A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality available free online at natureindex.com.

A look at the inputs that result in high scientific research outputs.

The two US cities have a peerless partnership for life sciences.

Sizing up the success of the world’s science hotspots.

In a commentary on high-impact research outputs across 245 cities, György Csomós, Zsófia Viktória Vida and Balázs Lengyel explore changing patterns.

China’s powerhouse holds firm as the number one city in the Nature Index.

A large volume of charcoal sold in Europe comes from tropical forests and is often incorrectly labelled, raising questions about whether it was logged illegally.

Genetics reveals which Vikings went where during the influential Viking Age. Plus, how to get a COVID-19 vaccine to those who need it most and what happens when you read a paper every single day.

Despite our intimate familiarity with fire, we still struggle with a complete understanding of it. Plus, fast antigen coronavirus tests and increasingly impenetrable papers.

We introduce a method to draw causal inferences—inferences immune to all possible confounding—from genetic data that include parents and offspring. Causal conclusions are possible with these data because the natural randomness in meiosis can be viewed as a high-dimensional randomized experiment. We make this observation actionable by developing a conditional independence test that identifies regions

Peptidomimetic macrocycles have the potential to regulate challenging therapeutic targets. Structures of this type having precise shapes and drug-like character are particularly coveted, but are relatively difficult to synthesize. Our laboratory has developed robust methods that integrate small-peptide units into designed scaffolds. These methods create macrocycles and embed condensed heterocycles

Surveying a campus community about sexual harassment can be a daunting task during normal times. It’s especially daunting during a pandemic. Institutional leaders may balk at committing scarce resources to survey efforts. Some may wonder how to interpret results that look dramatically different from prior assessments. Also, they may worry about adding to the burdens of already stressed staff, faculty

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of COVID-19, is considered a zoonotic pathogen mainly transmitted human to human. Few reports indicate that pets may be exposed to the virus. The present report describes a cat suffering from severe respiratory distress and thrombocytopenia living with a family with several members affected by COVID-19. Clinical signs

The brain represents and reasons probabilistically about complex stimuli and motor actions using a noisy, spike-based neural code. A key building block for such neural computations, as well as the basis for supervised and unsupervised learning, is the ability to estimate the surprise or likelihood of incoming high-dimensional neural activity patterns. Despite progress in statistical modeling of neural

We are only just beginning to catalog the vast diversity of cell types in the cerebral cortex. Such categorization is a first step toward understanding how diversification relates to function. All cortical projection neurons arise from a uniform pool of progenitor cells that lines the ventricles of the forebrain. It is still unclear how these progenitor cells generate the more than 50 unique types

Hebbian plasticity is a key mechanism for higher brain functions, such as learning and memory. This form of synaptic plasticity primarily involves the regulation of synaptic α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) abundance and properties, whereby AMPARs are inserted into synapses during long-term potentiation (LTP) or removed during long-term depression (LTD). The molecular

In their Letter, Ng et al. (1) state that our (2) comparison of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to Hurricane Katrina is “slightly contrived.” We appreciate the opportunity for discussion. However, we maintain that there is much to be learned from prior disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, for anticipating and mitigating the indirect health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a recent Brief Report by Raker et al. (1), the investigators analyze data from a prospective study of young, low-income mothers who survived Hurricane Katrina and apply this to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to discuss strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s indirect effects on survivors. We appreciate the comparison made, but it is slightly contrived for several reasons

We commend Malisch et al. on their Opinion (1) on immediate solutions to ensure gender equity during the COVID-19 pandemic given the disproportionate burden placed on women due to childcare and household responsibilities. Given early reports showing fewer women are submitting academic papers during the pandemic (2), we encourage institutions to immediately examine how to improve gender equity in the

As increasing evidence emerges concerning the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women academics (1, 2), we hope our work continues to prompt institutions and departments to advance gender equity in tenure and promotion (3). For example, Arora et al. (4) have developed a department-specific rubric to assess COVID-19’s impact on a case-by-case basis. This rubric is in the form of a curriculum vitae

Respiratory failure in the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is hypothesized to be driven by an overreacting innate immune response, where the complement system is a key player. In this prospective cohort study of 39 hospitalized coronavirus disease COVID-19 patients, we describe systemic complement activation and its association with development of respiratory failure

Minimally invasive testing for early detection of lung cancer to improve patient survival is a major unmet clinical need. This study aimed to develop and validate a serum multi-microRNA (multimiR) panel as a minimally invasive test for early detection of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) regardless of smoking status, gender, and ethnicity. Our study included 744 NSCLC cases and 944 matched controls

