Volume 642 Issue 8066, 5 June 2025

The COVID-19 pandemic showed the value of changing direction in research. It should be incentivized, encouraged and celebrated.

Governments and institutions must shift from top-down approaches to collaborations with local communities.

Fishing communities know what sustainability means. They must be at the decision table.

Freeze–thaw cycles in an icy pond could let an enzyme copy RNA double helices indefinitely — suggesting one way in which evolution could have begun.

Climate change is lengthening the gap between snowmelt and vegetation growth.

Temporary device records eye movement and brain activity to monitor mental strain.

Genomic evidence suggests that the bloodsuckers might have been among the first urban insect pests.

Thousands have signed an open letter against the US president’s latest order, anxious about political interference in science and more.

Nature talks to scientists about an uncertain future as the US government lays siege to their university.

Some meetings have been put on hold in response to foreign researchers’ travel concerns.

Sci-fi-style technology uses nanoparticles to convert infrared light into visible light that humans can see.

The body’s pathogen fighters can act as surveillance forces that ferry information from the gut and fat deposits to the brain.

Dozens of scientists have descended on the US Great Plains to study hail, which can inflict damage on property and even take lives.

Massive study of nearly 26 million research papers measures the consequences of striking out in another research area.

Repeated damage from extreme heat over time seems to be a leading factor causing kidneys to fail.

Live-animal markets are a natural laboratory for viruses to evolve and spark deadly outbreaks, yet scientists lack support to study the risks they pose.

The poles hold 70% of Earth’s fresh water and are crucial to science; what’s unfolding there as the planet warms deserves greater attention.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

The Artemis programme and others aim to send humans to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars. Innovations in health care that support the mission crew could also benefit people at home.

Exploitation of the high seas risks doing irreversible damage to biodiversity, climate stability and ocean equity. A consensus must be built now to save them.

Is lasting love more likely if you date only other scientists? How much should you talk about your research on a first date? Researchers lift the lid on their experiences of when science meets affairs of the heart.

Plant scientist Johan Sukweenadhi uses ‘hairy-root culture’ to improve ginseng yields at the University of Surabaya in Indonesia.

The risk of developing blood cancer increases with age. The finding that a molecule from gut bacteria plays a part points to new ways to intervene.

In warming coastal seas, a crucial ecosystem is being replaced by ‘turfs’ of red algae, which release chemicals that suppress kelp survival.

A global analysis reveals that most carbon dioxide emitted by rivers derives not from modern plant material, as was thought, but from ancient, buried carbon.

Fossil data shed light on a debate about when vertebrate dental tissues arose by assigning an early sensory structure to arthropods rather than to vertebrates.

Mutations in RAS enzymes commonly drive cancer. Targeting an overlooked protein complex that works with RAS offers a fresh avenue to cancer therapy.

Unexpected large-scale clustering of isolated, diffuse and blue dwarf galaxies, comparable to that seen for massive galaxy groups, challenges current models of cosmology and galaxy evolution.

Emergent anyonic correlations via spin–charge separation are observed in a one-dimensional strongly interacting quantum gas, enabling the exploration of non-equilibrium anyonic phenomena in a highly controllable setting.

Superconductivity at temperatures approaching 40 K for a hole-doped nickel oxide that is isostructural with cuprate superconductors demonstrates the existence of a broader family of materials and potential for achieving higher-temperature superconductivity.

Experimental observations and theoretical analysis provide evidence that the spin polarization of the spin-spiral type II multiferroic NiI₂ exhibits p-wave magnetism and its spin chirality is related to ferroelectric polarization, which can be electrically controlled. 

Exciton–lattice interactions suppress thermal noise through vibration isolation, enabling unconventional solitonic superfluorescence at unusually high temperatures in lead halide perovskites.

An endohedral metallofullerene–polymer layer, which features ultrafast electron extraction and in situ encapsulation, improves the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells.

Readily accessible enantioenriched sulfonylhydrazides and low loadings of an inexpensive achiral Ni catalyst can be used to control the stereochemical outcome of radical cross-coupling.

C to N atom swapping in indoles is introduced that gives indazoles through oxidative cleavage of the indole heteroarene core and subsequent ring closure, adding another method to the field of skeletal editing.

¹³⁸La-¹³⁸Ce geochronology shows that La/Ce fractionation, and Ce oxidation, occurred at the time of deposition, placing the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis in the Mesoarchaean or earlier.

Using a global database of the radiocarbon content of rivers combining new and published measurements, isotopic mass balance suggests that about 60% of river CO₂ emissions are derived from millennial or older carbon sources.

Four decades after a test mining experiment that removed nodules, the biological impacts in many groups of organisms persist, although populations of several organisms have begun to re-establish despite persistent physical changes at the seafloor.

Re-examination of the presumed Cambrian fossil fish Anatolepis reveals previous misidentification of aglaspidid sensory structures as dentine, a vertebrate sensory tissue, showing it to be an arthropod, and shifting the origin of vertebrate hard tissues to the Middle Ordovician.

A collaborative study initiated by the sovereign nation of Picuris Pueblo in the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico addresses gaps in traditional knowledge and furthers understanding of their population history and ancestry.

Multimodal results (iEEG, fMRI and MEG) of predictions from integrated information theory and global neuronal workspace theory align with some predictions of both theories on visual consciousness, but also critically challenge key tenets of both theories.

A human ascending somatosensory assembloid model was developed, which integrates multiple organoids to simulate the spinothalamic pathway, demonstrating functional connectivity and responsiveness to stimuli and revealing insights into pain-related genetic mutations.

Aversive and rewarding social experiences are linked to conspecific identity through converging dorsal raphe 5-HT and paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus neurotensin signals in the vCA1 that instruct opposing valence, representing a synaptic switch for flexible social valence computation.

A study finds that RUVBL2 is a conserved component of eukaryotic circadian clocks and suggests that slow ATPase activity, which was initially discovered in cyanobacteria, is a shared feature of eukaryotic clocks.

A study reports the development and validation of a wrist-worn, consumer wearable-based system that identifies sudden loss of pulse events with a performance profile suitable for societal-scale use.

A highly sensitive single-cell RNA sequencing approach reveals genomic features controlling the order of antigen activation in the model protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei.

The RBPJ–NCOR repressor complex is identified as a negative regulator of FOXP3 expression through modulation of histone acetylation in induced regulatory T cells.

ADP-heptose binds to ALPK1, triggering transcriptional reprogramming and NF-κB activation, endowing pre-leukaemic cells with a competitive advantage due to excessive clonal proliferation.

Spatially resolved transcriptomic profiling of primary tumours and metastases from patients with pancreatic cancer provides insight into the evolutionary progression to metastasis, and the variation in clonal architecture within and between individuals.

A global map of human subcellular architecture yields protein complex structures, reveals protein functions, identifies assemblies with multiple localizations or cell-type specificity and decodes paediatric cancer genomes.

A study of dependencies associated with cancer-causing mutations has identified a small molecule that binds to SHOC2 and inhibits RAS signalling in cells carrying NRAS Q61 mutations, a common oncogenic driver in melanoma.

The LPD-3 complex structure reveals protein–lipid interactions that suggest a model for how the native LPD-3 complex mediates bulk lipid transport and provides a foundation for mechanistic studies of bridge-like lipid-transport proteins.

Using cryogenic electron microscopy and a modelling approach, complex water networks in a ribozyme are visualized.