Ehsan Masood is Nature’s Editor for Editorials and Bureau Chief for Africa and the Middle East. He was formerly Group Editor of the London-based science policy magazine Research Fortnight. A science and policy journalist for more than 25 years he has written for The Economist, The Guardian and Prospect, and has made documentary programmes for BBC Radio 4. He taught science and innovation policy at Imperial College London from 2007 to 2017, and is a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His books include GDP: the world's most powerful formula and how it must now change (2021) and Science and Islam: a history (2009).