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High-Impact Research from PNAS Nexus

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Explore a collection of the most cited and most read articles making an impact in PNAS Nexus published within the past two years. This collection will be continuously updated with the journal's leading articles so be sure to revisit periodically to see what is being read.

Also discover the articles being discussed the most on digital media by exploring this Altmetric report pulling the most discussed articles from the past year.

Most cited

Generative artificial intelligence, human creativity, and art
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2024, pgae052, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae052
Recent artificial intelligence (AI) tools have demonstrated the ability to produce outputs traditionally considered creative. One such system is text-to-image generative AI (e.g. Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E), which automates humans’ artistic execution to generate digital artworks. Utilizing a dataset of over 4 ...
The impact of generative artificial intelligence on socioeconomic inequalities and policy making
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 6, June 2024, pgae191, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae191
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to both exacerbate and ameliorate existing socioeconomic inequalities. In this article, we provide a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary overview of the potential impacts of generative AI on (mis)information and three information-intensive domains: work, education, ...
Estimating the environmental impacts of global lithium-ion battery supply chain: A temporal, geographical, and technological perspective
PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2023, pgad361, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad361
A sustainable low-carbon transition via electric vehicles will require a comprehensive understanding of lithium-ion batteries’ global supply chain environmental impacts. Here, we analyze the cradle-to-gate energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of current and future nickel-manganese-cobalt and lithium-iron-phosphate ...
The persuasive effects of political microtargeting in the age of generative artificial intelligence
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2024, pgae035, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae035
The increasing availability of microtargeted advertising and the accessibility of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, have raised concerns about the potential misuse of large language models in scaling microtargeting efforts for political purposes. Recent technological advancements, involving ...
Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2024, pgae106, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae106
Human development has ushered in an era of converging crises: climate change, ecological destruction, disease, pollution, and socioeconomic inequality. This review synthesizes the breadth of these interwoven emergencies and underscores the urgent need for comprehensive, integrated action. Propelled by imperialism, ...
Outlearning extortioners: unbending strategies can foster reciprocal fairness and cooperation
PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 6, June 2023, pgad176, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad176
Recent theory shows that extortioners taking advantage of the zero-determinant (ZD) strategy can unilaterally claim an unfair share of the payoffs in the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma. It is thus suggested that against a fixed extortioner, any adapting coplayer should be subdued with full cooperation as their best response. ...
High level of correspondence across different news domain quality rating sets
PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 9, September 2023, pgad286, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad286
One widely used approach for quantifying misinformation consumption and sharing is to evaluate the quality of the news domains that a user interacts with. However, different media organizations and fact-checkers have produced different sets of news domain quality ratings, raising questions about the reliability of these ...
How persuasive is AI-generated propaganda?
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2024, pgae034, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae034
Can large language models, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), generate persuasive propaganda? We conducted a preregistered survey experiment of US respondents to investigate the persuasiveness of news articles written by foreign propagandists compared to content generated by GPT-3 davinci (a large language model). We ...
Multisectoral drivers of decarbonizing battery electric vehicles in China
PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 5, May 2023, pgad123, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad123
China has made great progress in the electrification of passenger cars, and the sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have exceeded 10%. We applied a life-cycle assessment (LCA) method to estimate the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions of the past (2015), present (2020), and future (2030) BEVs, incorporating China's ...
First gene-edited calf with reduced susceptibility to a major viral pathogen
PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 5, May 2023, pgad125, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad125
Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is one of the most important viruses affecting the health and well-being of bovine species throughout the world. Here, we used CRISPR-mediated homology-directed repair and somatic cell nuclear transfer to produce a live calf with a six amino acid substitution in the BVDV binding domain of ...

Most read

Research Article
Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being
PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2025, pgaf017, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf017
Smartphones enable people to access the online world from anywhere at any time. Despite the benefits of this technology, there is growing concern that smartphone use could adversely impact cognitive functioning and mental health. Correlational and anecdotal evidence suggests that these concerns may be well-founded, but ...
Research Article
Splash-free urinals for global sustainability and accessibility: Design through physics and differential equations
PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 4, April 2025, pgaf087, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf087
Urinals are a staple of public spaces yet their designs have remained essentially stagnant for over a century. The use of urinals often results in significant splatter (splashback) as urine splashes upon impact with the urinal generating droplets which travel back onto the floor and user, which generates unhygienic ...
Research Article
Trisomic rescue via allele-specific multiple chromosome cleavage using CRISPR-Cas9 in trisomy 21 cells
PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2025, pgaf022, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf022
Human trisomy 21, responsible for Down syndrome, is the most prevalent genetic cause of cognitive impairment and remains a key focus for prenatal and preimplantation diagnosis. However, research directed toward eliminating supernumerary chromosomes from trisomic cells is limited. The present study demonstrates that ...
Research Article
Generative artificial intelligence, human creativity, and art
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2024, pgae052, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae052
Recent artificial intelligence (AI) tools have demonstrated the ability to produce outputs traditionally considered creative. One such system is text-to-image generative AI (e.g. Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E), which automates humans’ artistic execution to generate digital artworks. Utilizing a dataset of over 4 ...
Review Article
The impact of generative artificial intelligence on socioeconomic inequalities and policy making
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 6, June 2024, pgae191, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae191
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to both exacerbate and ameliorate existing socioeconomic inequalities. In this article, we provide a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary overview of the potential impacts of generative AI on (mis)information and three information-intensive domains: work, education, ...
Research Article
Book bans in political context: Evidence from US schools
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 6, June 2024, pgae197, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae197
In the 2021–2022 school year, more books were banned in US school districts than in any previous year. Book banning and other forms of information censorship have serious implications for democratic processes, and censorship has become a central theme of partisan political rhetoric in the United States. However, there is ...
Research Article
Generative propaganda: Evidence of AI’s impact from a state-backed disinformation campaign
PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 4, April 2025, pgaf083, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf083
Can AI bolster state-backed propaganda campaigns, in practice? Growing use of AI and large language models has drawn attention to the potential for accompanying tools to be used by malevolent actors. Though recent laboratory and experimental evidence has substantiated these concerns in principle, the usefulness of AI tools ...
Research Article
Cultural bias and cultural alignment of large language models
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 9, September 2024, pgae346, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae346
Culture fundamentally shapes people’s reasoning, behavior, and communication. As people increasingly use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite and automate personal and professional tasks, cultural values embedded in AI models may bias people’s authentic expression and contribute to the dominance of certain ...
Review Article
Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2024, pgae106, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae106
Human development has ushered in an era of converging crises: climate change, ecological destruction, disease, pollution, and socioeconomic inequality. This review synthesizes the breadth of these interwoven emergencies and underscores the urgent need for comprehensive, integrated action. Propelled by imperialism, ...
Research Article
How persuasive is AI-generated propaganda?
PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2024, pgae034, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae034
Can large language models, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), generate persuasive propaganda? We conducted a preregistered survey experiment of US respondents to investigate the persuasiveness of news articles written by foreign propagandists compared to content generated by GPT-3 davinci (a large language model). We ...
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