Artificial Intelligence
How Language-Generation AIs Could Transform Science
An expert in emerging technologies warns that software designed to summarize, translate and write like humans might exacerbate distrust in science
Stories by Richard Van Noorden
Policy
Scholarly Olympics: How the Games Have Shaped Research
A graphical guide to the impact of the Olympics on science
Policy
Brexit Watch: U.K. Researchers Scramble to Save Science
Uncertainty reigns as the U.K. struggles with how to sever its relationship with the E.U.
Health
Ebola Reemerges in Sierra Leone
Case announced hours after the World Health Organization declares spread of virus stopped in west Africa
The Sciences
With 1 Million Papers, Preprint Site Is Changing the Way Science Is Shared
Researchers upload papers to arXiv before peer review for faster feedback
The Sciences
Google Scholar Pioneer Reflects on the Academic Search Engine's Future
As Google Scholar approaches its 10th anniversary, Nature spoke to its co-creator Anurag Acharya
Health
"Immortal" Cells from Henrietta Lacks Lead to Updated Rules on Genomic Data Sharing
Changes clarify procedures for telling participants in NIH-funded studies how their data might be used.
Technology
Scientists Finally Catch On to Social Media
A survey explores why large academic social networks have taken off to a degree that no one expected a few years ago
The Sciences
Transparency Promised for Science's Most Misused and Most Vilified Metric
Thomson Reuters vows to be clearer in the future about the "impact factor," an annual ranking of more than 10,000 scientific journals
The Sciences
Major Scientific Journal Joins Push to Screen Statistics in Papers It Publishes
Science's new policy follows efforts by other journals to bolster standards of data analysis
Space & Physics
World's Largest Radio Telescope Abandoned by Germany
The Square Kilometer Array's loss of Germany's support would be "disappointing, but not catastrophic"
Environment
Clean Coal to Be Put to Test at 2 Plants This Year
Carbon capture and storage has progressed slowly, reflecting a lack of enthusiasm for financing large projects despite higher costs of forgoing it
Pharmaceuticals
Flu Drug Stockpiling Reported to Be a Waste of Money
A medical panel now suggests that bulk purchasing of the influenza drug Tamiflu, on which the U.S. has spent $1.5B, was a waste of money
Communications
Publishers Withdraw More than 120 Gibberish Science and Engineering Papers
Conference proceedings were removed from subscription databases after a scientist revealed they were computer-generated
Technology
Scientists Reading Fewer Papers for First Time in 35 Years
Scholarly articles in digital forms overtook printed ones, but academics spent less time on each.
The Sciences
New Initiative Seeks to Make All Particle-Physics Papers Freely Available
A major journal is balking at the plan, preventing over 3,000 high-energy physics papers from becoming open-access and sparking a minor stand-off with CERN
The Sciences
Who Is the Best Scientist of All Time?
An online ranking that compares the performance of academics across all fields found that Karl Marx is the most influential scholar and Edward Witten is the most influential scientist
The Sciences
Vitamin E and Other Antioxidants Dispel Static Electricity
An inexpensive coat of antioxidants helps an electric charge to dissipate from plastics and rubber
The Sciences
European Research Council Funds ArXiv Online Pre-Print Physics and Math Papers Repository
The ERC's support provides a taste of what may be to come for the arXiv, including more financial support for the web site by other research funders and publishers
Space & Physics
Giant, Heavy and Hollow: Physicists Create Extreme Atoms
Atoms are being stretched, stripped and contorted to new and bizarre limits
