Tech giants moving into health may widen inequalities and harm research, unless people can access and share their data, warn John T. Wilbanks and Eric J. Topol.

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By analysing the similarity of viral genetic sequences from nearly 1,600 people with HIV in one community in KwaZulu-Natal, the study shows that adolescent girls and women in their early 20s tend to pick up the virus from men aged around 30. When the women grow older, they go on to infect their long-term partners, who in turn may pass the virus on through affairs with younger women.

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Differences in phenological responses to climate change among species can desynchronise ecological interactions and thereby threaten ecosystem function. To assess these threats, we must quantify the relative impact of climate change on species at different trophic levels. Here, we apply a Climate Sensitivity Profile approach to 10,003 terrestrial and aquatic phenological data sets, spatially matched to temperature and precipitation data, to quantify variation in climate sensitivity.

The US government is considering a plan to allow wireless firms to share radio frequencies used in weather forecasts.

The country has developed the biggest programme of antiretroviral therapy in the world. Now scientists are exploring the long-term consequences of the drugs.

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Clouds substantially affect Earth’s energy budget by reflecting solar radiation back to space and by restricting emission of thermal radiation to space. They are perhaps the largest uncertainty in our understanding of climate change, owing to disagreement among climate models and observational datasets over what cloud changes have occurred during recent decades and will occur in response to global warming.

The Paris climate agreement aims at holding global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to “pursue efforts” to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To accomplish this, countries have submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) outlining their post-2020 climate action. Here we assess the effect of current INDCs on reducing aggregate greenhouse gas emissions, its implications for achieving the temperature objective of the Paris climate agreement, and potential options for overachievement.

Major reform of education in India should encourage original thinking to boost the nation's research, argues Anurag Chaurasia.

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Scientists — just like everybody else — have little idea what will happen now that the United Kingdom has voted to exit the European Union. (Editorial)

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The Amazon is ready to burn. After an unusually dry rainy season, the southern section of the rainforest is heading into winter with the largest moisture deficit since 1998. This has set the stage for an unusually intense fire season, according to a forecast issued on 29 June that is based on sea-surface temperature trends in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

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