As we kick off 2026, it’s the perfect time to look back on another great year for the Research Communities. 2025 saw over 3200 blog posts published, and 32,000 new registered users join us on the Research Communities.
To celebrate the year, we’ve brought together a shortlist of some of the most viewed blog posts, highlighting entries from the research area:
Top posts in Health & Clinical Research and Life Sciences
2025’s most-read posts showcase the breadth and creativity of research across Health & Clinical Research and the Life Sciences. These blogs take you behind the papers, into the labs, and alongside the people driving discovery to highlight the ideas, challenges and moments of insight that shape research in practice.
A long-term evolution experiment for whole-genome duplication
In this Behind the Paper blog post, @Kai Tong takes us behind the scenes of their Nature publication - from an undergraduate lecture spark, to years of experimental evolution, mentoring, setbacks, and a true eureka moment. The blog reveals how whole-genome duplication quietly emerged and persisted in snowflake yeast, reshaping how we think about polyploidy, multicellularity, and long-term adaptation, while celebrating the teamwork and mentorship that made the research possible.
Read the full blog to discover how curiosity and collaboration came together to drive one of the longest-running evolution experiments in the lab.
Building the potato pan-genome
Understanding genetic diversity within crop species is essential for improving resilience, yield and food security, especially in the face of climate change. In this Behind the Paper post, @Sergio Tusso, @Craig Dent, @Hequan Sun and @Manish Goel take readers behind their work on building a potato pan-genome, published in Nature. They explain why relying on a single reference genome is no longer sufficient, and how a pan-genome approach better captures the full genetic complexity of potato varieties.
Learn how this research opens new doors for crop improvement and offers a powerful framework for studying genetic diversity in other species.
World Breastfeeding Week 2025
Breastfeeding plays a vital role in maternal and infant health, yet many parents face systemic barriers that make sustained breastfeeding difficult. Marking World Breastfeeding Week 2025, this thoughtful post by @Tamara May explores what meaningful, long-term support for breastfeeding really looks like. The blog highlights the importance of coordinated efforts across healthcare systems, workplaces and communities, and reflects on how research and policy can work together to create environments where families are supported, not pressured.
Explore how sustainable support systems can help improve health outcomes for parents and children worldwide.
Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables
Would you eat meat that has been grown in the lab? Cultured meat promises a sustainable future but growing it in the lab is no simple task. This Behind the Paper post by @Ye Liu follows the team’s unexpected breakthrough for their Nature Communications publication- discovering that autoclaved vegetables like Chinese chives, shiitake mushrooms, and loofahs can serve as natural scaffolds for muscle and fat cell growth.
Read this fascinating journey, beginning as a series of failed experiments that evolved into a simple and effective scaffolding method which could help shape the future of food.
Insights into the evolution of Liliales
Genome size varies dramatically across the plant kingdom, raising fundamental questions about how and why such diversity evolves. @Liangsheng Zhangdiscusses research into the exceptionally large genomes of lilies in this Behind the Paper post and what they reveal about the evolution of the order Liliales. The post explains their Nature Communications publication on how genome expansion has shaped lily biology and evolution, and how advances in sequencing technology are making it possible to study even the largest and most complex plant genomes.
Discover how giant genomes can illuminate key evolutionary processes in plants.
Curated and written by
@Alice Taylor, Community Manager for the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Communities
Top posts in Humanities and Social Sciences
From linguistics and behavioural genetics to education, mental health, and the psychology of everyday life, these five posts showcase the breadth and depth of insights emerging across the Humanities and Social Sciences. Together, they highlight how research continues to reshape our understanding of human history, behaviour, wellbeing, and the world we build.
Indo-European Origins: A New Solution to An Old Puzzle
@Iosif Lazaridis
This Behind the Paper blog post shares the behind‑the‑scenes story of a long collaboration that asked a longstanding question: where did Indo‑European languages begin? The research, published in Nature in February, combines ancient DNA and archaeology to show that people from the Caucasus–Volga region mixed with local steppe groups and later became the Yamnaya, who helped spread early Indo‑European languages across Eurasia around 3000 BCE. Read the full story to discover how ancient DNA, archaeology, and interdisciplinary teamwork have finally brought clarity to a puzzle debated for more than two centuries!
