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In June 2004, the results of an ambitious Antarctic ice-drilling project brought insight into hundreds of thousands of years of climatic changes. The extraordinary sample still has much to offer climate research — even as its successor is being drilled.
Using tissue from the developing fruit-fly wing, researchers show that a nucleus’s location in the cell determines how it experiences signals that regulate genes needed for proper wing formation.
Soft solids that swell with shifts in pressure, temperature and pH provide a way of detecting such changes in the fluid around the brain. The method could be used to determine other properties of fluids elsewhere in the body.
Knowing the occupation timescales for ancient sites offers insights into population dynamics. A dating approach now establishes the time frame during which prehistoric hearths were in use at a high level of precision.
More than 7,000 languages are in use throughout the world, but popular translation tools cannot deal with most of them. A translation model that was tested on under-represented languages takes a key step towards a solution.
DNA from organelles called mitochondria is not inherited from the father. But mitochondrial RNAs that sense paternal diet and mitochondrial quality are delivered from sperm to egg, affecting offspring metabolism.
This Perspective identifies common misperceptions regarding the harms of online misinformation, finding that exposure to false and inflammatory content is rare and concentrated among a small minority of people who already have extreme views.
PhD programmes in an industrial setting were on the rise in the 1970s, and a reflection on Darwin’s rich accomplishments, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
Analysis of 70 years of snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere reveals that snow buffers the effect of varying precipitation levels on streamflow. The link highlights the need to rethink water-resource management as snow levels decline.
Innovative solutions are needed to decrease greenhouse-gas emissions. Field trials show that supplementing farm soil with a bacterium that consumes the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide can substantially lower harmful emissions.
Uptake of ammonium ions by marine microorganisms called archaea is a key first step in the conversion of ammonium to nitrogen found in ecosystems. Structural evidence reveals how archaea capture ammonium in an efficient way.
A book on everyday biology that appeals to non-specialists and specialists alike, and a trek through hay fields causes one Nature reader to experience relentless ‘sneezings’, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
Certain neurons encode memories of events that occurred in specific physical locations known as place fields. Chickadees show patterns of neuronal activity that are specific to locations of hidden food but independent of place fields.
Sex-specific organ shape is usually thought to depend on sex chromosomes or hormones. Now it emerges that crosstalk between organs sculpts sex-specific 3D gut shape in flies, identifying a new way to consider organ growth.
Cement can be reused by including it as a component of steel recycling. This opens the way to an industrial partnership that improves the use of materials and lowers carbon emissions — but only if waste resources are well managed.
Neuroscientists find that two distinct neural pathways are responsible for the addictive properties of the opioid fentanyl: one mediates reward, the other promotes the seeking of relief from symptoms of withdrawal.
A phenomenon that affects the magnetic fields of rotating bodies could be involved in recurring changes in the Sun’s behaviour, which are related to a periodic flipping of its field. The proposal is a fresh take on this strange effect.
A simple design approach and predictive computational methods have spawned a pathway for making materials that could trap specific molecules — an ability needed for applications such as carbon capture.
Artificial neural networks that model the visual system of a male fruit fly can accurately predict the insect’s behaviour in response to seeing a potential mate — paving the way for the building of more complex models of brain circuits.
The chemistry of promethium, a rare radioactive element, has been clouded in mystery, owing to its scarcity and the difficulties involved in working with it. The synthesis of a complex of promethium plugs this knowledge gap.
