Featured
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Research Highlight |
Air-travel climate-change emissions detailed for nearly 200 nations
Carbon emissions from flights that departed from low- and middle-income countries in 2019 totalled 417 million tonnes.
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News |
Hello puffins, goodbye belugas: changing Arctic fjord hints at our climate future
Stunning images show an ecosystem’s upheaval as it warms at an alarming pace.
- Freda Kreier
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News |
China's Moon atlas is the most detailed ever made
The Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe doubles the resolution of Apollo-era maps and will support the space ambitions of China and other countries.
- Ling Xin
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News Explainer |
NATO is boosting AI and climate research as scientific diplomacy remains on ice
As the military alliance created to counter the Soviet Union expands, it is prioritizing studies on how climate change affects security, cyberattacks and election interference.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Nature Podcast |
How gliding marsupials got their ‘wings’
Researchers find the genetic mutations that allow some marsupials to soar, and an ultra-accurate clock is put through its paces on the high seas.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Elizabeth Gibney
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Nature Video |
Should the Maldives be creating new land?
The Maldives are racing to reclaim vast amounts of land to combat rising sea levels. But many are concerned that these efforts risk harming the paradise they aims to protect
- Shamini Bundell
- & Jesse Chase-Lubitz
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World View |
Ecologists: don’t lose touch with the joy of fieldwork
Amid the data deluge provided by lab-based techniques, such as environmental-DNA analysis, true connection still comes only in the outdoors.
- Chris Mantegna
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News Feature |
The Maldives is racing to create new land. Why are so many people concerned?
The island nation is expanding its territory by dredging up sediment from the ocean floor. But scientists, former government officials and activists say such reclamation can harm marine ecosystems and make the country more vulnerable to rising seas.
- Jesse Chase-Lubitz
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News Explainer |
Plastic pollution: three numbers that support a crackdown
As negotiators haggle over a global treaty to curb plastics pollution, a flood of data outlines how a treaty could make a difference.
- Nicola Jones
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Article
| Open AccessDearomatization drives complexity generation in freshwater organic matter
Using complementary multiplicity-edited 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, oxidative dearomatization is shown to be a key driver for generating structural diversity during processing of dissolved organic matter and the data also suggest high abundance of OCqC3 units.
- Siyu Li
- , Mourad Harir
- & Norbert Hertkorn
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Correspondence |
The Middle East’s largest hypersaline lake risks turning into an environmental disaster zone
- Alireza Mohammadi
- , Ali Azareh
- & Moslem Sharifinia
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Correspondence |
India’s 50-year-old Chipko movement is a model for environmental activism
- N. S. Prasanna
- & Gudasalamani Ravikanth
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Correspondence |
More work is needed to take on the rural wastewater challenge
- Jinlou Huang
- , Duo Li
- & Xiao Jin Yang
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World View |
European ruling linking climate change to human rights could be a game changer — here’s how
The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in a Swiss case cements the concept that climate inaction violates human rights — responsible nations around the world will take heed.
- Charlotte E. Blattner
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Book Review |
How volcanoes shaped our planet — and why we need to be ready for the next big eruption
The world should learn from past disasters and prepare for the effects of future, inevitable volcanic catastrophes, a wide-reaching book teaches us.
- Heather Handley
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Where I Work |
How ground glass might save crops from drought on a Caribbean island
In Grenada, public-health researcher Lindonne Telesford tests a soil additive made from recycled glass that could help farmers adapt to climate change.
- Kendall Powell
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Comment |
Will AI accelerate or delay the race to net-zero emissions?
As artificial intelligence transforms the global economy, researchers need to explore scenarios to assess how it can help, rather than harm, the climate.
- Amy Luers
- , Jonathan Koomey
- & Eric Horvitz
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News |
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is ‘transforming’ because of repeated coral bleaching
The coral reef is experiencing its worst mass bleaching event on record — and warming waters brought on by climate change are to blame.
- Bianca Nogrady
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News |
Nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking — some ‘rapidly’
Tens of millions of people in the country’s coastal lands might find their homes below sea level by 2120 owing to sinking and sea-level rise.
- Xiaoying You
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News |
Violent volcanoes have wracked Jupiter’s moon Io for billions of years
Understanding the volcanic moon’s history could offer fresh insights into conditions on early Earth.
- Sarah Wild
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Editorial |
UN plastics treaty: don’t let lobbyists drown out researchers
Tackling plastic pollution needs scientists to be in the negotiating room at upcoming talks.
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Article
| Open AccessSeismological evidence for a multifault network at the subduction interface
Using observations of double-difference relocated earthquakes in a local three-dimensional velocity model for Ecuador, a detailed image of seismicity is created, forming the base for more realistic models of earthquake rupture, slip and hazard in subduction zones.
- Caroline Chalumeau
- , Hans Agurto-Detzel
- & Audrey Galve
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Article
| Open AccessThe economic commitment of climate change
Analysis of projected sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation show an income reduction of 19% of the world economy within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices.
- Maximilian Kotz
- , Anders Levermann
- & Leonie Wenz
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Article |
Biogeographic response of marine plankton to Cenozoic environmental changes
Analysis of a global dataset reveals spatiotemporal patterns of marine plankton and their biogeographical responses during climatic and environmental changes across the Cenozoic era.