This paper aims to optimize the different network parameters in a distributed manner for delay-constrained flying ad hoc networks (FANETs) without the global network topology information. To this end, each Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) calculates the average interference level during a certain time period to indicate the channel states. Next, we formulate the distributed optimization problem as a utility

The interest in Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (MWSN) has grown considerably due to its various applications in the fields of military, industrial infrastructure, automation, health, traffic, and many consumer areas. Hence, as the modern world shifting to the age of IoT with possibly new emerging technologies and applications, there will be a number of implications that influence the design and deployment

DIY COVID-19 vaccines raise legal and ethical questions.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

SARS-CoV-2 infection is initiated by virus binding to ACE2 cell surface receptors1–4, followed by fusion of virus and cell membranes to release the virus genome into the cell. Both receptor binding and membrane fusion activities are mediated by the virus Spike glycoprotein, S5–7. As with other class I membrane fusion proteins, S is post-translationally cleaved, in this case by furin, into S1 and S2

A new type of peptide produces pain so intense that sometimes even morphine cannot quell it.

Advisory groups around the world release guidance to prioritize healthcare workers and others.

We have not met any of the biodiversity targets agreed in 2010 — but there are hopeful signs to build on. Plus, how COVID-19 can damage the brain and a visually sumptuous tour of the latest dinosaur discoveries.

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Internet of Things (IoT) is a critical infrastructure component as well as an enabling technology to support the fast-developing cross-region, cross-application, and diversified collaborative smart city services that require systematic cooperation among multiple smart city systems. Such services put forward the high-confidence demands of city IoT, namely, city IoT infrastructures and their offered

With the explosive growth of mobile devices at the edge of mobile social networks (MSNs), the amount of the content that needs to be transmitted is exploded. Traditional content delivery mechanisms leverage only local information to make routing decisions, which results in both high latency and low delivery rate. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a novel network paradigm, the design philosophy of

Presents a listing of the editorial board, board of governors, current staff, committee members, and/or society editors for this issue of the publication.

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Mechanistic studies of anaerobic gut bacteria have been hindered by the lack of a fluorescent protein system to track and visualize proteins and dynamic cellular processes in actively growing bacteria. Although underappreciated, many gut “anaerobes” are able to respire using oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor. The oxygen continually released from gut epithelial cells creates an oxygen gradient

Integrating a long-established soil erosion model with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios, Borrelli et al. (1) set out to meet the needs of policymakers and earth-system modelers to better understand the future of soil erosion this century. Policymakers need this insight because of the constraints erosion places on achievement of multiple sustainable development goals including

Edilson Consuelo de Oliveira has regained his sense of taste and smell, so he has finally been able to enjoy a plate of pirapitinga, his favorite fish in all the Amazon. Before contracting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Edilson had been in lockdown on a small farm outside of Rio Branco, the capital of Acre state in Brazil, but in early June a nephew came to visit from the city, bringing a dry

Grain growth under shear annealing is crucial for controlling the properties of polycrystalline materials. However, their microscopic kinetics are not well understood because individual atomic trajectories are difficult to track. Here, we study grain growth with single-particle kinetics in colloidal polycrystals using video microscopy. Rich grain-growth phenomena are revealed in three shear regimes

In the real world, complex dynamic scenes often arise from the composition of simpler parts. The visual system exploits this structure by hierarchically decomposing dynamic scenes: When we see a person walking on a train or an animal running in a herd, we recognize the individual’s movement as nested within a reference frame that is, itself, moving. Despite its ubiquity, surprisingly little is understood

The mechanisms underlying sex determination are astonishingly plastic. Particularly the triggers for the molecular machinery, which recalls either the male or female developmental program, are highly variable and have evolved independently and repeatedly. Fish show a huge variety of sex determination systems, including both genetic and environmental triggers. The advent of sex chromosomes is assumed

In science news around the world, President Donald Trump admits he knew in February that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was "deadly," even as he publicly called the disease no worse than the seasonal flu. Scientists study the long-term health consequences of smoke from record wildfires on the U.S. West Coast. The virus that causes African swine fever, deadly to pigs, is discovered in Germany

Several studies about to start will explore whether near-infrared (NIR) light can improve symptoms of Parkinson's disease—including a study in France in which a fiber optic cable implanted in patients' brains will deliver NIR directly to the substantia nigra, a region that degenerates in Parkinson's disease. Animal models and small tests in people have suggested benefits, but some mainstream Parkinson's

