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Creative experiences such as dance, music, drawing, and strategy video games might preserve brain health. The authors show that regular practice or short training in these activities is linked to brains that look younger and work more efficiently.

Cannulae are heat-resistant protein nanotubes found on the surface of thermophilic archaea. Here, the authors report the structures of cannulae at the atomic level with insight into their high stability and mechanism of assembly, which has potential impact for biomaterials design.

Different types of SETBP1 variants cause variable developmental syndromes with only partial clinical and functional overlaps. Here, the authors report that SETBP1 variants outside the degron region impair DNA-binding, transcription, and neuronal differentiation capacity and morphologies.

Brain age gaps (BAGs) highlight deviations from healthy brain aging, yet their biophysical underpinnings in aging and dementia are not well understood. Here, the authors use EEG connectivity and generative modeling across diverse populations to reveal that BAGs are influenced by geography, income, sex and education, with implications for understanding accelerated aging and dementia.

Polygenic scores and partitioned polygenic scores related to insulin resistance derived in multiancestry populations show distinct association with neurological outcomes

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

Pl@ntBERT is a language-based AI model that learned the ‘syntax’ of plant assemblages, predicting likely species and inferring habitats by modelling biotic relationships.

A global research network monitoring the Amazon for 30 years reports in this study that tree size increased by 3% each decade.

Available wheat genomes are annotated by projecting Chinese Spring gene models across the new assemblies. Here, the authors generate de novo gene annotations for the 9 wheat genomes, identify core and dispensable transcriptome, and reveal conservation and divergence of gene expression balance across homoeologous subgenomes.

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.

The quark structure of the f₀(980) hadron is still unknown after 50 years of its discovery. Here, the CMS Collaboration reports a measurement of the elliptic flow of the f₀(980) state in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV, providing strong evidence that the state is an ordinary meson.

Researchers observe directional strong coupling on the nanoscale between hyperbolic phonon polaritons and pentacene molecules.

Haptotaxis was traditionally seen as migration up protein gradients. It is now shown that cells can also oscillate or migrate down the gradient.

Spatial transcriptomic studies and lineage tracing reveal that, after brain injury, transient profibrotic fibroblasts develop from existing brain fibroblasts, infiltrate lesions, regulate the local immune response and lead to beneficial scar tissue formation.

The authors demonstrate deeply subwavelength light confinement in the terahertz spectral range by exploiting the strong light–matter coupling and hyperbolicity of phonon polaritons in hafnium-based dichalcogenides.

An in-depth microbiological and metagenomic analysis of Colombian farm and fermentation facilities resulted in the design of a defined microbial community that can reproduce the flavour of fine chocolate.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Enfortumab vedotin (EV) is the current standard treatment for advanced bladder cancer, but resistance typically develops within a year, highlighting the need for new therapies. This study demonstrates that NECTIN4-targeting CAR T cells are effective against bladder cancer, including EV-resistant cells, and their potency can be further enhanced by using rosiglitazone to boost NECTIN4 expression.

The transcription factors TCF1 and LEF1 promote self-renewal and regulatory functions in B-1a cells.

Imidazole propionate produced by gut microbiota is associated with atherosclerosis in mouse models and in humans, and causes the development of atherosclerosis through activation of the imidazoline-1 receptor in myeloid cells.

The role of the tumour microenvironment in the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic melanoma remains poorly understood. Here, single cell profiling of metastatic melanoma samples identifies associations of the mature dendritic enriched in immunoregulatory molecules subtype with immunotherapy response.

The analysis of radial velocity variations of O-type stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud reveals a large fraction of close binaries, suggesting that binary physics also plays a prominent role in the low-metallicity environment of the distant Universe.

Industrial decarbonization poses both risks and benefits for communities. We show how community-based research can move pervasive yet nebulous calls for community engagement to processes that emphasize just and equitable governance.

Horses have lived in Iberia since the Ice Age. Using ancient genomes to study their history, Lira Garrido et al. reveal a local wild lineage lasting until Late Iron Age, and highlight the far-reaching influence of Iberian bloodlines across Europe and north Africa during the Iron Age and beyond.

Managing power exhaust in fusion reactors is a key challenge, especially in compact designs for cost-effective commercial energy. This study shows how alternative divertor configurations improve exhaust control, enhance stability, absorb transients and enable independent plasma regulation.

