Could crabs be conscious, can you beat hypochondria and more: top reads for summer

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02384-8 Ten of Nature’s recent contributors share their current book obsessions. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

ChatGPT for science: how to talk to your data

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02386-6 Companies are using artificial intelligence tools to help scientists to query their data without the need for programming skills. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Daily briefing: Drop in US-China collaborations will hinder important advances

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02417-2 The shrivelling of collaboration will hold back research on priorities such as global warming, pandemics and food security. Plus, how to build a career that doesn’t hinge on big grants. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Mystery oxygen source discovered on the sea floor — bewildering scientists

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02393-7 A chemical reaction could be producing oxygen by splitting water molecules, but its source of energy remains unknown. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

AI ‘deepfake’ faces detected using astronomy methods

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02364-y Analysing reflections of light in the eyes can help to determine an image’s authenticity. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Neural general circulation models for weather and climate

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07744-y A hybrid model that combines a differentiable solver for atmospheric dynamics with machine-learning components is capable of weather forecasts and climate simulations on par with the best machine-learning and … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

I pioneered a method to study cement using a particle accelerator

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02387-5 Materials scientist Shiva Shirani measures how cement hardens at the nanoscale to inform how to develop a more eco-friendly material. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Dopamine-mediated interactions between short- and long-term memory dynamics

Nature, Published online: 22 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07819-w Dopamine-mediated interactions between short- and long-term memory dynamics | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Daily briefing: What it’s like to attend a predatory conference

Nature, Published online: 19 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02379-5 The signs of a predatory conference can be hard to spot — until you walk into an empty room. Plus, NASA cancels a Moon rover mission and long-COVID lung damage is linked to immune system response. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Author Correction: TAp63 suppresses metastasis through coordinate regulation of Dicer and miRNAs

Nature, Published online: 19 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07827-w Author Correction: TAp63 suppresses metastasis through coordinate regulation of Dicer and miRNAs | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Found: the hidden link between star-forming molecular clouds

Nature, Published online: 19 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02266-z Connections between three interstellar clouds of gas and dust offer a glimpse into their birth. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

China–US research collaborations are in decline — this is bad news for everyone

Nature, Published online: 19 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02046-9 Scientists say that the drop in partnerships between the scientific powerhouses will hold back research on priorities such as global warming. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Even with no drug or vaccine, eradication of Guinea worm is in sight

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02306-8 Community-based efforts have reduced the parasitic infection to a handful of cases in humans each year, but the emergence of infections in dogs and other animals threatens to derail progress. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Long COVID lung damage linked to immune system response

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02352-2 Inhibiting a protein associated with chronic inflammation improves lung health in mice with COVID-19. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

What is it like to attend a predatory conference?

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02358-w Nature sent a reporter to find out as part of an investigation into dud events. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Three-year delay for Indian census frustrates researchers

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02321-9 Without up-to-date data on the population, scientists say studies on fertility, migration and health outcomes have become unreliable. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Hundreds of racist plant names will change after historic vote by botanists

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02365-x Scientific designations containing a racial slur will be altered — the first time that any species names have been adjusted because of the offence they cause. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

NASA cancels $450-million mission to drill for ice on the Moon — surprising researchers

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02361-1 The already-built rover could now be scrapped for parts. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Daily briefing: Blocking an inflammation protein lets mice live longer

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02367-9 Mice live longer and healthier when the inflammation-boosting protein IL-11 is blocked. Plus, how magic mushrooms reset your sense of time and self. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Catalysis of an SN2 pathway by geometric preorganization

Nature, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07811-4 Catalysis of an SN2 pathway by geometric preorganization | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

The plastic that biodegrades in your home compost

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02356-y Enzymes embedded directly into the material allows PLA plastic to completely break down — plus a gel that can safely store proteins for shipping. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

The enduring world forest carbon sink

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07602-x Data from boreal, temperate and tropical forests over the past three decades reveal that the global forest carbon sink has remained steady during that time, despite considerable regional variation. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

This tiny solar-powered flyer weighs less than a paper plane

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02316-6 The 4.21g rotorcraft — dubbed CoulombFly — could forge a path to new kinds of tiny aerial vehicles. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Symbolic recording of signalling and cis-regulatory element activity to DNA

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07706-4 Enhancer-driven genomic recording of transcriptional activity in multiplex (ENGRAM) is used for multiplex recording of the cell-type-specific activities of dozens to hundreds of cis-regulatory elements with hi … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Giant chiral magnetoelectric oscillations in a van der Waals multiferroic

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07678-5 Precision measurement of the dynamical magnetoelectric coupling in an exfoliated van der Waals multiferroic shows a giant natural optical activity at terahertz frequencies. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Superconductivity in pressurized trilayer La4Ni3O10−δ single crystals

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07553-3 The application of pressure effectively suppresses the spin–charge order in trilayer nickelate La4Ni3O10−δ single crystals, leading to the emergence of superconductivity. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Inhibition of IL-11 signalling extends mammalian healthspan and lifespan

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07701-9 IL-11 is identified as a key regulator of ERK–AMPK–mTORC1 signalling, metabolism, inflammation and age-related disease and lifespan in mouse and human. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

An engineered enzyme embedded into PLA to make self-biodegradable plastic

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07709-1 Embedding of a new engineered thermostable hydrolase into polymer materials enables the production of biodegradable and home-compostable plastics suitable for industrial packaging applications. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Adaptation to photoperiod via dynamic neurotransmitter segregation

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07692-7 Changes in day length, conveyed by the preoptic area, drive axonal neurotransmitter reorganization in median raphe dual serotonin–glutamate neurons to regulate behaviour and sleep timing, highlighting a photop … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07657-w An analysis of the impact of logging intensity on biodiversity in tropical forests in Sabah, Malaysia, identifies a threshold of tree biomass removal below which logged forests still have conservation value. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

A hot-Jupiter progenitor on a super-eccentric retrograde orbit

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07688-3 The spectroscopic and photometric observations of a high-mass, transiting warm Jupiter, TIC 241249530 b, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.94, provide evidence that hot Jupiters may have formed by means of a h … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07624-5 Healthy adults were tracked before, during and after high doses of psilocybin and methylphenidate to assess how psychedelics can change human brain networks, and psilocybin was found to massively disrupt funct … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

A eukaryotic-like ubiquitination system in bacterial antiviral defence

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07730-4 A study reports the structure and molecular mechanism of the Bil anti-phage defence system, demonstrating that it is the closest prokaryotic homologue of canonical eukaryotic ubiquitination pathways. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Identification of plant transcriptional activation domains

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07707-3 A high-throughput yeast-based assay is used to identify more than 1,500 activation domains (ADs) in Arabidopsis transcription factors, and a deep learning approach applied to this dataset can predict AD activi … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

A holistic platform for accelerating sorbent-based carbon capture

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07683-8 A framework that integrates materials, process design, techno-economics and life-cycle assessment can be used to accelerate the development of carbon-capture technology as we aim for a net-zero world. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Position-dependent function of human sequence-specific transcription factors

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07662-z The effect of transcription factor binding on transcription initiation is dependent on the position of the transcription factor binding site. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Groundwater-dependent ecosystem map exposes global dryland protection needs

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07702-8 Mapping of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, which support biodiversity and rural livelihoods, shows they occur on more than one-third of global drylands analysed, but lack protections to safeguard these criti … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Singular dielectric nanolaser with atomic-scale field localization

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07674-9 Singularity enables breaking the optical diffraction limit in a dielectric nanolaser. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Mechanical release of homogenous proteins from supramolecular gels

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07580-0 A stiff hydrogel gel is presented that encapsulates and stabilizes proteins without additives or excipients and uses mechanical strain to release them, offering low-cost and versatile delivery of therapies. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Clonal inactivation of TERT impairs stem cell competition

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07700-w Studies in mice show that telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) has a role in enhancing stem cell competition that is independent of its reverse transcriptase activity, and promotes chromatin accessibility a … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Sources of gene expression variation in a globally diverse human cohort

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07708-2 A new open-access RNA sequencing dataset, MAGE, of 731 individuals across geographically diverse human populations provides a valuable resource to study genetic diversity and evolution and expands the capacity … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Sunlight-powered sustained flight of an ultralight micro aerial vehicle

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07609-4 Solar-powered, untethered, sustained flight of an ultralight micro aerial vehicle under natural sunlight conditions is achieved using an electrostatic-driven propulsion system with a high lift-to-power efficie … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Bacteria conjugate ubiquitin-like proteins to interfere with phage assembly

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07616-5 To mitigate phage infection, an antiphage defence system in bacteria conjugates a ubiquitin-like protein to a structural protein of the phage, demonstrating that conjugation of ubiquitin-like proteins is an an … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Tubulin code eraser CCP5 binds branch glutamates by substrate deformation

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07699-0 Cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray structures of the glutamylation eraser CCP5 in complexes with glutamylated microtubules and tubulin tails show that the substrate backbone adopts a bent conformation that pre … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

In vivo single-cell CRISPR uncovers distinct TNF programmes in tumour evolution

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07663-y A CRISPR-based strategy for screening genes that affect clonal expansion finds that genes that are frequently mutated in squamous cell carcinoma converge on a TNF signalling module involving macrophages. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Mice live longer when inflammation-boosting protein is blocked

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02298-5 Humans also have the protein, called IL-11, offering hope for a future longevity treatment. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

Split intein-mediated protein trans-splicing to express large dystrophins

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07710-8 A method is developed for expressing large dystrophins to enhance muscle function in mouse models of muscular dystrophy, with potential clinical benefits for numerous disorders caused by mutations in large gen … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago

A psychedelic state arises from desynchronized brain activity

Nature, Published online: 17 July 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02154-6 After a person takes the psychedelic compound psilocybin, some of their brain networks dissolve — especially the one involved in the perception of self, space and time. Changes to the connections to this netwo … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 3 months ago