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The Panoptes antiphage system defends bacteria by detecting phage-encoded counter-defences that sequester cyclic nucleotide signals, triggering membrane disruption and highlighting a broader strategy of sensing immune evasion through second-messenger surveillance.

The Perseverance rover detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons preserved within sulfates in the fan and floor of Jezero crater on Mars, offering new insights into past habitability and the preservation of organic matter on Mars.

Chemical and structural imaging of Komodo dragon teeth reveals that they maintain their sharp cutting edges through iron-enriched coatings, a unique adaptation compared with theropod dinosaurs (for which they have previously been used as an extant model).

A series of early-time, multiwavelength observations of an optical transient, AT2022cmc, indicate that it is a relativistic jet from a tidal disruption event originating from a supermassive black hole.

A survey of sharks and rays on coral reefs within 66 marine protected areas across 36 countries showcases that the conservation benefits of full MPA protection to sharks almost double when accompanied by effective fisheries management.

Purely organic molecules with complex interlocked architectures have proved difficult to prepare in water. Now, a three-dimensional organic [2]catenane has been obtained in a weakly acidic aqueous solution, through an almost quantitative self-assembly process relying on dynamic hydrazone linkages. The catenane is kinetically stable in neutral and weakly basic environments.

The discovery of a distant blazar J0410−0139 at z = 7 suggests that many similar sources existed in the early Universe, supporting the hypothesis that the rapid growth of black holes is driven by jet-enhanced or obscured accretion.

Topological antiferromagnetic states are generated and spatially reconfigured in free-standing crystalline membranes of haematite through strain design.

The hunt for a quantum spin liquid has involved many different material families and models. Now, Zn-barlowite has been found to have similar behaviour to another candidate material, herbertsmithite, hinting there may be universal physical behaviour.

In situ methods for water quality monitoring is crucial for global water use and management, though many conventional sensors have slow response time and are non-recyclable. Here, the authors report a recyclable amphiphobic dielectric material for fast monitoring of water pollutants.

Understanding transformations of non-equilibrium materials is a key open scientific question. Here the pathway by which different polar supertextures undergo dynamical correlations and collectively transform into a metastable supercrystal state is revealed experimentally and theoretically over seven orders of magnitude timescale.

Using serial femtosecond X-ray cystallography, we provide structural insights into the final reaction step of Kok’s photosynthetic water oxidation cycle, specifically the S₃→[S₄]→S₀ transition where O₂ is formed.

Ultrafast quantum control of helium atoms is obtained by shaping the extreme ultraviolet pulses generated by a seeded free-electron laser.

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures with type II band alignment have generated wide interest in device physics at the two-dimensional limit. Here, Rivera et al. observe interlayer excitons in vertically stacked MoSe2–WSe2 heterostructures and demonstrate tunability of the energy and luminescence.

Electroreduction of CO₂ into C2 hydrocarbons and liquid fuels is a promising but challenging energy conversion technology, with copper exhibiting fair selectivity for these products. Here, the authors report that N-doped graphene quantum dots can also catalyze the electrochemical reduction of CO₂into multi-carbon hydrocarbons and oxygenates.

Single layers of group-VI transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as direct bandgap semiconductors in the two-dimensional limit. The authors show that monolayer molybdenum diselenide is an ideal system enabling electrostatic tunability of charging effects in neutral and charged electron-hole pairs, so-called excitons.

Due to their stability, reduction of amides typically requires harsh conditions or strong reductants. Here the authors report a method for amide reduction with molecular hydrogen under mild conditions by use of magnetocatalysis.

The spatial and temporal control of material properties at a distance have been so far achieved with light, heat, or sound. Here, the authors control chemical reactions and further polymerization of composites with an electric field via inverse piezo-effect resulting in multi-stiffness gels.

Chemists should thrash out discrepancies in modelling, synthesizing and applying porous materials, urge Aaron W. Peters, Ashlee J. Howarth and Omar K. Farha.

Synthesis of heterostructures of magnetic intercalation compounds in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) via directed topotactic reactions enables the creation of multi-component magnetic architectures, overcoming limitations of crystallographic incommensurability

Synchrotron X-ray imaging of stimulated human middle ears reveals the 3D movement of auditory ossicles: it enables their motion quantification, confirms the lever-like motions of the malleus and incus and reveals a more intricate stapedial behavior.

Iron oxides serve as both adsorbents and catalysts to generate inorganic phosphorus from organic phosphorus in environmental matrices. This abiotic dephosphorylation, which is comparable to enzymatic rates, is a missing piece in phosphorus cycling.

A dynamical study shows that vortices of electrical polarization have higher frequencies and smaller size than their magnetic counterparts, properties that are promising for electric-field-driven data processing.

