Heidi Ledford

Seattle

Science Reporter at Nature

Science reporter @nature mostly covering biomedicine. Views my own. She/her. PhD.

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Articles

Exclusive: the most-cited papers of the twenty-first century

1 week ago | nature.com | Helen Pearson |Heidi Ledford

The first quarter of the twenty-first century has produced some huge scientific breakthroughs, ranging from the first mRNA vaccines and CRISPR-based gene-editing techniques to the discovery of the Higgs boson and the first measurements of gravitational waves. But you won’t find any of these advances described in the top-cited papers published since 2000. That is one of the findings of an analysis by Nature’s news team of the 25 most-cited papers published in the twenty-first century.
154 million lives and counting: 5 charts reveal the power of vaccines

2 weeks ago | nature.com | Heidi Ledford

A second unvaccinated child in Texas has died from measles, amplifying fears that the outbreak there could be wider than reported. The death, announced on 6 April, also harkens back to a pre-vaccine past that many Americans have forgotten, when hundreds of children died each year of measles. Generations ago, a child swimming in a community pool could become paralysed by polio.
Long COVID activists fought Trump team’s research cuts and won ― for now

2 weeks ago | nature.com | Heidi Ledford |Max Kozlov

Long COVID advocates and researchers in the United States have done the extraordinary. After a bruising battle, they managed to revive some of the research grants cancelled by the administration of President Donald Trump ― a rare victory for science as Trump’s team slashes funding and fires federal scientific staff. The crisis began in late March, when the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated the funding for dozens of long-COVID projects.
These US labs risk imminent closure after Trump cuts

3 weeks ago | nature.com | Heidi Ledford

Even when the first four of his five federal grants were cancelled in February, Jeremy Springman still had hope. The social-science research that he co-leads at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia had enough funding from a large US Department of Defense project to tide him over for two more years. He checked in with his defence-department programme officer, who reassured him that the remaining grant would be safe.
Audio long read: How quickly are you ageing? What molecular ‘clocks’ can tell you about your health

3 weeks ago | nature.com | Heidi Ledford |Benjamin Thompson

Download the 27 March long read podcastWith money pouring in and an unprecedented level of public attention and excitement, scientists are publishing a steady stream of papers on ways to measure how rapidly a person’s body is declining.
Will RFK Jr's vaccine agenda make American contagious again?

1 month ago | nature.com | Heidi Ledford

With the epicentre of a deadly measles outbreak roughly 120 kilometres away, Katherine Wells is trying to shield her hometown from the highly contagious virus. So far, more than 250 people have fallen ill in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, and infected children who need critical care are often brought to the children’s hospital in Lubbock, Texas, where Wells is the director of public health. Each infected child brings with them the potential to spread the disease to the city’s residents.
Epigenetik: Wie schnell altern Sie?

1 month ago | spektrum.de | Heidi Ledford

Maschinelle Übersetzung Lesedauer ca. 11 Minuten DruckenTeilen Epigenetik: Wie schnell altern Sie? Molekulare Uhren sollen das biologische Alter bestimmen und abschätzen können, wann man stirbt. Aber wie viel sagen sie wirklich über die Gesundheit einer Person aus? Exklusive Übersetzung ausDies ist eine maschinell erzeugte Übersetzung eines Artikels der internationalen Partner von Spektrum.de. Er wurde von uns überprüft, jedoch nicht redaktionell bearbeitet.
Muzine: Schleim, der das Gehirn schützt

1 month ago | spektrum.de | Heidi Ledford

Maschinelle Übersetzung Lesedauer ca. 3 Minuten DruckenTeilen Muzine: Schleim, der das Gehirn schütztGlitschige Proteine in den Blutgefäßen des Gehirns bilden eine Schutzbarriere, die mit dem Alter schwächer wird. Das zeigen Untersuchungen an Mäusen. Könnten sie neue Ansatzpunkte für Therapien bieten? Exklusive Übersetzung ausDies ist eine maschinell erzeugte Übersetzung eines Artikels der internationalen Partner von Spektrum.de. Er wurde von uns überprüft, jedoch nicht redaktionell bearbeitet.
US science is under threat ― now scientists are fighting back

1 month ago | nature.com | Heidi Ledford

Annika Barber felt like an imposter as she boarded a bus just before sunrise on 24 February, and settled in for the long ride from New Jersey to Washington DC. Barber had studied neuroscience for years before she launched her own laboratory at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. She had not trained to be an activist, yet now she was on her way to deliver a speech at a rally about proposed cuts to US research funding.
‘Slime’ keeps the brain safe ― and could guard against ageing

1 month ago | nature.com | Heidi Ledford

A slimy barrier lining the brain’s blood vessels could hold the key to shielding the organ from the harmful effects of ageing, according to a study in mice. The study showed that this oozy barrier deteriorates with time, potentially allowing harmful molecules into brain tissue and sparking inflammatory responses. Gene therapy to restore the barrier reduced inflammation in the brain and improved learning and memory in aged mice. The work was published today in Nature1.