The Best of nature

Signals originating in the brain make their way to gut nerve cells, leading to a release of inflammatory chemicals.

I’ve learnt to overcome some aspects of my social anxiety, but I hope sharing my experiences can help others recognize the difficulties faced by scientists like me.

A mirror that rapidly turns on and off alters the waveform of a reflected laser pulse in a way characteristic of Thomas Young’s classic double-slit experiment.

The stakes are high as the agency contemplates the technological and financial hurdles ahead for its sample-return mission.

Increases in transcriptional elongation speed with age affect organismal lifespan and ageing-related changes could be reversed with lifespan-extending interventions.

Cellular senescence has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for disorders across the lifespan; this Review highlights the most promising strategies for translating senescence-targeting interventions into clinical use in the near future.

Thirty years of pursuit have failed to yield a drug to take on one of the deadliest families of cancer-causing proteins. Now some researchers are taking another shot.

A study of 246 individuals with seasonal respiratory virus infections randomized to wear or not wear a surgical face mask showed that masks can significantly reduce detection of coronavirus and…

Long COVID is an often debilitating illness of severe symptoms that can develop during or following COVID-19. In this Review, Davis, McCorkell, Vogel and Topol explore our knowledge of long COVID and highlight key findings, including potential mechanisms, the overlap with other conditions and potential treatments. They also discuss challenges and recommendations for long COVID research and care.

Scientists are deciphering how the brain choreographs immune responses, hoping to find treatments for a range of diseases.

What we eat needs to be nutritious and sustainable. Researchers are trying to figure out what that looks like around the world.

«“which sea foods can we choose that are healthy for the ecosystem as well as healthy in the diet”»

AI has the potential to reshape medicine and make healthcare more accurate, efficient and accessible; this Review discusses recent progress, opportunities and challenges toward achieving this goal.

An almighty eruption, the cosmos remastered, swirling cells and more.

The chimaeras lived up to 19 days — but some scientists question the need for such research.

«Japan lifted its ban on experiments with animal embryos containing human cells in 2019 and began funding such work that year.»

Regulators will soon grapple with how to safely administer powerful psychedelics for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Susannah Cahalan’s investigation of the social-psychology experiment that saw healthy people sent to mental hospitals finds inconsistencies.

Quantum supremacy is demonstrated using a programmable superconducting processor known as Sycamore, taking approximately 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times, which…

In a superconducting quantum processor, error suppression improved as the system size was increased.

Martha Gilmore has faced not only accusations of theft and lying, but also quiet isolation and the pain of watching racism bear down on others.

People tend to solve problems by adding features.

«Moreover, people could assume that existing features are there for a reason, and so looking for additions would be more effective.»

Rasha Shraim’s education helped her to think more deeply about ethics, logic and other big questions.

«Philosophy has expanded my critical and creative thinking. Philosophical arguments often lead to imaginative edge cases and a dive into hypotheticals, which I frequently find creatively stimulating.»

Understanding cognitive control can help your working life, says David Badre.

«returning to a hard task in this way comes with a ‘restart’ cost»

A handful of experiments are raising questions about whether clumps of cells and disembodied brains could be sentient, and how scientists would know if they were.

Difficult tasks can lead to build-up of a signalling molecule in the brain, triggering fatigue.

«participants who spent more than six hours working on a tedious and mentally taxing assignment had higher levels of glutamate — an important signalling molecule in the brain.»

Psychiatrists have a dizzying array of diagnoses and not enough treatments. Hunting for the hidden biology underlying mental disorders could help.

Charity failed to provide adequate vaccines for the global south. Now, 15 countries are seeing whether an open-science model can end a dangerous legacy of dependency.