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Research, news, and commentary from Nature, the international science journal. For daily science news, get Nature Briefing: https://go.nature.com/get-Nature-Briefing
Researchers who put major AI models through four weeks of psychoanalysis got haunting responses, from "abuse" to "fears of failure"
go.nature.com/3Nf5s3m
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AI models were given four weeks of therapy: the results shocked researchers
Nature - Chatbots put through psychotherapy report trauma and abuse. Authors say models are doing more than role play, but researchers are sceptical.
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January 11, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Researchers who put major AI models through four weeks of psychoanalysis got haunting responses, from "abuse" to "fears of failure"
go.nature.com/3Nf5s3m
go.nature.com/3Nf5s3m
Nature research paper: Stress controls heterochromatin inheritance via histone H3 ubiquitylation
go.nature.com/4qNyxS8
go.nature.com/4qNyxS8
Stress controls heterochromatin inheritance via histone H3 ubiquitylation - Nature
A histone ubiquitin-dependent regulatory hub governs stimulus-dependent heterochromatin propagation, with important implications for understanding mechanisms governing rapid changes in the epigenetic landscape in physiology and disease.
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January 11, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Nature research paper: Stress controls heterochromatin inheritance via histone H3 ubiquitylation
go.nature.com/4qNyxS8
go.nature.com/4qNyxS8
This is the oldest chemical evidence that Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers used poison to bring down prey
go.nature.com/4jtvA6w
go.nature.com/4jtvA6w
Oldest known poison arrows show Stone Age humans’ technological talents
Nature - Traces of a toxic chemical found on 60,000-year-old arrowheads hint at advanced planning by Palaeolithic hunters.
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January 11, 2026 at 1:54 PM
This is the oldest chemical evidence that Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers used poison to bring down prey
go.nature.com/4jtvA6w
go.nature.com/4jtvA6w
Nature research paper: Oral 4′-fluorouridine rescues nonhuman primates from advanced Lassa fever
go.nature.com/4jtrxao
go.nature.com/4jtrxao
Oral 4′-fluorouridine rescues nonhuman primates from advanced Lassa fever - Nature
Treatment with 4′-fluorouridine (also known as EIDD-2749) in an African green monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops) model of Lassa disease resulted in complete clearance of infectious virus in a high proportion of cases and prolonged survival to the pre-determined study end-point in all cases.
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January 11, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Nature research paper: Oral 4′-fluorouridine rescues nonhuman primates from advanced Lassa fever
go.nature.com/4jtrxao
go.nature.com/4jtrxao
Researchers are racing to understand how mpox spread globally in 2022 - and how it might do so again
go.nature.com/49tMHR0
go.nature.com/49tMHR0
Will mpox go global again? Research shows it's evolving in curious ways
Nature - Analyses of mpox clades currently in circulation provide clues to how the virus managed to spread worldwide in 2022 — and how it might go global again.
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January 11, 2026 at 11:04 AM
Researchers are racing to understand how mpox spread globally in 2022 - and how it might do so again
go.nature.com/49tMHR0
go.nature.com/49tMHR0
Nature research paper: A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe
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go.nature.com/4qcFJal
A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature
New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group better known from Asia and North America.
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January 11, 2026 at 9:30 AM
Nature research paper: A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe
go.nature.com/4qcFJal
go.nature.com/4qcFJal
Nature research paper: A young progenitor for the most common planetary systems in the Galaxy
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go.nature.com/4qgECGP
A young progenitor for the most common planetary systems in the Galaxy - Nature
A nine-year transit-timing campaign has measured the extremely low masses and densities of four large planets orbiting the young star V1298 Tau, which are now predicted to contract and form a typical compact super-Earth and sub-Neptune system.
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January 10, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Nature research paper: A young progenitor for the most common planetary systems in the Galaxy
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go.nature.com/4qgECGP
This artificial skin, inspired by octopuses, can change its colour and surface texture on demand
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go.nature.com/3YtuwGn
Octopus-inspired ‘synthetic skin’ changes colour and texture on demand
Nature - A material that can switch its appearance, cephalopod-style, could have future applications in robotics or display technology.
