Featured
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Nature Podcast |
The science stories you missed over the holiday period
We highlight some of the Nature Briefing’s stories from the end of 2023, including a polar bear fur-inspired sweater, efforts to open OSIRIS-REx’s sample canister, and a dinosaur’s last dinner.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Noah Baker
- & Flora Graham
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News & Views |
From the archive: the other Darwin, and illegitimate access to honey
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: a towering legacy, and unseasonal wasps
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News & Views |
From the archive: waltzing mice, and Louis Pasteur’s beer battle
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Nature Video |
Super-propulsion: how sharpshooting insects flick their pee
High-speed cameras reveal tiny insects employing a physical phenomenon, never-before seen in a natural system to avoid drowning in their own urine
- Noah Baker
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Nature Podcast |
The Nature Podcast highlights of 2023
The team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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News |
Reindeer can activate sleep mode while eating
Putting the brain into sleep mode helps to maximize food intake during bountiful Arctic summers.
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Nature Podcast |
What were some of the biggest stories of 2023? Join us for the Nature Podcast quiz!
In a game of twenty questions our contestants stretch their memories to remember some of the science stories that made headlines this year.
- Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
Domestic cats eat whatever they can catch
A meta-analysis of the diets of domestic cats.
- Andrew Mitchinson
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News & Views |
How hyenas decide whether to form a lion-fighting mob
Monitoring complex hyena societies in the wild sheds light on factors that predict whether individuals will engage in a risky collective activity.
- Mary Abraham
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News |
This penguin survives on 4-second microsleeps — thousands of times a day
The power naps of the chinstrap penguin are even briefer and more frequent when it is tending eggs.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Research Highlight |
Dolphins have a feel for electric fields
The bottlenose dolphin’s keen ‘electroreception’ sense might help it to locate buried prey and navigate the seas.
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Nature Podcast |
Why COP28 probably won’t keep the 1.5 degree dream alive
We discuss the challenges of the upcoming climate-change conference, and a way to make stable plasma using hairy blocks.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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News |
This sparrow massively expands part of its brain in preparation for mating
The trick baffles researchers — but they are getting closer to understanding how the songbird does it.
- Anil Oza
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Nature Podcast |
Polio could be eradicated within 3 years — what happens then?
How to ensure polio doesn’t return after eradication, and the space explosion that’s baffling scientists.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
From the archive: a juice extractor in an insect’s gut, and amateur radio telephony
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
These bats are the first mammals found to have non-penetrative mating
A European bat has been captured on film engaging in what appears to be an unusual reproductive strategy.
- Gayathri Vaidyanathan
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Research Highlight |
These falcons excel at problem-solving — and outdo some of the world’s smartest birds
A bird of prey called the striated caracara can figure out puzzles that are a struggle for Goffin’s cockatoos, which are known for their intelligence.
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News |
CRISPR and ‘e-ink’: new tools could reveal the secrets of cuttlefish camouflage
Technology moves scientists closer than ever to understanding how colour-blind cuttlefish pull off their kaleidoscopic patterns.
- Max Kozlov
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Research Briefing |
Impact of a catastrophic tropical cyclone on large African mammals
In 2019, Cyclone Idai caused devastating flooding in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park when ecological studies of mammals were already under way. Small-bodied species and those in low-lying areas were affected most, suggesting that animals’ sensitivity to extreme weather depends on traits such as body size and habitat use.
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News & Views |
From the archive: air for prairie dogs, and popular fallacies explained
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Research Highlight |
Male-killing virus leads to more female moths
Virus that quashes survival of male moth embryos arose independently of other microorganisms that skew sex ratios.
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News & Views |
From the archive: why the chicken crossed the road, and a frog in puffed breeches
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
How to keep wildcats wild: ancient DNA offers fresh insights
Ancient-genomics studies are boosting efforts to save Scotland’s endangered ‘Highland tigers’ — and keep them separate from domestic cats.
- Ewen Callaway
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Nature Video |
How would a starfish wear trousers? Science has an answer
Gene expression reveals the story behind starfishes’ strange five-armed body plans
- Shamini Bundell
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News |
Blood-sucking fish had flesh-eating ancestors
Two ‘superbly preserved’ fossil lampreys from the Jurassic period help piece together the past of the unusual jawless fish.
- Xiaoying You
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News |
Menopausal chimpanzees deepen the mystery of why women stop reproducing
Some chimpanzees have been found to experience menopause. But are they the exception or the rule?
- Dyani Lewis
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News & Views |
Dopamine determines how reward overrides risk
Why do animals pursue reward in the face of punishment? Dopamine-releasing neurons that promote reward-seeking behaviour indirectly impair those that encode punishment avoidance, affecting decisions on risk.
