The Best of nature
20+ most popular nature articles, as voted by our community.
Research, News, and Commentary from Nature, the international journal of science. For daily science news, get Nature Briefing: http://go.nature.com/naturebriefing
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‘A Pandora’s box’: map of protein-structure families delights scientists
Never-before-seen forms and unexpected connections between proteins revealed by analysis of their shapes.
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ChatGPT broke the Turing test — the race is on for new ways to assess AI
Large language models mimic human chatter, but scientists disagree on their ability to reason.
«“It was not meant as a literal test that you would actually run on the machine — it was more like a thought experiment,” says François Chollet, a software engineer at Google who is based in Seattle, Washington.»
Europe spent €600 million to recreate the human brain in a computer. How did it go?
The Human Brain Project wraps up in September after a decade. Nature examines its achievements and its troubled past.
«“Big science is not always about moonshots, especially when the steps toward major goals are uncertain»
Hydrogen and dark oxygen drive microbial productivity in diverse groundwater ecosystems
Microbes in ancient groundwaters can be very diverse and productive. Some microbes seem to produce oxygen in the dark, which others use to consume the greenhouse gas methane. Their metabolisms are…
«We show that ancient groundwaters sustain productive communities and highlight an overlooked oxygen source in present and past subsurface ecosystems of Earth.»
If AI becomes conscious: here’s how researchers will know
A checklist derived from six neuroscience-based theories of consciousness could aid in the assessment.
A redox-based electrogenetic CRISPR system to connect with and control biological information networks
Redox-responsive transcriptional regulators can enable user-specified electronic control over biological functions. Here the authors demonstrate electronic control of CRISPRa and CRISPRi using redox…
nature on Aging
Ageing-associated changes in transcriptional elongation influence longevity
Increases in transcriptional elongation speed with age affect organismal lifespan and ageing-related changes could be reversed with lifespan-extending interventions.
Cellular senescence and senolytics: the path to the clinic
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.
nature on Brain
Electrical stimulation helps paralysed people walk again — and now we know why
Detailed gene-activity map could pave way for more precise treatments for many more people with spinal-cord injuries.
Dementia risk linked to blood-protein imbalance in middle age
Abnormal levels of certain proteins — many of which have roles outside the brain — could be an early hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease or similar conditions.
nature on Cancer
How a controversial US drug policy could be harming cancer patients worldwide
The FDA’s accelerated-approval process was designed to help people access life-saving drugs. But gaps in communication could mean that people are undergoing treatments known to be ineffective.
Cancer: The Ras renaissance
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.
nature on Drugs
Psychedelic drugs take on depression
Mind-altering drugs might provide relief for those who don’t respond to conventional therapies — but does the hype outweigh the hope?
nature on Health
Your brain could be controlling how sick you get — and how you recover
Scientists are deciphering how the brain choreographs immune responses, hoping to find treatments for a range of diseases.
What humanity should eat to stay healthy and save the planet
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”»
nature on Medicine
How ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry
Regulators will soon grapple with how to safely administer powerful psychedelics for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
AI in health and medicine
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.
nature on Nature
The best science images of 2022
An almighty eruption, the cosmos remastered, swirling cells and more.
Gigantic map of fly brain is a first for a complex animal
Fruit fly ‘connectome’ will help researchers to study how the brain works, and could further understanding of neurological diseases.
nature on Psychedelics
Psychedelics promote plasticity by directly binding to BDNF receptor TrkB
Moliner et al. show that psychedelics directly bind to the BDNF receptor TrkB with high affinity and promote BDNF-mediated plasticity and antidepressant-like effects, whereas their hallucinogenic-like…
Characterization and prediction of acute and sustained response to psychedelic psilocybin in a mindfulness group retreat
Shared by 12, including Making Sense Podcast
nature on Quantum Computing
Quantum computers: what are they good for?
For now, absolutely nothing. But researchers and firms are optimistic about the applications.
Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor
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…
nature on Science
Adding is favoured over subtracting in problem solving
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.»
Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia?
A wave of departures, many of them by mid-career scientists, calls attention to widespread discontent in universities.
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Tips from neuroscience to keep you focused on hard tasks
Understanding cognitive control can help your working life, says David Badre.
«returning to a hard task in this way comes with a ‘restart’ cost»
Can lab-grown brains become conscious?
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.
Why thinking hard makes us feel tired
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.»
The hidden links between mental disorders
Psychiatrists have a dizzying array of diagnoses and not enough treatments. Hunting for the hidden biology underlying mental disorders could help.
Unseating big pharma: the radical plan for vaccine equity
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.
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