It’ll grow on you: live fungi formed into sustainable fashion
Nature, Published online: 28 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02304-yTextile made from fungal filaments can repair itself and is biodegradable.
Science
Research, discovery, and the natural world.
Deserts face unprecedented flash flooding
Nature, Published online: 28 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02349-zDeserts face unprecedented flash flooding
Values in science go beyond politics
Nature, Published online: 28 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02346-2Values in science go beyond politics
Entangled dual-site migration via boracycle rearrangement
Nature, Published online: 28 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10931-8Entangled dual-site migration via boracycle rearrangement
Editorial Expression of Concern: Carcinoma-produced factors activate myeloid cells through TLR2 to stimulate metastasis
Nature, Published online: 28 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10923-8Editorial Expression of Concern: Carcinoma-produced factors activate myeloid cells through TLR2 to stimulate metastasis
The dark horse of biology: how RNA is becoming a nanotool maker’s dream
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02180-6Scientists are harnessing its ability to fold, switch and reorganize itself to create a new generation of cellular technologies.
40,000-year-old bird carvings provide clues to how ice age humans flourished
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02312-yNewly discovered figurines point to skills that might have helped shape early humans’ expansion across Europe.
Obituary: Susumu Tonegawa, Japan’s first Nobel prizewinner in physiology or medicine
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02340-8Fearless molecular biologist who revealed the workings of antibodies and memories.
Underdog ‘spin qubits’ leap forward in race to a useful quantum computer
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02357-zFour independent research teams report big advances in devices built with the underestimated quantum bits, including lower error rates.
Relapsed childhood cancers show genomic scars left by previous therapy
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02329-3Whole-genome sequencing of hundreds of childhood tumours, enriched for pretreated, relapsed and metastatic samples, shows that cancer therapies, especially platinum-based ones, are associated with rapid acquisition of distinctive patterns of DNA damage. These mutational signatures are linked with worse outcomes and could be used to track relapses and guide treatment decisions.
Artificial algal blooms could remove atmospheric carbon — but can they be used responsibly?
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02126-yAdding iron to the ocean to stimulate carbon-absorbing phytoplankton could have ecological consequences that reach far beyond the intervention site.
Relatively few Black people benefited in the 1930s and 1940s from mortgages backed by the US government
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02246-5Newly digitized mortgage records from 38 US states reveal the profound racial inequality of two mortgage programmes during the 1930s and 1940s. These loans, supported by the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration, were mainly responsible for the emergence of a US society that idealized home ownership. However, Black households were systematically excluded from receiving such loans. By contrast, immigrants received mortgages proportional to their number.
Amazonian earthwork survey indicates ancient population was much larger than thought
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02321-xAerial laser-scanning data reveal that, from ad 100 to ad 300, an area spanning less than 3% of the Greater Amazonia region probably supported between 1.25 million and 3 million people and contained more than 20,000 human-made earthworks. These findings call for a re-evaluation of the density of pre-colonial Amazonian populations and the influence these civilizations had on present-day tropical soils and forests.
The first known cephalopod was only a millimetre long and lived about 520 million years ago
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02319-5The locomotion of modern cephalopods, such as squid and cuttlefish, relies on buoyancy control achieved mainly by a specialized structure called a siphuncle. The discovery of fossils of Eoceras — a millimetre-sized cephalopod with a siphuncle — suggests that the group had already emerged in the early Cambrian, around 520 million years ago.
To help children with rare diseases, we must solve drug delivery
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02182-4Nanoparticle technologies hold promise for delivering gene therapies to children with few treatment options.
How mosquitoes are conquering the world — in four charts
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03966-wMosquito-borne diseases are breaking records as climate change and other human influences allow the insects to expand their range.
Intestinal stem cells count to eight divisions to maintain cell ratios
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02128-wIn the fly gut, stem cells keep the balance of cell types by undergoing eight rounds of cell division to form absorptive cells, then one round to form secretory cells.
This AI Raygun can shrink and supersize proteins — opening the door to easy editing
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02335-5The model can modify existing proteins using a probability approach.
How fruit flies track the edge of odour plumes
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02325-7Ants and bees are known to use spatial memories to navigate to fixed locations, such as a nest. Virtual-reality experiments in which Drosophila fruit flies follow fictive odour plumes now show that these insects use components of a similar memory-guided navigational toolkit to track the edge of a plume towards its source.
Daily briefing: Ice-age art hints at how humans flourished
Nature, Published online: 29 July 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02400-zTiny bird figurines hint at the sophistication of Europe’s earliest Homo sapiens. Plus, open peer-review reports are less likely to be retracted and a mission to fly over dangerous ‘fire clouds’.