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Heterostructures of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride have great potential for high-mobility electronics, yet little is known about the electronic interaction between these two atomically thin materials. Here, the authors perform angle-resolved reflected-electron spectroscopy to unveil their interplay.

Magnetocaloric materials are used in adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators to reach extremely low temperature without using Helium. Here, the authors report a large magnetocaloric effect in YbPt2Sn, and show how the properties of this alloy makes it a good magnetocaloric material.

Data from a variety of sources—including satellite, climate and soil data, as well as field-collected information on plant traits—are pooled and analysed to map the functional diversity of tropical forest canopies globally.

A connectome of the right optic lobe from a male fruitfly is presented together with an extensive collection of genetic drivers matched to a comprehensive neuron-type catalogue.

A quantum simulation of a (2 + 1)-dimensional lattice gauge theory is carried out on a quantum computer working with neutral atoms trapped by optical tweezers in a Kagome geometry.

The authors present a characterization of complex X-linked lncRNA loci with sex- and allele-specific epigenetic signatures that serve as a platform for the largest chromatin structures in mammals, thereby elucidating diverse phenotypes and combinatorial effects on autosomes.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Iron has been shown to be necessary for the activation and differentiation of CD8⁺ T cells. Here the authors investigate changes in CD8⁺ T cell metabolism in iron limiting conditions and find that aspartate is increased yet downstream nucleotide synthesis is suppressed and addition of exogenous aspartate partially rescues T cell function.

The cell populations that contribute to healing and scar tissue formation following tendon injury are poorly defined. Here the authors show that cells originating from the tendon epitenon give rise to both tenogenic and fibrotic populations and that ablation of pro-fibrotic epitenon-derived cells improves recovery.

The future of food prices is uncertain yet key for food security and climate mitigation policies. This study estimates future food prices for 136 countries and 11 distinct food groups, showing that future food prices will become less sensitive to agricultural market dynamics and land-based mitigation policies, given the global transition towards more complex and industrial food systems.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

Telomere maintenance by telomerase depends on the correct assembly and the recruitment of the enzyme complex. Here, the authors reveal that the RNA/DNA binding proteins NONO, SFPQ, and PSPC1 interact with telomerase via the hTR RNA template, facilitating telomerase trafficking out of Cajal bodies and recruitment to the telomere.

Macrophage-specific genetic ablation of the EMT inducer ZEB1 reveals its pivotal role in intracellular cytokine trafficking, boosting cytotoxic T cell abundance and immune responses, thereby reducing tumor growth and metastatic colonization in mice.

The mechanism of macrophage cytotoxicity against cancer cells requires further illustration. By employing CRISPR screening in CAR-macrophage and cancer cell co-culture system, the authors identify depletion of ATG9A on cancer cells sensitizes them to macrophage-mediated killing, which can be synergic with CSF1R inhibition in cancer treatment.

A post-Sturtian Snowball episode of ocean deoxygenation, followed by a shift toward less reducing, but still largely anoxic conditions in the ocean, is characterised by nutrient and sulfate limitation and recorded in the Taishir Formation, Mongolia.

The authors experimentally study nonlinear light propagation with tunable dispersion, which mimics the effect of fractional derivatives. The pulses have the unique features that their spectra have a discontinuous derivative and they decay slowly in time.

Using volumetric electron microscopy, the authors map and analyze the structure of cortical inhibition with synaptic resolution across a column of visual cortex.

HiScanner, a tool for identification of copy number alterations from single cell whole-genome sequencing data, uncovers cell-type-specific somatic mosaicism in human brain and offers a way to track clonal evolution at the single cell resolution.

Using an autonomous underwater vehicle, this study presents an integrated biogeochemical and multiomic analysis of microbial eukaryotes from the North Atlantic Ocean. The work highlights diverse communities that shift through depth zones, with signatures of nutrient biomarkers changing across a coastal-offshore spatial gradient.

The development of sustainable food systems requires an understanding of potential trade-off between various objectives. Here, Chaudhary et al. examine how different nations score on food system performance across several domains, including environment, nutrition, and sociocultural wellbeing.

Inhibition of cyclooxygenase 1 releases T cells from immunosuppression by platelet-derived thromboxane A₂, thereby enhancing the immune response against metastasis.

Analyses of genome and exome sequencing data identify rare coding and structural variants associated with atrial fibrillation and highlight genetic links between atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies.

Carbon dioxide concentration has previously been used as a proxy for overall ventilation efficiency to indirectly estimate the risk of indoor SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Here, authors investigate whether the concentration of carbon dioxide also has a direct mechanistic role in improving transmission efficiency.

