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With historically high levels of new funding, US gun-violence research is starting to find its footing. With historically high levels of new funding, US gun-violence research is starting to find its footing.

Tempted to join a campus diversity committee? It may not be a good use of your time. Ask your mentors for advice. Tempted to join a campus diversity committee? It may not be a good use of your time. Ask your mentors for advice.

I turned down the role of adviser to a de-extinction company — that task belongs to everyone. I turned down the role of adviser to a de-extinction company — that task belongs to everyone.

It’s time to trust students to handle doubt and diversity in science, says Jerry Ravetz. It’s time to trust students to handle doubt and diversity in science, says Jerry Ravetz.

Simon Evans struck a chord when he asked if others worry asking seminar questions. Simon Evans struck a chord when he asked if others worry asking seminar questions.

Those who could be exploited by AI should be shaping its projects. Those who could be exploited by AI should be shaping its projects.

Scientists are nudging the dial on some types of cancer more than others, but it’s fair to ask whether research is delivering value for money. Scientists are nudging the dial on some types of cancer more than others, but it’s fair to ask whether research is delivering value for money.

Artificial-intelligence tool that has digested nearly every reaction ever performed could transform chemistry. Artificial-intelligence tool that has digested nearly every reaction ever performed could transform chemistry.

Experiments that ask children to draw a researcher show a greater proportion of women in sketches over time. Experiments that ask children to draw a scientist show a greater proportion of women in sketches over time.

To assess whether research is relevant to society, ask the stakeholders, say Catherine Durose, Liz Richardson and Beth Perry. To assess whether research is relevant to society, ask the stakeholders, say Catherine Durose, Liz Richardson and Beth Perry.

Economic games are used to investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying cooperative behaviour, and show that intuition supports cooperation in social dilemmas, whereas reflection can undermine these cooperative impulses. Many people are willing to make sacrifices for the common good, but little is known about the cognitive mechanisms that underlie such cooperative behaviour. In economic experiments subjects often contribute cooperatively against what rational self-interest should dictate. This study uses a series of ten varied experimental designs, including both one-shot and repeated games, to establish whether we are intuitively predisposed to cooperate or to act selfishly. And it seems our gut response is to cooperate — but given more time to think the logic of self-interest undermines collective action and we become less generous. Cooperation is central to human social behaviour1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. However, choosing to cooperate requires individuals to incur a personal cost to benefit others. Here we explore the cognitive basis of cooperative decision-making in humans using a dual-process framework10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18. We ask whether people are predisposed towards selfishness, behaving cooperatively only through active self-control; or whether they are intuitively cooperative, with reflection and prospective reasoning favouring ‘rational’ self-interest. To investigate this issue, we perform ten studies using economic games. We find that across a range of experimental designs, subjects who reach their decisions more quickly are more cooperative. Furthermore, forcing subjects to decide quickly increases contributions, whereas instructing them to reflect and forcing them to decide slowly decreases contributions. Finally, an induction that primes subjects to trust their intuitions increases contributions compared with an induction that promotes greater reflection. To explain these results, we propose that cooperation is intuitive because cooperative heuristics are developed in daily life where cooperation is typically advantageous. We then validate predictions generated by this proposed mechanism. Our results provide convergent evidence that intuition supports cooperation in social dilemmas, and that reflection can undermine these cooperative impulses.

It's time to ask uncomfortable questions about the brain mechanisms that allow 'ordinary’ people to turn violent, says Itzhak Fried.

Researchers on social media ask at what point replication efforts go from useful to wasteful.

Researchers who aspire to work in drug discovery need to adapt to constantly changing technology and be able to harness new tools both to ask and to answer pertinent scientific questions, say Paul Smaglik and Adam Smith.

A survey of the state of US astronomy and of what is needed in the coming decade may be a useful model for those wishing to present a coherent case for science in general. But there are pitfalls.

After more than a century, what can there be to say about the Periodic Table that is new? Merely to ask a question of such disarming simplicity, of course, signals that somebody, indeed, has something new to say.

I ASK for an explanation of the following difficulty:— Dr. Croll says, in his “Climate and Time” (p. 65), that “the temperature of a place, other things being equal, is proportional to the heat received from the sun.”

The US administration's backing for the newest accelerator will encourage high-energy physicists; it should also prompt them to ask what happens next in their relations with their colleagues elsewhere.

Next week's conference at Chicago on the peer-review system as it applies to journals will rehearse old discontents about the system, but should also ask whether pressures on the system now can be sustained.

THE extremely interesting article of Col. Hawley in NATURE of September 20 leads me to ask him two questions which are raised by it

THE proposal of my friend Prof. Anderson Stuart, explained in the subjoined letter, seems to me one which may very probably commend itself to the professors and governing bodies of some of our Universities and University Colleges; and I therefore venture to ask for its publication in NATURE. By correspondence twelve months in advance, such an exchange as is here suggested could be arranged (with the assent of Senate, Council, or other authority), and would undoubtedly, where practicable, be of very great interest and advantage, not only to the teachers concerned, but also, in no less degree, to their classes.

MAY I ask, in connection with the lecture of Mr. Brudenell Carter, why those interested in the testing of colour-vision do not avail themselves of a scientific instrument like Lord Rayleigh's colour-box, wherein a given yellow has to be matched by proportions of red and green adjusted by turning a handle over a dial graduated on the back; instead of contenting themselves with crude methods, such as selection of coloured wools, which cannot give results definite enough to be of much interest, even if they were quite efficient in detecting the grossly colour-blind?

I HAVE not the intention of entering into the correspondence which I hope to see develop further out of Prof. J. W. Gregory's letters in NATURE of Nov. 9 and Jan. 11. If, however, that correspondence is to be profitable to science and clear thinking, may I ask that precise information be given on certain points which have been once more resurrected? For example

THE problem of future weather is one which has a fascination for many. Our present inability to get beyond (or much beyond) the daily forecast, may well, at times, seem a reproach, considering the immense amount of industry that has been given to weather studies. Where is the professional meteorologist in this country (we vainly ask), who, on the basis of some cycle, or proved recurrence, or other facts, will tell us, even in the most general way, what the coming years have in store for us?

MAY I ask Sir Arthur Schuster or Dr. Chree or some other authority whether there is any serious objection to an idea like the following