Browse Articles | Nature (2025)

US–China trade conflict threatens biomedical collaboration

• Yuwang Du

Is there a link between gut microbes and ageing?

• Christina T. Kozycki
• Ruchi Sharma
• Richard W. J. Lee

We need to show AI what didn’t work as well as what did

• Monika A. Davare

Tighter regulation is needed for AI companions

• Lili Zhang
• Haomiaomiao Wang
• Fang Fang

How China can become a biotechnology superpower

After decades of pioneering institutional change in Chinese research, neuroscientist Rao Yi explains why US hesitation might offer China an opportunity to catch up internationally.

• Jacob Dreyer

Cryo-EM structure of a natural RNA nanocage

• Xiaobin Ling
• Dmitrij Golovenko
• Wenwen Fang

I can’t show my face because of pangolin poachers

This interviewee rehabilitates illegally traded pangolins that fetch a high price on the black market.

• Linda Nordling

Transparent peer review to be extended to all of Nature’s research papers

From today, all new submissions to Nature that are published will be accompanied by referees’ reports and author responses — to illuminate the process of producing rigorous science.

People were wrecking the climate 140 years ago — we just lacked the tech to spot it

Models suggest that human-caused global warming would have been detectable in the nineteenth century with today’s know-how.

• Davide Castelvecchi

Judge rules against NIH grant cuts — and calls them discriminatory

The decision means that the US biomedical agency has to restore funding to hundreds of research projects, but the government will likely appeal.

• Max Kozlov

Daily briefing: ‘Glimmer of hope’ at UN Ocean Conference as 50 countries ratify the High Seas Treaty

Fifty countries have now ratified the UN High Seas Treaty, an agreement to put 30% of the ocean into protected areas. Plus, researchers have grown hearts containing human cells in pig embryos for the first time and the mysterious link between Earth’s magnetism and oxygen.

• Flora Graham

Mice with human cells developed using ‘game-changing’ technique

Human cells injected into amniotic fluid find their way into fetal mouse organs.

• Smriti Mallapaty

Freeze frame: cracking molecular motion

Time-resolved cryo-electron microscopy can resolve protein motion on millisecond or even microsecond timescales, but the need for highly specialized tools and skills limits the method’s reach.

• Michael Eisenstein

‘One of the true final frontiers’ — Sally Ride biopic highlights the struggle of gay astronauts

The first US woman to fly in space said little about her personal life in public. A candid film discloses the pressures she endured.

• Alexandra Witze

Could a novelty indicator improve science?

A competition to develop computational approaches to detect ‘novelty’ in published papers will help metascientists to study how out-of-the-box research changes the scientific landscape.

• Benjamin Steyn

Tiny human hearts grown in pig embryos for the first time

The hearts started to beat in the pig–human hybrids, which survived for 21 days.

• Smriti Mallapaty

Hungry caterpillars can brew exotic molecules in their guts

Researchers fed moth larvae the chemical building blocks, and the insects’ enzymes did the rest.

Why pangolins are poached: they’re the tastiest animal around

Trafficking of scales for traditional medicine plays a relatively small part in the hunting of pangolins in Nigeria.

Minuscule worms form living towers to hunt for food

Scientists observe the nematode’s behaviour in the wild for the first time.

Hundreds of physicists on a remote island: we visit the ultimate quantum party

Researchers have gathered on the island of Heligoland to celebrate the centenary of Werner Heisenberg's quantum breakthrough.

• Benjamin Thompson
• Elizabeth Gibney