Featured
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Career Feature |
Seeking an ‘exit plan’ for leaving academia amid coronavirus worries
The pandemic is prompting some early-career researchers to rethink their hopes for a university post.
- Chris Woolston
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Outlook |
44 firms highlighted in The Spinoff Prize 2020
For the inaugural Spinoff Prize, Nature sought out the most exciting science-based companies to have emerged from academic labs in the past three years. Here are the selected firms: 12 finalists, and 32 ‘ones to watch’.
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Book Review |
Nerve agents: from discovery to deterrence
Treaties might not be enough to stop chemical weapons being deployed — scientists and industry also play a part.
- Leiv K. Sydnes
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Outlook |
The Spinoff Prize 2020
University-bred entrepreneurs are bringing some of the hottest scientific discoveries into practical applications in medicine and technology.
- Herb Brody
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Book Review |
Drugs, money and misleading evidence
It’s time to take trials out of the hands of pharmaceutical makers, argues the latest in a long line of books on corruption and the pharmaceutical industry.
- Laura Spinney
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Comment |
Cool metric for lithium-ion batteries could spur progress
A new measure for the rate of heat removal from battery packs gives manufacturers a simple way to compare products.
- Gregory Offer
- , Yatish Patel
- & Mohamed Marzook
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News Feature |
The coronavirus outbreak could make it quicker and easier to trial drugs
Remote clinical trials and other changes could permanently alter pharmaceutical development: part 7 in a series on science after the pandemic.
- Heidi Ledford
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Nature Index |
How South Korea made itself a global innovation leader
Systemic reform backed by strong investment has brought rapid and long-lasting results.
- Leigh Dayton
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Where I Work |
Crafting research labs and concert halls to produce exactly the right acoustics
Jukka Pätynen aims to ‘transport’ listeners through his room and wall designs.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Nature Index |
Worth the cost? A closer look at the da Vinci robot’s impact on prostate cancer surgery
The da Vinci robotic system has become the ubiquitous method for prostate removal, but its cost and long-term outcomes for patients are raising questions.
- Bec Crew
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Nature Index |
Tomorrow’s industries: from OLEDs to nanomaterials
Scientific discoveries can be big business, but the road is long.
- Neil Savage
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Book Review |
When cyberwar struck its first civilian target
Andy Greenberg’s book Sandworm is trenchant on the mounting capacity of malware to wreak havoc. Brian Nussbaum reviews.
- Brian Nussbaum
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Book Review |
Planet junk: a journey through discards
A trawl through the global tide of cast-offs shows how we might avoid drowning in them. Edward Humes reviews.
- Edward Humes
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Career Column |
Founding a global biotechnology summit — while pursuing a PhD
Ipshita Mandal-Johnson teamed up with other graduate students to set up an annual forum to develop tomorrow’s biotechnology leaders. This is what she learnt.
- Ipshita Mandal-Johnson
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Nature Index |
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is rising rapidly up the rankings
President Subra Suresh explains the strategy behind his university’s success.
- Catherine Armitage
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Comment |
Can marketplace science be trusted?
Historian Paul Lucier traces the explosion and fragmentation of industrial research in the fifth essay in a series on how the past 150 years have shaped today’s science system, marking Nature’s anniversary.
- Paul Lucier
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Career News |
Award recognizes efforts to inspire girls to pursue science careers
Nature Research and The Estée Lauder Companies honour two initiatives to encourage girls and young women in the United States, Ghana, Nigeria and Pakistan.
- Amber Dance
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Books & Arts |
Edison and the shadow side of artificial light
David E. Nye examines two volumes on the complex history of lighting technologies.
- David E. Nye
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Editorial |
Let fishers in Africa and Asia keep more of their catches
Fish farms are depriving children of essential micronutrients.
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Comment |
Make more digital twins
Virtual models boost smart manufacturing by simulating decisions and optimization, from design to operations, explain Fei Tao and Qinglin Qi.