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January 10, 2026 at 5:06 PM
This artificial skin, inspired by octopuses, can change its colour and surface texture on demand
go.nature.com/3YtuwGn
go.nature.com/3YtuwGn
Neither jellyfish nor sea anemones have brains. But these animals sleep in ways strikingly similar to humans
go.nature.com/4juumIa
go.nature.com/4juumIa
Jellyfish sleep like humans — even though they don’t have brains
Nature - Studying ancient sea creatures’ snoozing habits could shed light on the origins of sleep.
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January 10, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Neither jellyfish nor sea anemones have brains. But these animals sleep in ways strikingly similar to humans
go.nature.com/4juumIa
go.nature.com/4juumIa
Nature research paper: Surface optimization governs the local design of physical networks
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go.nature.com/3N9j28t
Surface optimization governs the local design of physical networks - Nature
Analysis of the local branching geometries of several physical networks shows violations of predictions of length and volume minimization, leading to the hypothesis that estimating the material cost requires accounting for the full three-dimensional geometry.
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January 10, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Nature research paper: Surface optimization governs the local design of physical networks
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go.nature.com/3N9j28t
Researchers are targeting dormant tumour cells that might explain why some cancers reappear long after successful treatment
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go.nature.com/4sxSygV
Why cancer can come back years later — and how to stop it
Nature - Researchers are targeting dormant tumour cells that might explain why some cancers reappear long after successful treatment.
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January 10, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Researchers are targeting dormant tumour cells that might explain why some cancers reappear long after successful treatment
go.nature.com/4sxSygV
go.nature.com/4sxSygV
Nature research paper: RNA-triggered Cas12a3 cleaves tRNA tails to execute bacterial immunity
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go.nature.com/4bo6rbm
RNA-triggered Cas12a3 cleaves tRNA tails to execute bacterial immunity - Nature
Cas12a3 nucleases constitute a distinct clade of type V CRISPR–Cas bacterial immune systems that preferentially cleave the 3′ tails of tRNAs after recognition of target RNA to induce growth arrest and block phage dissemination.
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January 10, 2026 at 11:35 AM
Nature research paper: RNA-triggered Cas12a3 cleaves tRNA tails to execute bacterial immunity
go.nature.com/4bo6rbm
go.nature.com/4bo6rbm
After years in limbo, NASA’s groundbreaking Mars Sample Return (MSR) programme, which was supposed to ferry Martian material collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth, looks set to be cancelled.
go.nature.com/4aTLe9i
go.nature.com/4aTLe9i
NASA won’t bring Mars samples back to Earth: this is the science that will be lost
A Congressional bill restores funding for most NASA space science missions, but there is no money for returning samples already collected on the red planet.
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January 9, 2026 at 9:24 PM
After years in limbo, NASA’s groundbreaking Mars Sample Return (MSR) programme, which was supposed to ferry Martian material collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth, looks set to be cancelled.
go.nature.com/4aTLe9i
go.nature.com/4aTLe9i
Nature research paper: An expanded registry of candidate cis-regulatory elements
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go.nature.com/4pAbARf
An expanded registry of candidate cis-regulatory elements - Nature
The existing ENCODE registry of candidate human and mouse cis-regulatory elements is expanded with the addition of new ENCODE data, integrating new functional data as well as new cell and tissue types.
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January 9, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Nature research paper: An expanded registry of candidate cis-regulatory elements
go.nature.com/4pAbARf
go.nature.com/4pAbARf
What was originally thought to be a planet orbiting the Fomalhaut star was probably just the fallout of a wild collision
go.nature.com/45Ld18d
go.nature.com/45Ld18d
Disappearing ‘planet’ reveals a solar system’s turbulent times
What was originally thought to be a planet orbiting the Fomalhaut star was probably just the fallout of a wild collision.
