• The phase I trial of the vaccine from drug company Moderna is just the beginning of a long process to test safety and efficacy. Plus: a ‘completely accidental’ discovery hints at how to use standard silicon microchips in a quantum computer and a year without conferences raises the question of whether we need them at all.

    • Flora Graham

    Nature Briefing

Latest Reviews & Analysis

    • How Nature reported deep diving on dry land in 1970, and the history of electrotherapy in 1920.

      News & Views

    • A tiny skull trapped in 99-million-year-old amber suggests that some of the earliest birds evolved to become miniature. The fossil illustrates how ancient amber can act as a window into the distant past.

      • Roger B. J. Benson

      News & Views

    • Identifying Earth’s building blocks from terrestrial rocks is challenging because these ingredients have become mixed as the planet evolved. Evidence of an unknown building block in ancient rocks provides fresh insight.

      • Katherine R. Bermingham

      News & Views

    • Chromatin, the complex of DNA and protein in cell nuclei, can be modified by ubiquitin molecules. It emerges that this modification occurs in a molecular reaction chamber formed from an enzyme and a scaffold protein.

      • Nick Gilbert
      • Fred van Leeuwen

      News & Views

Latest Research

  • Oculudentavis khaungraae—a newly discovered theropod from the Cretaceous period of Myanmar—reveals a previously unknown bauplan and ecology associated with miniaturization, highlighting the potential for recovering small-bodied vertebrates from amber deposits.

    • Lida Xing
    • Jingmai K. O’Connor
    • Gang Li

    Article

  • The cryo-electron microscopy structure of the yeast SWI/SNF complex bound to a nucleosome substrate provides insights into the chromatin-remodelling function of this family of protein complexes and suggests mechanisms by which the mutated proteins may cause cancer.

    • Yan Han
    • Alexis A Reyes
    • Yuan He

    Article

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The gut microbiome

Researchers are homing in on the myriad ways in which the bacteria and other microorganisms that inhabit the human digestive system affect our health – and how they could point the way towards new therapies.

Nature Outlook