Nature

Exclusive: NIH ousts infectious-disease leaders as COVID scientists face US charges

Eight of the top ten officials at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office.

Mouse eyes photosynthesize after plant-to-animal transplant

Could spinach extracts be the next treatment for dry-eye disease?

Asher Mullard
News15 May 2026
US biology lab locked down for more than a week amid smuggling inquiry

The Trump administration has spent months investigating the lab after a Chinese postdoc was charged with smuggling biological material into the country.

Dan Garisto
News15 May 2026
Long-term editing of brain circuits using an engineered electrical synapse

Connexin proteins found in white perch fish were used to engineer synthetic electrical synapses, enabling precision circuit editing in mammals.

Elizabeth Ransey
Gwenaëlle E. Thomas
Kafui Dzirasa
ArticleOpen Access13 May 2026
Daily briefing: Ice core is the longest-ever continuous record of Earth’s climate

Data from the 2.8-kilometre-deep core stretches back 1.2 million years. Plus, the cost of using AI tools in the lab and the greatest physics mysteries that still divide researchers.

Flora Graham
Nature Briefing13 May 2026
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Current Issue14 May 2026

News & Comment

Exclusive: NIH ousts infectious-disease leaders as COVID scientists face US charges

Eight of the top ten officials at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have now been pushed out since President Donald Trump took office.

Max Kozlov

News15 May 2026
Mouse eyes photosynthesize after plant-to-animal transplant
Asher Mullard

News15 May 2026
US biology lab locked down for more than a week amid smuggling inquiry
Dan Garisto

News15 May 2026
Genetic survey exposes flaws in widely used mouse models
Ewen Callaway

News15 May 2026
Mental-health research is too often invisible — it is time to change that

Editorial14 May 2026
NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year
Max Kozlov

News14 May 2026
Does the PSA test for prostate cancer save lives? New data reverse gold-standard findings
Holly Else

News14 May 2026

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- Fast and furious: the gaseous outflows of quasars in the early Universe were extreme
  
  Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal that extremely fast, galaxy-scale outflows from luminous objects called quasars were much more frequent, and on average more powerful, about one billion years after the Big Bang than at later cosmic epochs. These outflows could easily escape their host galaxies and regulate the evolution of early massive galaxies.
  
  Research Briefing13 May 2026
- Growth charts reveal how the brain’s ‘communication highways’ change throughout life
  
  Studies of white matter — the tissue used for communication between brain regions — have revealed substantial changes in people with neurological diseases and disorders. The creation of white-matter brain charts enables individual deviations from the typical structure to be assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans.
  
  Research Briefing13 May 2026
- Relics of the first stars spotted in a distant, ultra-faint galaxy
  
  An observation of an ultra-faint galaxy, captured as it was shortly after the Big Bang, indicates the presence of material from the first generation of stars.
  
  Alexander Ji
  
  News & Views13 May 2026
- Targeted electron beam creates thousands of atomic crystal defects
  
  An electron-beam technique that can precisely create thousands of atomic defects in a crystal could be used to build quantum devices.
  
  Toma Susi
  
  News & Views13 May 2026
- Bee-inspired navigation robot pinpoints its home using a neural network
  
  A simple machine-learning algorithm, inspired by honeybees’ visual memory and sense of direction, enables a flying robot to pinpoint its home location.
  
  Barbara Webb
  
  News & Views13 May 2026
- State media control shapes LLM behaviour by influencing training data
  
  Research Briefing13 May 2026
- Obesity has risen in all countries — but at a faster pace in poorer ones
  
  Boyd Swinburn
  
  News & Views13 May 2026
- Protective maternal gut instincts
  
  Jiahui Sun
  Sing Sing Way
  
  News & Views13 May 2026
- Charles Darwin reports a squirrel surprise
  
  News & Views12 May 2026

Latest Research articles

Stereoelectronic manipulation of ligands for perovskite solar cells

Tinghuan Yang
Erxin Zhao
Kui Zhao
Article13 May 2026
An ultra-faint, chemically primitive galaxy forming in the reionization era

LAP1-B—an ultra-faint and tiny galaxy that formed in the reionization era and is strongly magnified by gravitational lensing—is chemically primitive and hosts very few stars in an otherwise dominant dark matter halo.

Kimihiko Nakajima
Masami Ouchi
Yechi Zhang
Article13 May 2026
More concentrated precipitation decreases terrestrial water storage

Concentration of precipitation in large events decreases land water availability, and this effect will further increase with a future warming climate.

