What does a PhD pay? Data reveal huge gaps across Europe

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03181-1Earnings come in a combination of scholarships and salaries and vary widely between countries, an analysis by international federation Eurodoc reveals.

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03181-1

Earnings come in a combination of scholarships and salaries and vary widely between countries, an analysis by international federation Eurodoc reveals.

Does the decline of book reading mark the end of rational thinking?

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03224-7Smartphones and artificial intelligence are undermining our ability to follow a complex argument, with grave consequences.

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03224-7

Smartphones and artificial intelligence are undermining our ability to follow a complex argument, with grave consequences.

Keep medical doctors in academia — without them, health-care research will suffer

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03225-6Better career support and more funding stability is needed to retain this invaluable group of scientists.

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03225-6

Better career support and more funding stability is needed to retain this invaluable group of scientists.

I told ChatGPT to ‘continue’ — it went too far

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02714-yAn ambiguous instruction caused the chatbot to send three e-mails from Ying Zhao’s connected account. The incident advanced Zhao’s project, but showed that chatbo…

Nature, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02714-y

An ambiguous instruction caused the chatbot to send three e-mails from Ying Zhao’s connected account. The incident advanced Zhao’s project, but showed that chatbots need limits.

Briefing Chat: Top researchers are being misled by sham academic societies

Nature, Published online: 09 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03216-7Nature staff discuss a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.

Nature, Published online: 09 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03216-7

Nature staff discuss a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.

An experiment to glimpse the future Amazon — in pictures

Nature, Published online: 09 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02909-3David Lapola is testing a big climate-science unknown: how will the forest cope as atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to rise?

Nature, Published online: 09 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02909-3

David Lapola is testing a big climate-science unknown: how will the forest cope as atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to rise?