denied promotion, Täuber describes what happened to her after she publicly challenged her university’s gender-equity policy.
- Susanne Täuber
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Career Feature |
Communication barriers for a Deaf PhD student meant risking burnout
Megan Majocha is gearing up to complete her PhD. But developing a sign-language lexicon to help her succeed took an immense toll during her scientific research.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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News |
‘Despair’: Argentinian researchers protest as president begins dismantling science
Javier Milei’s actions after taking office have research institutions facing shutdown.
- Martín De Ambrosio
- & Fermín Koop
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News |
Oldest stone tools in Europe hint at ancient humans’ route there
Dating of artefacts found at a site in western Ukraine suggests that archaic humans had entered Europe’s eastern gate by 1.4 million years ago.
- Giorgia Guglielmi
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Perspective |
Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research
The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in scientific research risks creating illusions of understanding, where scientists believe they understand more about the world than they actually do.
- Lisa Messeri
- & M. J. Crockett
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Editorial |
Why scientists trust AI too much — and what to do about it
Some researchers see superhuman qualities in artificial intelligence. All scientists need to be alert to the risks this creates.
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News |
Geologists reject the Anthropocene as Earth’s new epoch — after 15 years of debate
But some are now challenging the vote, saying there were ‘procedural irregularities’.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Trump versus Biden: what the rematch could mean for three key science issues
Depending on the winner of November’s election, researchers anticipate two completely different paths ahead for the environment, public health and more.
- Jeff Tollefson
- , Natasha Gilbert
- & Mariana Lenharo
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Article |
East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4 million years ago
Burial-dating methods using cosmogenic nuclides indicate that the oldest stone tools at Korolevo archaeological site in western Ukraine date to around 1.4 million years ago, providing evidence of early human dispersal into Europe from the east.
- R. Garba
- , V. Usyk
- & J. D. Jansen
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News & Views |
From the archive: New Mexico’s prehistoric pottery, and traces of the Ice Age
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Correspondence |
Space and nuclear pioneers show the value of empowering women in STEM
- Farhan M. Asrar
- , Safa Siddiqui
- & Soyeon Yi
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News Feature |
How five crucial elections in 2024 could shape climate action for decades
Some of the world’s biggest carbon emitters are going to the polls this year — the results could determine whether humanity can correct its trajectory of dangerous global warming.
- Smriti Mallapaty
- , Jeff Tollefson
- & Nisha Gaind
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Essay |
The spy who flunked it: Kurt Gödel’s forgotten part in the atom-bomb story
Robert Oppenheimer’s isn’t the only film-worthy story from the nuclear age. Kurt Gödel’s cameo as a secret agent was surprising — and itself a bomb.
- Karl Sigmund
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News Feature |
What science says about hybrid working — and how to make it a success
How researchers can maximize creativity and connection in the ‘new normal’.
- David Adam
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Book Review |
The enigmas of language and immunology, and other reads: Books in brief
Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.
- Andrew Robinson
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Career Feature |
Adding scientific signs to Indian Sign Language will create a more inclusive field for deaf students
Digvijay Singh, a deaf sign-language educator, works with biology researchers and sign-language specialists to add to the scientific lexicon for deaf students in India.
- Deepa Padmanaban
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News & Views |
A mobile DNA sequence could explain tail loss in humans and apes
The lack of a tail is one thing that separates apes — including humans — from other primates. Insertion of a short DNA sequence into a gene that controls tail development could explain tail loss in the common ancestor of apes.
- Miriam K. Konkel
- & Emily L. Casanova
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Nature Podcast |
Could this one-time ‘epigenetic’ treatment control cholesterol?
Regulating gene expression lowers blood cholesterol in mice, and how the Universe’s cosmic fog was lifted.
- Nick Petrić Howe
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World View |
‘Education is possible in any situation’ — what I’ve learnt from teaching in Kyiv amid a war
Ukraine’s universities have adapted by blending innovative forms of remote learning. Lessons from this experiment are relevant to the rest of the world.
- Inna Makhovych
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Correspondence |
Russia’s Arctic Council threat requires lessons from cold war science diplomacy
- Paul Arthur Berkman
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News & Views |
From the archive: Stephen Hawking’s explosive idea, and scientific spirit
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
Influential abortion-pill studies retracted: the science behind the decision
Nature spoke to researchers about the flaws that triggered the retractions. They say these papers are just the tip of the iceberg.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
‘Incomprehensible’: scientists in France decry €900-million cut to research
A €10-billion reduction in public spending in response to a revised economic forecast includes cuts to higher-education and research budgets.
- Barbara Casassus
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Career Feature |
Why the US border remains ‘a place of terror’ for Chinese researchers
Two years after the end of the controversial China Initiative, academics describe being treated like spies, a loss of talent and a chilling atmosphere that is stifling science.
- Virginia Gewin
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News |
Earthquakes are most deadly in these unexpected countries
Haiti and Turkmenistan are among the nations with the highest earthquake fatality load, a measure of the burden imposed by quake-related deaths.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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Career Feature |
What’s the sign for ‘centrifuge’? How we added scientific terms to Indian Sign Language
Molecular biologist Alka Rao brought together her research group and sign-language specialists to broaden access to science for deaf students in India.
- Deepa Padmanaban
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Book Review |
How our love of pets grew from a clash of world views
Indigenous Americans’ relationships with and knowledge of animals have influenced how Europeans have thought about animals since 1492.
- Surekha Davies
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News |
Buried microplastics complicate efforts to define the Anthropocene
Plastic particles in sediments could help to pin down the start of a new geological epoch. But their ability to migrate to older layers is muddying the waters.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News |
The life and gruesome death of a bog man revealed after 5,000 years
Vittrup Man, who died in his thirties, was a Scandinavian wanderer who settled down between 3300 and 3100 bc.
- Ewen Callaway
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News Feature |
Scientists under arrest: the researchers taking action over climate change
Fed up with a lack of political progress in solving the climate problem, some researchers are becoming activists to slow global warming.
- Daniel Grossman
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Editorial |
Science can drive development and unity in Africa — as it does in the US and Europe
A plan to establish Africa’s first continent-wide science fund should not be delayed any longer.
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World View |
How to boost your research: take a sabbatical in policy
Academic researchers have a unique opportunity to benefit society — and their research — by spending time in government.
- Jordan Dworkin