Featured
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Editorial |
Replicating scientific results is tough — but essential
A high-profile replication study in cancer biology has obtained disappointing results. Scientists must redouble their efforts to find out why.
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News & Views |
What surveys really say
Increasing the sample size of a survey is often thought to increase the accuracy of the results. However, an analysis of big surveys on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines shows that larger sample sizes do not protect against bias.
- Frauke Kreuter
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World View |
Understand the real reasons reproducibility reform fails
Lack of rigour is often blamed on pressure to publish. But ethnographers can find out what truly keeps science from upping its game.
- Nicole C. Nelson
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Article |
Quantifying social organization and political polarization in online platforms
A new method quantifies the social makeup of online communities, and applying it to 14 years of commenting patterns on Reddit shows increased polarization in 2016, driven by new users to the platform.
- Isaac Waller
- & Ashton Anderson
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Research Highlight |
Home working brings longer hours, fewer phone calls
Data on more than 60,000 workers at Microsoft show that remote working led to more ‘siloed’ work groups and the sending of more e-mails.
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Perspective |
Human social sensing is an untapped resource for computational social science
The ability of people to understand the thoughts and actions of others—known as social sensing—can be combined with computational social science to advance research into human sociality.
- Mirta Galesic
- , Wändi Bruine de Bruin
- & Tamara van der Does
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Correspondence |
Chilean polymath Humberto Maturana remembered
- Francisco J. Parada
- , Alejandra Rossi
- & Daniel Rojas-Líbano
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Correspondence |
COVID-19: build on Belgium’s psychosocial findings
- Elke Van Hoof
- & Nele Van den Cruyce
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Comment |
Cooperative AI: machines must learn to find common ground
To help humanity solve fundamental problems of cooperation, scientists need to reconceive artificial intelligence as deeply social.
- Allan Dafoe
- , Yoram Bachrach
- & Thore Graepel
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News & Views |
Conversations, and how we end them
How we feel about the duration of our conversations has rarely been studied. New research has asked people about the lengths of their conversations, and whether they end when they want them to.
- Elizabeth Stokoe
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News |
The race to curb the spread of COVID vaccine disinformation
Researchers are applying strategies honed during the 2020 US presidential election to track anti-vax propaganda.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Correspondence |
Brazil: Boost COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Indigenous people
- Eliel Benites
- , Laura Jane Gisloti
- & Fabio de Oliveira Roque
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News |
Tracking QAnon: how Trump turned conspiracy-theory research upside down
By taking fringe ideas mainstream, the former US president taught new and dangerous lessons about manipulating social and mass media.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News |
‘Inspired choice’: Biden appoints sociologist Alondra Nelson to top science post
Scientists praise US president’s selection of the bioethics and social inequality specialist to help lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
- Nidhi Subbaraman
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Nature Podcast |
Hiring discrimination laid bare by mountain of data
Analysis of hundreds of thousands of job searches shows that recruiters will discriminate based on ethnicity and gender, and the neural circuitry behind a brief period of forgetting.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Howe
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News & Views |
Big data and simple models used to track the spread of COVID-19 in cities
Understanding the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infections could help to limit viral spread. Analysing mobile-phone data to track human contacts at different city venues offers a way to model infection risks and explain infection disparities.
- Kevin C. Ma
- & Marc Lipsitch
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Editorial |
Online learning cannot just be for those who can afford its technology
The dramatic shift to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic risks widening educational inequalities.
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World View |
Study the role of hubris in nations’ COVID-19 response
Many countries that see themselves as distinctive have handled the pandemic badly.
- Martha Lincoln
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Book Review |
The lifelong studies that hold clues to what today’s kids might have in store
Decades of data on the legacy of childhood experience for adult health and wealth should help policymakers plan for future well-being, shows a book by pioneers of cohort studies.
- Barbara Maughan
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Comment |
Redirect military budgets to tackle climate change and pandemics
Governments should stop spending billions of dollars on weapons and protect citizens from the real threats they face.
- Denise Garcia
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News Feature |
How Facebook, Twitter and other data troves are revolutionizing social science
A new breed of researcher is turning to computation to understand society — and then change it.
- Heidi Ledford
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Editorial |
Too many children miss out on education — but better data can help
A massive assessment of education shows that only 61% of children worldwide will complete secondary education.
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News & Views |
Tracking inequalities in education around the globe
Tools have been developed to project inequalities in education around the world to 2030. They reveal that overall inequality will decline, but that all world regions will fall short of achieving universal secondary education.
- Monica Grant
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Technology Feature |
Mischief-making bots attacked my scientific survey
A barrage of fake responses to her online questionnaire prompted psychologist Melissa Simone to ferret out the culprits.
- Jeffrey M. Perkel
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News & Views Forum |
Scrutinizing the effects of digital technology on mental health
Does time spent using digital technology and social media have an adverse effect on mental health, especially that of adolescents? Here, two scientists discuss the question, and how digital devices might be used to improve well-being.
- Jonathan Haidt
- & Nick Allen
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News |
Social scientists battle bots to glean insights from online chatter
Automated production of social-media posts can confound research studies.
- Heidi Ledford
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World View |
Global problems need social science
Without human insights, data and the hard sciences will not meet the challenges of the next decade, says Hetan Shah.
- Hetan Shah
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News |
Huge study documents gender gap in chemistry publishing
Analysis finds female-led papers are more likely to be rejected, and less likely to be cited, than those with male corresponding authors.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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Correspondence |
Machine behaviour is old wine in new bottles
- Emanuel Moss
- , Rumman Chowdhury
- & Andrew Smart
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Editorial |
Research integrity is much more than misconduct
All researchers should strive to improve the quality, relevance and reliability of their work.
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News |
Facebook gives social scientists unprecedented access to its user data
Projects from around the world will delve into questions such as how misinformation spreads on social-media platforms and who distributes it.
- Heidi Ledford
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News |
US health agency pours $350 million into fight against opioid crisis
Research grants will support four teams working across several states to find the best strategies for combating opioid abuse.
- Sara Reardon
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Books & Arts |
The joy of stats
Evelyn Lamb enjoys a rich study on number-crunching and its ubiquitous fruit.
- Evelyn Lamb
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Letter |
Large teams develop and small teams disrupt science and technology
Analyses of the output produced by large versus small teams of researchers and innovators demonstrate that their work differs systematically in the extent to which it disrupts or develops existing science and technology.
- Lingfei Wu
- , Dashun Wang
- & James A. Evans
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Editorial |
Maths shows how we lose interest
From pop music to tennis stars, society forgets according to a universal law.
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Correspondence |
United Kingdom should learn from global body for biodiversity
- Victor Anderson
- , Aled Jones
- & Rupert Read
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Quantum computers and labour division in ants
Shamini Bundell and Benjamin Thompson bring you more of the latest science news.
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Career Q&A |
Depression tracker
How a study on the high rate of anxiety and depression in PhD students is helping to erase the stigma around mental-health issues.
- Virginia Gewin
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News Feature |
Money for nothing: the truth about universal basic income
Several projects are testing the idea of doling out funds that people can use however they want.
- Carrie Arnold
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Books & Arts |
A new light on comets, the embodied brain and a nature cure for dislocation: Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Outlook |
Energy transitions
On a global scale, reducing fossil-fuel dependence is more than just a technological challenge.
- Michelle Grayson
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Outlook |
Make low-carbon energy an integral part of the knowledge economy
A close relationship would help to drive a faster, more secure transition away from fossil fuels, says Roger Fouquet.
- Roger Fouquet
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Outlook |
The complex web behind the siting of power plants
Politics, vested interests, historical dependencies and even mythology can trump the most logical and efficient power-grid plan.
- Peter Fairley
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Outlook |
How social scientists can help to shape climate policy
Developing strategies to ensure that the ‘needs of the few’ do not outweigh those of the rest.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Editorial |
Too many academics study the same people
Researchers should recognize communities that feel over-researched and under-rewarded.