In the game Set, players must identify combinations of cards based on the shape, colour, shading and number of symbols.Credit: Valery Voennyy/Alamy The card game Set has long inspired mathematicians to create interesting problems. Now, a technique based on large language models (LLMs) is showing that artificial intelligence (AI) can help mathematicians to generate new…

An AI pioneer, an architect of India’s Moon mission and the world’s first global heat officer are some of the people behind this year’s big stories. The Nature’s 10 list explores key developments in science over the past year and some of the individuals who helped to make amazing discoveries and bring attention to crucial…

“We need to stop thinking about how to separate ourselves from the natural world,” he said, and instead learn “how to integrate and regain and retain and foster a connection with that world.”  Peters’ words resonated. As Western capitalism began to extract raw materials at shocking rates, Western philosophy extracted human consciousness from the web…

Credit: Olga Yastremska/Alamy, Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty This story is part of Nature’s 10, an annual list compiled by Nature’s editors exploring key developments in science and the individuals who contributed to them. It co-wrote scientific papers — sometimes surreptitiously. It drafted outlines for presentations, grant proposals and classes, churned out computer code, and served…

Delegates applauding at the end of COP28 in Dubai.Credit: Fadel Dawod/Getty Scientists have voiced mixed reactions to a pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” made by the world’s governments at the end of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. “It’s major,” says Lisa Schipper a developmental geographer at the University of Bonn, Germany. Previous…

When not forecasting the solar weather, Yoshita Baruah (centre) enjoys sharing her knowledge.Credit: Dibyendu Nandi Yoshita Baruah studies the solar storms that shape space weather, and forecasts when they might hit Earth or knock satellites off their orbits. Predicting the space weather around Earth, she says, will one day be as mainstream as forecasting the…

This story is part of Nature’s 10, an annual list compiled by Nature’s editors exploring key developments in science and the individuals who contributed to them. James Hamlin remembers the first time an experiment deceived him. As a graduate student, Hamlin saw signs of superconductivity — electrons flowing without resistance — in an unexpected material.…

Abstract Scientific evidence regularly guides policy decisions1, with behavioural science increasingly part of this process2. In April 2020, an influential paper3 proposed 19 policy recommendations (‘claims’) detailing how evidence from behavioural science could contribute to efforts to reduce impacts and end the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we assess 747 pandemic-related research articles that empirically investigated those…

Download a PDF of this graphic This year, India overtook China to become the world’s most populous country. But it struggles to develop its economy and lags behind many other nations in terms of its investment in science and technology. How can better funding for research help its economic development? The human factor India has…

In early 2022, ecologist Bohdan Prots was ready to begin a bold new project to restore ecosystems around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Prots and his team were preparing to recreate lost wetlands there in an effort to rewild them and cut the risks of wildfires that spread radioactivity. His first step…