If you’d like to explore the past and read fascinating archaeological stories, check out our monthly highlights for more.
Are We Born to Succeed or Are We Made to Succeed?
@Abdel Abdellaoui
This Behind the Paper post from @Abdel Adbellaoui shares a comic that follows the journey behind a study published in Nature Human Behaviour in March. Instead of technical research details, it invites readers to explore the questions that drove the work: are we born to succeed or are we made to succeed? Through an accessible comic, the authors offer a glimpse into how the research team approached this long‑debated topic and the kinds of evidence they considered. Curious where the evidence might lead? Dive into the comic in the full post!
The author’s other two blog posts – ‘A Love Letter to Social Science Genetics’ and ‘The synergetic relationship between nature and nurture’ – have also resonated strongly with readers across the Communities and they’re well worth a read!
The Lasting Impact of COVID-19 on Education
@Tomasz Gajderowicz , @Harry Patrinos & @Maciej Jakubowski
This Behind the Paper post introduces the story behind a study published in npj Science of Learning in January. It highlights evidence on how pandemic‑driven school closures reshaped learning, and which students were affected the most. Using data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the authors found that long periods of school closures led to significant learning losses, with disadvantaged students suffering the greatest setbacks, widening existing gaps and creating risks for long‑term economic outcomes. Read the full post to learn more about how this research took shape.
World Mental Health Day 2025
@Robin Packer
This October, we celebrated World Mental Health Day in the quarterly highlights. This From the Editors post from @Robin Packer marked the occasion by highlighting a curated selection of Springer Nature research and community content focused on mental health. It brings together recent journal articles, books, clinical study registrations, and blog posts that explore topics ranging from child and adolescent wellbeing to social determinants of mental health, sex differences in neuroscience, and so on. Explore the full post to discover the research featured across disciplines and learn how different communities are addressing mental health challenges worldwide.
If you’d like to find out more about Communities’ blogs on the Mental Health this year, explore and follow the Mental Health Topic Page and SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing Topic Page!
The Psychology of Names: Can Brands Appeal to Our Subconscious Senses?
@Dmytro Spilka
This News & Opinion blog post explores how brand names do more than identify a company – they tap into how our brains process emotion, memory, and association. Drawing on insights from psychology and marketing research, it shows how certain names can trigger subconscious reactions, from making a brand feel strong or comforting to appealing to deeper human needs described in Maslow’s hierarchy. The piece also highlights strategies such as familiarity, symbolic imagery, and positive associations that help brand names resonate more deeply with consumers. Read the full post to see if there is any familiar brand example and discover how something as simple as a name can influence how we feel, think, and choose.
Curated and written by
@Yuanxin Zhang, Community Manager for the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Communities
Top posts in Mathematics, Physical & Applied Sciences
With the end of 2025, in this post we highlight a selection of some of the most viewed posts from the Mathematics, Physical & Applied Sciences Communities. These posts offer a chance to step inside the research process and see how new ideas have taken shape across disciplines in the last year. From rethinking how two dimensional semiconductors can be grown, to questioning assumptions in climate models and exploring samples brought back from the Moon, they go beyond the headlines to share the thinking, experimentation and persistence behind some of the most engaging research shared by our authors over the past year.
A new way to build better semiconductors for future electronics
Modern electronics are becoming smaller, faster, and more complex, but the materials they rely on are reaching their limits. Scientists have long known that ultra-thin “2D” materials could power the next generation of chips, but turning them into real technologies has been difficult because it’s hard to grow them over large areas without defects.
In this Behind the Paper post, @Gwan-Hyoung Lee introduces a new way to grow these materials at scale. By using a temporary, atom-thin guiding layer, the team was able to create large, high-quality semiconductor films with their atoms perfectly aligned, even on surfaces that normally wouldn’t be possible. Published in Nature, this breakthrough makes it much easier to integrate new semiconductor materials into future electronics, bringing us closer to faster, more energy-efficient devices beyond today’s silicon-based technology. Read the Behind the Paper post to explore how hypotaxy was discovered and why it could reshape the future of semiconductor integration.
