Featured
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Editorial |
Research assessment exercises are necessary — but we need to learn to do them better
Australia is overhauling its research evaluation system — an opportunity for it, and other countries, to review what makes a system work for everyone.
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News |
Four challenges facing Biden’s nominee for NIH director
If confirmed, Monica Bertagnolli will grapple with congressional investigations, threats to funding, diversity issues and public distrust of science.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Prized dinosaur fossil will finally be returned to Brazil
Following theft accusations, a German museum is set to hand over a one-of-a-kind dinosaur specimen with feather-like structures.
- Meghie Rodrigues
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Nature Index |
Proposed EU data laws leave researchers out in the cold
Some scientists say the European Commission’s Data Act would favour businesses in its aim to expand access rights to big data, and fear that publicly funded science will suffer.
- Nic Fleming
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World View |
Why the fate of Turkish higher education hinges on the country’s general election
Abolishing the council that controls the universities would allow higher education to finally blossom.
- Taner Bilgiç
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News |
Turkey’s landmark election: researchers urge winner to abolish university council
Opposition alliance agrees it’s time for military-era council to go. Governing party silent on calls to axe body with the power to hire and fire academics.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
CDC director Rochelle Walensky is leaving her post
Chief of US public-health agency announced her departure as COVID-19 emergency declarations end.
- Traci Watson
- & Max Kozlov
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News |
Mexico is seeding clouds to make rain — scientists aren’t sure it works
Researchers question the government’s investment, given uncertainties about the technology.
- Myriam Vidal Valero
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News Explainer |
Moon mission failure: why is it so hard to pull off a lunar landing?
The ispace lander’s failed touchdown highlights the challenges Moon landings pose, especially for private companies.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Chemist Charles Lieber avoids further prison time for lying about China ties
Ex-Harvard researcher was among the first academics tried under the now-defunct US China Initiative.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News |
Australian researchers welcome plan to curb politicians’ power to veto grants
Under new proposals, ministerial intervention would be limited to projects where national security is at stake.
- Dyani Lewis
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News Explainer |
US aims for electric-car revolution — will it work?
The Environmental Protection Agency has released draft regulations that set the stage for a huge transition to electric vehicles.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News Q&A |
How to convince a politician: a science adviser’s lessons from the pandemic
Patrick Vallance, who advised the UK government during the height of COVID, says that scientific officials should know four key things when guiding policymakers.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News Q&A |
Biden’s science adviser on the US push to compete with China
Arati Prabhakar speaks to Nature about innovation, science’s role in political decision-making and taking the reins after scandal.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News Explainer |
The world faces a water crisis — 4 powerful charts show how
Hundreds of millions of people lack access to safe water and sanitation. Will the first UN conference on water in nearly 50 years make a difference?
- Miryam Naddaf
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News Q&A |
‘Open for business’: risk-taking US health agency ready to spend $2.5-billion budget
One year after the launch of ARPA-H, Nature talks to director Renee Wegrzyn about her vision for the agency.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
How the US will remove ‘forever chemicals’ from its drinking water
The EPA has proposed a strict PFAS limit, but it will take money and innovative technologies to implement the plan.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Article |
Crop switching can enhance environmental sustainability and farmer incomes in China
Spatial optimizations of high-resolution data from China on crop-specific yields, harvested areas, environmental footprints and farmer incomes shows that crop switching can enhance environmental sustainability and farmer incomes, and contribute substantially towards China’s agricultural sustainable development targets.
- Wei Xie
- , Anfeng Zhu
- & Kyle Frankel Davis
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Nature Index |
Is Japan’s research decline turning a corner?
Efforts on funding and helping early-career researchers could be bearing fruit, but major challenges remain.
- Benjamin Plackett
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News Q&A |
Is nuclear war more likely after Russia’s suspension of the New START treaty?
The nation has spurned a major arms-control agreement, pushing nuclear powers towards a worrying lack of regulation, says non-proliferation researcher.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News |
Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ spark conservation row
Researchers worry Colombian environment ministry will side with animal-rights activists rather than curb the invasive animals’ spread.
- Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
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Editorial |
Syria after the earthquakes: what researchers can do to help
Equipment and expert aid are urgently needed for 4.7 million people in the country’s neglected northwest.
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News |
One MRI for 4.7 million people: the battle to treat Syria’s earthquake survivors
With only 64 X-ray and 73 kidney-dialysis machines, 7 CT scanners and one MRI machine, doctors in northwest Syria are racing against the clock to treat 8,500 injuries.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
China Initiative’s shadow looms large for US scientists
Anti-Asian scrutiny has only intensified since the controversial programme ended one year ago, researchers say.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News Explainer |
US lawsuit threatens access to abortion drug: the science behind the case
Judge’s decision could ban mifepristone across the country, and weaken the Food and Drug Administration’s authority.
- Mariana Lenharo
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Editorial |
Rebuilding Ukrainian science can’t wait — here’s how to start
International support has rightly focused on researchers who have been forced to flee. Ukraine’s devastated research infrastructure needs assistance, too.
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News |
Was famed poet Pablo Neruda poisoned? Scientists warn case not closed
Forensic investigation uncovers evidence that a lethal bacterium could have been in his body when he died.
- Michele Catanzaro
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News |
COVID expert Angela McLean is UK’s new chief scientific adviser
The mathematical biologist will take over from Patrick Vallance to provide guidance for the prime minister and cabinet on science and technology policies.
- Miryam Naddaf
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World View |
Science needs strong advocates in the Nigerian elections
Presidential candidates pay lip service to the role of science and technology in solving Nigeria’s problems — researchers must come together to be heard.
- Amina Ahmed El-Imam
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News Explainer |
High-altitude balloons: a scientists’ guide to what’s up there and why
The US has shot down four flying objects over fears of spy balloons. But what else are high-altitude balloons used for?
- Nicola Jones
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News |
US coastal communities underestimate the danger posed by rising seas
Local guidance in many coastal regions is inconsistent with the latest climate science, analysis shows.
- Jude Coleman
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News Explainer |
Turkey–Syria earthquake: what scientists know
Turkey and Syria’s buildings have always been vulnerable to earthquakes, but war has made things worse.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
When will COVID stop being a global emergency?
The World Health Organization has decided the crisis isn’t over yet — but it’s at a transition point.
- David Adam
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Editorial |
The water crisis is worsening. Researchers must tackle it together
It’s unacceptable that millions living in poverty still lack access to safe water and basic sanitation. Nature Water will help researchers to find a way forward.
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News |
US chemical engineer avoids prison after conviction for hiding ties to China
Federal judge hands down light sentence in latest rebuke of the US government’s China Initiative.
- Neil Savage
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News |
Researchers blast US agency’s decision not to collect LGBT+ data
Scientists call for the National Science Foundation to add a question about sexual orientation to its 2023 workforce surveys.
- Max Kozlov
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News |
The plan to ‘Trump-proof’ US science against political meddling
Guidance document calls on agencies to draft protective scientific-integrity policies for White House review within two months.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News |
FDA approves Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab amid safety concerns
Reports of deaths potentially linked to the treatment have cast a shadow on what many hail as a landmark approval.
- Sara Reardon
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News |
Will Brazil’s President Lula keep his climate promises?
The new president has already taken steps to protect the Amazon, but researchers call for more action.
- Meghie Rodrigues
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News |
China’s Thousand Talents Plan to entice researchers home boosted their output
Analysis of Young Thousand Talents Plan comes amid mounting competition and suspicion between the United States and China.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
Nature’s biggest news stories of 2022
From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to predicting protein structures with AI and transplanting pig organs into people, our news editors choose the defining moments in science this year.
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News Explainer |
Can the world save a million species from extinction?
A biodiversity crisis looms as negotiators meet at the COP15 summit in Montreal to agree on targets for protecting nature.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Editorial |
World leaders must step up to put biodiversity deal on path to success
Ahead of the COP15 biodiversity meeting, few disagree that we must do more to protect nature — but money, underwritten by top-level support, is needed to make it happen.
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World View |
To fix LGBTQ+ disparities in science, we need the data
How many LGBTQ+ researchers are there in the United States? The National Science Foundation should find out.
- Jon Freeman