A massive new study of DNA sequences from Viking Age burials around Europe presents the story of the Vikings written in genes. The results, published this week in Nature, trace how the Vikings radiated across Europe from their Scandinavian homeland, and how people with roots elsewhere also took up Viking ways, making "Viking" a job description, not a matter of heredity. Researchers gathered human remains

A major report card on the state of biodiversity gives failing grades to the world's nations. The United Nations's Global Biodiversity Outlook 5, released this week, concludes the world has not met ambitious targets set 10 years ago to protect nature. The new assessment finds some bright spots, such as a substantial rise in the extent of protected areas. But only six of the U.N. Convention on Biological

After Mumbai dentist Azmera Shaikh and her mother tested positive for COVID-19, their neighbors ostracized the rest of her family, refusing to let them put out garbage or help them buy groceries. As the new coronavirus spread around the world early this year, some people around the world responded in similar ways. In Nepal, health workers were thrown out of accommodations. In Chennai, India, some doctors

Chronic kidney disease affects 9% of the global population (1) and can have severe impacts on both the individual and societal levels. Although various conditions, such as diabetes, are well known risk factors for chronic kidney disease, in recent years interest has been growing regarding a potential role for the gut microbiota in modulating outcomes in kidney disease (2). Simultaneously, in the microbiology

Immunotherapy sometimes leads to stunning therapeutic success in a wide range of cancers. However—except in melanoma, microsatellite instable (MSI) colorectal cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma—only ∼15 to 30% of cancer patients respond to treatment. Thus, identification of the determinants of response are under intense investigation, and the gut microbiota is proposed to be a critical

“Fugit irreparabile tempus,” wrote Virgil, a reminder that our lives are defined by the irreversible flow of time. As soon as the egg is fertilized, embryonic cells follow a developmental program strictly organized in time. The sequence typically is conserved throughout evolution, but individual events can occur over species-specific time scales. Such differences can have marked effects. For instance

Optically addressed quantum spin systems have been explored for a number of applications, with quantum information being one of the most exciting. However, noise fields destroy quantum information, especially in solids, through a process called decoherence. This process limits how well quantum information devices perform. The spin decoherence problem has been studied for decades, and many protocols

In the past 50 years, the major conceptual revolution in physical oceanography is the transformation from considering the ocean as a large-scale, extremely slowly changing fluid to a fundamentally turbulent one. The ocean changes across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, from millimeters to 30,000 km and from seconds to multimillennia, with major regional differences. Because ocean exploration

Genome editing technologies provide vast possibilities for societal benefit, but also substantial risks and ethical challenges. Governance and regulation of such technologies have not kept pace in a systematic or internationally consistent manner, leaving a complex, uneven, and incomplete web of national and international regulation (1). How countries choose to regulate these emergent technologies

As Joseph Henrich recounts in his new book, The WEIRDest People in the World, the Tajik civil war—which pitted clan against clan and, sometimes, neighbor against neighbor—resulted in a collapse of trust that made people more suspicious of nonrelatives. This trajectory is puzzling, as it contrasts sharply with political development in Western Europe. There, conflict and intergroup competition paved

"I'm an inveterate storyteller," confesses the celebrated neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks at the start of Oliver Sacks: His Own Life. "I tell many stories, some comic, some tragic." Tales of both types abound in this elegiac yet lighthearted film based on director Ric Burns's interviews with Sacks and his friends, colleagues, family members, and patients in the months before and after the physician's

Although mechanisms of embryonic development are similar between mice and humans, the time scale is generally slower in humans. To investigate these interspecies differences in development, we recapitulate murine and human segmentation clocks that display 2- to 3-hour and 5- to 6-hour oscillation periods, respectively. Our interspecies genome-swapping analyses indicate that the period difference is

Plastic pollution is a pervasive and growing problem. To estimate the effectiveness of interventions to reduce plastic pollution, we modeled stocks and flows of municipal solid waste and four sources of microplastics through the global plastic system for five scenarios between 2016 and 2040. Implementing all feasible interventions reduced plastic pollution by 40% from 2016 rates and 78% relative to

Adsorption involves molecules colliding at the surface of a solid and losing their incidence energy by traversing a dynamical pathway to equilibrium. The interactions responsible for energy loss generally include both chemical bond formation (chemisorption) and nonbonding interactions (physisorption). In this work, we present experiments that revealed a quantitative energy landscape and the microscopic