Volume 642 Issue 8067, 12 June 2025

Researchers reveal when boys pull ahead of girls in mathematics, sounding an alarm and providing both an opportunity for schools, parents and researchers.

Improved recognition of dementia as a major non-communicable disease by multilateral organizations is crucial, to build awareness and increase funding to tackle this insidious illness.

Building scientific capacity in the global south is key to solving today’s most pressing planetary challenges.

An intimate look at a puffy exoplanet and its nearest star has revealed its tragic destiny.

Some birds master the fine art of manoeuvring beak, feet and body weight to turn on a tap.

Mutation in an enzyme leads to resistance to chronic and acute pain, according to research in mice.

Discrepancy between models and measurements is resolved by peering into plumes emitted from power plants and other industrial facilities.

Scientists are eyeing their legal options in anticipation of new immigration actions.

Most proteins are left-handed, but scientists have found an ancient molecule that works in both mirror-image forms.

US agency’s new policy could abruptly end studies of infectious diseases and cancer, leaving researchers scrambling for funds.

Delegates to a United Nations meeting on neurotechnology ethics have devised the first set of global guidelines on maintaining users’ privacy.

Automated programs gathering training data for artificial-intelligence tools are overwhelming academic websites.

Hundreds of activists, some wearing gas masks, took to the streets to denounce the government for slashing science funding.

Kári Stefánsson, who last month left the Icelandic genetics company deCODE, spoke to Nature about his legacy.

Options are emerging for the tens of millions of people who stop taking GLP-1 drugs because of side effects, cost or availability.

Hesitancy about vaccinations is on the rise, but studies show there are specific ways to address people's questions.

A provocative book explores the barriers that hold women back, why previous diversity, equity and inclusion approaches have failed and how to move forward.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Finally answering the most-vexed question in quantum theory might mean redefining what is real.

Pioneer of general relativity and gravitational-wave theories saw her work confirmed by observations 65 years later.

As heads of Pacific island nations, we urge governments worldwide to avoid irreversible environmental damage to the region as well as the needless economic and geopolitical risks.

Simulated lab accidents train students how to respond to real emergencies.

As a student, Alex Kachkine can only afford damaged art in need of repair. Here’s how they turned their conservation work into a science.

Sebastián Gregui’s company uses research-backed methods to turn recovered plastic into building materials.

A damaged painting has been visually restored by digitally reconstructing missing areas of paint and printing them onto a removable mask.

A fluorescence-microscopy method for tracing neuronal connections in the brain could make connectomics studies more widely accessible for neuroscientists.

Two-dimensional quantum platforms have simulated a process in particle physics called string breaking that generates matter–antimatter pairs.

Calculation principles found in a papyrus scroll, and an author shares his love of lichens in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.

Metformin could reduce people’s risk of certain age-associated blood cancers, but more work is needed to identify who is likely to benefit.

A molecule designed to activate iron locked up in organelles called lysosomes and thereby induce cell death might offer a way to tackle treatment-resistant cancer.

These prototype processors made from atomically thin materials offer a glimpse into a post-silicon-transistor future, but scaling challenges remain.

In a quantum simulation of a (2+1)D lattice gauge theory using a superconducting quantum processor, the dynamics of strings reveal the transition from deconfined to confined excitations as the effective electric field is increased.

A quantum simulation of a (2 + 1)-dimensional lattice gauge theory is carried out on a quantum computer working with neutral atoms trapped by optical tweezers in a Kagome geometry.

A two-dimensional one instruction set computer has been fabricated based on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology by leveraging the heterogeneous integration of large-area n-type MoS₂ and p-type WSe₂ field-effect transistors.

The milli-spinner thrombectomy facilitates fast, complete clot removal by using spinning-induced compression and shear forces to mechanically modify the clot microstructure through densifying the fibrin network and releasing red blood cells, thus reducing clot volume.

A digital restoration technique for damaged paintings was developed, in which a colour-accurate bilayer mask of printed pigments on polymeric films was used, reducing treatment time and cost while adhering to ethical conservation principles.

