Category: Science and Nature

  • What Trump 2.0 means for science: the likely winners and losers

    What Trump 2.0 means for science: the likely winners and losers

    As Donald Trump prepares for his second term as president of the United States, two starkly different outlooks are emerging among scientists and engineers. Some technology companies, space enthusiasts, artificial intelligence (AI) developers and others expect favourable policies for their fields in the coming years, and are hugely excited about the possibilities for exploration and…

  • What Trump 2.0 means for science: the likely winners and losers

    What Trump 2.0 means for science: the likely winners and losers

    As Donald Trump prepares for his second term as president of the United States, two starkly different outlooks are emerging among scientists and engineers. Some technology companies, space enthusiasts, artificial intelligence (AI) developers and others expect favourable policies for their fields in the coming years, and are hugely excited about the possibilities for exploration and…

  • Dear Donald Trump: A letter from Nature on how to make science thrive

    Dear Donald Trump: A letter from Nature on how to make science thrive

    Donald Trump was inaugurated as 45th President of the United States on 20 January 2017.Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Dear Mr President-elect, On 20 January, you will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. Congratulations on your win. A majority of US voters have placed their trust in you. That is a tremendous…

  • Nature Materials

    Issue cover: Image: Zihe Liang and Qingkun Liu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Itai Cohen, Cornell University. Cover design: Alex Whitworth Nature Materials (Nat. Mater.) ISSN 1476-4660 (online) ISSN 1476-1122 (print)

  • Parachute science and collaboration in protected areas

    Organizations that manage protected areas often lack scientists to conduct research and inform management. The resulting involvement of external scientists from international universities, nongovernmental organizations or other research organizations has raised concerns that some protected area research might not reflect local priorities or engage with local researchers — a phenomenon termed parachute science. Writing in the Journal…

  • Shoreline tides walk combines science and nature

    Shoreline tides walk combines science and nature

    Many coastal Bay Area residents have seen it: water levels gently rising, encroaching water on beaches or splashing waves of water flowing across sidewalks and onto streets. This is caused by small tides created by gravitational pull between the orbiting moon and the Earth. But sometimes, the water rise is noticeably higher and more widespread.…

  • Harsh criticism and unreasonable expectations worsen PhD students’ mental health

    Harsh criticism and unreasonable expectations worsen PhD students’ mental health

    The teaching aspects of graduate-student roles can be particularly stressful for many people.Credit: Maya/Getty Graduate students with anxiety and depression say that their symptoms are exacerbated by the pressures of research and teaching, fuelled by overly harsh criticism and being held to unreasonable expectations, a survey finds. Those who self-identified as having severe anxiety or…

  • How science recruiters and job applicants can get on the same page

    How science recruiters and job applicants can get on the same page

    Careers fairs are formal recruitment channels, but some recruiters prefer to hire from their professional networks.Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg/Getty Every year, tens of thousands of people around the world apply for research jobs armed with postgraduate qualifications and specialized knowledge, only for their carefully crafted applications to seemingly vanish into a digital void. At the…

  • Nonlinear memristive computational spectrometer

    Nonlinear memristive computational spectrometer

    Abstract In the domain of spectroscopy, miniaturization efforts often face significant challenges, particularly in achieving high spectral resolution and precise construction. Here, we introduce a computational spectrometer powered by a nonlinear photonic memristor with a WSe2 homojunction. This approach overcomes traditional limitations, such as constrained Fermi level tunability, persistent dark current, and limited photoresponse dimensionality…

  • How should we test AI for human-level intelligence? OpenAI’s o3 electrifies quest

    How should we test AI for human-level intelligence? OpenAI’s o3 electrifies quest

    Some researchers think AI systems will reach human-level intelligence soon; others think it’s far away.Credit: Getty The technology firm OpenAI made headlines last month when its latest experimental chatbot model, o3, achieved a high score on a test that marks progress towards artificial general intelligence (AGI). OpenAI’s o3 scored 87.5%, trouncing the previous best score…