Featured
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Article |
Ballistic two-dimensional InSe transistors
A two-dimensional field-effect transistor made of indium selenide is shown to outperform state-of-the-art silicon-based transistors, operating at lower supply voltage and achieving record high transconductance and ballistic ratio.
- Jianfeng Jiang
- , Lin Xu
- & Lian-Mao Peng
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News & Views |
Swift progress for robots over complex terrain
A four-legged robot has learnt to run on sand at a faster pace than humans jog on solid ground. With low energy use and few failures, this rapid robot shows the value of combining data-driven learning with accurate, yet simple, models.
- Chen Li
- & Feifei Qian
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Comment |
Five steps to make MRI scanners more affordable to the world
Fifty years since the basis of magnetic resonance imaging was published, MRI scanners remain expensive — and impractical in many countries. Here’s how we are making them smaller and less costly.
- Andrew Webb
- & Johnes Obungoloch
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Outlook |
Could implantable artificial kidneys end the need for dialysis?
Highly engineered mechanical structures could radically improve the quality of life for people with chronic kidney disease.
- Neil Savage
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Article
| Open AccessHuman–machine collaboration for improving semiconductor process development
A virtual process game to benchmark the performance of humans and computers for the fabrication of semiconductors leads to a strategy combining human expert design with optimization algorithms to improve semiconductor process development.
- Keren J. Kanarik
- , Wojciech T. Osowiecki
- & Richard A. Gottscho
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Book Review |
Seven everyday objects that made the modern world
Nails, wheels, springs, magnets, lenses, string and pumps: a structural engineer reveals the small things that our biggest tech advances are built on.
- Anna Novitzky
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Editorial |
Syria after the earthquakes: what researchers can do to help
Equipment and expert aid are urgently needed for 4.7 million people in the country’s neglected northwest.
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News |
Electrodes build themselves inside the bodies of live fish
Substance that transforms into a conductive polymer using the body’s own chemistry could improve implantable electronics.
- Myriam Vidal Valero
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Article
| Open AccessSuppressing quantum errors by scaling a surface code logical qubit
A study demonstrating increasing error suppression with larger surface code logical qubits, implemented on a superconducting quantum processor.
- Rajeev Acharya
- , Igor Aleiner
- & Ningfeng Zhu
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Comment |
AI weapons: Russia’s war in Ukraine shows why the world must enact a ban
Conflict pressures are pushing the world closer to autonomous weapons that can kill without human control. Researchers and the international community must join forces to prohibit them.
- Stuart Russell
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Nature Video |
This device corkscrews itself into the ground like a seed
Inspired by nature, this little wooden ‘robot’ has been designed to bury itself.
- Shamini Bundell
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Research Briefing |
Stretchy electronic devices assembled in a Lego-like way
In current stretchable electronic devices, connection points between modules are made using commercially available pastes and break easily under mechanical deformation. An innovative connection interface has been developed to enable robust stretchable devices to be reliably assembled in a Lego‑like manner by simply pressing the interfaces of two modules together without pastes.
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News & Views |
Self-burying robot morphs wood to sow seeds
A natural seed has inspired the design of a robot that can bury itself in soil when exposed to rainfall. The mechanism relies on the shape-changing properties of wood — a simple and elegant example of sustainable innovation.
- Samuel E. Mason
- & Naomi Nakayama
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Article |
Electronic metadevices for terahertz applications
Through microscopic manipulation of radiofrequency fields, a new class of compact terahertz devices is proposed, setting the stage for next-generation ultrafast semiconductor electronics.
- Mohammad Samizadeh Nikoo
- & Elison Matioli
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Article |
Autonomous self-burying seed carriers for aerial seeding
A study describes a wood-based, three-tailed, biodegradable seed carrier that self-drills into the ground in response to moisture fluctuations with a success rate higher than that of natural self-drilling seeds.
- Danli Luo
- , Aditi Maheshwari
- & Lining Yao
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News Explainer |
Turkey–Syria earthquake: what scientists know
Turkey and Syria’s buildings have always been vulnerable to earthquakes, but war has made things worse.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News Explainer |
Could solar panels in space supply Earth with clean energy?
