It’s boom time for billionaires. In the next few months, the world could see a fresh crew of technology entrepreneurs join that club, and the numbers of multi-millionaires would swell even more. How a new wave of science philanthropists can have the greatest impact Two giants of artificial intelligence, OpenAI and Anthropic, plan to go
The problem Dear Nature, I’m a graduate student in biochemistry at a prestigious institution in the United States, and I’ve concluded that I’m in the wrong laboratory. I’m constantly exhausted and my project isn’t one I’m truly passionate about. Our principal investigator (PI), who is also my adviser, is something of a star in their
The United Kingdom’s universities are under pressure from almost every direction. Four in ten higher-education (HE) institutions are forecast to be in a deficit this financial year, as they grapple with monetary pressures, changing student uptake and reduced funding. This week, more than 518,000 students are due to arrive at the country’s universities, and around
People gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square for a vigil in memory of sociologist Jason Arday on 17 August.Credit: Lab Mo/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty “The years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack. While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone
In response to high retraction rates, India, Peru and Vietnam have introduced guidelines and disciplinary measures against research misconduct.Credit: designer491/iStock via Getty In a bid to tighten research standards, governments and funders in countries with emerging research systems are increasingly rolling out disciplinary measures for researchers who do the wrong thing. The policies include docking
The use of large language models (LLMs) is soaring among students worldwide thanks to the tools’ growing ability to solve problems and generate text and code. In a 2026 survey of 1,054 UK undergraduate students by the Higher Education Policy Institute in Oxford, UK, roughly 94% said that they use generative artificial-intelligence tools to help
