Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00231-0

Foundation will have to tackle high cost of producing treatments for diseases that affect fewer than ten individuals. Plus: Isaac Asimov at 100 and a coronavirus update.

Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00141-1

Automated production of social-media posts can confound research studies.

Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00147-9

How Nature reported a controversy in 1970 over the harm caused by fallout from nuclear testing, and a 1920 call to end the trade in exotic bird plumage.

Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00227-w

We asked readers what we should focus on in the next decade. Here is what you said.

Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00188-0

Catalexit: funds for science could suffer

Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00176-4

The indefatigably curious chemist and science-fiction icon championed rationality for the common good in 20 million published words. By David Leslie

Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00186-2

Innovative plant breeding could deliver crop revolution

Nature, Published online: 28 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00187-1

Genentech was not the first biotech company

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00183-5

Stone tools found in a Siberian cave hint at a rugged intercontinental journey.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00184-4

Air quality in the United States’ most populous city reached unhealthy levels thanks to incoming smoke from wildfires and agricultural burning.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00225-y

Natalie Brown explains how her father’s childhood diagnosis has inspired her to research the condition as an undergraduate.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00219-w

Although only a small number of PhD graduates become professors, most career guidance in PhD programmes centres on the academic career ladder. Adam Chekroud shares his experience of starting a company.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00221-2

The Namibian astronomy community has a bold plan to take advantage of the country's spectacularly dark, clear skies. Plus, machine-learning researchers talk ethics at NeurIPS and the China coronavirus latest.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00222-1

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00210-5

An expert panel is considering how much to reveal about a largely secret review process of 'gain-of-function' research.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/s41586-020-1950-4

Pure spin currents are simultaneously generated and detected electrically through sub-terahertz magnons in the antiferromagnetic insulator Cr2O3, demonstrating the potential of magnon excitations in antiferromagnets for high-frequency spintronic devices.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/s41586-020-1938-0

Flash Joule heating of inexpensive carbon sources is used to produce gram-scale quantities of high-quality graphene in under a second, without the need for a furnace, solvents or reactive gases.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00151-z

Three methods for gene-expression profiling have now been combined to produce spatially defined single-cell maps of developing human organs from limited sample material, overcoming a major hurdle in studying human development.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00171-9

Callous policies in Brexit’s wake will ill serve a nation that claims to cherish innovators — learn from 1930s Britain, says Georgina Ferry.

Nature, Published online: 27 January 2020; doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00179-1

Mary-Anne Lea travels to remote coastal regions to study marine animals for insights into conserving their species.