Nature

‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs

In shock move, four institute directors at the US biomedical agency are removed from their posts.

Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health?

Researchers are debating the strength of evidence connecting technology to surging rates of adolescent mental illness. But they have some clear advice for parents.

Helen Pearson
News Feature02 Apr 2025
Revealed: first DNA profiles of ancient people who roamed a lush Sahara

The genomes of two women who lived 7,000 years ago in the Sahara when it was a green savannah reveal a remarkably isolated population.

Freda Kreier
News02 Apr 2025
A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia

Using a natural experiment that avoids common bias concerns, this study finds that the live-attenuated shingles vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis within a follow-up period of 7 years by approximately one-fifth.

Markus Eyting
Min Xie
Pascal Geldsetzer
ArticleOpen Access02 Apr 2025
AI masters Minecraft: DeepMind program finds diamonds without being taught

The Dreamer system reached the milestone by ‘imagining’ the future impact of possible decisions.

Celeste Biever
News02 Apr 2025
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Take Nature’s poll: How will Trump’s policies affect US science?

The new administration is reshaping the research landscape in the United States in profound ways. What do you think of all the changes?

News03 Apr 2025
How does the brain control consciousness? This deep-brain structure
Smriti Mallapaty

News03 Apr 2025
Journal targeted by paper mill still grappling with the aftermath years later
Miryam Naddaf

News03 Apr 2025
From bench to bread: how science can enhance your hobbies
Hannah Docter-Loeb

Career Feature02 Apr 2025
Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health?
Helen Pearson

News Feature02 Apr 2025
Are screens harming teens? What scientists can do to find answers

Editorial02 Apr 2025
Revealed: first DNA profiles of ancient people who roamed a lush Sahara
Freda Kreier

News02 Apr 2025

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- A toolkit for seeing how the fly brain’s visual system works
  
  A complete inventory of the Drosophila visual system classifies about 53,000 neurons into 732 types. The shapes and connections of all the visual neurons have been quantified, and a large collection of genetically engineered fly lines have been shared, providing a comprehensive toolkit for studying fly vision.
  
  Research Briefing02 Apr 2025
- Sunflower ‘virgin births’ enable accelerated crop breeding
  
  The discovery that sunflower seeds can develop without fertilization reveals a pathway to accelerate improvement of this crop — and potentially others.
  
  Marco Todesco
  Loren H. Rieseberg
  
  News & Views02 Apr 2025
- Light wins uphill battle to solve enduring problem in organic synthesis
  
  Mirror-image isomer blends have been converted into a single isomer by a light-activated copper catalyst — a challenging reaction that prevents the waste of materials.
  
  Wenzheng Fan
  Guosheng Liu
  
  News & Views02 Apr 2025
- Intriguing features of the interface between water and oil droplets uncovered
  
  Innovative experimental and computational techniques have been developed to study the interface of oil droplets suspended in water, a model system of hydrophobic interaction. These techniques reveal greater water structural disorder than in bulk water and an intense electric field at the water–oil interface.
  
  Research Briefing02 Apr 2025
- The neurons that mediate a psychedelic’s long-term antidepressive effects
  
  Psilocybin, a classic psychedelic, has therapeutic potential for psychiatric disorders. A specific brain circuit and receptor have now been found to be required for psilocybin’s long-term effects on neural plasticity and depression-related behaviour.
  
  Research Briefing02 Apr 2025
- Rare ancient DNA from Sahara opens a window on the region’s verdant past
  
  Mary Prendergast
  
  News & Views02 Apr 2025
- Could the shingles vaccine help to prevent dementia?
  
  Anupam B. Jena
  
  News & Views02 Apr 2025
- How seahorses and pipefish inspired the design of a boat propeller
  
  News & Views01 Apr 2025
- Global marine heatwave of 2023–24 was viewed as unlikely but not impossible given current warming
  
  Research Briefing26 Mar 2025

Latest Research articles

Strategic atom replacement enables regiocontrol in pyrazole alkylation

Alexander Fanourakis
Yahia Ali
Mark D. Levin
Article03 Apr 2025
Hidden states and dynamics of fractional fillings in twisted MoTe₂ bilayers

Yiping Wang
Jeongheon Choe
X.-Y. Zhu
Article03 Apr 2025
Photoinduced copper-catalysed deracemization of alkyl halides

A chiral copper catalyst, generated in situ from commercially available components, can be used to achieve photoinduced deracemization of alkyl halides through carbon–halogen bond cleavage.

