Specials

Welcome to Nature's specials, where we shine a spotlight on news events from the sequencing of the chimp genome to the relaunch of the space shuttle. Explore each topic in depth through news, features and interactive graphics.

Most recent

• Big Data

  Coping with floods of data is now one of science’s biggest challenges. In this Nature Special, we assess the need to complement smart science with smart searching; look at what the next Google will be; talk to the pioneering biologists who are trying to use wiki-type web pages to manage and interpret data; and recall that the first mass data crunchers were not computers, but the remarkable women of Harvard's Observatory.

  03 September 2008

• Future Transport

  In a series of special reports, Nature's news team looks at ways to cut the environmental impact of different forms of transport. We reveal how new materials can reduce the carbon wing-print of aircraft, the alternative fuels that are transforming cars, and ask whether ships could be about to embark on a new age of sail.

  20 August 2008

• China

  By almost every measure, China's growth is extraordinary. But behind the astonishing statistics is a more complex reality.

  23 July 2008

We recommend

Here's a sampling of our previous specials. See the chronological and alphabetical listings below for the full archive.

• Big Data

  Coping with floods of data is now one of science’s biggest challenges. In this Nature Special, we assess the need to complement smart science with smart searching; look at what the next Google will be; talk to the pioneering biologists who are trying to use wiki-type web pages to manage and interpret data; and recall that the first mass data crunchers were not computers, but the remarkable women of Harvard's Observatory.

  03 September 2008

• Football World Cup

  It's football's biggest festival. For the next month, the hopes of millions of fans will be focused on Germany, where 32 nations are battling for the most glittering prize in sport. As the soccer showpiece kicks off, Nature looks at the science of balls, boots, goals, gambling, and whether it's really ok to have sex before a big game.

  09 June 2006

• Chimp genome

  Scientists have sequenced the genetic code of our closest living relative - the chimpanzee. Find out what we have already discovered from this genome, what we hope to learn, and how it is holding up a mirror to our own humanity.

  31 August 2005

• Space shuttle: Return to flight

  After more than two years without a space-shuttle mission, in July 2005 NASA finally returns to human space flight. With the launch of the Discovery, astronauts once again aim to make the return trip to the International Space Station under the steam of a US craft. Here Nature celebrates this return to flight.

  08 July 2005