A precise structure measurement of liquid carbon at pressures of around 1 million atmospheres obtained by in situ X-ray diffraction at an X-ray free-electron laser shows a complex fluid with transient bonding and approximately four nearest neighbours on average.

The facile synthesis and spectroscopic identification of previously unreported hexanitrogen C_2h-N₆ is described, representing experimentally realized neutral molecular nitrogen allotropes beyond N₂ that exhibit unexpected stability.

Monthly mapping of multisource remote-sensing data for 1.4 million lakes reveals that seasonality is the dominant driver of lake-surface-extent variations globally.

An integrated observation-driven and model-driven approach demonstrates that, from 2005 to 2021, periods of high atmospheric methane growth were linked to trends and variations in OH levels driven by fluctuations in air pollutants, especially during extreme events.

Ru isotopes are proposed as tracers for core–mantle interaction on Earth, and anomalies for ocean island basalts from Hawaii are reported that have higher ε¹⁰⁰Ru than the ambient mantle.

A study of the cooperative breeding behaviour of superb starlings during 40 consecutive breeding seasons over 20 years reveals long-term reciprocal helping between both related and unrelated individuals.

A haplotype-resolved pan-genome of autotetraploid European potato founder lines shows high nucleotide diversity at remarkably low haplotype diversity, which is probably the result of hybridization events with wild potato species, followed by population bottlenecks during domestication and transition to Europe.

A technique called LICONN (light-microscopy-based connectomics) allows mapping of brain tissue at synapse level and simultaneous measurement of molecular information, thus enabling quantification of cellular properties and multimodal analysis of brain tissue.

A pyramidal cell type and the 5-HT_2A receptor in the medial frontal cortex have essential roles in psilocybin’s long-term drug action.

Dnmt3a mutations in mouse haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells equivalent to R882 mutations in human cause increased mitochondrial respiration, suggesting that this is a mechanism of clonal haematopoiesis and a potential therapeutic target.

Metformin may serve as a non-toxic intervention to inhibit mitochondrial metabolism and slow DNMT3A-R882 clonal haematopoiesis expansion, thus delaying or averting progression to acute myeloid leukaemia.

The conversational diagnostic artificial intelligence system AMIE (Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer) has potential as a real-world tool for clinical history-taking and diagnostic dialogue, based on its performance in simulated consultations.

Diagnostic reasoning using an optimized large language model with a dataset comprising real-world medical cases exhibited improved differential diagnostic performance as an assistive tool for clinicians over search engines and standard medical resources.

An analysis of data from 522 population-based studies encompassing 82 global regions and spanning more than a century (1920–2024) shows spatiotemporal transitions across epidemiologic stages 1 to 3 of inflammatory bowel disease, and models stage 4 progression.

In response to phage infection, the Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain protein ThsB of the type II Thoeris defence system produces histidine conjugated to ADP-ribose, which stimulates bacterial defence by interacting with the Macro domain of the ThsA membrane effector protein.

Lysosomal phospholipase PLA2G15 was identified as a physiological BMP hydrolase whose activity depends on unique esterification and stereochemistry of BMP and offers a potential therapeutic target for Niemann–Pick disease type C1 and other neurodegenerative conditions.

High-resolution spatial proteomics were used to map molecular events during hepatocyte stress in pseudotime across all fibrosis stages, recapitulating known disease progression markers and revealing early peroxisomal activation and late-stage proteotoxic phenotypes.

Some cancer cells exhibit high loads of reactive iron in lysosomes, and this feature is exploited by using fentomycin-1, a newly developed small molecule, to induce ferroptosis.

An activator of DNA polymerase γ restores function to disease-causing mutant variants and demonstrates a potential route to treatments for inherited mitochondrial disorders involving POLG mutations.

Simultaneous inhibition of LSD1 and GSK3 kinase promotes cell differentiation, providing a therapeutic strategy for treating acute myeloid leukaemia.

A study using time-resolved cryogenic electron microscopy reveals the swinging lever mechanism of myosin, providing information on the molecular basis behind the production of force and movement by myosin.