Category: Science and Nature

  • Daily briefing: ‘Despair’ as Argentinian president begins dismantling science

    Daily briefing: ‘Despair’ as Argentinian president begins dismantling science

    Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. The worm-like caecilian Siphonops annulatus is the first amphibian described to produce ‘milk’ for offspring hatched outside its body.Credit: Carlos Jared Amphibian nurses its young with ‘milk’ A species of amphibian is the first observed to…

  • Enhancing discovery of host–guest binders

    Enhancing discovery of host–guest binders

    Determining what guest can effectively bind in a host, or the reverse, is a central challenge in chemistry. To address this, an electron-density-based transformer method of generating and optimizing host–guest binders is proposed, applied to two different host systems and validated by experiment. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access…

  • Workplaces are failing Black women; they must do better

    Workplaces are failing Black women; they must do better

    As an academic who studies social policy and race, I was not surprised to learn of the resignation of Claudine Gay, former president of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was the first Black woman to have the role. I was not shocked by the news that Antoinette Candia-Bailey, an administrator at Lincoln University of…

  • China promises more money for science in 2024

    China promises more money for science in 2024

    President Xi Jinping at the opening of the second session of the 14th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.Credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty China’s spending on science and technology is set to rise this year, despite the country’s sluggish economic growth. The government will spend 371 billion yuan (US$52 billion) on science and technology in 2024 — a…

  • Materials informatics heralds a collaborative future

    Materials informatics heralds a collaborative future

    Dr Zhimei Sun – professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Beihang University – talks to Nature Computational Science about her career trajectory, her research on computational materials science and materials informatics, as well as her advice to young women scientists in these fields. Download PDF What has your career trajectory been like? What made…

  • Show off your science in Nature’s photo competition

    Show off your science in Nature’s photo competition

    Nature’s 2024 photo competition is now live, providing a chance to celebrate the diverse, interesting, challenging, striking and colourful work that scientists do around the world. Now in its fifth iteration, the competition is open to anyone who isn’t a professional photographer. It’s looking for images that showcase the work that scientists do — anywhere…

  • ‘There is no cookie cutter female scientist’

    ‘There is no cookie cutter female scientist’

    How to better support women in science across Latin America and beyond. Your browser does not support the audio element. Download MP3 See transcript In her role as Vice Rector for research partnerships and collaboration at the University of the Valley in Guatemala City, Monica Stein works to strengthen science and technology ecosystems in the…

  • Deep Water by James Bradley review

    Deep Water by James Bradley review

    Nine kilometres beneath the sea off the coast of Japan, there are fields of yellow flowers that stretch for hundreds of miles. They are not real flowers – not even plants at all but animals called crinoids, related to sea urchins and starfish, which anchor themselves to the deep seabed and feed off plankton filtered by…

  • ‘Despair’: Argentinian researchers protest as president begins dismantling science

    ‘Despair’: Argentinian researchers protest as president begins dismantling science

    Three months after Javier Milei took office as the new president of Argentina, scientists there say that their profession is in crisis. As Milei cuts government spending to bring down the country’s deficit and to lower inflation — now more than 250% annually — academics say that some areas of research are at risk. And…

  • The model student: GPT-4 performance on graduate biomedical science exams

    The model student: GPT-4 performance on graduate biomedical science exams

    Abstract The GPT-4 large language model (LLM) and ChatGPT chatbot have emerged as accessible and capable tools for generating English-language text in a variety of formats. GPT-4 has previously performed well when applied to questions from multiple standardized examinations. However, further evaluation of trustworthiness and accuracy of GPT-4 responses across various knowledge domains is essential…