Featured
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Editorial |
Nature publishes too few papers from women researchers — that must change
This journal will double down on efforts to diversify the pool of corresponding authors and referees.
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Perspective |
Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research
The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in scientific research risks creating illusions of understanding, where scientists believe they understand more about the world than they actually do.
- Lisa Messeri
- & M. J. Crockett
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Career Column |
My productivity waxes and wanes — and I’m learning to account for it
Understanding that our bodies and minds are capable of variance day by day is an important step to becoming a more balanced scientist.
- Camila Souza Beraldo
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News Feature |
What science says about hybrid working — and how to make it a success
How researchers can maximize creativity and connection in the ‘new normal’.
- David Adam
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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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Career Column |
How I made my lab meetings more inclusive with a rapid-relay technique
Johanna Joyce’s use of the ‘flashlight’ method has helped her lab members to connect and be more mindful about their science.
- Johanna Joyce
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News Feature |
How to find meaning in your science career: six expert tips
Philosophers, social scientists and a Nobel-prizewinning economist on how researchers can get satisfaction from their work — and make a difference to the world.
- Helen Pearson
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World View |
How to boost your research: take a sabbatical in policy
Academic researchers have a unique opportunity to benefit society — and their research — by spending time in government.
- Jordan Dworkin
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Career Column |
Structural biology for researchers with low vision
Scientists seek to analyse biomolecules at the highest level of resolution. We developed and adapted assistive technologies to help those who are blind to do the same.
- Olivia Shaw
- , Cynthia Yurkovich
- & Jodi Hadden-Perilla
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Career Feature |
I run a physics lab — and thousands of kilometres a year
In 2023, Jenny Hoffman ran across the United States in 47 days, smashing the women’s world record. But she still found time to lead a research team.
- Sara Reardon
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Career News |
Postdocs celebrate 24% pay boost in one of the world’s most expensive cities
Starting salaries at New York’s Icahn School of Medicine rise to $72,500 as part of a deal led by unionized researchers.
- Laurie Udesky
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Career Feature |
Could roving researchers help address the challenge of taking parental leave?
Institutions are taking notice of a handful of programmes designed to address the issues scientists face when choosing to take a long-term absence.
- Amy Coombs
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Career Column |
How my academic sabbatical offered a chance to hit the restart button on my career
Time away from his daily responsibilities taught Brandon Brown that he is replaceable — and that’s a good thing.
- Brandon Brown
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Correspondence |
Best practice for LGBTQ+ data collection by STEM organizations
- Alexander L. Bond
- & Tyler L. Kelly
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World View |
Why the mental cost of a STEM career can be too high for women and people of colour
Under-represented groups face chronic barriers, creating psychological — and physical — effects. The scientific community must ease this burden.
- Jean King
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Career Column |
‘Obviously ChatGPT’ — how reviewers accused me of scientific fraud
A journal reviewer accused Lizzie Wolkovich of using ChatGPT to write a manuscript. She hadn’t — but her paper was rejected anyway.
- E. M. Wolkovich
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Career Column |
How to enhance lab-team efficiency with tools from the tech industry
Using freely available software can help to maximize productivity and avoid collaboration pain points.
- Lathan Liou
- & Akshay Swaminathan
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World View |
Academia needs radical change — mothers are ready to pave the way
The research system must lose its overly rigid attitude towards career progression — and mothers are uniting to make that happen.
- Fernanda Staniscuaski
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Where I Work |
Therapy dog spreads paws-itivity at cancer hospital
Marguerite Nicodeme works with Snoopy the dog to bring moments of cheerful relief to patients and their carers.
- Benjamin Plackett
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Career Column |
How I learnt to write research papers as a non-native English speaker
Leaving blanks, studying others and paying careful attention to figures all helped Sri Lankan chemist Nuwan Bandara to hone his skills.
- Nuwan Bandara
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Where I Work |
How I make stretchy electronics for medicine
Mahmoud Tavakoli works on wearable electronic devices that are less invasive than standard equipment.
- Patricia Maia Noronha
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Career Feature |
A crime-busting path to planetary science
Andrew Lincowski was a police officer before undertaking a PhD in astronomy and astrobiology. For a while, his career spanned both roles, before he moved into teaching.
- Anne Gulland
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Career Column |
How a peer network made my worst day as a grad student bearable
Anxiety and depression affect nearly half of all early-career researchers. Strengthening our communities from within can provide relief, says Taylor Tibbs.
- Taylor Tibbs
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Career Column |
Organize your –80 °C freezer to save time and prevent frozen fingertips
Start the new year by sorting out your lab’s cold storage, to simplify purchasing, improve experiment planning and reduce the frequency of lost samples.
- Kelsey Alexandra Woodruff
- & Christina Marie Termini
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Career Feature |
Insights from four female scientists caught at the early-career crossroads
Facing challenges including parenthood, mental-health strain and financial pressures, these researchers give advice for navigating the uncertain paths before them.
