Dark matter makes up most of the matter in the Universe, and is thought to be needed for galaxies to form. But four years ago, astronomers made a perplexing, and controversial discovery: two galaxies seemingly devoid of dark matter. This week the team suggests that a cosmic collision may explain how these, and a string of other dark-matter-free galaxies, could have formed.
Research article: van Dokkum et al
News and Views: Giant collision created galaxies devoid of dark matter
How fossil fuel burning has caused levels of helium to rise, and a high-efficiency, hybrid solar-energy system.
Research Highlight: Helium levels in the atmosphere are ballooning
Research Highlight: Flower power: ‘Sunflower’ system churns out useful energy
We hear the stories of scientists whose lives have been affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including researchers who have become refugees, soldiers and activists in the face of a horrifying conflict.
Nature Feature: How three Ukrainian scientists are surviving Russia’s brutal war
Last week, a team of researchers released an image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive blackhole at the centre of our galaxy. We hear how they took the image and what it is revealing about these enormous objects.
Nature News: Black hole at the centre of our Galaxy imaged for the first time
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Physicists finally observe strange isotope Oxygen 28 – raising fundamental questions
Audio long read: Medicine is plagued by untrustworthy clinical trials. How many studies are faked or flawed?
Brain-reading implants turn thoughts into speech
Fruit flies' ability to sense magnetic fields thrown into doubt
Racism in health: the roots of the US Black maternal mortality crisis
How welcome are refugees in Europe? A giant study has some answers
How to get more women in science, with Athene Donald
Audio long read: Lab mice go wild — making experiments more natural in order to decode the brain
Facebook ‘echo chamber’ has little impact on polarized views, according to study
AI-enhanced night-vision lets users see in the dark
Disrupting snail food-chain curbs parasitic disease in Senegal
ChatGPT can write a paper in an hour — but there are downsides
Even a 'minimal cell' can grow stronger, thanks to evolution
Audio long read: ‘Almost magical’ — chemists can now move single atoms in and out of a molecule’s core
Do octopuses dream? Neural activity resembles human sleep stages
Why bladder cancer cells that shed their Y chromosome become more aggressive
What IBM's result means for quantum computing
A brain circuit for infanticide, in mice
AI identifies gene interactions to speed up search for treatment targets
Audio long read: Can giant surveys of scientists fight misinformation on COVID, climate change and more?
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