Your Comment makes a strong case for academic consulting as a pathway to societal impact (see L. J. Slater et al. Nature 649, 27–29; 2026). But their argument assumes a simple premise: that consulting follows markets.
Category: 1. Edi-Choice
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I know science can’t fix the world — here’s why I do it anyway
Why am I doing science? As a scientist working at a research institute that focuses on food security, I’m acutely aware of the accelerating ecological and climatic breakdown that is occurring around us. What part should scientists play in such…
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Author Correction: Increasingly negative tropical water–interannual CO2 growth rate coupling
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate…
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Embrace diverse PhD supervision styles — but enforce essential standards
We agree with your Editorial that supportive interactions between supervisors and PhD students are essential (see Nature 646, 775; 2025). But emphasizing the time spent together risks promoting quantity over quality. Fostering independent critical…
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A history of hocus pocus: witchcraft down the ages
Nature, Published online: 03 February 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00192-w
A book about witches casts a spell, and arguments about whether blue-green algae should be called blue-green bacteria, in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.
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The global plastics treaty can be saved — here’s how to break the deadlock
Plastic pollution is a scourge of land and seas, and has reached Earth’s remotest regions1. Failure to deal with it could mean exposing ecosystems and people to harmful microplastics, nanoplastics and chemicals2 for centuries. Transported…
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More than one-third of cancer cases are preventable, massive study finds
Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of preventable cancer cases.Credit: Jorge Sanz/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty
Nearly 40% of new cancer cases worldwide are potentially preventable, according to one of the first investigations1 of its kind, which…
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NASA’s Moon Rocket Hits a Snag During Crucial Test Ahead of Launch : ScienceAlert
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – NASA ran into exasperating fuel leaks during a make-or-break test of its new Moon rocket Monday, calling into question how soon astronauts could take off for a trip around the Moon.
The leaks – reminiscent of…
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Bleached Martian rocks offer fresh evidence of a wetter and warmer Mars: ‘But where did they come from?
NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered thousands of strangely bleached rocks on Mars that are rich in a mineral difficult to form without long-term exposure to water, adding fresh evidence that the Red Planet was warmer, wetter and possibly…
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Scientists Uncover Thousands Of Mysterious Creatures Lurking Near A Deep-Sea Volcano
A vast aggregation of deep-sea octopuses has been documented nearly two miles beneath the surface off the coast of California, close to an underwater volcano. Observed and analyzed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, this site,…
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