- Kristin M. Scaplen
- & Karla R. Kaun
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Article |
Leishmania genetic exchange is mediated by IgM natural antibodies
Genetic exchange of Leishmania parasites in the sand fly host is mediated by natural IgM antibodies, providing insights that will help generate reproducible and increased recovery of backcrosses for research purposes.
- Tiago D. Serafim
- , Eva Iniguez
- & Jesus G. Valenzuela
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News |
Mysterious mouse mummies found atop lofty volcanoes
Naturally freeze-dried leaf-eared mice found above 6,000 metres show mammals can dwell at extraordinary heights.
- Anil Oza
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News & Views |
From the archive: animal behaviour, and Darwin discusses organ loss
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
Australia’s feral horses need ‘urgent’ control: scientists welcome latest report
Ecologists have praised government recommendations, but some say more concrete action — including a cull — is needed.
- Dyani Lewis
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Nature Index |
Three scientists on the front line of climate and conservation research
By bearing firsthand witness to how the climate crisis is affecting life and livelihoods, their fieldwork directly informs policy to protect vulnerable sites.
- Sandy Ong
- & Andy Tay
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Article
| Open AccessBridging two insect flight modes in evolution, physiology and robophysics
Asynchronous flight in all major groups of insects likely arose from a single common ancestor with reversions to a synchronous flight mode enabled by shifts back and forth between different regimes in the same set of dynamic parameters.
- Jeff Gau
- , James Lynch
- & Simon Sponberg
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: These animals are racing towards extinction. A new home might be their last chance
Researchers are testing a controversial strategy to relocate threatened animals whose habitats might not survive climate change.
- Clare Watson
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Research Highlight |
Snow-loving flies amputate their own legs for survival
Insects that traipse across winter snowfields use harsh technique to keep their internal organs from freezing.
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News |
How to train your jellyfish: brainless box jellies learn from experience
Researchers have shown that the creatures can learn to avoid obstacles using visual and mechanical cues, despite not having a brain.
- Dyani Lewis
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News & Views |
The neural circuit that makes maternal mice respond to pups’ cries
All newborn mammals cry. The neural circuit that stimulates mothers to look after crying offspring has been identified in mice — along with a mechanism that promotes maternal behaviour only after prolonged calls from pups.
- Flavia Ricciardi
- & Cristina Márquez
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Nature Podcast |
Why does cancer spread to the spine? Newly discovered stem cells might be the key
A stem cell vital for vertebral growth also drives spine metastases, and the use of MDMA in the treatment of PTSD.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article
| Open AccessThe oldest three-dimensionally preserved vertebrate neurocranium
Computed tomography reveals that the cranial anatomy of Ordovician stem-group gnathostome Eriptychius americanus from the Harding Sandstone of Colorado, USA, is distinct among vertebrates.
- Richard P. Dearden
- , Agnese Lanzetti
- & Ivan J. Sansom
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News |
Tasmanian tiger RNA is first to be recovered from an extinct animal
Genetic sequences from a museum specimen offer fresh clues about the physiology of thylacines, which went extinct in the 1930s.
- Miryam Naddaf
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Research Highlight |
This parrot taps out beats — and it custom-builds its instruments
Male palm cockatoos prefer certain types of percussion tool, which they create themselves from branches and seed pods.
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News |
Octopuses used in research could receive same protections as monkeys
For the first time in the United States, research with cephalopods might require approval by an ethics committee.
- Sara Reardon
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Nature Podcast |
Our ancestors lost nearly 99% of their population, 900,000 years ago
A roundup of stories from the Nature Briefing, including how human ancestors came close to extinction, historic pollution in Antarctica, and the AI that predicts smell from a compound's structure.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Dan Fox
- & Shamini Bundell
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News |
‘Weird’ dinosaur prompts rethink of bird evolution
The fossil is as old as the ‘first bird’, Archaeopteryx, and might have specialized in running or wading instead of flying.
- Jude Coleman
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News Feature |
These animals are racing towards extinction. A new home might be their last chance
Some of the most threatened animals might not survive in their current habitat because of climate change. Researchers are testing a controversial strategy to relocate them before it’s too late — starting with Australia’s rarest reptile.
- Clare Watson
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Research Briefing |
Peering into bats’ brains as the animals fly and feed together
Many animals, including humans, live together and move in coordination with others, but little is known about how neurons represent or govern such complex behaviours. By studying free-flying bats, we found that neural activity in a region of the brain called the hippocampus contains a rich representation of the spatial and social environment that could support collective behaviour.
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News |
Most rare kākāpō parrots have had their genome sequenced
DNA from more than 100 of the critically endangered birds could help to save the species from extinction.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Nature Podcast |
Brain-reading implants turn thoughts into speech
Two studies demonstrate how brain-computer interfaces could help people to communicate, and working out how hot it can get before tropical leaves start to die.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe