Mars becomes the first inner planet after Earth to have the size of its core estimated. | Continue reading
Six lessons from astronomy’s embrace of cloud computing. | Continue reading
Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma. | Continue reading
Analyses of a global database reveal that in many developing countries progress in learning remains limited despite increasing enrolment in primary and secondary education, and uncover links between human capital and economic development. | Continue reading
A major challenge artificial retinas face is being able to activate neurons across a wide visual field. Here, a photovoltaic epiretinal prosthetic with over 10,000 pixels shows wide retinal coverage and single-pixel illumination, offering high spatial resolution discrimination in … | Continue reading
Remains of several hundred humans are scattered around Roopkund Lake, situated over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains. Here the authors analyze genome-wide data from 38 skeletons and find 3 clusters with different ancestries and dates, showing the people wer … | Continue reading
An autonomous computer system that takes part in live debates. | Continue reading
Determining the origins of life on Earth is confounded by the fact that the sources of nutrients necessary to create early life forms remain mysterious. Here the authors show that lightning strikes could have supplied a major source of essential phosphorus on early Earth. | Continue reading
Even with vaccination efforts in full force, the theoretical threshold for vanquishing COVID-19 looks to be out of reach. | Continue reading
Generation of human blastoids from cells in vitro. | Continue reading
A particle shower detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the very high energy of the Glashow resonance demonstrates its potential for the study of high-energy particle physics and astrophysics. | Continue reading
Surveys and a field experiment with Twitter users show that prompting people to think about the accuracy of news sources increases the quality of the news that they share online. | Continue reading
The work of winners László Lovász and Avi Wigderson underpins applications from Internet security to the study of networks. | Continue reading
To limit warming, action plans from countries and companies must be fair, rigorous and transparent. | Continue reading
Remote working, research delays and childcare obligations are taking their toll on scientists, causing stress and anxiety. | Continue reading
Researchers hope the data will speed the understanding of how the brain affects behaviour. | Continue reading
A direct measurement of the gravitational coupling between two 1-mm-radius gold spheres with masses below 100 mg using a torsional pendulum is reported. | Continue reading
Nature retraction is a setback for Microsoft’s approach to quantum computing, as researchers continue to search for the exotic quantum states. | Continue reading
Siberian mammoth genomes from the Early and Middle Pleistocene subepochs reveal adaptive changes and a key hybridization event, highlighting the value of deep-time palaeogenomics for studies of speciation and long-term evolutionary trends. | Continue reading
Despite pandemic disruption, astronomers detected thousands of previously unknown near-Earth asteroids last year. | Continue reading
Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 11 March 2021 | Continue reading
Will an astronaut who falls into a black hole be crushed or burned to a crisp? | Continue reading
Newton’s law of gravity holds for masses less than 100 milligrams. | Continue reading
Babies are increasingly surviving premature birth — but researchers are only beginning to understand the lasting consequences for their mental development. | Continue reading
Anniversaries of the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters highlight the challenges of relying on nuclear power to cut net carbon emissions to zero. | Continue reading
Ronith Stanly weathered repeated rejections, but constructive feedback helped him to find ways to stand out from the crowd. | Continue reading
Optical analog computing has so far been mostly limited to solving a single instance of a mathematical problem at a time. Here, the authors show that the linearity of the wave equation allows to solve several problems simultaneously, and demonstrate it using an MW transmissive ca … | Continue reading
A system for realizing many-photon quantum circuits is presented, comprising a programmable nanophotonic chip operating at room temperature, interfaced with a fully automated control system. | Continue reading
We argue that deliberative decision making that is inclusive, transparent and accountable can contribute to more trustworthy and legitimate decisions on difficult ethical questions and political trade-offs during the pandemic and beyond. | Continue reading
Neuroscientists are trying to work out why the brain does so much when it seems to be doing nothing at all. | Continue reading
Amid the urgent need to decarbonize, the industry that delivers one-tenth of global electricity must consult the public on reactor research, design, regulation, location and waste. | Continue reading
The current status and prospects of two-dimensional transistors are reviewed, and the reliability of widely used device parameters is assessed. | Continue reading
Recent toxicological studies suggest that wildfire particulate matter may be more toxic than equal doses of ambient PM2.5. Here, the authors show that even for similar exposure levels, PM2.5 from wildfires is considerably more dangerous for respiratory health at the population le … | Continue reading
Programmable photonic circuit that runs quantum algorithms. | Continue reading
The future challenges and potential opportunities of robotics and autonomous systems in urban ecosystems, and how they may impact biodiversity, are explored and prioritized via a global horizon scan of 170 experts. | Continue reading
A remarkable AI can write like humans — but with no understanding of what it’s saying. | Continue reading
The National Institutes of Health will fund researchers to track people’s recovery, and will host a biospecimen bank. | Continue reading