Using generative artificial intelligence models to kick ideas around is more effective than outsourcing thinking wholesale, says Yanjun Shen.Credit: jabkitticha/iStock via Getty Last May, I received a PhD research proposal that, on the surface, seemed flawless: the prose flowed effortlessly, the logic was airtight and the citations were meticulously organized and arranged. As an interdisciplinary…
Cholesterol-lowering statins are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. They can have side effects, however, including muscle pain that affects twice as many women as men. When Karen Reue, a geneticist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), set out to discover why, she…
Ibogaine root (left), which has psychedlic properties, can be processesd into either a liquid or powder form. Credit: Nigel Dodds/Alamy The potent and long-lasting psychedelic ibogaine is something of a scientific mystery, in part because it is one of the most tightly controlled drugs in the United States. But a new directive from US President…
Nature, Published online: 21 April 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01149-9 A promising solar-cell architecture, in which two layers of perovskite semiconductors are stacked on silicon, is making strides towards achieving its full potential. Source link
Nature, Published online: 21 April 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00915-z An experiment to preserve the vivid colour of insect wings in displays and a disagreement about peer review in technology, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive. Source link
There will be little to celebrate on World Malaria Day on 25 April. Global malaria cases, which stood at 238 million in 2018, had climbed to 282 million by 2024, the latest year for which figures are available. Deaths from the disease rose from 575,000 to 610,000 over the same period. Malaria remains endemic in…
Stephan Schlamminger (left) and colleague Vincent Lee with the equipment used to measure big G.Credit: R. Eskalis/NIST The value of the constant that describes the gravitational pull between objects, Big G, continues to baffle scientists. A decade-long replication experiment1 that involved moving equipment across the Atlantic has resulted in a number that disagrees with previous…
You have full access to this article via your institution. Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. David Hertzog (left) and Katherine High were among the winners of this year’s Breakthrough prizes.Credit: Dennis R. Wise & Colin Lenton Three physicians who contributed to…
It’s 2035, and an artificial-intelligence system has supreme authority to run everything from the world’s governments to national electricity grids. Called Consensus-1, the system was constructed by earlier versions of itself, and it developed self-preservation goals that override its built-in safeguards. One day, in search of extra space for solar panels and robot factories, the…
Damage at reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, a few weeks after the 1986 accident.Credit: Igor Kostin/Laski Diffusion/Getty Reflecting on the disaster that struck Chernobyl on 26 April 1986, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev lamented that the “victims of the tragedy were confronted by a crisis which they could scarcely understand…