- Fei Tao
- & Qinglin Qi
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Books & Arts |
Computing a hard limit on growth
Vaclav Smil’s latest book investigates the cost of energy use on a planet with finite resources. Melanie Moses praises the result.
- Melanie Moses
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Editorial |
International AI ethics panel must be independent
France and Canada are establishing an international committee to advise on the ethics of artificial intelligence. The group should be supported and shielded from undue influence.
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Editorial |
Syriza may have lost the election, but Greece’s research reforms deserve to stay
The incoming government should respect its predecessor’s research policies, including public-funding increases and an independent national funding agency.
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News & Views |
From the archive
How Nature reported plans to exploit Australia’s natural resources in 1919, and to develop computers as teaching aids in 1969.
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News |
Ocean snail is first animal to be officially endangered by deep-sea mining
Valuable metals and minerals pepper the creature's habitat, drawing commercial interest to the sea floor.
- Jonathan Lambert
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Comment |
Time is running out for sand
Sand and gravel are being extracted faster than they can be replaced. Monitor and manage this resource globally, urge Mette Bendixen and colleagues.
- Mette Bendixen
- , Jim Best
- & Lars Lønsmann Iversen
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Career Feature |
How a failed scientific start-up can breed success
In the second part of a three-part series on science start-ups, Nature Careers explores how founders can learn from their failures in business to try again.
- Amber Dance
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News Feature |
The future of science in Europe
On the eve of the European Union’s parliamentary elections, a special issue examines the prospects for science across the region.
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Career Column |
Why collaborating with industry can provide a career boost
Neuroscientist Blaine Roberts explains how partnering with companies, or a consortium of companies, can bring significant benefits to researchers — from funding and training to expanding professional networks.
- Blaine Roberts
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Nature Index |
Companies persist with biomedical papers
Corporate research in the life sciences endures, despite diminishing in other fields of science.
- Ashish Arora
- , Sharon Belenzon
- & Andrea Patacconi
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Editorial |
Stop denying the risks of air pollution
Research linking fine particulate pollution and premature deaths is under attack in the United States and other countries.
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Career Q&A |
Three ways to build a strong AI-training pipeline
Nature talks to artificial-intelligence researcher Oren Etzioni about how to ensure the health of academic programmes in the field in the United States.
- Roberta Kwok
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News & Views |
From the archive
How Nature reported the working conditions of deep-sea fishers in 1969, and the calorific content of German and British diets during the First World War.
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Career Guide |
An introduction to the complexities of the German research scene
The country’s diverse academic landscape is defined by its applied and basic science institutes.
- Hristio Boytchev
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Career Guide |
How Germany is winning at turning its research to commercial application
The country is using science for economic benefit.
- Neil Savage
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Books & Arts |
Globe to gut: inside Big Food
Felicity Lawrence absorbs three books on the illogical route from farm to fork.
- Felicity Lawrence
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Nature Index |
Japan’s start-up gulf
Academia and industry in Japan remain disconnected, despite efforts to bring them together.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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News |
Big pharma is embracing open-access publishing like never before
Proportion of open-access publications with authors from the pharmaceutical industry doubled between 2009 and 2016.
- Matthew Warren
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Career Column |
From academia to industry: seven tips for scientists making the leap
Crystal Romeo Upperman shares her advice after moving out of the lab and into the private sector.
- Crystal Romeo Upperman
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News |
Australia dials back effort to control ‘dual use’ research
Scientists welcome the independent findings, saying sweeping controls of research that could have military use would have restricted collaborations.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Career Feature |
How business-savvy scientists can find success in the risky start-up world
In the first of a three-part series on science start-ups, Nature Careers explores how scientists with a sound business idea can thrive as entrepreneurs, and why leaving academia isn’t required.
- Amber Dance
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Correspondence |
Per capita carbon emissions must fall to 1955 levels
- Gregg Marland
- , Tom Oda
- & Thomas A. Boden