As a prototype prepares for tests in orbit, Nature looks at five of the biggest challenges for space-based solar power.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Research Briefing |
A wearable ultrasound patch for continuous heart imaging
A new ultrasound patch can image the heart while being worn, even when the wearer is moving during strenuous exercise. A customized model that uses a technique of artificial intelligence called deep learning then processes the images to extract important measures of cardiac performance.
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Nature Video |
3D printing gets a twist from a novel nozzle
The new design can print twisting helix shapes with varying properties.
- Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
Vertical architecture improves performance of transistor family
Organic electrochemical transistors could be better than conventional inorganic devices for certain uses, but have been held back by performance issues. The solution could be to build up these organic transistors like a sandwich.
- Camille Cunin
- & Aristide Gumyusenge
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Article |
Rotational multimaterial printing of filaments with subvoxel control
A 3D printing platform comprising a rotational multimaterial printhead is demonstrated, enabling the fabrication of helically architected filaments and lattices with programmable subvoxel control.
- Natalie M. Larson
- , Jochen Mueller
- & Jennifer A. Lewis
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Article
| Open AccessVertical organic electrochemical transistors for complementary circuits
Vertical organic electrochemical transistors demonstrating unprecedented performances in both p- and n-type operation modes have been synthesized from new electro-active and ion-permeable semiconducting polymers by the interface engineering of electro-active blend layers.
- Wei Huang
- , Jianhua Chen
- & Antonio Facchetti
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Article |
Enantioselective sensing by collective circular dichroism
An array of 2D crystals of isotropic, 432-symmetric chiral gold nanoparticles is shown to exhibit collective resonances with a strong and uniform chiral near field, allowing enantioselective detection by the collective circular dichroism.
- Ryeong Myeong Kim
- , Ji-Hyeok Huh
- & Ki Tae Nam
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Essay |
Fifty years after astronauts left the Moon, they are going back. Why?
The launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission aims to rekindle the spirit of Apollo a half century after the United States left the lunar surface. As ever, science is the least of the driving forces.
- Alexandra Witze
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Research Briefing |
A practical method for splitting seawater into hydrogen fuel
The electrolytic splitting of saline water is a highly desirable and sustainable method for the mass production of green hydrogen, but seawater contains many impurities that hinder the long-term stability of conventional electrolysis systems. A method for enabling the electrolysis of seawater has been developed that addresses previous side-reaction and corrosion problems.
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Perspective |
Dendrocentric learning for synthetic intelligence
The concept of dendrocentric learning artificial intelligence is proposed to replace synaptocentric learning, reducing the energy use requirement and removing the thermal constraint.
- Kwabena Boahen
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Nature Podcast |
The satellite-free alternative to GPS
A new positioning system that doesn’t rely on satellites, and the outcomes of COP27.
- Shamini Bundell
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Article |
Anomalous thermal transport under high pressure in boron arsenide
Competition between three- and four-phonon scattering processes is shown to be the source of a unique anomalous thermal conductivity in boron arsenide at high pressures.
- Suixuan Li
- , Zihao Qin
- & Yongjie Hu
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News |
Maths predicts World Cup winner — and more of this week’s best science graphics
Four charts from the world of research, selected by Nature editors.
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Outlook |
Video: how to make the construction industry circular
The world is running out of sand. Is circular thinking the solution?
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Outlook |
Smarter ways with water
People need to find better and more productive ways to become allies with water — which might mean giving it space for its processes.
- Erica Gies
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News & Views |
Phone signals can help you find your way in cities even without GPS
Existing telecommunications infrastructure could operate as a miniaturized global positioning system, offering submetre resolution in urban areas and indoors, where location information from satellites is often inaccurate.
- Hui Chen
- & Henk Wymeersch
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Article |
A hybrid optical–wireless network for decimetre-level terrestrial positioning
A terrestrial networked positioning system based on a hybrid optical–wireless telecommunication infrastructure and that is independent of global navigation satellite systems is demonstrated for urban environments with decimetre-level accuracy.
