Volume 636 Issue 8041, 5 December 2024

A great scientist doesn’t necessarily make an effective science adviser — but schooling and practice can help to bridge the gap.

The first Trump term took a toll on international scholars and collaborations — we can avoid similar pitfalls.

Study participants rated fictional scientists who admitted their own knowledge gaps as more credible.

Neighbouring cells bolster the immune cells’ tumour-fighting abilities.

The only continent where amber had not been found no longer has that distinction, thanks to a sediment core drilled just offshore.

Relatively warm regions of the object called Makemake could also be explained by a dusty planetary ring.

The volatile substance will be driven across the CERN campus in trucks to different facilities, giving scientists greater opportunities to study it.

Analysis of 200-million-year-old digested foods reveals how the animals became dominant.

Researchers say the social-media platform — an alternative to X — offers more control over the content they see and the people they engage with.

Survey highlights disparity between academic and industry scientists’ access to computing power needed to train machine-learning models.

Rich countries will take the lead in finding US$300 billion annually in climate finance for poor countries.

Cylinders discovered in 2004 are inscribed with the earliest known examples of letters, say archaeologists.

The UK, Canadian and Australian governments have introduced immigration restrictions for students.

Remarkably preserved footprints of Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei offer direct evidence that extinct hominin species coexisted.

Large language models such as OpenAI’s o1 have electrified the debate over achieving artificial general intelligence, or AGI. But they are unlikely to reach this milestone on their own.

A Nature global survey finds that most specialists are unhappy with systems to provide science advice to policymakers.

A vivid account of the evolution of minds will fill readers with wonder — and challenge how they think about their moral responsibility to protect the planet.

Roger Penrose, now 93, never shied away from wild ideas and the ensuring debates. The first full-length biography reveals more about the mathematician and the man.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

The condensed-matter physicist also turned his attention to neural networks, improving our understanding of the human brain and helping to develop machine learning.

National politics is set to drastically shift in both countries. But avenues for joint action still exist.

The world has changed since Europe’s ambitious climate package was designed. Here’s how the agreement should evolve.

A road map to success based on Nature’s hiring-in-science survey, with advice for every stage from application to offer.

Synthetic protein agonists could boost T-cell biomanufacturing and therapeutic strategies.

Ioannis Binietoglou makes sure that the latest technology reaches areas that need it.

Climate change and urbanization are exacerbating the effects of flooding. A close look at a Nepalese river reveals that efforts to reduce the impact of floods must consider the geomorphic changes that occur during these extreme events.

A bird’s ability to transition swiftly from walking to flying has been emulated in the design of a simple robotic leg. The feat is a win for drone design, and one that could reveal why some birds’ legs make up so large a fraction of their weight.

Gene-edited stem cells can be used in regenerative therapies to treat diverse genetic diseases. Tracking the output of these cells over time reveals a commitment to lineages that meet disease-specific needs.

Aerial observations and experiments with a simulated atmosphere show that isoprene, a gas emitted by trees, is a precursor of particles in the upper atmosphere. The findings could help to improve climate predictions.

By comparing related plants, researchers have identified a cause of a switch in gene expression that enabled a more efficient form of photosynthesis to evolve — paving the way for engineering crops that are more productive.

Antibodies from malaria-exposed individuals have been found to target a diverse family of proteins from the malaria-causing parasite. These proteins cause severe disease by enabling infected blood cells to bind to blood vessels.

A review of wearable devices for body-fluid analysis discusses the strategies, considerations and challenges to achieve their successful clinical translation and how they might contribute to solving some global healthcare challenges.

Deep ALMA archival observations of submillimetre-bright galaxies at high redshifts show that spheroidal bulges formed much earlier than expected and are directly generated by star formation within the cores of highly luminous starburst galaxies.

A 142-qubit processor can be realized by connecting two smaller quantum processors using classical communications and circuit cutting.

