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Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

The authors show that plasma AT(N) biomarkers can distinguish Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration in diverse Latin American populations. Using machine learning and integrating neuroimaging, significant diagnostic accuracy was achieved, enhancing clinical assessments of these conditions in Latin America.

Dissolved oxygen levels in the Proterozoic surface ocean decreased from the Equator towards the mid–high latitudes, the opposite of the modern latitudinal gradient, according to a compilation of I/Ca proxy records and Earth system modelling.

From wearable health monitors to autonomous robots, AI is reshaping how sensors collect, interpret, and act on data, with co-design and benchmarking key to their success, finds Andy Extance.

Trends in global H₂ sources and sinks are analysed from 1990 to 2020, and a comprehensive budget for the decade 2010–2020 is presented.

Iacobucci et al. present the single-cell transcriptomic profile of patients with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, report enriched multipotency and develop a multipotency score that is associated with worse survival in pediatric patients.

Chan et al. generate a high-resolution spatiotemporal atlas of healing hearts and reveal cellular networks of lesion repair, including macrophage–fibroblast interactions that control late-stage fibrosis and immune niches that induce cardiomyocyte de-differentiation.

A lensed quasar at redshift z ≈ 10.3, seen in X-rays, hosts a supermassive black hole of mass similar to that of its host galaxy. The large black-hole mass at a young age, as well as the amount of X-rays it produces, suggest that the black hole formed from the collapse of a huge cloud of gas.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Compared to the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere, little is known about the build up of dissolved oxygen in the oceans. Vanadium isotopes in shales suggest shallow oceans equilibrated with a newly oxygenated atmosphere in just a few million years.

Lipoproteins are major cell-surface components in archaea, but their functions and the lipidation mechanisms are unclear. Here, Hong et al. identify two proteins required for attachment of proteins to unique archaeal membrane lipids via thioether bonds, and demonstrate their importance in archaeal physiology.

Around 1 in 136 pregnancies is lost due to a pathogenic small sequence variant genotype in the fetus.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

Archaeogenetic study of ancient DNA from medieval northwestern Europeans reveals substantial increase of continental northern European ancestry in Britain, suggesting mass migration across the North Sea during the Early Middle Ages.

Natural products have historically made a major contribution to pharmacotherapy, but also present challenges for drug discovery, such as technical barriers to screening, isolation, characterization and optimization. This Review discusses recent technological developments — including improved analytical tools, genome mining and engineering strategies, and microbial culturing advances — that are enabling a revitalization of natural product-based drug discovery.

Vaccination efficiency in HIV infection is hampered by the low immunogenicity of HIV-1 Env glycoprotein (Env). Here authors optimise the neutralising antibody response to Env by stabilizing the Env trimers in the context of expressing them in a Newcastle Disease Virus-like particle and providing conditions that mimics replicating virus infection.

Climate-driven periodicity of flowstone accretion between 3.2 and 1.3 million years ago in Cradle of Humankind caves reveals that the presence of hominin fossils reflects accumulation in open caves during intermittent, substantially drier phases.

JWST/NIRSpec observations of Abell2744-QSO1 show a high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in the early Universe, which indicates that we are seeing the black hole in a phase of rapid growth, accreting at 30% of the Eddington limit.

An approximately 2-million-year-old male Paranthropus robustus cranium from Drimolen Main Quarry in South Africa refutes influential ideas of sexual dimorphism in this taxon and instead suggests local microevolution within robust australopiths.

Influenza A infection results in γδ T cell influx and production of IL-17 in the lungs. Here, the authors show that this effect is primed by CD1-restricted ligands that are released by infected cells and presented by B1a cells in the lungs.

As human-AI collaborations become the norm, we should remind ourselves that it is our basic nature to build hybrid thinking systems – ones that fluidly incorporate non-biological resources. Recognizing this invites us to change the way we think about both the threats and promises of the coming age.

Rapid activation of SnRK2 kinases is central to plant responses to osmotic stress and abscisic acid. Here the authors show that a group of Raf-like kinases are very quickly activated by osmotic stress, and then phosphorylate and activate SnRK2s.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Rebecca Fitzgerald and colleagues used genome sequence analyses to study the progression from premalignant Barrett's esophagus to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and found that the majority of recurrently mutated genes in EAC were also mutated in precursor lesions and that only mutations in TP53 and SMAD4 were stage specific.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

The ability to oxidise hydrocarbons aerobically has been described in bacteria but not yet in archaea. Here, Leu et al. analyse metagenomic datasets from various environments and provide evidence supporting potential aerobic hydrocarbon oxidation ability in an archaeal lineage within the class Syntropharchaeia.

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for studying chemical reactions, but short-lived intermediates are hard to capture. The authors present a system combining LED and rapid-injection NMR for in situ monitoring of photochemical processes, advancing the study of reactive species and kinetics.

Evidence of shellfish use and cultural practice (use of red ochre) by Homo sapiens from a sea-cave in South Africa around 164,000 years ago presents the earliest evidence for the exploitation of coastal resources by some 40,000 years. At that time Africa was mostly desert, possibly driving small bands of hunter-gatherers seawards in search of new food sources

Single-layer graphene, owing to its impermeability, is a promising candidate to prevent transmembrane ion transport. Here, the authors report a covalent functionalization method that enables centimeter-sized graphene to function as a proton exchange membrane in a direct methanol fuel cell.

Circulating tumour DNA profiling in early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer can be used to track single-nucleotide variants in plasma to predict lung cancer relapse and identify tumour subclones involved in the metastatic process.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

How reduced blood flow plays a role in progressive white matter loss during aging and associated cognitive decline is unclear. Here the authors show that selective constriction and rarefaction of capillary–venous networks contribute to age-related hypoperfusion and white matter damage in mice.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) frequency and risk factors vary considerably across regions and ancestries. Here, the authors conduct a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine mapping study of HNSCC subsites in cohorts from multiple continents, finding susceptibility and protective loci, gene-environment interactions, and gene variants related to immune response.

Measuring selection and dominance in fitness of the insecticide-resistant Ace alleles in Drosophila melanogaster, the authors show evidence for beneficial reversal of dominance, a mechanism that can stabilize large-effect polymorphisms in nature.

A short-lived carbon release preceded the PETM. Here the global nature of this is confirmed, effects on the surface ocean carbon cycle are resolved, and a thermogenic CO₂ source is inferred.

DNA double-strand breaks induce local genome maintenance and inhibition of replication initiation at nearby topologically associating domains without affecting global DNA synthesis.

FUGAsseM predicts protein function in microbiomes using coexpression patterns from metatranscriptomes and diverse community-wide data.

A brief period of warming 55.9 Myr ago has been attributed to the release of massive amounts of carbon. Geochemical and model data suggest the peak rate of carbon emission during this interval was relatively slow, and significantly lower than present-day levels of carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

Citizen science taps the efforts of non-experts. Here, authors describe Drugit, an extension of the crowdsourcing game Foldit, and its use in designing a non-peptide binder of Von Hippel Lindau E3 ligase for use with proteolysis targeting chimeras.

Transcriptomic analysis of BCR-ABL1 lymphoblastic leukemia identifies three subgroups, each associated with a maturation arrest at a specific stage of B-cell progenitor differentiation and distinct genetic and clinical features.

Offline cortical reactivations predict the gradual drift and separation in sensory cortical response patterns and may enhance sensory discrimination.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.