High near-surface nitrogen-fixation rates that promoted the recent growth of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt were tied to greater upwelling of phosphorus from the equatorial Atlantic, according to coral-bound nitrogen isotope records from the Caribbean.

Regulations on the amount of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances allowed in drinking water are getting more and more stringent, and detecting small amounts is challenging. A sensing platform based on a remote gate field-effect transistor allows a sensitivity higher than that required by the US Environmental Protection Agency to be reached.

A new sample-delivery method for serial X-ray crystallography exploits the full repetition rate of the X-ray free-electron laser at the LCLS facility, thus enabling efficient, high-speed data collection to solve the three-dimensional structures of viruses.

Serial femtosecond crystallography and the use of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) promise to revolutionize structural biology. Here, the authors describe refinements that reduce the redundancy required to obtain quality XFEL data and report a 1.75-Å structure—not obtainable by synchrotron radiation—using less than 6,000 crystals.

Utilizing “Chemistry at a point”, Ni is exsolved from a perovskite lattice under deposited Pt nanoparticles. This yields even smaller Ni Pt alloy nanoparticles on a perovskite nanofiber structure, exhibiting high catalytic activity.

Coastal wetlands are enriched in metastable iron minerals over well-crystalline phases and have a similar fraction of iron oxide-associated organic carbon as uplands, according to a global database combined with a survey of China’s coastal wetlands.

Acoustically driven spin control of silicon monovacancies can be used to measure the resonant properties and dynamical strain distribution in lateral overtone bulk acoustic resonators.

Simply cooling down an artificial spin-ice does not necessarily lead to ground-state magnetic order. But as-grown artificial square ice reaches a thermodynamic ground state, with monopole dynamics possibly involved in the thermalization.

ZTF J1406+1222 is a wide hierarchical triple system that hosts a low-metallicity subdwarf star and a ‘black widow’ millisecond pulsar that has a highly varying optical flux and a 62-minute period.

Here, authors report an iron flow battery, using earth-abundant materials like iron, ammonia, and phosphorous acid. This work offers a solution to reduce materials cost and extend cycle life in energy storage applications for grid decarbonization.

An environmentally safe means of mosquito control is the application of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, which produces a cocktail of four naturally crystalline proteins exclusively toxic to mosquito. Here the authors report the atomic-resolution structures of Bti Cry11Aa and related Btj Cry11Ba solved de novo through Serial Femtosecond Crystallography on naturally-occurring nanocrystals.

Functionalizing two-dimensional transition-metal carbide (MXene) surfaces can alter their properties, but covalent functionalization has been synthetically challenging. Now, it has been shown that various organic groups can be covalently attached to MXene surfaces through amido and imido bonds. The resulting hybrid organic–inorganic structures exhibit Fano resonances and superior stability compared with traditional MXenes with a mixture of –F, –O and –OH surface terminations.

Observations from the JWST of the second brightest GRB ever detected, GRB 230307A, indicate that it belongs to the class of long-duration GRBs resulting from compact object mergers, with the decay of lanthanides powering the longlasting optical and infrared emission.

In frustrated magnets geometric constraints are expected to prevent any magnetic ordering. In this work, normally non-magnetic atoms on a silicon surface display an ordered state despite geometric frustration. This offers new ways of controlling magnetism on surfaces.

Effective treatments and vaccines are lacking for parainfluenza virus 3 (PIV3). Here the authors isolate human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) targeting the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein of PIV3 and, using cryo-EM, describe the epitope of a cross-neutralizing and protective mAb.

A study reports the structure and molecular mechanism of the Bil anti-phage defence system, demonstrating that it is the closest prokaryotic homologue of canonical eukaryotic ubiquitination pathways.

Currently many of the time resolved serial femtosecond (SFX) crystallography experiments are done with light driven protein systems, whereas the reaction initiation for non-light triggered enzymes remains a major bottle neck. Here, the authors present an expanded Drop-on-Tape system, where picoliter-sized droplets of a substrate or inhibitor are turbulently mixed with nanoliter sized droplets of microcrystal slurries, and they use it for time-resolved SFX measurements of inhibitor binding to lysozyme and secondly, binding of a β-lactam antibiotic to a bacterial serine β-lactamase.

A remora-inspired mechanical underwater adhesive device adheres securely to a range of soft substrates and maintains performance under extreme pH and moisture conditions, with potential applications in biosensing and drug delivery.

Measurements from the heavily shielded Orion spacecraft during the uncrewed Artemis I mission show dose-rate reductions due to shielding and orientation for Van Allen belt crossings and quantify the interplanetary cosmic-ray radiation in a human-rated spacecraft.