‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04150-wIn the race to embrace new technologies, some ecologists fear their field is losing touch with nature. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

A troubleshooting guide to your flat-pack planet

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04028-xWorld-making tips and tricks. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

A mechanical ratchet drives unilateral cytokinesis

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09915-xDivision of embryonic cells with an incomplete contractile ring occurs by a ratchet mechanism with repeated cycles of cytoplasmic stiffening, which stabilizes the contractile actin band, and fluidization, wh … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Distinct neuronal populations in the human brain combine content and context

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09910-2Single-neuron recordings in humans reveal largely separate content and context neurons whose coordinated activity flexibly places memory items in context. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Mimicking opioid analgesia in cortical pain circuits

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09908-wThe anterior cingulate cortex encodes affective pain behaviours modulated by opioids; targeting opioid-sensitive neurons through a new chemogenetic gene therapy replicates the analgesic effects of morphine, … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

An ancient DNA perspective on the Russian conquest of Yakutia

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09856-5Yakut communities, with Trans-Baikal admixture during the Mongol expansion, preserved genomic diversity and oral microbiomes despite the Russian conquest, which introduced cereals, pathogens and Christianity … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Intratumoural vaccination via checkpoint degradation-coupled antigen presentation

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09903-1An intratumoural vaccination chimera reprograms tumour cells into an antigen-presenting state with restored anti-tumour immunity. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Mitochondrial transfer from glia to neurons protects against peripheral neuropathy

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09896-xMitochondria that are transported from satellite glial cells in dorsal root ganglia to peripheral sensory neurons through tunneling nanotube-like structures provide protection against peripheral neuropathy. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Soft photonic skins with dynamic texture and colour control

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09948-2Inspired by dynamic textural modulation in cephalopod skin, polymer films whose colour and surface texture can be dynamically and independently controlled are developed and demonstrated using standard electr … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Aharonov–Bohm interference in even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09891-2This study reports coherent Aharonov–Bohm interference, including statistical phase contributions, in a Fabry–Pérot interferometer at two even-denominator fractional quantum Hall states in high-mobility bila … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Towards fibre-like loss for photonic integration from violet to near-infrared

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09889-wGermano-silicate used as a building material for integrated photonics circuits substantially reduces optical losses, approaching levels comparable to those in optical fibres. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Nutrient requirements of organ-specific metastasis in breast cancer

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09898-9How the complex interplay between multiple nutrients within the microenvironment dictates potential sites of metastatic cancer growth is explored. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Neuro-epithelial circuits promote sensory convergence and intestinal immunity

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09921-zSpecific pain-sensing nociceptors and chemosensory tuft cells form a circuit to promote type 2 immune responses in the intestine. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Pulse heating and slip enhance charging of phase-change thermal batteries

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09877-0A strategy based on the design of a composite coating that enables slip-enhanced close-contact melting inside sealed phase-change thermal batteries to improve charging rates enables high-performance thermal … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Insights into DNA repeat expansions among 900,000 biobank participants

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09886-zHuman genetic variation influences instability of DNA repeats that commonly expand as we age. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Genetic switch between unicellularity and multicellularity in marine yeasts

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09881-4Myb1 functions as a switch-like regulator of state transitions in Hortaea werneckii, whereby its expression and degradation are coupled to nutrient conditions, stabilizing unicellular or multicellular growth … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09914-yNew hominin fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I (ThI-GH) in Casablanca, Morocco, dated to around 773 thousand years ago are similar in age to Homo antecessor, yet are morphologically disti … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Soft biodegradable implants for long-distance and wide-angle sensing

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09874-3A soft, biodegradable, wireless sensing device can monitor pressure, temperature and strain over long distances (up to 16 cm), maintaining accuracy across varying positions and angles. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Bidirectional CRISPR screens decode a GLIS3-dependent fibrotic cell circuit

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09907-xIntegrated single-cell and spatial data analysis, combined with bidirectional CRISPR screens, identify the transcription factor GLIS3 as a key driver of chronic inflammation and fibrosis and a potential mark … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Prefrontal neural geometry of learned cues guides motivated behaviours

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09902-2The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encodes the value, salience and valence of learned stimuli along distinct neural dimensions, and the geometry of these representations shapes motivated behaviours in mice. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Climate change shifts the North Pacific storm track polewards

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09895-yAn observation-based storm-track proxy shows that the winter North Pacific storm track has shifted substantially polewards, suggesting regional impacts on precipitation and warming patterns, with implication … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

High-voltage anode-free sodium–sulfur batteries

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09867-2A new architecture based on high-valence sulfur/sulfur tetrachloride cathode chemistry is described for manufacturing high-voltage anode-free sodium–sulfur batteries, demonstrating promise for applications i … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