Using quantum gas microscopy, Hilbert space fragmentation and fractonic excitations are observed in a two-dimensional tilted Bose–Hubbard model.

A bird-inspired robot that can jump into flight, walk on the ground and hop over obstacles shows that jumping for take-off is more energy efficient than taking off without the jump.

A particular liquid–liquid phase separation at a solid–liquid interface led to the unexpected partitioning of highly similar polymeric molecules into concentric circles.

By examining several cell-free biomimetic-collagen-based materials in murine and ovine bone-defect models, the twisted plywood pattern of collagen-based materials is shown to favourably influence bone regeneration and contributes to bone autograft performance.

A transition-metal-free platform enables the formation of challenging C(sp³)–C(sp³) bonds in organic compounds via single-electron transfer, facilitating the coupling of functionalized fragments and expanding possibilities for efficient organic synthesis and reaction design.

Experiments performed in the CERN CLOUD chamber show that, under upper-tropospheric conditions, new atmospheric particle formation may be initiated by the reaction of hydroxyl radicals with isoprene emitted by rainforests.

Aircraft measurements over the Amazon show that new particle formation in the upper troposphere emerges when isoprene, emitted by forests, undergoes oxidation in the presence of nitrogen oxides produced by lightning.

An estimated area of 215 million hectares has the potential for natural forest regeneration across tropical forested countries and biomes, representing an above-ground carbon sequestration potential of 23.4 Gt C.

We report a late-stage tadpole of the stem-anuran Notobatrachus degiustoi from the Middle Jurassic of Patagonia, a finding that has dual importance because it represents the oldest-known tadpole and describes an exquisitely preserved stem-anuran larva.

Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing and chromatin-accessibility analyses in rice (a C₃ plant) and sorghum (a C₄ plant) provide insight into how C₄ photosynthesis evolved in bundle-sheath cells, revealing that the acquisition of ancestral cis-elements was key.

A subcortical circuit that regulates food consumption in mice is described, involving neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus that are directly linked to motor centres that regulate feeding and jaw movements.

Haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) clonogenic activity, lineage output, lineage commitment and somatic mutation rates are influenced by the underlying disease, patient age, extent of genetic defect correction and hematopoietic stress imposed by the inherited disease, suggesting HSC adaptation.

Skull bone marrow expands during adult life, exhibits lifelong vascular growth and increases its haematopoietic potential during ageing.

Two broadly reactive and inhibitory human monoclonal antibodies against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum have been characterized, providing insights into immunity, prevention and treatment of severe malaria.

The bacterial anti-phage toxin–antitoxin–chaperone defence system CmdTAC senses capsid proteins via CmdC, enabling dissociation from the CmdTAC complex of the RNA ADP-ribosyltransferase CmdT, which targets single-stranded RNAs, inhibiting viral replication.

We find that leptin-target neurons expressing basonuclin 2 in the arcuate nucleus that acutely suppress appetite by directly inhibiting agouti-related protein neurons are a key component of the neural circuit that maintains energy balance.

Innate IL-17-producing T cells—in particular, adipose γδ17 T cells—are enriched in molecular-clock genes, and the circadian expression of IL-17A and RORγt by these cells has a role in maintaining local homeostasis and regulating lipogenesis.

The molecular characteristics of myocarditis associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors are described and potential biomarkers of onset and severity are identified.

A population of tumour-specific PD1⁺TCF1⁺ CD4 T cells in tumour-draining lymph nodes is capable of self-renewal and differentiation into CD4 effector cells, thereby controlling CD8 T cell activity.

Experiments using DNA barcoding for lineage tracing in mouse models of colorectal cancer reveal polyclonal origins of premalignant lesions, with a transition to monoclonality as they progress to the advanced tumour.

We find that RAS-mutant leukaemia stem cells are resistant to venetoclax, driving clinical resistance and relapse with monocytic features.

Nucleosome flipping mediates a proofreading and processive mechanism of histone exchange driven by the chromatin remodeller SWR1.