Verykokakis and colleagues show that the transcription factor BCL-6 is highly expressed in stage 0 NKT and is absolutely required for innate T cell lineage development. BCL-6 acts to modify the chromatin landscape and is needed to promote the ST0–ST1 transition and PLZF expression.

Roaming dynamics have been shown to be important in unimolecular decompositions, but the relevance to bimolecular reactions has been less clear. Here, the authors study radical addition/elimination reactions and implicate a roaming transition state in a bimolecular reaction.

Genome-wide association analyses of prostate cancer in men from sub-Saharan Africa identify population-specific risk variants and regional differences in effect sizes. Founder effects contribute to continental differences in the genetic architecture of prostate cancer.

Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition, disturbance and evolutionary history shape the crown architecture of the world’s trees and thereby constrain the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.

Quasi-random nanostructures are being considered for many photon management applications but their use has been limited by their costly fabrication. Here, Smith et al. show that the quasi-random patterns on Blu-ray movie discs are already near-optimized for light-trapping applications in solar cells.

Discovering the genetic roots of diseases is a major question in genetic research. Here, the authors shed light on pleiotropy across diseases using a new method, scaled to millions of individuals, applied to single diseases and disease trajectories.

In an analysis of five large randomized clinical trials testing established therapies for cardiovascular disease, individuals with clonal hematopoiesis had an increased risk for first but not recurrent myocardial infarction as compared to individuals without clonal hematopoiesis, and did not show increased benefit from any of the therapies tested.

Histological slides often contain artifacts that affect the performance of downstream image analysis. Here, the authors present GrandQC, a tool that enables high-precision tissue and artifact segmentation in histological slides. This tool can be used to monitor sample preparation and scanning quality across pathology departments.

A heat-pipe model of Earth, whereby interior heat is brought to the surface through localized channels, yields predictions that agree with craton data and the detrital zircon record, and offers a global geodynamic framework in which to explore Earth’s evolution before the onset of plate tectonics.

Analyzing Feret diameter is a straightforward way to assess the quality of unguided brain organoids. Low-quality brain organoids show a high Feret diameter, accompanied by a higher proportion of unintended mesenchymal cells.

Functional imaging and multiplexed in situ hybridization were combined to investigate how trigeminal neurons encode heat and mechanical stimuli, revealing distinct cellular mechanisms for continuing pain, heat hypersensitivity and tactile allodynia during inflammation.

The authors reveal that the chromatin architectural proteins CTCF and RAD21 organize DNA around nuclear speckles to enhance gene induction. This structural organization, when disrupted as in Cornelia de Lange syndrome, impairs key gene functions, providing insight into potential disease mechanisms.

A detailed molecular analysis of related yeast species shows that progressively opposed genetic logics can evolve while resulting in a conserved phenotypic output:mating-type determination. This is the first clear demonstration of the 'genetic drift' principle at a molecular level.

Both hydrogen and xenon form unusual phases at very high pressures. Researchers have now observed that an unexpectedly stable compound forms when a hydrogen-rich mixture of the two gases is subjected to pressures in the gigapascal range. Xenon dimers and other unusual bonding states are revealed in this compound, which is stable to megabar pressures.

Fermi polarons are quasiparticles formed by impurities immersed in a Fermi gas. An experiment in an ultracold fermionic gas now shows how to control their properties with a tunable radio-frequency field.

The role of CXCR2 in epithelial and endothelial cells on lung infection remains unclear. The authors here use conditional CXCR2 knockout mice to manifest that epithelial and vascular CXCR2 mediates transcytosis of CXCL1, leading to neutrophil infiltration and controlled lung inflammation.

A patient with newly diagnosed glioblastoma was safely treated with neoadjuvant nivolumab, relatlimab and ipilimumab before maximal resection, with comprehensive immune profiling showing the induction of overall immune activation early during treatment. The patient had no definitive evidence of recurrence at 17 months after treatment.

Using an exploratory phenome-wide association study of polygenic risk scores (PRS) in children aged 9–13 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study cohort, the authors identify neurodevelopmental and internalizing PRS associations with multiple phenotypes similar to the constituent GWAS indicators (for example, neurodevelopmental and internalizing traits) as well as cross-trait phenotypes (for example, screen time, cortical volume).

Identifying theranostic compounds for precision medicine remains a difficult task. Here, the authors develop a deep learning-based hybrid human-AI pipeline to integrate and analyse multiple databases and multimodal datasets to establish the Theranostic Genome, which can be used to propose targeted theranostics therapies.