Featured
Career Guide |
A structured system: the secrets of Germany’s scientific reputationThe European country has long been recognized as a model of efficiency and innovation — here’s how its research ecosystem is organized.
- Katarina Zimmer
News |
Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AIControversy has erupted after 21% of manuscript reviews for an international AI conference were found to be generated by artificial intelligence.
- Miryam Naddaf
Outlook |
Large language models are biased — local initiatives are fighting for changeDespite advances, AI models continue to be geared towards the needs of English-speaking people in high-income countries.
- Laura Vargas-Parada
Career Guide |
How to stop the revolving door of German academiaGermany is one of the most popular destinations for students and scholars worldwide, but those pursuing academic careers face significant hurdles to success.
- Diana Kwon
World View |
Why the world must wake up to China’s science leadershipThe nation’s next generation of scientists and technologists will shape the coming decades.
- Kerry Brown
Nature Podcast |
This is what lightning on Mars sounds likeDistinctive sounds of Martian 'micro-lightning' recorded by NASA’s Perseverance rover for the first time — plus, the final outcomes of the UN’s COP30 climate conference.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
Correspondence |
Universities must help students faced with the death of a supervisor
- Laura Zárraga-Vargas
Correspondence |
Chile must preserve international science in Antarctica
- Cristóbal Galbán Malagón
- ,Marcelo Leppe
- & Paulina Bahamonde
Correspondence |
International environmental treaties cannot be reformed through rational design
- Vito De Lucia
- & Jan Solski
News |
‘Anti-woke’ policies blamed for falling attendance at some US conferencesScientific meetings that support Black, Latino and Indigenous researchers are grappling with funding cuts and other restrictions.
- Alexandra Witze
Editorial |
World leaders must find the courage to end the fossil-fuel ageDespite the weak agreement seen at the COP30 climate conference, Brazil was right to prioritize discussing the eventual phase-out of fossil fuels. Others must now help to find a way forward.
World View |
Don’t scrap climate COPs, reform themThe world needs a more agile framework for climate action, but that shouldn’t mean abandoning a system that has worked for 30 years.
- Kilaparti Ramakrishna
Outlook |
The ocular microbiome: more than meets the eyeBacteria, viruses and fungi that colonize the body — including some that live directly on eye surfaces — can have an important role in eye health.
- Roxanne Khamsi
Comment |
A ten-year drive to credit authors for their work — and why there’s still more to doInformation about the roles of each author of a paper can help to build trust, integrity and responsible research assessment. Coordinated efforts are needed to consolidate progress.
- Liz Allen
- ,Veronique Kiermer
- & Ruth Whittam
Where I Work |
Chasing crayfish and the leeches that live on themMaria Shrestha works to understand the evolutionary history of crayfish symbionts — and how they might be indicators of trouble.
- Stav Dimitropoulos
Book Review |
The Internet is broken and the inventor of the World Wide Web wants to fix itTim Berners-Lee is calling for a return to a decentralized Internet and stronger data privacy, but his arguments could be more inspiring.
- Chris Stokel-Walker
Book Review |
Putting nature on the balance sheet: how to account for the ecological costs of our actionsEconomists should consider forests and wetlands as well as factories and farms.
- Jacob Hochard
News |
Cyberattacks' harm to universities is growing — and so are their effects on researchHackers are ramping up attacks on academic institutions to access valuable data and to demand ransoms.
- Diana Kwon
Career Q&A |
I encourage women to claim their space in astrophysics and beyondDebarati Chatterjee’s mission is to make science in India more welcoming towards women.
- Kanika Sharma
Career Feature |
Waste not: how researchers harness pee and poo for scienceIt might seem gross, but these materials are treasure troves for research.
- Hannah Docter-Loeb
Spotlight |
Science on shaky ground: Canadian research shifts in the wake of US cutsScientists hunt for the silver lining amid the changing funding landscape.
- Lesley Evans Ogden
Spotlight |
Budget release: Canada courts US researchers and signals wider commitment to scienceArtificial intelligence and international scientists are some of the big winners in the country’s spending plan this year.
- Brian Owens
Spotlight |
Standing up for Inuit-led research in Canada’s changing ArcticIn Canada’s far north, sociologist Jessica Penney is mixing research with advocacy.
- Chris Woolston
News |
Women seem to retract fewer papers than men — but why?In an analysis of nearly 900 retracted medical-research studies, the number of female authors is disproportionately low.
- Jenna Ahart
Editorial |
South Africa is right to put debt, climate and inequality at the heart of G20The host of the high-level meeting must not be swayed from its priorities, which are in line with the evidence from research.