Corey S. Lesk
Justin S. Mankin
ArticleOpen Access13 May 2026
Efficient robot navigation inspired by honeybee learning flights

A highly efficient navigation strategy taking inspiration from the visual learning flights of honeybees is described, which enables drones to quickly return from longer flights by means of path integration and uses a neural network as a view memory to reach the home location.

Dequan Ou
Jesse J. Hagenaars
Guido C. H. E. de Croon
ArticleOpen Access13 May 2026
Sustaining microglial reparative function enhances stroke recovery

Reparative microglia persist in the brain after stroke but become dysfunctional through ZFP384-mediated mechanisms; however, this process can be mitigated by targeting Zfp384 using therapeutic antisense oligonucleotides.

Jun Tsuyama
Seiichiro Sakai
Takashi Shichita
Article13 May 2026

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Macro shot of brown yeast cells on a white background

Synthetic biology

Can synthetic biology help address some of the world’s most pressing problems?

Spotlight 06 May 2026

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Science jobs

Faculty Positions at SUSTech School of Medicine

SUSTech School of Medicine offers equal opportunities and welcome applicants from the world with all ethnic backgrounds.

Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Southern University of Science and Technology, School of Medicine
Faculty Positions in AI for Life Sciences at Westlake University

Invites applications for tenure-track or tenured faculty positions at all academic ranks in the field of artificial intelligence for life sciences.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang (CN)

Westlake University School of Life Science
Full Professorship (W3) in “Translational Gastrointestinal Oncology" (f/m/d)

The Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University offers the position of a Full Professorship (W3) in “Translational Gastrointestinal Oncolog...

Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim der Universität Heidelberg
Faculty Positions at St. Anna CCRI (Vienna, Austria)

Shaping the future of pediatric cancer research: Multiple leadership positions at St. Anna CCRI (Vienna, Austria)!

Vienna (Statutarstadt) (AT)

St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung / Children's Cancer Research Institute
Post-doctoral fellow positions in the Waksman lab at CIMR

We seek talented postdocs with expertise in cryo-Electron Microcopy OR/AND live imaging fluorescence microscopy to study gene transport in bacteria

10 Xitoutiao, Youanmen Wai, Fengtai District, Beijing 100069, China

The Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR), Beijing

Exclusive: NIH ousts infectious-disease leaders as COVID scientists face US charges

Mouse eyes photosynthesize after plant-to-animal transplant

US biology lab locked down for more than a week amid smuggling inquiry

Long-term editing of brain circuits using an engineered electrical synapse

Daily briefing: Ice core is the longest-ever continuous record of Earth’s climate

News & Comment

Exclusive: NIH ousts infectious-disease leaders as COVID scientists face US charges

Mouse eyes photosynthesize after plant-to-animal transplant

US biology lab locked down for more than a week amid smuggling inquiry

Genetic survey exposes flaws in widely used mouse models

Mental-health research is too often invisible — it is time to change that

NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year

Does the PSA test for prostate cancer save lives? New data reverse gold-standard findings

Latest Reviews & Analysis

Fast and furious: the gaseous outflows of quasars in the early Universe were extreme

Growth charts reveal how the brain’s ‘communication highways’ change throughout life

Relics of the first stars spotted in a distant, ultra-faint galaxy

Targeted electron beam creates thousands of atomic crystal defects

Bee-inspired navigation robot pinpoints its home using a neural network

State media control shapes LLM behaviour by influencing training data

Obesity has risen in all countries — but at a faster pace in poorer ones

Protective maternal gut instincts

Charles Darwin reports a squirrel surprise

Latest Research articles

Stereoelectronic manipulation of ligands for perovskite solar cells

An ultra-faint, chemically primitive galaxy forming in the reionization era

More concentrated precipitation decreases terrestrial water storage

Efficient robot navigation inspired by honeybee learning flights

Sustaining microglial reparative function enhances stroke recovery

Collections

Synthetic biology

Trending - Altmetric

Science jobs

Faculty Positions at SUSTech School of Medicine

Faculty Positions in AI for Life Sciences at Westlake University

Full Professorship (W3) in “Translational Gastrointestinal Oncology" (f/m/d)

Faculty Positions at St. Anna CCRI (Vienna, Austria)

Post-doctoral fellow positions in the Waksman lab at CIMR

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At last, a pill that can prevent COVID after exposure to infected people

Enamel proteins from six Homo erectus specimens across China

Sleep chart of biological ageing clocks in middle and late life

Exclusive: NIH ousts infectious-disease leaders as COVID scientists face US charges

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