In cohort B of the phase 2 SWOG S1512 trial, pembrolizumab monotherapy in patients with unresectable desmoplastic melanoma elicited a complete response rate of 37% and an objective response rate of 89%, supporting a new treatment option for this tumor type.

Chronic brain infection and IL-1 exposure impair spatial memory by triggering DNA double-strand break signaling in hippocampal neurons. Blocking this pathway prevents memory deficits, suggesting new therapeutic prospects for various brain diseases.

Intestinal tuft cell subtypes represent successive stages of differentiation that is driven by crypt-villus signaling gradients. Here, the authors show that applying these gradients to organoids generates mature immune-related chemosensory tuft cells suitable for experimental studies.

Here the authors apply machine learning approaches to Alzheimer’s genetics, confirm known associations and suggest novel risk loci. These methods demonstrate predictive power comparable to traditional approaches, while also offering potential new insights beyond standard genetic analyses.

Whether intermittent strategies of delivering drugs can improve cancer patients survival is still unclear. Here, the authors reports the results of a randomized phase II clinical trial aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of two dosing regimens (continuous and intermittent) of vemurafenib and cobimetinib combination as first-line treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic advanced melanoma with BRAFV600 mutation

Restoring ecosystems depends on the cultivation of native plants to balance biodiversity with agricultural needs. This Letter finds that despite being overlooked for commercial varieties, 85% of Mediterranean native annuals could be used in olive groves for nature-based agronomy.

Analysis of soundscape data from 139 globally distributed sites reveals that sounds of biological origin exhibit predictable rhythms depending on location and season, whereas sounds of anthropogenic origin are less predictable. Comparisons between paired urban–rural sites show that urban green spaces are noisier and dominated by sounds of technological origin.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

The COMPASS trial is a prospective observational study seeking to establish biomarkers in advanced pancreatic cancer through in-depth profiling prior to commencing chemotherapy. Here, the authors report the final data for the complete cohort of 268 patients enrolled in the COMPASS trial.

Zangari et al. show that d-cysteine targets NFS1, thus affecting Fe–S cluster biogenesis and impairing tumour growth.

This study shows the Pv47 gene in Plasmodium vivax has remarkable genetic diversity suggesting it is critical for malaria parasite adaptation to various mosquito vectors, like its counterpart Pfs47 in Plasmodium falciparum.

Analyses of the exposomes of populations across 40 countries found global disparities in healthy aging attributed to diverse biological, socioeconomic and political factors, with accelerated aging seen in populations from Egypt, South Africa, and Latin American and Caribbean regions.

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).

Reliably probing rejuvenation and memory effects in spin glasses by means of simulations is difficult. Now, a state-of-the-art numerical study shows that at least three different length scales play a crucial role in aging dynamics of spin glasses.

External Control Arm methods for clinical trials were developed to compare the efficacy of a treatment to a control group that is built with data from external sources. Here, the authors present FedECA, a privacy-enhancing method for analyzing treatment effects across institutions, streamlining multi-centric trial design and thereby accelerating drug development while minimizing patient data exposure.

A strongly lensed galaxy at redshift z ≈ 6 is resolved into at least 15 star-forming clumps embedded in a rotating disk. Clump formation in this system, which is not predicted by cosmological zoom-in simulations, may be driven by disk instabilities with weak feedback, rather than past mergers.

Altermagnets, unlike their conventional collinear antiferromagnetic counterparts, allow for an anomalous Nernst response despite their collinear compensated magnetic ordering. Here, Badura et al find such an anomalous Nernst effect at zero magnetic field in the altermagnetic candidate, Mn₅Si₃.

HistoPlexer, a deep learning model, generates multiplexed protein expression maps from H&E images, capturing tumour–immune cell interactions. It outperforms baselines, enhances immune subtyping and survival prediction and offers a cost-effective tool for precision oncology.

The pupil is known to assist retinal adaptation to light level changes. Here, the authors find a mechanism for how the pupillary light reflex drives monocular and binocular retinal activity in mice and shapes conscious visual perception in humans.

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.

Oxygen evolution reaction is a key process for sustainable energy, although the mechanistic processes for industrially used IrO2 are not solved yet. Here, the authors demonstrate that oxygen evolution over IrO2 is governed by mechanisms consisting of concerted desorption-adsorption steps.