Are Climate Models Missing a Steeper Decline in Ocean Productivity?
In this Behind the Paper post, @Tommy Ryan-Keogh reveals that global declines in ocean primary production are far more likely than many climate models currently suggest. By combining satellite observations dating back to 1998 with multiple productivity algorithms, the team shows a widespread downward trend in phytoplankton productivity, closely linked to rising ocean temperatures and changes in nutrient and light availability.
Published in Communications Earth & Environment, the findings suggest that as models improve their representation of temperature sensitivity and ecological feedbacks, future projections may point to even greater risks for marine ecosystems and the ocean carbon cycle.
Learn how this ranking approach works and why it matters for understanding the future of our oceans in the Behind the Paper post.
Toward Safer Gold: Rethinking Extraction from Ore and E-Waste
Can gold be extracted without harming people or the planet? @Justin Chalker presents a promising alternative to the toxic practices that dominate gold extraction today. By replacing mercury and cyanide with readily available, low cost reagents and recyclable sulfur- rich sorbents, the team demonstrated a safer and more sustainable approach to recovering gold from both ore and electronic waste. Designed with real world mining conditions in mind, the method balances chemical innovation with practicality and accessibility.
Beyond reducing environmental harm, the approach aims to support artisanal and small scale miners by offering robust and technically simple solutions that protect both livelihoods and health. With recyclable reagents, selective gold recovery, and the potential for land rehabilitation, this work published in Nature Sustainability represents an important step toward transforming how gold is sourced worldwide.
Explore the Behind the Paper post to see how this idea came together and why it could reshape gold mining and e-waste recycling.
Searching the Moon for Hidden Organics
@Guangcai Zhong reports a fresh attempt to uncover organic matter in lunar samples returned by China’s Chang’E 5 mission. Using just 6 grams of precious lunar soil and an ultra-clean analytical setup built under pandemic constraints, the team applied an approach never-before-used in lunar sample studies. By combining rigorous contamination control with innovative molecular markers, they pushed the limits of what can be reliably detected in extraterrestrial materials.
In their study published in Nature Communications , the results underscore the scientific value of returned lunar samples and demonstrate how careful experimental design can open new windows into the Moon’s chemical history.
Go behind the scenes in the Behind the Paper post to explore the team’s journey, the obstacles they faced, and what their discoveries mean for future space sample exploration.
Why Tackling Nitrous Oxide Is the Next Climate Imperative
@Guibing Zhu brings together current understanding and key unknowns surrounding nitrous oxide (N₂O), one of the most powerful yet least understood greenhouse gases. By highlighting overlooked hotspots and hot moments across soils, wetlands, streams and agricultural systems, the review shows how biological pathways such as ammonia oxidation and nitrifier denitrification contribute more strongly to N₂O emissions than previously assumed.
Rather than focusing solely on global budgets, the research places strong emphasis on mitigation. It synthesizes emerging strategies to reduce N₂O production and enhance N₂O consumption across aquatic, soil and industrial ecosystems, while also pointing to the future potential of artificial intelligence to link molecular mechanisms with ecosystem scale fluxes.
Read the Behind the Paper post to understand why N₂O is now a critical focus for climate mitigation and what can be done to address it.
Curated and written by
@Yijia Li, Community Manager for the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Communities
It’s been another inspiring year, and the blog posts shared by our authors continue to showcase the knowledge, creativity, and collaboration that make the Research Communities so special. Throughout 2025, we’ve seen thoughtful ideas, honest reflections, and meaningful conversations take shape across the Research Communities.
As we look ahead, we’re excited to see even more stories, insights, and connections grow within the Communities.
What was your favourite post of 2025? Share your thoughts in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for being part of the Research Communities journey this year. Here’s to continued collaboration, curiosity, and impact in the year ahead.
Wishing you a bright and inspiring 2026!
Further readings:
Top Posts from the Research Communities in 2024: A Year in Review
Quarterly Highlights from Humanities and Social Sciences Communities
Quarterly Highlights from Medicine and Life Sciences Communities
Quarterly Highlights from Mathematics, Physical & Applied Sciences Communities