Our perceptions of the world are increasingly influenced by online media, which can perpetuate social stereotypes and bias our views. The rise of artificial intelligence — especially large language ...

Delegating tasks to artificial intelligence (AI) systems can save time, improve productivity and aid decision-making — but it comes with ethical risks. In this week’s issue, Nils Köbis, Zoe Rahwan and ...

The cover shows Yournina Akinyi using her mobile phone at her produce stand in Matasia village, Kenya. In this week’s issue, Joshua Blumenstock and his colleagues show how big data derived from mobile ...

Inscriptions provide an invaluable insight into the ancient world. But over the centuries, many inscriptions have been damaged and exist in fragmented or semi-legible forms, making the job of reading ...

The cover shows human bronchial cells infected with SARS-CoV-2, captured using a scanning electron microscope. In this week’s issue, a collection of six papers reveals key information about the ...

Many potential applications for artificial intelligence require making real-time decisions. Car racing, in which drivers must undertake complex tactical manoeuvres while controlling their vehicle at ...

The gap between average life expectancy and the number of years people are healthy and on the job is widening, with potentially grave consequences for pensioners.

Pure mathematics involves the discovery of patterns between mathematical objects and using these connections to formulate conjectures. Mathematicians have deployed computers since the 1960s to help ...

Tunicates, such as sea squirts, are the closest relatives to vertebrates. Most of these marine organisms become sessile — unable to move themselves – when their free-swimming larvae turn into ...

The protein tau is believed to stabilize the skeleton that shapes nerve cells, but in neurodegenerative diseases known as tauopathies, tau misfolds and stacks together to form filaments. In this ...

Launched four years ago, the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) aims to identify and catalogue the diverse cells types found in mammalian brains. Across 17 papers in this week’s issue, the ...

A preliminary analysis of viral genomes suggests the COVID-19 pandemic might have multiple animal origins — but the findings still have to be peer reviewed. The 2019–20 wildfires generated 700 million ...