Vaccines are usually used to prevent infectious diseases. A therapeutic cancer vaccine is different. Rather than teaching the immune system to recognize pathogens in advance of an infection, these vaccines use identifying proteins produced by cancer cells, known as antigens, to provoke a powerful immune response to existing tumours. A variety of approaches The first … Read more
Harmless lab pranks, such as spraying objects with unexpected scents or adding googly eyes, can lift spirits and encourage research-group bonding.Credit: Juj Winn/Getty On 1 April 2022, John Prensner, then a postdoctoral researcher in cancer biology, received a surprising letter. Typed on official-looking letterhead paper, the message outlined plans for a Smithsonian Institution exhibit dedicated … Read more
Earlier this month, the editors at the linguistics journal Syntax publicly announced their resignations in response to changes to the manuscript-handling process imposed by its publisher, Wiley-Blackwell. “We have come to the conclusion that our position as editors of the journal is no longer tenable,” wrote editors Klaus Abels and Suzanne Flynn in an open … Read more
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was interviewed by Nature’s Careers team in 2023.Credit: Massimo Di Vita/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty How can Nature’s journalists reach out to the broadest possible set of scientists and research-associated professionals in our journalism? That’s the question at the heart of our three-year effort to track the diversity of the sources interviewed in the … Read more
Members of the US Supreme Court expressed skepticism today about arguments from a group of anti-abortion organizations and physicians seeking to restrict use of the abortion drug mifepristone in the United States. The group is challenging the US Food and Drug Administration’s decision to expand access to the medication. The justices must decide whether the … Read more
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. The front of the Simons Observatory’s Large Aperture Telescope Receiver, the largest receiver for observing the cosmic microwave background built so far.Credit: Mark Devlin/University of Pennsylvania In a few weeks, a new observatory high in northern … Read more
Credit: The Aldo Leopold Foundation and University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives Estella Bergere Leopold was a palaeobotanist whose studies of fossil pollen and spores helped to reconstruct past environments and link them to the present. Her investigations of the Cenozoic era (from 66 million years ago to the present) provided some of the first insights into … Read more
Cultivarium chief scientific officer Nili Ostrov works to make model organisms more useful and accessible for scientific researchCredit: Donis Perkins Nili Ostrov has always been passionate about finding ways to use biology for practical purposes. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit during her postdoctoral studies, she went in the opposite … Read more
Giant excavators for use in deep-sea mining must stay parked for now.Credit: Nigel Roddis/Reuters For more than a week, representatives of nations around the world have been meeting at a session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica. The ISA was established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 30 … Read more
In February, I was meant to speak at the European Conference of Tropical Ecology in Lisbon, providing evidence of extinction risks to some frog species used as bushmeat in West Africa, and highlighting the need for policies that regulate hunting pressures. In January, I duly applied at the Dutch embassy in Accra for a business … Read more