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Artemis II mission is about to fly humans to the Moon — here’s the science they’ll do

Set to lift off this week, the NASA flight will take astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?

Tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI, a Nature analysis suggests.

Miryam Naddaf
Elizabeth Quill
News Feature01 Apr 2026
Humanity is heading back to the Moon — why aren’t more scientists thrilled?

Some researchers remain underwhelmed by NASA’s upcoming lunar fly-by.

Elizabeth Gibney
Davide Castelvecchi
News31 Mar 2026
Epigenetic memory of colitis promotes tumour growth

Colonic stem cells retain a memory of inflammation following disease resolution and there is a mechanistic link between chronic inflammation and malignancy, suggesting potential strategies to mitigate cancer risk in patients with chronic inflammatory conditions.

Surya Nagaraja
Lety Ojeda-Miron
Jason D. Buenrostro
ArticleOpen Access25 Mar 2026
Daily briefing: Women’s academic careers are knocked by parenthood much more than men’s

Childcare responsibilities disproportionately affect women’s academic careers. Plus, epic freshwater fish migrations are running into roadblocks and whether NASA’s Artemis II Moon mission is the dawn of a new space age.

Flora Graham
Nature Briefing30 Mar 2026
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Is social media addictive? Why a formal diagnosis is still out of reach

Limited methods and a lack of guidance around diagnostic criteria mean that many scientists are reluctant to use the term addiction.

Dar Meshi

World View01 Apr 2026
Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?
Miryam Naddaf
Elizabeth Quill

News Feature01 Apr 2026
Struggling to focus on research when the world is ‘on fire’? Some ways to cope
Diana Kwon

News01 Apr 2026
The hidden costs of ‘helpful’ AI
Sylvie Delacroix

World View31 Mar 2026
Are boys really in crisis? What the science says in the age of the manosphere
Helen Pearson

News Feature31 Mar 2026
Artemis II mission is about to fly humans to the Moon — here’s the science they’ll do
Alexandra Witze

News31 Mar 2026
See the intricate worlds of parasites and algae — March’s best science images
Miryam Naddaf
Fred Schwaller

News31 Mar 2026

Latest Reviews & Analysis

- 100 years of synthetic fuels
  
  The Fischer–Tropsch synthesis shaped history by providing a way of making liquid fuels from coal. It is now causing a stir again as a route to sustainable fuels.
  
  Ferdi Schüth
  
  News & Views01 Apr 2026
- Bunny or bug?
  
  A curious species of rabbit is detected in the lab, and bullfinches learn the art of primrose eating, in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.
  
  News & Views31 Mar 2026
- Redirecting current solves a shadowy problem faced by perovskite solar cells
  
  Solar modules made from perovskite materials have a stability issue that arises when they are placed in partial shade. This long-standing problem has now been addressed by integrating an electronic component called a memristor into the solar cell.
  
  Research Briefing25 Mar 2026
- Remembrance of inflammations past
  
  Chronic inflammation increases the risk of colon cancer. This inflammation drives epigenetic changes in the nucleus of stem cells that promote tumour formation.
  
  Chengxiang Qiu
  Jay Shendure
  
  News & Views25 Mar 2026
- Anticancer antibodies can evolve to cause autoimmune brain disease
  
  A model of breast cancer that expresses NMDA receptors — proteins that modify signalling between neurons — was used to trace pre-existing B cells as they matured to produce autoimmune antibodies that have diverse effects on receptor function. Transferring one antibody into mouse brains recapitulated key features of autoimmune brain inflammation.
  
  Research Briefing25 Mar 2026
- A cancer-promoting fusion protein acts during embryonic brain development
  
  Research Briefing25 Mar 2026
- Charting the human brain’s lifelong functional organization
  
  Richard A. I. Bethlehem
  Daniel S. Margulies
  
  News & Views25 Mar 2026
- Long-distance quantum link generates entanglement faster than it is lost
  
  Ronald Hanson
  Tracy Northup
  
  News & Views25 Mar 2026
- Dogs have deep genetic roots in ice-age Europe
  
  Lauren M. Hennelly
  Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding
  
  News & Views25 Mar 2026

Latest Research articles

Structure of the mouse cytoplasmic lattice

Pengliang Chi
Xiang Wang
Dong Deng
Article31 Mar 2026
Genomic history of early dogs in Europe

Genome-wide analysis shows European dogs existed by 14,200 years ago, were already genetically distinct, received less Neolithic Southwest Asian admixture than humans did and contributed substantially to later European dogs.

Anders Bergström
Anja Furtwängler
Pontus Skoglund
ArticleOpen Access25 Mar 2026
Dominant clones leverage developmental epigenomic states to drive ependymoma

Single-nucleus chromatin and RNA sequencing identifies epigenetic chromatin domains that confer vulnerability to paediatric brain tumours such as ependymomas, providing insight into the development of such tumours despite ‘quiet’ genomes.

Alisha S. Kardian
Hua Sun
Stephen C. Mack
ArticleOpen Access25 Mar 2026
Ectopic NMDAR expression in cancer unmasks germline-encoded autoimmunity

NMDAR expression is sufficient to induce B cell recruitment and affinity maturation, resulting in receptor-modulating antibodies that connect anti-cancer immunity and autoimmunity.

Sam O. Kleeman
Kevin Michalski
Tobias Janowitz
ArticleOpen Access25 Mar 2026
Exposed phosphatidylserine is an inhibitory molecule in T cell exhaustion

Insights into the mechanism by which phosphatidylserine functions as a non-classical inhibitory molecule during T cell exhaustion, and how phosphatidylserine-targeting antibodies enhance T cell responses are explored.

Christopher B. Medina
Ewelina Sobierajska
Rafi Ahmed
Article25 Mar 2026

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Artemis II mission is about to fly humans to the Moon — here’s the science they’ll do

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?

Humanity is heading back to the Moon — why aren’t more scientists thrilled?

Epigenetic memory of colitis promotes tumour growth

Daily briefing: Women’s academic careers are knocked by parenthood much more than men’s

News & Comment

Is social media addictive? Why a formal diagnosis is still out of reach

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?

Struggling to focus on research when the world is ‘on fire’? Some ways to cope

The hidden costs of ‘helpful’ AI

Are boys really in crisis? What the science says in the age of the manosphere

Artemis II mission is about to fly humans to the Moon — here’s the science they’ll do

See the intricate worlds of parasites and algae — March’s best science images

Latest Reviews & Analysis

100 years of synthetic fuels

Bunny or bug?

Redirecting current solves a shadowy problem faced by perovskite solar cells

Remembrance of inflammations past

Anticancer antibodies can evolve to cause autoimmune brain disease

A cancer-promoting fusion protein acts during embryonic brain development

Charting the human brain’s lifelong functional organization

Long-distance quantum link generates entanglement faster than it is lost

Dogs have deep genetic roots in ice-age Europe

Latest Research articles

Structure of the mouse cytoplasmic lattice

Genomic history of early dogs in Europe

Dominant clones leverage developmental epigenomic states to drive ependymoma

Ectopic NMDAR expression in cancer unmasks germline-encoded autoimmunity

Exposed phosphatidylserine is an inhibitory molecule in T cell exhaustion

Collections

China

Trending - Altmetric

Science jobs

Deputy Editor, BMC Medicine

Associate Editor/Editor, Clinical Medicine Books

Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Communications (Computational Biology)

Global Recruitment for Faculty, Postdocs, and Specialists at Hangzhou Institute of Medicine, CAS

Seeking Excellent Young Scientists Fund (overseas) and academic positions at all levels

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Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic

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