The Best of nature

Never-before-seen forms and unexpected connections between proteins revealed by analysis of their shapes.

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.»

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»

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.»

A checklist derived from six neuroscience-based theories of consciousness could aid in the assessment.

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…

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.

Detailed gene-activity map could pave way for more precise treatments for many more people with spinal-cord injuries.

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.

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.

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.

Mind-altering drugs might provide relief for those who don’t respond to conventional therapies — but does the hype outweigh the hope?

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”»

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

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.

Fruit fly ‘connectome’ will help researchers to study how the brain works, and could further understanding of neurological diseases.

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…

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For now, absolutely nothing. But researchers and firms are optimistic about the applications.

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…

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.»

A wave of departures, many of them by mid-career scientists, calls attention to widespread discontent in universities.

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.