go.nature.com
January 9, 2026 at 12:47 PM
What was originally thought to be a planet orbiting the Fomalhaut star was probably just the fallout of a wild collision
go.nature.com/45Ld18d
go.nature.com/45Ld18d
Latest from the Nature Podcast 🔊 A mysterious ancient fingerprint and a lemon-shaped planet — the stories you’ve missed
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go.nature.com/4sw46Bt
A mysterious ancient fingerprint and a lemon-shaped planet — the stories you’ve missed
Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 07 January 2026
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January 9, 2026 at 12:21 PM
Latest from the Nature Podcast 🔊 A mysterious ancient fingerprint and a lemon-shaped planet — the stories you’ve missed
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go.nature.com/4sw46Bt
Nature research paper: Climate change shifts the North Pacific storm track polewards
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go.nature.com/4jy48Vh
Climate change shifts the North Pacific storm track polewards - Nature
An observation-based storm-track proxy shows that the winter North Pacific storm track has shifted substantially polewards, suggesting regional impacts on precipitation and warming patterns, with implications for temperature variability and extreme events.
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January 9, 2026 at 11:56 AM
Nature research paper: Climate change shifts the North Pacific storm track polewards
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go.nature.com/4jy48Vh
Researchers working on China’s ‘artificial sun’ have reported breaking a long-accepted threshold that has limited the operation of nuclear-fusion reactors for decades
go.nature.com/4jurz1K
go.nature.com/4jurz1K
Chinese nuclear fusion reactor pushes plasma past crucial limit: what happens next
Breaking the plasma density limit brings researchers a step closer to viable fusion reactors.
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January 9, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Researchers working on China’s ‘artificial sun’ have reported breaking a long-accepted threshold that has limited the operation of nuclear-fusion reactors for decades
go.nature.com/4jurz1K
go.nature.com/4jurz1K
Researchers who put major AI models through four weeks of psychoanalysis got haunting responses, from "abuse" to "fears of failure"
go.nature.com/49pxLU3
go.nature.com/49pxLU3
AI models were given four weeks of therapy: the results shocked researchers
Chatbots put through psychotherapy report trauma and abuse. Authors say models are doing more than role play, but researchers are sceptical.
go.nature.com
January 9, 2026 at 10:51 AM
Researchers who put major AI models through four weeks of psychoanalysis got haunting responses, from "abuse" to "fears of failure"
go.nature.com/49pxLU3
go.nature.com/49pxLU3
Low levels of albumin, a protein found in blood, are associated with poor clinical outcomes for people with the fungal disease mucormycosis
go.nature.com/4pyigzn
go.nature.com/4pyigzn
Blood protein thwarts deadly fungal disease
Low levels of albumin, a protein found in blood, are associated with poor clinical outcomes for people with the fungal disease mucormycosis.
go.nature.com
January 9, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Low levels of albumin, a protein found in blood, are associated with poor clinical outcomes for people with the fungal disease mucormycosis
go.nature.com/4pyigzn
go.nature.com/4pyigzn
Nature research paper: Prefrontal neural geometry of learned cues guides motivated behaviours
go.nature.com/49HCsKd
go.nature.com/49HCsKd
Prefrontal neural geometry of learned cues guides motivated behaviours - Nature
The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encodes the value, salience and valence of learned stimuli along distinct neural dimensions, and the geometry of these representations shapes motivated behaviours in mice.
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January 9, 2026 at 9:26 AM
Nature research paper: Prefrontal neural geometry of learned cues guides motivated behaviours
go.nature.com/49HCsKd
go.nature.com/49HCsKd
A giant functional atlas of immune cells in a Chinese cohort reveals crucial differences with European and Japanese data sets
go.nature.com/4bmTzCm
go.nature.com/4bmTzCm
Huge Chinese cell atlas reveals surprising immune variation among peoples
A giant functional atlas of immune cells in a Chinese cohort reveals crucial differences with European and Japanese data sets.
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January 8, 2026 at 8:02 PM
A giant functional atlas of immune cells in a Chinese cohort reveals crucial differences with European and Japanese data sets
go.nature.com/4bmTzCm
go.nature.com/4bmTzCm