- Anshuman Swain
- , Adam Woodhouse
- & Christopher M. Lowery
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Article
| Open AccessEnvironmental drivers of increased ecosystem respiration in a warming tundra
Datasets from in situ warming experiments across 28 arctic and alpine tundra sites covering a span of less than 1 year up to 25 years show the importance of local soil conditions and warming-induced changes therein for future climatic impacts on ecosystem respiration.
- S. L. Maes
- , J. Dietrich
- & E. Dorrepaal
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Correspondence |
Use game theory for climate models that really help reach net zero goals
- Kathleen B. Aviso
- , Raymond R. Tan
- & Maria Victoria Migo-Sumagang
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Correspondence |
It’s time to talk about the hidden human cost of the green transition
- Manuel Prieto
- & Nicolás C. Zanetta-Colombo
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News Explainer |
Do climate lawsuits lead to action? Researchers assess their impact
Litigation can lead governments to strengthen their climate policies and curb companies’ greenwashing, say scientists.
- Carissa Wong
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Where I Work |
Acid test: why the chemistry of this unique crater lake matters
Hanik Humaida monitors the activity of Indonesia’s volcanoes to help protect the public.
- James Mitchell Crow
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News |
Lethal dust storms blanket Asia every spring — now AI could help predict them
As the annual phenomenon once again strikes East Asia, scientists are hard at work to better predict how they will affect people.
- Xiaoying You
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Book Review |
Are women in research being led up the garden path?
A moving memoir of botany and motherhood explores the historical pressures on female scientists.
- Josie Glausiusz
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News |
NASA admits plan to bring Mars rocks to Earth won’t work — and seeks fresh ideas
The agency’s head calls the current plan for delivering samples collected by the Perseverance rover ‘too expensive’ and its schedule ‘unacceptable’.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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Editorial |
What happens when climate change and the mental-health crisis collide?
The warming planet is worsening mental illness and distress. Researchers need to work out the scale of the problem and how those who need assistance can be helped.
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Article
| Open AccessGhost roads and the destruction of Asia-Pacific tropical forests
An effort to map roads in the Asia-Pacific region finds that there are 3.0–6.6 times more roads than other sources suggest, and that unmapped ‘ghost roads’ are a major contributor to tropical forest loss.
- Jayden E. Engert
- , Mason J. Campbell
- & William F. Laurance
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News Feature |
The rise of eco-anxiety: scientists wake up to the mental-health toll of climate change
Researchers want to unpick how climate change affects mental health around the world — from lives that are disrupted by catastrophic weather to people who are anxious about the future.
- Helen Pearson
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Article |
Mid-ocean ridge unfaulting revealed by magmatic intrusions
Recent sequences of reverse-faulting earthquakes at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Carlsberg Ridge show that tectonic extension at mid-ocean ridge axes can be partially undone by tectonic shortening across the ridge flanks.
- Jean-Arthur Olive
- , Göran Ekström
- & Manon Bickert
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Article
| Open AccessFSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC
Camera-trap images of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa reveal greater animal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-certified forests, especially for large mammals and species of high conservation priority.
- Joeri A. Zwerts
- , E. H. M. Sterck
- & Marijke van Kuijk
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Nature Podcast |
The ‘ghost roads’ driving tropical deforestation
Researchers find that a huge number of roads that don’t appear on official maps, and the protein that could determine whether someone is left-handed.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News & Views |
The biologist who built a Faraday cage for a crab
What every biologist should know about electronics, plus a disturbing outbreak of volcanism in North Carolina, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News |
Iran frees scientists who studied big cats in surprise move
Six-year ordeal for researchers studying Asiatic cheetah and Persian leopard ends in prisoner amnesty.
- Michele Catanzaro
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Where I Work |
Digging in: last chance to save a native forest
Dario Sandrini hikes, plants and digs to save a threatened and diminishing ecosystem.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Research Highlight |
Baseball-sized hail in Spain began with a heatwave at sea
Climate change is partly to blame for a storm that pounded Girona province with record-breaking hailstones.
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Research Highlight |
Sea spray carries huge amounts of ‘forever chemicals’ into the air
Long-lived compounds emitted by industry reach the oceans and are then ferried by bubbles into the atmosphere.
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News |
Taiwan hit by biggest earthquake in 25 years: why scientists weren’t surprised
A complex network of faults lies in the area that experienced the earthquake, and more shocks are expected.
- Gemma Conroy
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Research Briefing |
Artificial intelligence can provide accurate forecasts of extreme floods at global scale
Anthropogenic climate change is accelerating the hydrological cycle, causing an increase in the risk of flood-related disasters. A system that uses artificial intelligence allows the creation of reliable, global river flood forecasts, even in places where accurate local data are not available.
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Editorial |
The EU’s ominous emphasis on ‘open strategic autonomy’ in research
A reboot of the flagship Horizon Europe fund risks prioritizing a mindset geared towards security over open, future-facing research collaboration.
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Nature Podcast |
Pregnancy’s effect on ‘biological’ age, polite birds, and the carbon cost of home-grown veg
We round up some recent stories from the Nature Briefing.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Noah Baker
- & Flora Graham
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Article |
Fossils document evolutionary changes of jaw joint to mammalian middle ear
A new morganucodontan-like species from the Jurassic in China shows evidence of a loss of load-bearing function in the articular–quadrate jaw joint, which probably had a role in the evolution of the mammalian middle ear.
- Fangyuan Mao
- , Chi Zhang
- & Jin Meng