Featured
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Books & Arts |
Stewpots and string: how scientists make do
Derek Lowe draws lessons for today from a history of scientists’ experimental hacks.
- Derek Lowe
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News |
Turkey creates its first space agency
A decree by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has established a national space agency, but many details are still to come.
- Çağrı Mert Bakırcı-Taylor
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News |
Black-hole jets begin to reveal their antimatter secrets
The first simulations of matter and antimatter particles swirling around a rotating black hole hint at the origins of the enigmatic jets.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News & Views |
From the archive
How Nature reported anxiety about a Mars probe in 1969, and the lack of scientists in the British government in 1919.
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News |
US astronomers plot wish list for the next decade
Survey to set field’s priorities is haunted by ghosts of past efforts.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Feature |
Hidden history of the Milky Way revealed by extensive star maps
Data from the Gaia spacecraft are radically transforming how we see the evolution of our Galaxy.
- Adam Mann
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News |
Plant sprouts on the Moon for first time ever
China’s Chang’e-4 lander has sent back pictures of a cotton seed sprouting in a miniature biosphere experiment on the craft.
- Davide Castelvecchi
- & Mićo Tatalović
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News |
Hubble telescope camera is broken — and US government shutdown could delay repairs
Ageing telescope’s wide-field camera fails while key NASA employees are on involuntary, indefinite leave due to political impasse.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
What to expect in 2019: science in the new year
Gene-editing, open access and a biosafety rethink are set to shape research.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Books & Arts |
Explorers at sea: centuries of science afloat
In seafarers’ journals, Huw Lewis-Jones found a rich record of discoveries made in cramped cabins, on open decks and on forays to shore to bring back proofs of marvels.
- Huw Lewis-Jones
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Nature Index |
China’s place among the stars
The FAST telescope dish, stretching half a kilometre, will thrust China’s radio astronomers into a role of global leadership.
- Mark Zastrow
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News & Views |
From the archive
How Nature reported the Apollo space missions in 1968, and a proposed aerial survey of the British Isles in 1918.
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News |
Voyager 2 enters interstellar space after 41 years
Second of NASA's epic long-distance probes sails beyond the Sun's influence.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Moon exploration is back in fashion as nations vie in space race
As China’s Chang'-4 mission is about to head off to the far side of the Moon, Nature looks at the history and future of lunar missions.
- Matthew Warren
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News |
China set to launch first-ever spacecraft to the far side of the Moon
Chang’e-4 mission will test plant growth on the Moon, and listen for radio emissions normally blocked by Earth's atmosphere.
- Andrew Silver
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Books & Arts |
Dome, sweet home: climate shelters past, present and future
Architectural solutions to hostile environments run through science fact and fiction, show Rachael Squire, Peter Adey and Rikke Bjerg Jensen.
- Rachael Squire
- , Peter Adey
- & Rikke Bjerg Jensen
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News & Views |
From the archive
What Nature said 50 and 100 years ago about record-breaking telescopes and the end of the First World War.
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Books & Arts |
Rock legend retells the race to the Moon — in 3D
Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May’s latest collaboration is a stereoscopic delight, finds May Chiao.
- May Chiao
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News |
Holy Cow! Astronomers agog at mysterious new supernova
An event known as ‘Cow’ that has rocked astronomy since June likely offers a close look at the birth of a neutron star or black hole.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Embattled Thirty Meter Telescope scores big win in Hawaii’s highest court
State supreme court rules that the US$1.4-billion observatory’s construction permit is valid, after years-long legal battle.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Feature |
How to build a Moon base
Researchers are ramping up plans for living on the Moon.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Mission maths: which planets do space scientists love most — and least?
As BepiColombo heads to Mercury — a long-neglected planet — Nature looks at which planets attract scientific missions, and why.
- Matthew Warren
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News |
Mission to Mercury launches successfully
BepiColombo — which has begun its seven-year journey to the Solar System’s innermost planet — has sent back its first images from space.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Books & Arts |
Solar flair: the Sun on show
Elizabeth Gibney soaks up an exhibition blazing with hot science and cultural riches.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Books & Arts |
Black-hole chronicles: chasing the gravitational beast
Richard Panek on two books tackling a counter-intuitive concept that defied Einstein.
