Knowing how and why households stop using solid-fuel stoves after adopting clean fuels can inform policies for energy transitions. This study shows that in China over one-third and one-fifth of participants suspended use of solid fuel for cooking and heating, respectively, during … | Continue reading
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly being applied in drug discovery. This article presents the views of a group of international experts on the ‘grand challenges’ in small-molecule drug discovery with AI, including obtaining appropriate data sets, generating new h … | Continue reading
Huge amphibians’ engineering works protect their offspring from predators and swift currents. | Continue reading
Corporations selling DNA-profiling technology are aiding human-rights abuses. Governments, legislators, researchers, reviewers and publishers must act. | Continue reading
Aptamer-based proteomic analysis of plasma from healthy individuals aged 18–95 years reveals wave-like patterns of protein expression that are associated with age-related diseases and phenotypic traits. | Continue reading
Medical schools and graduate research programs embrace artificial intelligence. | Continue reading
Nathalie Cabrol finds inspiration in the harsh environment of the desert while searching for Mars-like conditions. | Continue reading
Method pinpoints bacteria that consume particular types of dietary fibre. | Continue reading
We now have the ability to screen for thousands of genetic diseases in newborns. That may not always be the healthy thing to do. | Continue reading
The first results from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. | Continue reading
Using whole-genome sequencing data from 1,739 individuals, the GenomeAsia 100K Project catalogues genetic variation, population structure and disease associations to facilitate genetic studies in Asian populations and increase representation in genetics studies worldwide. | Continue reading
Carbon cycling in the mantle may be a common mechanism that links the Great Oxidation Event and the subsequent Lomagundi increase in carbon isotope values, according to a box model that accounts for carbon and oxygen fluxes and reservoirs. | Continue reading
Spectropolarimetric data combined with high-resolution numerical simulations reveal a resonance cavity above a highly magnetic sunspot. This technique conclusively determines the three-dimensional structure of solar active regions from relatively commonplace two-dimensional data. | Continue reading
The generation of ultrashort X-ray pulses with a peak power exceeding 100 GW offers new opportunities for studying electron dynamics with nonlinear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging. | Continue reading
The mammalian middle ear is thought to have evolved independently several times, and a specimen of the new species Jeholbaatar kielanae provides support for the idea, with evolution of the chewing apparatus perhaps driving migration of the auditory bones. | Continue reading
This Perspective argues that ergodicity — a foundational concept in equilibrium statistical physics — is wrongly assumed in much of the quantitative economics literature. By asking the extent to which dynamical problems can be replaced by probabilistic ones, many economics puzzle … | Continue reading
Designing efficient and scalable specialized neuromorphic circuits to integrate raw nervous stimuli and respond identically to biological neurons remains a challenge. Here, the authors propose an analog programming strategy to emulate biological neurons in silico. | Continue reading
Same-sex partners should one day be able to raise a biological descendant together. Runner-up in the Young Scientist Essay Competition 2019. | Continue reading
Australian think-tank explores risk posed by research partnerships with Chinese organizations. | Continue reading
An extended bout of warm wet weather 232 million years ago may have profoundly altered life on Earth. | Continue reading
Quantum dots functionalized with energy-accepting dyes hold promise for converting low-energy photons into higher-energy visible light for bioimaging, catalysis and solar energy harvesting. Now, it has been shown that non-toxic silicon quantum dots can be used in these systems; t … | Continue reading
Healthy coral reefs have an acoustic signature known to be attractive to coral and fish larvae during settlement. Here the authors use playback experiments in the field to show that healthy reef sounds can increase recruitment of juvenile fishes to degraded coral reef habitat, su … | Continue reading
Large-scale aptamer-based scanning of plasma proteins coupled with machine learning demonstrates proof-of-concept and feasibility of an individualized health check using a single blood sample. | Continue reading
Rivers are thought to be the largest source of the recalcitrant and abundant black carbon in the ocean. Here, Wagner and colleagues find distinct pools of black carbon between rivers and the open ocean, challenging the long-held assumption that marine black carbon is of terrestri … | Continue reading
Blood stem-cell transplants show promise for treating genetic and immune disorders, as well as cancers, but are currently risky. | Continue reading
The growing complexity of quantum computing devices makes presents challenges for benchmarking their performance as previous, exhaustive approaches become infeasible. Here the authors characterise the quality of their 11-qubit device by successfully computing two quantum algorith … | Continue reading
Deep learning has made a resounding impact on microscopy; we highlight the state-of-the-art and potential future directions in this focus issue. | Continue reading
Microscopy has been a trade-off until now: the bigger the sample, the lower the resolution. But picking out cellular detail in mouse brains and more is becoming increasingly possible. | Continue reading
They might not be fast on their feet, but these massive reptiles have long memories. | Continue reading
While a government commission recently proposed to phase out coal in Germany by 2038, voters would prefer a phase-out by 2025. Policymakers may underestimate public willingness to support an expedited transition away from high-carbon sources of energy. | Continue reading
Gene-circuit-based sensors have, to date, largely relied on optical proteins (such as green fluorescent protein) to report the output, which limits the signalling bandwidth. Now, an electrochemical output has been developed and integrated with cell-free gene circuits. This approa … | Continue reading
Mammals with invasive placentation are more vulnerable to malignancy. Here, the authors propose that the evolution of invasibility of stromal tissue affects both placental and cancer invasion and present in vitro evidence in human and bovine fibroblasts consistent with this hypot … | Continue reading
The authors review the advantages and future prospects of neuromorphic computing, a multidisciplinary engineering concept for energy-efficient artificial intelligence with brain-inspired functionality. | Continue reading
Since the 1960s, researchers have been scrutinizing a handful of patients who underwent a radical kind of brain surgery. | Continue reading
Ocean warming threatens to wipe out corals, but scientists are trying to protect naturally resilient reefs and are nursing some others back to health. | Continue reading
Feat could turn bacteria into biological factories for energy and even food. | Continue reading
A method of engineering efficient and stable InP/ZnSe/ZnS quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) has improved their performance to the level of state-of-the-art cadmium-containing QD-LEDs, removing the problem of the toxicity of cadmium in large-panel displays. | Continue reading
A nanotube-supported catalyst electrochemically reduces carbon dioxide. | Continue reading
The growing threat of abrupt and irreversible climate changes must compel political and economic action on emissions. | Continue reading
Insects infected with a disease-inhibiting bacterium were released in communities in Asia and South America. | Continue reading
The MineRL competition encourages coders to devise programs that learn by example. | Continue reading
Using single-cell transcriptomics and in vivo injury models, Harvey et al. identify a Tppp3+Pdgfra+ stem cell population in the tendon sheath and demonstrate the role of PDGFRα signalling in regeneration and fibrosis. | Continue reading
Epigenetic clocks help calculate ‘dog years’, how to fix the ‘one size fits all’ PhD and why 5G threatens weather forecasts. | Continue reading