Feng Zhong
Renhe Li
Gregory C. Fu
Article02 Apr 2025
A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia

Using a natural experiment that avoids common bias concerns, this study finds that the live-attenuated shingles vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis within a follow-up period of 7 years by approximately one-fifth.

Markus Eyting
Min Xie
Pascal Geldsetzer
ArticleOpen Access02 Apr 2025
Mastering diverse control tasks through world models

A general reinforcement-learning algorithm, called Dreamer, outperforms specialized expert algorithms across diverse tasks by learning a model of the environment and improving its behaviour by imagining future scenarios.

Danijar Hafner
Jurgis Pasukonis
Timothy Lillicrap
ArticleOpen Access02 Apr 2025

Since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, his team has made major changes to the federal government that have disrupted research and research institutions in the United States and beyond.

Collection 26 Feb 2025

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Nanjing Forestry University Recruits Metasequoia Scholars and Metasequoia Talents Worldwide

Forestry Engineering, Forestry, Landscape Architecture (peak disciplines), Ecology, Agriculture and Forestry Economic Management, Design...

Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Nanjing Forestry University (NFU)
Chief Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering

Job Title: Chief Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering Locations: New York, Beijing or Shanghai (Hybrid Working Model) Application Deadline: April ...

New York City, New York (US)

Springer Nature Ltd
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Leading Scholars、Excellent Young Scholars(Overseas)、Outstanding Young Talents、Professor 、Associate Professor

Xian, Shaanxi (CN)

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Faculty Positions in Advanced Materials Thrust, Function Hub, HKUST(GZ)

Faculty Positions in Advanced Materials Thrust, Function Hub, HKUST(GZ).

Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Postdoctoral Scholar-Department of Dermatology

The Department of Dermatology at the University of California, Irvine anticipates openings for a postdoctoral scholar. Applications are being sough...

University of California Irvine, Irvine

Ampi Montiel, AP&HR Manager

‘One of the darkest days’: NIH purges agency leadership amid mass layoffs

Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health?

Revealed: first DNA profiles of ancient people who roamed a lush Sahara

A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia

AI masters Minecraft: DeepMind program finds diamonds without being taught

News & Comment

Take Nature’s poll: How will Trump’s policies affect US science?

How does the brain control consciousness? This deep-brain structure

Journal targeted by paper mill still grappling with the aftermath years later

From bench to bread: how science can enhance your hobbies

Do smartphones and social media really harm teens’ mental health?

Are screens harming teens? What scientists can do to find answers

Revealed: first DNA profiles of ancient people who roamed a lush Sahara

Latest Reviews & Analysis

A toolkit for seeing how the fly brain’s visual system works

Sunflower ‘virgin births’ enable accelerated crop breeding

Light wins uphill battle to solve enduring problem in organic synthesis

Intriguing features of the interface between water and oil droplets uncovered

The neurons that mediate a psychedelic’s long-term antidepressive effects

Rare ancient DNA from Sahara opens a window on the region’s verdant past

Could the shingles vaccine help to prevent dementia?

How seahorses and pipefish inspired the design of a boat propeller

Global marine heatwave of 2023–24 was viewed as unlikely but not impossible given current warming

Latest Research articles

Strategic atom replacement enables regiocontrol in pyrazole alkylation

Hidden states and dynamics of fractional fillings in twisted MoTe₂ bilayers

Photoinduced copper-catalysed deracemization of alkyl halides

A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia

Mastering diverse control tasks through world models

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How Trump 2.0 is reshaping science

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Nanjing Forestry University Recruits Metasequoia Scholars and Metasequoia Talents Worldwide

Chief Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering

Global Talent Recruitment-Hospital of Stomatology Xi’an Jiaotong University

Faculty Positions in Advanced Materials Thrust, Function Hub, HKUST(GZ)

Postdoctoral Scholar-Department of Dermatology

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