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Artwork created between 1945 and the 1990s captures a world in the throes of sweeping technological change. Artwork created between 1945 and the 1990s captures a world in the throes of sweeping technological change.

Jakub Cech creates digital versions of materials for use in the virtual world. Jakub Cech creates digital versions of materials for use in the virtual world.

As a simple physics model for crystal and quasicrystal formation, the Hertzian potential describes the interaction between two soft-core colloidal particles. However, explaining why quasicrystals emerge in such a minimal model remains a theoretical challenge. Here, using analytically exact approaches, we reveal multiple layers of hierarchical crystal patterns that serve as the energy ground states underlying quasicrystals found by computer simulations. Our findings offer a new perspective on quasicrystal formation. Can a minimal model reveal quasicrystal emergence and associated multi-level hierarchies of crystal patterns? Here, the theoretical discovery of the underlying energy ground states of Hertzian quasicrystal offers a new perspective on its formation.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence have come concerns about how machines will make moral decisions, and the major challenge of quantifying societal expectations about the ethical principles that should guide machine behaviour. To address this challenge, we deployed the Moral Machine, an online experimental platform designed to explore the moral dilemmas faced by autonomous vehicles. This platform gathered 40 million decisions in ten languages from millions of people in 233 countries and territories. Here we describe the results of this experiment. First, we summarize global moral preferences. Second, we document individual variations in preferences, based on respondents’ demographics. Third, we report cross-cultural ethical variation, and uncover three major clusters of countries. Fourth, we show that these differences correlate with modern institutions and deep cultural traits. We discuss how these preferences can contribute to developing global, socially acceptable principles for machine ethics. All data used in this article are publicly available. Responses from more than two million people to an internet-based survey of attitudes towards moral dilemmas that might be faced by autonomous vehicles shed light on similarities and variations in ethical preferences among different populations.

Research on climate change mitigation tends to focus on supply-side technology solutions. A better understanding of demand-side solutions is missing. We propose a transdisciplinary approach to identify demand-side climate solutions, investigate their mitigation potential, detail policy measures and assess their implications for well-being.

From identifying disputed artworks to reconstructing lost masterpieces, artificial intelligence is enriching how we interpret our cultural heritage. From identifying disputed artworks to reconstructing lost masterpieces, artificial intelligence is enriching how we interpret our cultural heritage.

A Dune -loving worm palaeontologist makes the case that worms have been just as important on Earth as they are in the blockbuster film. A Dune-loving worm palaeontologist makes the case that worms have been just as important on Earth as they are in the blockbuster film.

Archaeologists have traditionally thought that the development of Maya civilization was gradual, assuming that small villages began to emerge during the Middle Preclassic period (1000–350  bc ; dates are calibrated throughout) along with the use of ceramics and the adoption of sedentism 1 . Recent finds of early ceremonial complexes are beginning to challenge this model. Here we describe an airborne lidar survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fénix (Tabasco, Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to between 1000 and 800  bc using a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. Although the site exhibits some similarities to the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo, the community of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo. Aguada Fénix and other ceremonial complexes of the same period suggest the importance of communal work in the initial development of Maya civilization. Lidar survey of the Maya lowlands uncovers the monumental site of Aguada Fénix, which dates to around 1000–800  bc and points to the role of communal construction in the development of Maya civilization.

Anthropologist Lars Krutak finds meaning in markings that are more than skin-deep. Anthropologist Lars Krutak finds meaning in markings that are more than skin-deep.