- Jeroen C. J. Koelemeij
- , Han Dun
- & Christian C. J. M. Tiberius
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Article |
Ferrobotic swarms enable accessible and adaptable automated viral testing
A handheld printed circuit board-based programmable platform using ferrobots can perform the complex, laboratory-equivalent procedures involved in multiplexed and pooled nucleic acid amplification testing, allowing for the decentralization of viral diagnostics.
- Haisong Lin
- , Wenzhuo Yu
- & Sam Emaminejad
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Article |
Ultra-bright, efficient and stable perovskite light-emitting diodes
The authors develop a method for the production of ultra-bright, efficient and stable perovskite light-emitting diodes, achieved with a simple in situ reaction process.
- Joo Sung Kim
- , Jung-Min Heo
- & Tae-Woo Lee
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News & Views |
From the archive: scientific errata, and a long-haul flight
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
China’s space station is almost complete — how will scientists use it?
Tiangong will host more than 1,000 experiments over a decade, including attempts to reproduce results from the International Space Station.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Outlook |
Disinfecting the air with far-ultraviolet light
Devices that use wavelengths of sanitizing ultraviolet light that are safe for people could become a more common sight.
- Eric Bender
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News & Views |
Embrace wobble to level flight without a horizon
The apparent motion of a flier’s surroundings is shown to stabilize its flight by providing information about its orientation. Lapses in information are overcome through the effects of sensor noise and body oscillations.
- Graham K. Taylor
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Article
| Open AccessAccommodating unobservability to control flight attitude with optic flow
Attitude can be extracted from optic flow when combined with a motion model that relates attitude to acceleration direction, which leads to stable flight attitude control with slight oscillations due to unobservable conditions.
- Guido C. H. E. de Croon
- , Julien J. G. Dupeyroux
- & Franck Ruffier
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Research Briefing |
An optical innovation for metrology at the quantum limit of precision
Frequency-comb lasers are measuring sticks of the optical world and are used in metrology and sensing applications owing to their rigid, comb-like light spectra and metronomic pulsed output. A frequency comb with time-programmable pulses breaks this rigid mould and, in a demonstration of its utility, measures distances at the quantum limit of precision.
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Nature Video |
The shape-shifting robo-turtle
New amphibious soft robot makes efficiency games with morphing limbs
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Nature Video |
Exoskeleton boots could power your walk by learning your stride
New design uses model based on lab data to adapt for wearers while in use.
- Dan Fox
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Research Briefing |
Turtle-like robot adapts its shape and behaviour to move in different environments
Most robots are designed to operate in a single environment. Varying a robot’s body shape and movement patterns using a unified set of hardware components enables it to move efficiently in multiple environments, such as on land and through water.
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News & Views |
A walk in the wild helps to tailor robotic leg exoskeletons
An innovative approach to controlling wearable robots takes the optimization process out of the laboratory. The method uses a data-driven model to infer a user’s energy consumption and to personalize the assistance it provides.
- Carlos Rodriguez-Guerrero
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Nature Podcast |
Human brain organoids implanted into rats could offer new way to model disease
Transplanted human cells integrate into rat brains, and an exoskeleton boot that adapts as people walk.
- Benjamin Thompson
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Article
| Open AccessPersonalizing exoskeleton assistance while walking in the real world
A portable ankle exoskeleton uses a data-driven method and wearable sensors to adapt to the user as they walk in a natural setting.
- Patrick Slade
- , Mykel J. Kochenderfer
- & Steven H. Collins
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Article |
Multi-environment robotic transitions through adaptive morphogenesis
A design strategy termed ‘adaptive morphogenesis’ enables a robot inspired by aquatic and terrestrial turtles to adapt its limb morphology and gait to specialize for locomotion in different environments.
- Robert Baines
- , Sree Kalyan Patiballa
- & Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio
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Article |
Fast charging of energy-dense lithium-ion batteries
A new approach to charging energy-dense electric vehicle batteries, using temperature modulation with a dual-salt electrolyte, promises a range in excess of 500,000 miles using only rapid (under 12 minute) charges.
- Chao-Yang Wang
- , Teng Liu
- & Brian D. McCarthy