Comment

Transforming agricultural landscapes to be more sustainable and resilient requires integrated and multidisciplinary approaches. Linking automated experimental platforms with living labs can accelerate knowledge gain, enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, and support real-world change by addressing key challenges in current agricultural systems.

In a recent study, Park et al. show that early-life loss of NR3C1 in astrocytes establishes a long-lasting epigenetic memory that heightens neuroinflammation and worsens pathology in the central nervous system (CNS) later in life. These findings highlight the potential roles of astrocyte inflammatory memory in CNS pathology, as well as potential targets for its modulation.

Microscopy drives biological discovery, yet high costs limit its access to resource-limited regions. We highlight examples of successful frugal microscopes that have overcome adoption barriers, offering a roadmap to expand affordable, quantitative imaging tools and foster impactful research in resource-limited settings.

We propose a roadmap for promoting a data-sharing culture in African health research governed by data justice and solidarity. This framework integrates dynamic consent, equitable benefit-sharing, reciprocity, data custodianship, controlled access infrastructures, and data sovereignty

Despite existing regulations, many emerging environmental contaminants remain ungoverned, posing serious risks to ecosystems and human health. Here, we outline governance challenges and propose a global roadmap for their regulation. Proactive identification, risk assessment, and international collaboration are urgently needed to close regulatory gaps and ensure a safer, healthier environment for all.

The realization that the cell is abundantly compartmentalized into biomolecular condensates has opened new opportunities for understanding the physics and chemistry underlying many cellular processes¹, fundamentally changing the study of biology². The term biomolecular condensate refers to non-stoichiometric assemblies that are composed of multiple types of macromolecules in cells, occur through phase transitions, and can be investigated by using concepts from soft matter physics³. As such, they are intimately related to aqueous two-phase systems⁴ and water-in-water emulsions⁵. Condensates possess tunable emergent properties such as interfaces, interfacial tension, viscoelasticity, network structure, dielectric permittivity, and sometimes interphase pH gradients and electric potentials^6–14. They can form spontaneously in response to specific cellular conditions or to active processes, and cells appear to have mechanisms to control their size and location^15–17. Importantly, in contrast to membrane-enclosed organelles such as mitochondria or peroxisomes, condensates do not require the presence of a surrounding membrane.

Shifting rapidly to a low-emissions global economy could severely disrupt workers’ livelihoods and their communities, exacerbating inequalities and perpetuating injustice. In a Just Labor Transition, strategic policies prepare workers for new jobs, enable inclusive decision-making with meaningful participation of workers and their representatives (including labor unions and other collective organizations), and secure social license for change.

Researchers comment on two recent Nature Communications publications on enzyme complexes involved in collagen glycosylation, discussing how these findings lay a foundation for understanding collagen IV maturation and its broader biological implications.

In spatial transcriptomics, tissue samples are randomly positioned. Rotation-sensitive methods can lead to unreliable spatially variable gene (SVG) detection. We highlight their inherent technical pitfalls and discuss strategies for rotation-invariant methods, enhancing the robustness of SVG detection.

Based on experiences of Nigerian healthcare staff in a multi-centre international neonatal sepsis study, the authors describe insights on capacity strengthening, patients’ engagement, and discuss long-term challenges in sustaining outcomes after project funding ends.

We introduce a framework for the design of photonic integrated laser sources for FMCW LiDAR, evaluating trade-offs in key laser metrics such as linewidth, chirp linearity and rate, based on laser-system co-design metrics. We review the main performance requirements for mid-range applications, with the goal of guiding ongoing research and commercial development.

The Arctic winters are changing fast. In February 2025, Svalbard endured rain, thawing tundra, and pooling meltwater. The Comment by Bradley and coauthors describes how winter warming is reshaping polar ecosystems—and why this resembles the new Arctic.

Historical specimens have enabled transformative insights across kingdoms and ecosystems with new technologies, yet microbes remain largely overlooked in preservation efforts. As we recognize microbial communities as fundamental drivers of planetary health, comprehensive microbial archiving becomes an urgent intergenerational responsibility.

Ecologically Unequal Exchange (EUE) theory reframes trade as asymmetric transfers of biophysical resources from South to North, rejecting monetary value metrics. It challenges both mainstream and Marxian economics by emphasizing material flows over money-based interpretations of global inequality.

Recent evidence suggests the existence of a neural pathway specialized for social perception projecting between the well-established “what” and “where” pathways. A new study of neuropsychological patients demonstrates that this social pathway is causally essential for recognizing dynamic facial expressions.

The local climate zone framework is valuable for building climate-resilient cities but is limited in application. This limitation can be resolved by addressing three aspects: transdisciplinary dialog, global atlas construction, and cost–benefit assessment.

This commentary discusses health data challenges in Africa, focusing on digitization, standardization, and harmonization as key solutions. It highlights how addressing these foundational issues can enable AI and data science to transform healthcare systems across the continent.

Topological physics has been driving exciting progress in the area of condensed matter physics, with findings that have recently spilled over into the field of metamaterials research inspiring the design of structured materials that can govern in new ways the flow of light and sound. While so far these advances have been driven by fundamental curiosity-driven explorations, without a focused interest on their technological implications, opportunities to translate these findings into applied research have started to emerge, in particular in the context of sound control. Our team has been leading a highly collaborative research effort on advancing the field of topological acoustics, dubbed ‘New Frontiers of Sound’ and connecting it to technological opportunities for computing, communications, energy and sensing. In this comment, we outline our vision towards the future of topological sound, and its translation towards industry-relevant functionalities and operations based on extreme control of acoustic and phononic waves.

Climate-related planned relocations are happening globally yet vary significantly. Drawing on diverse case studies, we present a framework to showcase these differences and identify advocacy priorities and research needs across contexts to ensure more consensual and well-supported relocation practices.

Suboptimal vaccine uptake is a worldwide public health issue. We need (i) to develop interventional population health research on vaccine uptake and (ii) to ensure better use of the research results by public health authorities before developing and implementing a national strategy.