- Lesley Evans Ogden
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Career Column |
Breaking the menstruation taboo to make fieldwork more inclusive
We need to talk about periods when planning routine fieldwork trips, say ecologist Sarah E. Dalrymple and glaciologist Timothy P. Lane.
- Sarah Dalrymple
- & Timothy Lane
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Career Column |
Start 2024 by asking: ‘Why do science?’
Step back from the usual lab-meeting format, and ask yourself and your colleagues why you all do what you do, say Mirko Treccani and Laura Veschetti.
- Mirko Treccani
- & Laura Veschetti
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Book Review |
The research aiming to keep people healthier for longer
An exploration of the biological reasons that people age celebrates the role of worms and flies in enabling scientific discovery — and investigates how to age well.
- Linda Partridge
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World View |
The postdoc experience is broken. Funders such as the NIH must help to reimagine it
Postdoctoral woes, especially in biomedical research, are symptomatic of a wider problem. Funding bodies have an opportunity to spearhead a cultural shift.
- Ubadah Sabbagh
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Career Column |
How Dark Souls and Darth Revan helped me to make sense of my professorship
John Tregoning compares academia to role-playing video games as a way to discuss how the choices we make can affect the paths we take.
- John Tregoning
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World View |
Research prizes are opaque and rife with bias — it’s time to shake them up
Awards should be standard-bearers for transparent, robust research that is inclusive, equitable and trustworthy. But that is not what they are right now.
- Malgorzata Lagisz
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Career Feature |
The scientific workplace in 2023
India’s first Moon landing and a welcome return to Horizon Europe for UK researchers loomed large in an eventful year for working scientists around the world.
- Chris Woolston
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Nature Podcast |
Navigating planets, plays and prejudice — a conversation with Aomawa Shields
The astronomer joins us to talk about her memoir Life on Other Planets.
- Benjamin Thompson
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News |
How a bullying scandal closed a historic astronomy department
Lund University in Sweden reorganizes in the face of years of accusations against two professors.
- Alexandra Witze
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Spotlight |
I study depression in the lab and advocate for mental health in academia
Annapoorna P. K. tells Nature about her work on understanding depression both in and outside the lab.
- Pratik Pawar
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Spotlight |
I predict solar storms
Yoshita Baruah says understanding space weather has immediate practical applications for our technology-reliant world.
- Sahana Ghosh
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Spotlight |
Big ideas: India’s drive to stem the brain drain
The Ramalingaswami Re-entry fellowship is among a number of schemes set up to attract talented scientists back to India. Diaspora and returning researchers share their career decisions.
- Virginia Gewin
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Career Feature |
If you want something done right, do it yourself: the scientists who build their own tools
Three researchers who went out on a limb to bridge a gap in their field talk to Nature about how and why they went about designing their own, unique devices — and the challenges involved.
- Rachael Pells
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Where I Work |
Star-struck: living my childhood dream as an astronomer
Sthabile Kolwa uses data from South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope to shed light on black holes and how the Universe evolves.
- Linda Nordling
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Career Feature |
My brief appearance in Downton Abbey: Nature readers share stories of side gigs
From rugby refereeing to film and television work, a poll reveals scientists’ first jobs and what they learnt from them.
- Jop de Vrieze
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Nature Careers Podcast |
Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art
Researchers who are as skilled in the studio as they are in the lab are forced to choose between disciplines.
- Julie Gould
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Career Column |
Most scientists don’t enjoy writing grants. Here’s how to change that
Specialists share how to make the experience more enjoyable and foster a sense of belonging.
- Courtney Peña
- , Amber R. Moore
- & Crystal M. Botham
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Career Q&A |
Why I launched Malaysia’s first scientific newspaper
Mahaletchumy Arujanan shares how she set up The Petri Dish, Malaysia’s first scientific newspaper, which is aimed at the general public.
- Lia Paola Zambetti
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Career News |
Disability lawsuit lands Howard Hughes Medical Institute in court
RNA biologist Vivian Cheung accuses the institute of discrimination after it decided not to renew her funding.
- Amanda Heidt
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Article |
Remote collaboration fuses fewer breakthrough ideas
Analysis of research articles and patent applications shows that members of teams that collaborate remotely are less likely to make breakthrough discoveries than members of on-site teams.
- Yiling Lin
- , Carl Benedikt Frey
- & Lingfei Wu
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Where I Work |
Deep, deep down: a day in the life of a subterranean biologist
Špela Borko tells how caving enhanced her appreciation of the myriad life forms that teem in underground lakes.
- Stav Dimitropoulos
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Comment |
Chemistry is inaccessible: how to reduce barriers for disabled scientists
From classrooms to laboratories and conferences, working in chemistry presents huge challenges to disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent people. Some simple fixes can help to shift the dial.
- Blaine G. Fiss
- , Laena D’Alton
- & Naumih M. Noah