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 ...

Nova explosions occur when a runaway thermonuclear reaction is triggered in a white dwarf that is accreting hydrogen from a companion star. The massive amount of energy released ultimately creates the ...

The cover image shows a view of the Milky Way captured at Nambung National Park in Western Australia. To understand how the Galaxy formed requires precision age dating of the stars that it contains.

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 ...

Biaryl compounds, which contain two connected aromatic rings, are common throughout chemistry, medicine and materials science. Joining together the individual molecular components to form these ...

Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that Earth’s gravity will sufficiently distort space-time so that clocks at different distances from the planet will tick at different rates — an ...

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 ...

Controlling physical systems at the level of individual molecules, atoms or ions underpins technologies such as quantum information processing and quantum metrology. Investigating collisions in a ...

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 cover shows a humpback whale lunge-feeding off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Baleen whales such as this consume vast quantities of prey, but finding out exactly how much has proved ...