Featured
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Toolbox |
Map-making on a budget
Cut-price cartography tools are making light work of map-making.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
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Nature Index |
Facing down disaster
An institute’s work on warning and mitigation systems for catastrophic events is a national priority.
- Tim Hornyak
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Research Highlight |
The housing trend feeding wildfires’ flames
The hot market for homes close to nature is raising the threat from wildfires.
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Article
| Open AccessMapping local variation in educational attainment across Africa
Local-level analyses show that, despite marked progress in educational attainment from 2000 to 2015 across Africa, substantial differences persist between locations and sexes that have widened in many countries.
- Nicholas Graetz
- , Joseph Friedman
- & Simon I. Hay
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Research Highlight |
For many, it’s a long way to the city
Access to urban centres is vastly unequal.
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Letter |
A global map of travel time to cities to assess inequalities in accessibility in 2015
Travel time to cities in 2015 is quantified in a high-resolution global map that will be useful for socio-economic policy design and conservation research.
- D. J. Weiss
- , A. Nelson
- & P. W. Gething
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News |
Rescued radar maps reveal Antarctica's past
More than 2 million newly digitized images extend the history of the bottom of the ice sheet.
- Alexandra Witze
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Letter |
Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica
Analyses of house-size distributions in the Old and New World showed that wealth disparities increased with the domestication of plants and animals and with increased sociopolitical scale.
- Timothy A. Kohler
- , Michael E. Smith
- & Samuel Bowles
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Books & Arts |
Polar exploration: The forgotten journey
Huw Lewis-Jones revisits a pioneering, ill-fated expedition to map the Arctic.
- Huw Lewis-Jones
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News |
Newly discovered orangutan species is also the most endangered
The first new species of great ape described in more than eight decades faces threats to its habitat.
- April Reese
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Comment |
Revitalize the world’s countryside
A rural revival is needed to counter urbanization across the globe, say Yansui Liu and Yuheng Li.
- Yansui Liu
- & Yuheng Li
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News |
Germany and Poland launch research ‘twinning’ effort
Bilateral partnership may provide new blueprint for EU east-west collaboration.
- Quirin Schiermeier
- & Alison Abbott
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Brief Communications Arising |
Maximum human lifespan may increase to 125 years
- Joop de Beer
- , Anastasios Bardoutsos
- & Fanny Janssen
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News |
Arctic nations strike down research roadblocks
Binding pact aims to ease access to field sites and shipment of samples across national borders.
- Hannah Hoag
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News |
Satellite images reveal gaps in global population data
Algorithms help to produce precise maps of where people in developing countries live and work.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News & Views |
Digital maps illuminate ancient trade routes
How did the relationship between human societies and their surrounding terrain shape the formation of long-distance trade networks such as the Silk Road? Digital mapping and computer modelling offer insights. See Article p.193
- Michael J. Harrower
- & Ioana A. Dumitru
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Editorial |
Data on movements of refugees and migrants are flawed
Accurate and timely information on the flow of people is crucial for policymaking and apolitical interpretations.
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Books & Arts |
Energy: Scanning the energy horizon
Michael Grubb finds more breadth than depth in Dieter Helm's study on oil's demise.
- Michael Grubb
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News Feature |
Hunted, haunted, stateless and scared: the stories of refugee scientists
Displaced researchers face huge challenges making lives abroad, even if they find work.
- Gunjan Sinha
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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News |
Why British universities are unlikely to accept invitation to set up campuses in France
Paris consortium hopes to lure UK institutions with promise of access to European research funds after Brexit.
- Barbara Casassus
- & Daniel Cressey
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Books & Arts |
Ecology: Winged insights
H. Charles J. Godfray is inspired by the scientific memoir of late island ecologist Ilkka Hanski.
- H. Charles J. Godfray
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News Feature |
Can wind and solar fuel Africa's future?
With prices for renewables dropping, many countries in Africa might leap past dirty forms of energy towards a cleaner future.
- Erica Gies
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Books & Arts |
Natural history: Voices from the greenwood
Caspar Henderson applauds a paean to the brilliant forest ecologist Oliver Rackham.
- Caspar Henderson
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News Feature |
Warning to forest destroyers: this scientist will catch you
Matthew Hansen uses satellites to spot deforestation as it happens.
- Gabriel Popkin
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Nature Video |
Where to put the next billion people
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Comment |
Where to put the next billion people
Richard T. T. Forman and Jianguo Wu call for global and regional approaches to urban planning.
- Richard T. T. Forman
- & Jianguo Wu
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News |
Peru signals space ambitions with Earth-monitoring satellite
Spacecraft could help scientists track logging, natural disasters and illegal mining.
- Gabriel Popkin
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News |
How scientists reacted to the Brexit
Researchers respond to the UK's momentous decision to leave the EU.
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News |
Researchers reeling as UK votes to leave EU
Future of science uncertain after referendum result.
- Daniel Cressey
- & Alison Abbott
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News Feature |
Can Delhi save itself from its toxic air?
India’s capital city scrambles to tackle its epic pollution problems.
- Meera Subramanian
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News & Views |
50 & 100 Years Ago
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News |
Satellite alerts track deforestation in real time
System uses Landsat data to issue warnings just hours after tree loss is detected.
- Gabriel Popkin
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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News Feature |
The greatest vanishing act in prehistoric America
Seven centuries ago, tens of thousands of people fled their homes in the American Southwest. Archaeologists are trying to work out why.
- Richard Monastersky
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Books & Arts |
Anthropology: One-man multidisciplinarian
Clare Pettitt reassesses the legacy of Victorian polymath Richard Francis Burton.
- Clare Pettitt
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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News |
Human error is behind many avalanche deaths
Better camp placement and avalanche forecasting are key to saving lives, says researcher.
- Jane Qiu
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Books & Arts |
Palaeontology: Tracing the backbone in China's rocks
Xu Xing relishes a bilingual book on the evolution of vertebrate life in his fabulously fossil-rich country.
- Xu Xing
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Toolbox |
Data visualization: Science on the map
Easy-to-use mapping tools give researchers the power to create beautiful visualizations of geographic data.
- Mark Zastrow