Correspondence |
Leaders at COP30 should promote solar and wind power over mega-dams
- Hong Yang
- ,Xiang Gao
- & Julian R. Thompson
Correspondence |
Nations at COP30 must cancel fossil-fuel concessions to keep the Paris agreement in reach
- Martí Orta-Martínez
- ,Gorka Muñoa
- & Guillem Rius-Taberner
Career Column |
Introducing the j-metric: a true measure of what matters in academiaScience has become obsessed with publishing numbers. With this new satirical proposal, have we reached peak metric?
- Dariusz Jemielniak
News & Views |
Honouring visionary scientist andNature’s founder, Norman LockyerA lecture to commemorateNature’s first editor, and threats against a precious genetic resource that exists in indigenous livestock, in our weekly dip intoNature’s archive.
Editorial |
The UK must not lose its focus on science and innovationAn ambitious plan to create a trillion-dollar technology company comes with risks.
World View |
Bill Gates’s climate comments are a dangerous distractionPeople do not have to dismiss or exaggerate the climate threat to justify concerted action.
- Michael E. Mann
Book Review |
AI has a democracy problem — here’s whyA thorough examination of artificial intelligence’s promise in politics rests on a thorny premise: democracy is an information system.
- Virginia Eubanks
Comment |
Beyond growth — why we need to agree on an alternative to GDP nowThe world needs to move towards an approach to measure well-being rather than economic growth. Here’s how that can happen.
- Robert Costanza
- ,Joseph Eastoe
- & Daniel W. O’Neill
Where I Work |
The apple of my eye: How I’ve created a plant-health tracker for farmers in TanzaniaNeema Mduma is a machine-intelligence researcher building a crop-science app.
- Tavares Cebola
Career Feature |
On the move: why PhD students study abroad in 2025Mobility turns pragmatic as living costs and politics bite,Nature’s latest graduate survey shows.
- Linda Nordling
Book Review |
How COVAX raced to protect the world from COVID-19A physician–scientist involved in the equitable-access initiative examines its achievements and discusses what can be done better when the world faces the next pandemic.
- William P. Hausdorff
Comment |
Why space exploration needs science leadership now — before it’s too lateResearch in space is about more than discovery. It is a strategic asset and soft power that attracts partners and supports evidence-based decisions.
- Gioia Rau
Nature Index |
The leading cities in the world for high-quality research in 2024Data from the Nature Index reveal the top-performing science cities overall and across different subject areas.
Nature Index |
Why coastal megacities should look inland for research collaborationsAs coastal populations surge, partnerships between inland and coastal researchers could be essential for climate adaption.
- Bec Crew
Nature Index |
Who will fill the climate-data void left by the Trump administration?US withdrawal from monitoring projects has sent the world scrambling for alternatives.
- Brittany Janis
- & Cathy Richards
Nature Index |
A guide to the Nature IndexA description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality that is available free online at natureindex.com.
Nature Index |
Could China’s cautious new research strategy stifle its science-leadership ambitions?The era of rapid expansion is giving way to a more risk-aware approach, and students and researchers are feeling the effects.
- Futao Huang
Career Feature |
Researching sustainable food production, with help from the cowsHelena Kuoppala gets to work early to tend to a herd of dairy cows, exploring how dietary changes affect their health, milk yields and methane emissions.
- Rachael Pells
News Explainer |
The US government shutdown is over: what’s next for scientistsGovernment researchers are heading back to work, but questions about the size of research-budget cuts will extend into next year.
- Jeff Tollefson
- ,Alexandra Witze
- & Dan Garisto
Nature Index |
The future of ageing: science aims to deliver another leap in lifespanA wave of research into the biology of ageing is raising hopes of a longer life, but fundamental questions remain.
- Simon Baker
News |
Influential list of highly cited researchers now shuts out more scientists: here’s whyRule change weeds out many who co-author papers with others linked to suspicious practices.
- Nicola Jones
Comment |
To reform universities, first tackle global rankingsUniversities are in thrall to a rankings system that prioritizes narrow aspects of academic life. Three changes would give institutions the freedom to explore fresh ways of working.
- Elizabeth Gadd
News |
‘Godfather of AI’ becomes first person to hit one million citationsThe milestone makes machine-learning trailblazer Yoshua Bengio the most cited researcher on Google Scholar.
- Davide Castelvecchi
News |
Academic boycotts: data hint at shifting research partnershipsIndividual researchers and academic bodies are choosing not to work with other nations’ scientists amid geopolitical tensions. Is this affecting research output?
- Katie Kavanagh
