The brain area that lights up in prickly people
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00318-y
Those who are quick to take offence show similar levels of activity in a region of the brain that’s crucial for decision-making.Daily briefing: ‘Feynman’s sprinkler’ spin mystery solved
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00356-6
If an S-shaped sprinkler sucks instead of sprays, which way does it spin? Plus, the month’s best science images and what scientists think of the Neuralink human trial.Synthesizing and identifying potential biomarkers to explore uncharted biochemistry
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-04105-z
Public repositories of metabolomics data are expanding rapidly and can be leveraged to uncover previously undescribed metabolites. Reverse metabolomics is a workflow in which thousands of small compounds are synthesized using combinatorial chemistry, and their molecular ‘fingerprints’ are then used to discover where they are localized in tissues and biological fluids and how they are associated with health and disease in humans.Several transient binding events create a strong, adaptable interface between organelles
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-04120-0
Rapid communication between intracellular structures such as the endoplasmic reticulum and the mitochondria is crucial for the coordinated functioning of cells. Such interactions occur mainly at sites where the compartments are in direct contact, and are mediated by specific tethering machinery. High-speed single-molecule tracking reveals a well-regulated interface at which many rapid binding and unbinding events provide highly adaptable interactions.JWST is most in-demand telescope ever — leaving many astronomers in the cold
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00315-1
Reviewers will likely approve only one in every nine research proposals submitted in latest application cycle.I’m not a chatbot – I promise!
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00349-5
A journal reviewer accused Lizzie Wolkovich of using ChatGPT to write a manuscript. She hadn’t — but her paper was rejected anyway.Surprise find: a blood-based immune system is discovered in the gut
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00245-y
Immune guardians called complement proteins are manufactured by gut cells and help to protect against pathogens.The world has warmed 1.5 °C, according to 300-year-old sponges
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00281-8
By the time that official temperature records began, global temperatures had already risen by half a degree.Innovative funding systems are key to fighting inequities in African science
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00348-6
A few countries and a select number of institutions will continue to take the vast majority of grants unless funders build diversity into their grant programmes.First passages of rolled-up Herculaneum scroll revealed
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00346-8
Researchers used artificial intelligence to decipher the text of 2,000-year-old charred papyrus scripts, unveiling musings on music and capers.I started fossil hunting in my 60s — now I have more than 2,000 pieces
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00330-2
Heather Middleton trawls England’s Jurassic Coast for specimens that might lead to a deeper understanding of palaeontology.Ivory artefacts’ origins revealed by telltale peptides
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00247-w
The family, genus or even species of animal that supplied the materials for a famed museum’s objects could be identified with minimal damage to the items.Science and government: can the power struggle ever end?
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00328-w
Similar goals but different strategies underlie tensions between science and the state, an in-depth analysis explains.It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life
Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00327-x
The view of biology often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight, argues a new book.Cervical cancer could be eliminated: here’s how
Nature, Published online: 04 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00302-6
Two experts lay out the steps that need to be taken, and the challenges facing low- and middle-income countries.An ancient tree’s oddball shape is revealed by an extraordinary fossil
Nature, Published online: 02 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00317-z
Many fossilized trees consist of only the trunk, but a specimen from Canada includes most of the crown of leaves.Daily briefing: Autoimmune disease linked to X chromosome
Nature, Published online: 02 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00342-y
A molecular coating found on the X chromosome might be one of the reasons women account for around 80% of all cases of autoimmune disease. Plus, an alternative to qubits for quantum computers and how AI learns language through a baby’s eyes.Crackdown on skin colour bias by fingertip oxygen sensors is coming, hints FDA
Nature, Published online: 02 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-023-04144-6
Devices can overestimate oxygen levels of people with dark skin — leading to less or delayed medical care.Israel is flooding Gaza’s tunnel network: scientists assess the risks
Nature, Published online: 02 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00320-4
The plan to target Hamas involves filling parts of a 500-kilometre-long network of underground tunnels. Researchers warn this could affect Gaza’s water supplies.Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip: what scientists think of first human trial
Nature, Published online: 02 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00304-4
Some researchers are concerned about a lack of transparency surrounding the implant, which aims to allow people to control devices through thought alone.