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FAST will enable highly sensitive measurements of astronomical phenomenon.Credit: Ou Dongqu/Xinhua/ZUMA

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in southern China has just passed a series of performance assessments, and will be made accessible to researchers from around the world. The world’s largest single-dish radio observatory will use its exquisite sensitivity to hunt for gravitational waves, search for hydrogen in distant galaxies and study fast radio bursts.

Nature | 4 min read

The world’s oceans have long helped to stave off climate change by absorbing heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But that is changing, warn leading researchers in a high-level report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The oceans “can’t keep up” with humanity’s greenhouse-gas output, says Ko Barrett, vice-chair of the IPCC and a deputy administrator at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe.”

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

IPCC report 1.1 metres Rise in sea levels by 2100 if greenhouse-gas emissions continue to increase, according to conservative estimates in the new IPCC report.

Besieged researchers in Iran say that currency collapse, scientific isolation and psychological strain are hindering almost every aspect of their work. “The sanctions are affecting health, research and education, things that were not supposed to be their target,” says human geneticist Parham Habibzadeh.

Nature | 6 min read

Karen Kasmauski/Wellcome Photography Prize 2019

The Wellcome Photography Prize 2020 opens today. It’s free to enter, open to professionals and amateurs alike, and has a £15,000 (US$19,000) top prize.

This image of a father holding his baby at Mile Four Hospital in Abakaliki, Nigeria, won the Medicine in Focus category last year. It shows the practice known as kangarooing, which contributes to the survival of premature babies in places where incubators are not available.

FEATURES & OPINION

Illustration by Señor Salme

“Although history might not repeat itself, it often rhymes,” argues a Nature editorial. “Science has to know where it has come from.” That’s why, as part of our 150th-anniversary celebrations, Nature is publishing a series of essays by leading historians of science exploring how the past century and a half has forged some of the defining features of today’s scientific system.

David Kaiser’s opening essay on government funding illuminates how the powerful have steered — and have been steered by — science.

Nature editorial | 4 min read & David Kaiser’s essay | 11 min read

Clinics flogging unproven cell-based therapies are springing up all over the world. In Japan, however, they have a unique advantage: they are sanctioned and promoted at the top echelons of government, thanks to a pair of regulatory acts designed to stimulate business and position Japan as a world leader in regenerative medicine. Critics worry that companies are rushing untested therapies to market — and patients are paying the price.

Nature | 14 min read