Volume 652 Issue 8109, 9 April 2026

The potential benefits of organoids for fundamental research and medicine are huge. Efforts to establish proper boundaries for their use should be supported.

As humanity blasts off into a new space race, we need a model of exploration that emphasizes stewardship of other worlds, not exploitation.

Limited methods and a lack of guidance around diagnostic criteria mean that many scientists are reluctant to use the term addiction.

Lead recycled from centuries-old ammunition provides raw materials for perovskite solar cells.

Astronomers have spotted a second planet taking shape from the material orbiting a young star — only the second such example known.

Study of more than 11,000 women found that only a few hours of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week had a strong effect.

Residues show that residents of Pompeii burnt resins imported from thousands of kilometres away.

The astronauts will fly by the far side of the Moon in the coming days, taking in views never seen by the human eye.

The papers’ watermarks allowed organizers to detect use of large language models in peer review.

Sparse academic presence on the US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology reflects a focus on technology and industry.

Physicists cross-checked quantum computer predictions against experimental data about materials’ properties.

Minuscule particles with the ability to cross hard-to-penetrate barriers can be loaded with drug treatments to target intractable diseases.

The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.

Scans of more than 3,500 people allow scientists to draw up a guide to the brain areas that work together from birth to 100 years old.

Lab-grown organoids are turbo-charging the study of human brain development and disease.

A burgeoning field is launching its first clinical trial to find out whether dialling back cell development can safely refresh aged tissues and organs.

As oil and gas markets face crisis, an influential economist sets out a path to a more efficient, prosperous and sustainable world.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

The polymath also trained as a philosopher and won a Nobel prize for his theory of superfluids.

A goal-driven approach to medical research and development in the United States would address unmet medical needs, reduce costs and improve the reach of treatments.

Some researchers use verse to visualize complex problems or translate the wonders of science for wider audiences.

Scientists are exposing the biological information hidden in ancient parchments without leaving a mark.

Chemistry that forms an omnipresent type of carbon–carbon bond enables the modular synthesis of 3D organic molecules — a boon for drug discovery and materials design.

As mice age, changes in the microorganisms in their guts contribute to cognitive decline by altering signalling between the gut and brain.

The latest value for the mass of a fundamental particle called the W boson is consistent with the standard model of particle physics, challenging a previous anomalous result.

Asexual reproduction should be an evolutionary dead end. A study of asexual fish shows that a genetic ‘copy and paste’ helps to overcome the predicted costs of asexuality.

The Fischer–Tropsch synthesis shaped history by providing a way of making liquid fuels from coal. It is now causing a stir again as a route to sustainable fuels.

Patterns in continuous data from wearable devices could reveal early metabolic dysfunction long before routine clinical tests detect it.

This Perspective reviews the potential and the challenges of metabolomics approaches, encompassing both single-cell and population-scale metabolomics.

The CMS experiment at CERN reports one of the highest-precision measurements of the W boson mass, finding it in line with standard model predictions and at odds with recent anomalous measurements.

Large-scale lattice quantum chromodynamics simulations enable a model-free, highly precise determination of the strong coupling constant α_s, reducing theoretical uncertainty and improving precision tests of particle physics.

Researchers created a moiré superlattice in Sb₂Te₃/FeTe bilayers, producing spatially modulated superconducting gaps directly imaged with Josephson scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, tunable by replacing Sb₂Te₃ with Bi₂Te₃.

Analysis of FeTe films grown using molecular-beam epitaxy and annealed under a Te flux post-growth shows that stoichiometric FeTe is inherently a superconductor, contradicting the long-held view that it is an antiferromagnetic metal.

A dual-action force dynamics strategy using a hard silicon template as a nanoimprinting stamp combined with inverted transfer printing is described for the manufacture of high-performance full-colour ultrahigh-resolution quantum dot light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for active-matrix displays, while revealing electric-field reconstruction in nanoscale arrays and introducing dielectric matching to mitigate field concentration and performance degradation.

Stereospecific coupling of boronic esters catalysed by a copper acetylide complex provides simplification of the synthesis of chiral building blocks for complex molecules.

Sedimentary time-series data of Lake Yoa in Chad covering the past 10.25 thousand years (kyr) show that the mid-Holocene African Humid Period experienced several decadal-scale droughts, caused by sudden inputs of freshwater into the North Atlantic.

Data from the recently launched SWOT satellite, a wide-swath satellite altimeter, have been used to map tidal dynamics for thousands of coastal rivers and to document the factors controlling the inland extent of tides.

Daily satellite data reveal that Earth’s artificial lights at night are highly volatile, with frequent brightening and dimming between 2014 and 2022.

Magma drilling data from Krafla volcano, Iceland, are used to reconstruct in situ lithostatic magmatic conditions using disequilibrium simulations that provide a method for improving the understanding of magma storage conditions and evolution.

Survival of reef-building oysters peaks at specific combinations of fractal dimension and height that reduce predation, showing how optimal three-dimensional habitat geometry can guide more effective ecosystem restoration.

Analysis of the asexually reproducing Amazon molly Poecilia formosa and its sexually reproducing progenitors Poecilia mexicana and Poecilia latipinna reveals that it maintains a divergent mutational landscape and has evaded functional mutational decay via gene conversion.

Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgardarchaeota, in conditions that may have given rise to early eukaryotes.

Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared with those remaining on a chronological feed, whereas switching the feed setting in the opposite direction, from algorithmic to chronological, had no effect.

Cue-evoked striatal dopamine release in mice encodes bidirectional trajectory errors, spatially and temporally separated from value coding, reflecting the relationship between the speed and direction of ongoing movement relative to optimal goal trajectories.

Astrocytes in the basolateral amygdala dynamically track fear state and support fear memory retrieval and extinction.

Age-related microbiome changes increase medium-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria, driving GPR84-mediated myeloid inflammation, impaired vagal signalling and hippocampal dysfunction; targeting this gut–brain pathway restores memory in aged mice.

A machine-learning model that integrates data from wearable devices (such as smartwatches) with blood biomarkers and demographic data can predict whether someone has insulin resistance, enabling timely lifestyle interventions to prevent progression to type 2 diabetes.

CRISPR–Cas9 screening identifies CLCC1 as a factor that increases neutral lipid flux to prevent hepatic steatosis and promotes nuclear pore complex assembly by promoting membrane bending and fusion.

Phospholipid scrambling at the endoplasmic reticulum is essential for establishing a dynamic equilibrium to maintain cellular homeostasis.

Single-particle tracking experiments in intact cells reveal dynamic co- and post-translational interactions of the TRiC–PFD chaperonin complex with client proteins during in vivo protein folding.

Phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate is a ligand of STING and, together with cGAMP, induces STING activation and innate immune responses.

Phosphatidylinositol phosphates together with cholesterol bind at the interface between STING dimers, directly promoting high-order oligomerization.

Most pachytene PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) have no biological function; however, a small population enhances sperm fitness, which has led to their persistence in mammalian evolution.

An approach to discover reactive diazo-based metabolites by capture based on their reactivity coupled to mass spectrometry revealed two previously unknown diazo-containing compounds produced by the human lung pathogen Nocardia ninae using novel biosynthetic chemistry.