Featured
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News |
Ditching ‘Anthropocene’: why ecologists say the term still matters
Beyond stratigraphic definitions, the name has broader significance for understanding humans’ place on Earth.
- David Adam
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News |
More than 4,000 plastic chemicals are hazardous, report finds
Year-long effort compiles comprehensive database of chemicals in plastics.
- Nicola Jones
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News & Views |
Drought-fuelled overnight burning propels large fires in North America
Burning events that occur at night have been revealed as a driver of large wildfires. Prolonged drought conditions are to blame, making it easier for fires to spread at night when they would ordinarily slow or extinguish completely.
- Jennifer K. Balch
- & Adam L. Mahood
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Article |
Drought triggers and sustains overnight fires in North America
By examining the hourly diurnal cycle of 23,557 fires in North America during 2017–2020, 1,095 overnight burning events were identified, mostly associated with extreme fires and driven by long-term drought conditions.
- Kaiwei Luo
- , Xianli Wang
- & Mike Flannigan
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News |
Did ‘alien’ debris hit Earth? Startling claim sparks row at scientific meeting
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
US oil and gas system emissions from nearly one million aerial site measurements
We integrate approximately one million aerial site measurements into regional emissions inventories for six regions in the USA, finding methane emission intensities that vary by more than a factor of ten.
- Evan D. Sherwin
- , Jeffrey S. Rutherford
- & Adam R. Brandt
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Correspondence |
Water shortages means greening southern European cities won’t be easy
- Jaime Madrigal-González
- , José Miguel Olano
- & Gabriel Sangüesa-Barreda
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Comment |
Why the world cannot afford the rich
Equality is essential for sustainability. The science is clear — people in more-equal societies are more trusting and more likely to protect the environment than are those in unequal, consumer-driven ones.
- Richard G. Wilkinson
- & Kate E. Pickett
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News |
China–US climate collaboration concerns as Xie and Kerry step down
The friendship between the two men survived hostile moments between their countries.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Where I Work |
Why I wander with wonder through Lesotho’s wetlands
Lerato Seleteng-Kose studies the unique plants that live in these cold, remote parts of southern Africa.
- Linda Nordling
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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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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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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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Matters Arising |
Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon
- Xianjin He
- , Rose Z. Abramoff
- & Daniel S. Goll
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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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Comment |
The world must rethink plans for ageing oil and gas platforms
Earth’s oceans are awash with ageing energy infrastructure. A change in the law is needed to ensure that these structures are decommissioned in ways that maximize environmental and societal benefits.
- Antony Knights
- , Anaëlle Lemasson
- & Paul Somerfield
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon
- Feng Tao
- , Benjamin Z. Houlton
- & Yiqi Luo
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Article
| Open AccessDisappearing cities on US coasts
High-resolution vertical land motion and elevation datasets combined with projections of sea-level rise of 32 major US coastal cities shows that a considerable amount of land area, population, and properties are threatened by relative sea-level rise by 2050.
- Leonard O. Ohenhen
- , Manoochehr Shirzaei
- & Robert J. Nicholls
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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 |
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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News |
Landmark study links microplastics to serious health problems
People who had tiny plastic particles lodged in a key blood vessel were more likely to experience heart attack, stroke or death during a three-year study.
- Max Kozlov
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Nature Podcast |
These tiny fish combine electric pulses to probe the environment
Elephantnose fish share electric pulses to extend their senses, and the bumblebees that show a uniquely human trait.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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World View |
Megafires are here to stay — and blaming only climate change won’t help
It’s not just global warming that’s driving the growth in destructive wildfires. Better land management is the first step to mitigating the risks.
- Renata Libonati
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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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Technology Feature |
Five tips for digitizing handwritten data
Need to digitize field notes or historical documents? Researchers share their best practices.
- Alla Katsnelson
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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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Where I Work |
I look for the mineral equivalent of tree rings
Yang Li’s research has developed a high-precision chronology of rocks.
- Virginia Gewin
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Research Highlight |
Why sunsets were a weird colour after Krakatau blew its top
Evening skies, which are usually red after a volcanic eruption, were instead emerald after the 1883 event.
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News |
This methane-sniffing satellite will leave climate polluters nowhere to hide
Set to launch as early as next week, MethaneSAT will partner with Google to map leaks from the oil and gas industry and beyond.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Career Q&A |
I returned my neuroscience grant to devote my career to the climate crisis
US psychologist Adam Aron says it’s time to act to alleviate the devastating consequences of the planet’s current trajectory.
- Christina Szalinski
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Research Highlight |
Submerged volcano’s eruption was the biggest since the last ice age
Some 7,300 years ago, the Kikai volcano in Japan produced up to 457 cubic kilometres of ash and other debris.
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Outlook |
Robot, repair thyself: laying the foundations for self-healing machines
Advances in materials science and sensing could deliver robots that can mend themselves and feel pain.
- Simon Makin
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News |
Private Moon lander is dying — it scored some wins for science
The Odysseus spacecraft gathered data successfully from the lunar surface.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
| Open AccessLatitudinal patterns in stabilizing density dependence of forest communities
An analysis of tree survival data from forest sites worldwide shows that in the tropics, rare tree species experience stronger stabilizing density dependence than common species, wheras no correlation of stabilizing density dependence and abundance exists in the temperate zone.
- Lisa Hülsmann
- , Ryan A. Chisholm
- & Florian Hartig
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Correspondence |
Europe needs a joined-up approach for monitoring and protecting its forests
- Marco Ferretti
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Correspondence |
Russia’s Arctic Council threat requires lessons from cold war science diplomacy
- Paul Arthur Berkman
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Correspondence |
Train young scientists in taxonomy to help solve the biodiversity crisis
- Dasheng Liu
- , Julian R. Thompson
- & Henglun Shen
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News |
Japanese Moon-lander unexpectedly survives the lunar night
Its engineers never gave up hope, but the Moon-lander continues to beat the odds.
- Ling Xin
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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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Research Briefing |
Machine learning reveals huge potential benefits of sustainable fertilizer use
Agricultural fertilizers are the main global source of ammonia emissions, which harm human health and reduce farmers’ profits. An analysis using big data and machine learning reveals that locally optimized fertilizer-management and tillage practices could slash ammonia emissions from rice, wheat and maize cultivation by up to 38%.
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News |
First private Moon lander touches down on lunar surface to make history
After a nail-biting descent, the Odysseus spacecraft has landed near the lunar south pole and prepares to kick off a week of data gathering.
- Alexandra Witze
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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 |
Why citizen scientists are gathering DNA from hundreds of lakes — on the same day
Massive environmental DNA project will take a record-setting snapshot of biodiversity worldwide.
- Lydia Larsen
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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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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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Article
| Open AccessProgressive unanchoring of Antarctic ice shelves since 1973
Pinning-point changes over three epochs spanning the periods 1973–1989, 1989–2000 and 2000−2022 were measured, and by proxy the changes to ice-shelf thickness back to 1973–1989 were inferred.
- Bertie W. J. Miles
- & Robert G. Bingham
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Correspondence |
Triple win: solar farms in deserts can boost power, incomes and ecosystems
- Haimeng Liu
- & Jianguo Liu
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Editorial |
It’s time for countries to honour their million-dollar biodiversity pledges
Promises to safeguard biodiversity need to be translated into money in the bank.