- Richard Panek
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News |
Riskiest landing of Japan's asteroid mission delayed until January
Touchdown of Hayabusa2 mothership has been postponed because of unexpectedly rough terrain.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
All systems go for second-ever mission to enter Mercury’s orbit
European and Japanese €1.6-billion double probe, BepiColombo, will take seven years to reach the Solar System’s innermost planet.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Russian space agency to investigate Soyuz rocket crash
A Russian cosmonaut and a US astronaut are safe after their rocket, bound for the International Space Station, malfunctioned.
- Jeremy Rehm
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: The life of a new Nobel laureate and organised ants
Shamini Bundell and Noah Baker bring you the latest science news.
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News |
Hubble telescope stops collecting data after mechanical fault
A malfunctioning gyroscope has temporarily hobbled the ageing space observatory.
- Alexandra Witze
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Books & Arts |
An ode to female space trainees, the creeping cost of climate change, and the fabric of history: Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Books & Arts |
Starry visions, lunar dreams: space exploration in pictures
Elizabeth Gibney relishes a richly illustrated chronicle of space exploration and its deep roots in cosmology.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Glitch interrupts space mission to map Earth’s gravity
Instrument trouble stops twin satellites from collecting data.
- Alexandra Witze
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Letter |
Autogenous and efficient acceleration of energetic ions upstream of Earth’s bow shock
Observations of a hot flow anomaly accelerating solar-wind ions suggest a mechanism for such acceleration—a Fermi acceleration trap caused by Earth’s bow shock interacting with the solar wind.
- D. L. Turner
- , L. B. Wilson III
- & J. L. Burch
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Space junk, and a physicist’s perspective on life
Science news, brought to you by Shamini Bundell and Adam Levy.
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News & Views |
From the archive
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News |
Spacecraft sets off to make humanity’s closest approach to the Sun
The Parker Solar Probe is the first NASA mission to be named after a living person.
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News |
Dumpling-shaped asteroid comes into focus
Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission has snapped the closest images yet of its target, a kilometre-wide rock called Ryugu.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Telescope spots enigmatic fast radio burst
A Canadian radio telescope called CHIME is poised to record dozens of fast radio bursts each day.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Books & Arts |
Ideal witness: a physicist takes on the world
Robert P. Crease enjoys Steven Weinberg’s rationalist view of science and its history.
- Robert P. Crease
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News |
Death-defying NASA mission will make humanity’s closest approach to the Sun
The Parker Solar Probe will dive into the sizzling solar corona to explore its mysteries.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Delays mount for NASA’s $8-billion Hubble successor
The James Webb Space Telescope won't launch until 2021 — and threatens to crowd out other big astronomy missions.
- Alexandra Witze
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Books & Arts |
The artist who walked on the Moon: Alan Bean
Richard Taylor pays tribute to the Apollo astronaut who beautifully meshed science and art.
- Richard Taylor
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News |
Chinese satellite launch kicks off ambitious mission to Moon’s far side
Queqiao probe will act as relay station for a future lunar lander, and carries two radio-astronomy experiments that will explore the early Universe.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Books & Arts |
Paying a visit to Pluto, how to tell causation from correlation, and the magic of milk: Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Letter |
Electron magnetic reconnection without ion coupling in Earth’s turbulent magnetosheath
Observations of electron-scale current sheets in Earth’s turbulent magnetosheath reveal electron reconnection without ion coupling, contrary to expectations from the standard model of magnetic reconnection.
- T. D. Phan
- , J. P. Eastwood
- & W. Magnes
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News |
Billion-star map of Milky Way set to transform astronomy
European Gaia spacecraft’s first major data dump — the most detailed 3D chart yet of our Galaxy — will keep researchers busy for decades.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Mars probe poised to solve red planet’s methane mystery
Researchers hope European–Russian Trace Gas Orbiter will end a long-running debate over source of the gas on Mars.
- Nisha Gaind