Astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish discovered pulsar stars using a radio telescope constructed near Cambridge, UK.Credit: Hencoup Enterprises/Science Photo Library The Engine of Scientific Discovery: How New Methods and Tools Spark Major Breakthroughs Alexander Krauss Oxford Univ. Press (2026) Popular accounts of notable scientific breakthroughs (including artificial intelligence) often portray them as the
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. A laser beam tracks the motions of the tiny magnet suspended in a vacuum chamber as it wobbles in response to magnetic fields.Credit: Wei Ji, Peking University A new magnetometer — a device used to measure
An AI fact-checking tool found errors in molecule boiling points listed in a chemistry reference database.Credit: Monty Rakusen/Getty For decades, chemists have relied on handbook values for a molecule’s boiling point to identify substances and plan processes such as distillation. But an artificial-intelligence model has revealed that some trusted numbers in one reference database have
Until nearly the end of the twentieth century, most papers indexed in the Science Citation Index — a database of scientific papers — were written by researchers from Europe and North America. In keeping with the usual naming conventions on those continents, the index puts the given name first and the family name last. Journals,
The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, led by US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr, aims to “tackle chronic diseases, improve nutrition and reduce healthcare costs.” To achieve these laudable goals, members of the MAHA movement have set out to reform American health policies on issues such as nutrition and vaccines and what
Landslides in Alaska. Air quality in Atlanta. Clouds of fire in the west. From the Arctic fringe to agricultural areas, NASA’s new class of Earth Venture suborbital missions is preparing to deliver science that will benefit communities in the United States and beyond. The six projects will mobilize hundreds of scientists and pilots from NASA,