Researchers have used electrochemistry to increase the rates of nuclear fusion reactions in a desktop reactor. Fusion energy promises abundant clean energy, but fusion events are rare, hindering progress. Now, inspired by the controversial claim of cold fusion, researchers used electrochemistry to get palladium to absorb more deuterium ions, that are used in fusion. When a beam of deuterium was fired at the deuterium-filled palladium, they saw a 15% increase in fusion events. They did not get more energy than they put in, but the authors believe this is a step towards enhancing fusion energy and shows the promise of electrochemical techniques.

Research Article: Chen et al.

News and Views: Low-energy nuclear fusion boosted by electrochemistry

Do ants hold the key to better teamwork? — plus, the coins that hint at extensive hidden trade networks in southeast Asia.

Research Highlight: Super-efficient teamwork is possible — if you’re an ant

Research Highlight: Ancient coins unveil web of trade across southeast Asia

Chocolate gets its best tastes from microbes, according to a new study. Fermentation of cocoa beans helps create chocolate tastes but not much has been known about the process. Now, the temperature, pH and microbes involved have been identified and the researchers showed how it would be possible to manipulate these to produce premium chocolate flavours.

News: Why chocolate tastes so good: microbes that fine-tune its flavour

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In this Podcast Extra, we discuss a report released by the US Department of Energy, which concluded that global warming is “less damaging economically than commonly believed”. However, many researchers say that the report misrepresents decades of climate science.

We discuss how scientists are trying to coordinate a unified response amidst concerns that this report will be used in attempts to repeal a 2009 government ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public welfare.

News: Outrage over Trump team’s climate report spurs researchers to fight back

News: Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

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Researchers have used a phenomenon known as thermal transpiration to create a solar-powered flying device that can stay aloft without any moving parts. The diminutive device, just one centimetre across, consists of two thin, perforated membranes that allow air to flow through the device, generating lift. Although only a proof-of-concept, the team hope that a scaled-up version of the device could be used to measure conditions in the mesosphere, a particularly hard-to-study part of the Earth’s atmosphere, or even on Mars.

Research Article: Schafer et al.

News and Views: Levitating platform could ride sunlight into the ‘ignorosphere’

News: These tiny flyers levitate on the Sun's heat alone

A 3D scan of body art on a 2,000-year-old mummy reveals the techniques used by ancient tattooists — plus, the bacterial cause of a devastating sea-star disease.

Research Highlight: Intricate origins of ice mummy’s ink revealed

Research Highlight: Mystery of billions of sea-star deaths solved at last

Despite being one of the most successful scientific frameworks in history, there is one thing that quantum physics can’t explain: gravity. Whether gravity is quantum in nature is something that has had physicists vexed, but now a slew of experiments are being planned to try and answer this question. We hear how these experiments will work, and what their results might mean for physicists’ understanding of the universe.

News Feature: Is gravity quantum? Experiments could finally probe one of physics’ biggest questions

How genes can have different effects depend on the parent they come from, and how lithium shows promise in treating Alzheimer’s disease in mice studies.

Nature: These genes can have the opposite effects depending on which parent they came from

Nature: New hope for Alzheimer’s: lithium supplement reverses memory loss in mice

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