Single-aperture cavities are a key component of lasers, instrumental for the amplification and emission of a single light mode. However, the appearance of high-order transverse modes as cavities size increases has frustrated efforts to scale up cavities whilst preserving single-mode operation since the invention of the laser six decades ago1-8. A suitable physical mechanism that allows single-mode

Scientists in Thailand have established that a tabby passed SARS-CoV-2 to a veterinary surgeon — although such cases of cat-to-human transmission are probably rare.

Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 29 June 2022

Chiral molecules intercalated into van der Waals gaps.

Drugs made from antibodies are huge money-makers for some conditions — but they have gained little traction in infectious diseases, including COVID.

Analyses of ancient wolf genomes reveal that dogs descended from at least two separate wolf populations.

Personalized treatments and large population studies in China are helping to uncover patterns for a range of conditions, from autism to hereditary hearing loss.

Final decisions.

Salivary transmission routes for norovirus and rotavirus.

The latest science news, in brief.

Nature highlights three key graphics from the week in science and research.

President Emmanuel Macron wants France to become a ‘start-up nation’, fuelled by industry–academia collaborations. How is it faring?

The hulking object bounced across the atmosphere like a stone skimming across a pond.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

Laws to stamp out deforestation, pollution and child labour in global supply chains might have unintended consequences. Researchers need to investigate these effects.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the need to improve energy security.

Study looking at death rates early in the pandemic confirms that low-income nations have born the brunt of the global disaster.

US abortion ruling is a tragedy; here’s what research bodies must do

COVID-19 vaccines are due for an upgrade, scientists say, but emerging variants and fickle immune reactions mean it’s not clear what new jabs should look like.

A newly discovered bacterium is up to a centimetre long. Plus, monkeypox insights from Africa and the public-health consequences of a US Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade.

Ethics and honesty in organizations deserve unique attention as the workplace context adds additional complexities to be considered. We organize the development in research into three areas: (a) the move from the traditional view of looking at unethical behaviors in organizations as motivated by self-interest to the one looking at some motivated by the desire to benefit others; (b) honesty in organizations

SARS-CoV-2 has evolved variants with substitutions in the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) that impact its affinity for ACE2 receptor and recognition by antibodies. These substitutions could also shape future evolution by modulating the effects of mutations at other sites—a phenomenon called epistasis. To investigate this possibility, we performed deep mutational scans to measure the effects on

Volcanologist Maarten de Moor helps to warn local people of looming eruptions.

Listen to an audio version of a recent Nature feature.

Researchers say a highly effective jab will help to avoid hospitals getting overwhelmed, but probably won’t end to the country’s ‘zero COVID’ policy.

Sixteen world leaders have now promised to protect the ocean. Researchers need to work with them to create and improve measurable indicators.

Gram-scale preparation of an alkaloid enables its biological testing.

The legume’s history in West Africa is intimately linked with conquest.

Computational and experimental methods are bringing researchers closer to their goal of revealing exactly where in a cell or tissue each gene is expressed.

Gram-negative bacteria coordinate the growth of their outer layers.

We discuss the USA’s decision to authorize the Moderna and Pfizer COVID vaccines for children under five.

Years of studies on abortion access foreshadow the negative economic and health effects ahead.

US cases of liver inflammation among children have remained flat, but UK cases seem to have risen, leading some to suggest a coronavirus contribution.

Professional choices influence valued outcomes such as income, life satisfaction, and social status. However, public opinion polls consistently illustrate that an individual’s profession also influences how honest one is perceived to be, and people are motivated to see themselves as honest for many reasons. Why would people choose professions that do not confer them with the benefits of honesty? Survey

Attachment theory—built on the knowledge that infants have an innate need to form an attachment bond with a caregiver and that separation from or loss of that caregiver has a lasting impact on the child’s development—is a useful lens through which to examine the consequences of family separation due to migration. The aim of this review was to highlight the impacts of separation due to migration on

Society suffers when people stay silent on moral issues. Yet people who engage morally may appear hypocritical if they behave imperfectly themselves. Research reveals that hypocrites can—but do not always—trigger a “hypocrisy penalty,” whereby they are evaluated as more immoral than ordinary (non-hypocritical) wrongdoers. This pattern reflects that moral engagement can confer reputational benefits

Feeling heard is critical to human flourishing—across domains, relationships are strengthened and individual well-being is enhanced when people feel listened to. High-quality conversational listening not only requires the cognitive processes of attention and processing, but also behavioral expression to communicate one’s cognitive engagement to others. This need to behaviorally express listening introduces

Feedback is information provided to recipients about their behavior, performance, or understanding, the goal of which is to foster recipients’ self-awareness, and behavioral reinforcement or change. Yet, feedback often fails to achieve this goal. For feedback to be effective, recipients must be receptive and accurately understand the meaning and veracity of the feedback (i.e., discern the truth in

Historically, empathy has been thought to motivate prosocial behaviour and inhibit aggressive behaviour. Contrary to current assumptions and theoretical support, a recent meta-analysis revealed a small effect of empathy on aggression among adults (Vachon, Lynam, & Johnson, 2013). The current study sought to determine whether broadening the focus from empathy to include other socially relevant affective

Cross-lagged models are by far the most commonly used method to test the prospective effect of one construct on another, yet there are no guidelines for interpreting the size of cross-lagged effects. This research aims to establish empirical benchmarks for cross-lagged effects, focusing on the cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) and the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM). We drew a quasirepresentative

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

A strong material becomes more rigid or more relaxed when its constituent gears are spun.

A long-running La Niña climate event could persist into 2023. Plus, breast cancer cells are more likely to go rogue at night, and research to quantify and reduce inequality.

The lineages’ rise seems to stem from their ability to infect people who were immune to earlier forms of Omicron and other variants.

‘Microorganism’ is a misnomer when it comes to centimetre-long Thiomargarita magnifica.

Membranes with methane-excluding pores can remove nitrogen and carbon dioxide from natural gas in an energy-efficient and cost-effective way.