An expanded registry of candidate cis-regulatory elements

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09909-9The existing ENCODE registry of candidate human and mouse cis-regulatory elements is expanded with the addition of new ENCODE data, integrating new functional data as well as new cell and tissue types. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Plastic landmark anchoring in zebrafish compass neurons

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09888-xUsing two-photon microscopy with a panoramic virtual reality setup, how head direction cells in larval zebrafish integrate visual landmarks and optic flow to track orientation is revealed. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

RNA-triggered Cas12a3 cleaves tRNA tails to execute bacterial immunity

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09852-9Cas12a3 nucleases constitute a distinct clade of type V CRISPR–Cas bacterial immune systems that preferentially cleave the 3′ tails of tRNAs after recognition of target RNA to induce growth arrest and block … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Surface optimization governs the local design of physical networks

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09784-4Analysis of the local branching geometries of several physical networks shows violations of predictions of length and volume minimization, leading to the hypothesis that estimating the material cost requires … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

A young progenitor for the most common planetary systems in the Galaxy

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09840-zA nine-year transit-timing campaign has measured the extremely low masses and densities of four large planets orbiting the young star V1298 Tau, which are now predicted to contract and form a typical compact … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09897-wNew results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group better known from Asia and North America. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

A framework for addressing racial and related inequities in conservation

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09892-1This Perspective proposes a new framework to support the inclusion of Black, Indigenous and people of colour in conservation initiatives. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

A mysterious ancient fingerprint and a lemon-shaped planet — the stories you’ve missed

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00053-6We highlight some Nature Briefing stories from the end of 2025, including: a seismic detector made from a telecom cable, and how self-heating plants attract pollinators. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Systematic analyses of lipid mobilization by human lipid transfer proteins

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-10040-ySystematic analyses of lipid mobilization by human lipid transfer proteins | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Electrochemical defluorinative Matteson-type homologation

Nature, Published online: 07 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-10002-4Electrochemical defluorinative Matteson-type homologation | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

The poetic life and death of a glow-worm

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03990-wA peek behind the scenes at the zoo reveals animal escapades, and a glow-worm shines in a mild midwinter, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Daily briefing: Animals without brains sleep too — hinting at why we sleep at all

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00047-4Jellyfish seem to sleep in ways strikingly similar to humans, despite not having a brain. Plus, US lawmakers have pushed back on proposed cuts to science and why cancer can come back years after successful t … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Why cancer can come back years later — and how to stop it

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04149-3Researchers are targeting dormant tumour cells that might explain why some cancers reappear long after successful treatment. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

To improve resilience to climate change, track what endures

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04122-0To improve resilience to climate change, track what endures | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Retire ‘seminal’ from the scientific vocabulary

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04124-yRetire ‘seminal’ from the scientific vocabulary | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Help small-scale gold miners to transition away from mercury use

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04121-1Help small-scale gold miners to transition away from mercury use | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Rethink how we build AI to enable effective climate-change mitigation

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04123-zRethink how we build AI to enable effective climate-change mitigation | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Jellyfish sleep like humans — even though they don’t have brains

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00044-7Studying ancient sea creatures’ snoozing habits could shed light on the origins of sleep. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Artificial skin mimics the octopus’s art of disguise

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03984-8A ‘photonic skin’ with controllable colour and texture brings materials science a step closer to the adaptive camouflage found in nature. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Defossilize our chemical world

Nature, Published online: 06 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00005-0Achieving net zero means eliminating fossil fuels, not carbon — the chemical element has a crucial part to play in powering the modern world. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

These women helped to shape quantum mechanics — it’s time to recognize them

Nature, Published online: 05 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04151-9An astute book redresses our collective perception of a field that became known as ‘boys’ physics’. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

I see Mozambique’s baboons as windows into hominid evolution

Nature, Published online: 05 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04153-7In Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, Rassina Farassi studies how humans came to walk on two legs. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Pandemic PhDs: graduates anxious, but optimistic, about the future

Nature, Published online: 05 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04152-8Five early-career scientists from around the world share how lingering COVID-19 pandemic shadows and ripples from US academic disruptions have affected them. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Sunyaev–Zeldovich detection of hot intracluster gas at redshift 4.3

Nature, Published online: 05 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09901-3Detection of hot intracluster gas in SPT2349−56 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array provides new insights into early cluster formation. | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Daily briefing: The human cells in our bodies that aren’t genetically ours

Nature, Published online: 05 January 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00043-8‘Microchimeric’ cells passed from your mother can challenge basic tenets of immunology. Plus, an experimental cancer vaccine that uses blood ‘cleaned’ with ultraviolet light and the evidence for trying ‘Dry … | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago

Author Correction: Rewiring an olfactory circuit by altering cell-surface combinatorial code

Nature, Published online: 04 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-10090-2Author Correction: Rewiring an olfactory circuit by altering cell-surface combinatorial code | Continue reading


@nature.com | 7 months ago