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The compositional makeup of skeletons and teeth in invertebrates and vertebrates is generally different. This study examines the material composition and properties of freshwater crayfish mandibles and finds, in an unusual case of convergent evolution, that they are composed of an apatite layer that is similar to mammalian enamel.

Spin-enhanced lateral flow tests use nanodiamonds for the sensitive, robust detection of disease biomarkers. Here, authors report a clinical evaluation of a test for SARS-CoV-2 antigen, finding 95.1% sensitivity (Ct ≤ 30) and 100% specificity, with detection 2.0 days earlier than conventional tests.

Typically in asymmetric catalysis each product enantiomer is produced using a different enantiomer of catalyst. Here, the authors show a photoswitchable bisphosphine ligand, capable of altering the stereoselectivity of a palladium catalysed process and producing either enantiomer of product.

Using data from 100 million Brazilian workers, this study reveals persistent occupational segregation—skills segregate workers by gender, while social status of occupations segregates by race, with Black workers concentrated in lower-status jobs.

Precise control of the relative orientation of two two-dimensional layers enables reproducible fabrication of heterostructure devices. Here, the authors show that graphene rotates towards the crystallographic direction of a boron-nitride substrate due to the interplay between van der Waals and elastic energies.

Drylands face multiple anthropogenic stressors globally. Here the authors assess protected area coverage and current threats of vertebrate diversity in global drylands and project impacts under future climate and socioeconomic scenarios.

Achieving multiple fluorescence changes in a single luminogenic system is desirable but challenging. Here, the authors report a chromone-based aggregation-induced emission luminogen, with six distinct thermal and photoswitchable states.

In this Viewpoint, actor, author, and broadcaster Stephen Fry describes his prostate cancer journey alongside the same story from his surgeon, Ben Challacombe, enabling us to consider “both sides of the scalpel”.

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.

Regulation of aggregation by light is a useful phenomenon, but the role of the solvent is not often considered. Here, the authors report the development of photoinduced hydrous organic aggregates, emissive in the presence of both water and photoirradiation.

Bats are a likely reservoir of zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs). Here, analyzing bat CoV sequences in China, the authors find that alpha-CoVs have switched hosts more frequently than betaCoVs, identify a bat family and genus that are highly involved in host-switching, and define hotspots of CoV evolutionary diversity.

Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic assessment of these relationships and highlights the role of subjective attribution.

Geospatial estimates of the prevalence of anemia in women of reproductive age across 82 low-income and middle-income countries reveals considerable heterogeneity and inequality at national and subnational levels, with few countries on track to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Targets by 2030.

The authors combine fossil occurrence data, phylogenies and climatic niche modelling to explore the palaeobiogeography of early pterosaurs and their non-flying close relatives, the lagerpetids.

The Kondo effect has been observed in a variety of systems, including carbon nanotube quantum dots and graphene in the presence of impurities. Here, the authors report the observation of the Kondo effect in bilayer graphene quantum dots and study its interplay with weak spin-orbit coupling.

Nodal lines are 1D band crossings forming a ring in the Brillouin zone which can spawn Weyl points. Here, using a cut-wire metacrystal designed for gigahertz frequencies, Gao et al. observe photonic nodal line degeneracies as well as the photonic Weyl points arising from them.

Arrays of silicon nanoneedles are used to generate molecular replicas of live brain tissue for longitudinal spatial lipidomic classification via desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging of gliomas and to monitor the responses of the tumours to chemotherapy.

The authors reveal that, in fruit fly ovaries, the protein Rhino is guided to specific regions of the genome by a combination of two histone modifications, enhancing understanding of how cells protect their DNA from harmful virus-like elements.

During early development, cells collectively sculpt the embryo’s geometry and establish the body plan. This study uncovers modular mechanisms independently controlling embryo size and shape in avian gastrulation—a model for early human development.

Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.

A number of mechanisms are known to mediate bacterial antibiotic resistance. Here, Arad et al show that amyloid fibrils produced by Staphylococcus aureus rapidly degrade common antibiotic molecules.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

This study in the Finnish population reveals genetic reduction of the complement factor CFHR5 as enhancing retinal health and reducing the risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), suggesting new strategies for AMD prevention and treatment.

Although many room temperature phosphorescence host–guest systems with versatile performances have been developed, their photophysical mechanisms remain often unclear. Here the authors reveal that a dynamic coupling process in the excited state is crucial for inducing phosphorescence, where host and guest molecules firstly couple to enhance the intersystem crossing efficiency, and then decouple to transfer excitons to the triplet state of guest.

The evolutionary history of barley is analysed using ancient and modern DNA.

In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, an inhaled phage cocktail was well tolerated in adults with cystic fibrosis and chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, with evidence of lung delivery and signs of bacterial reduction.

Upon physiological injury, hepatocytes transdifferentiate into biliary epithelial cells, a process involving molecular rewiring. Here, authors show that Sox4 organizes the early steps, acting as a pioneer factor to decommission hepatocyte enhancers and open chromatin around biliary genes.

Animal migrations are extensive and crucial for ecosystem health but are in decline. This study identifies 1,787 sites and links among them for 109 marine species, highlighting the need for international cooperation and providing policymakers with essential knowledge for effective conservation.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

The Sanitation-related Quality of Life index (SanQoL-5) combines answers to five questions (disgust, privacy, disease, shame and safety) into a score ranging from 0 to 1. This study found good evidence for the validity and cross-cultural comparability of SanQoL-5.

Controlling the spectral properties of single photons is important for emerging optical quantum technologies, but doing so in a frequency-multiplexed framework is challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate quantum frequency conversion with a Raman quantum memory in room-temperature diamond.

Pollinator loss is a concern but data on their status is lacking. Here Powney et al. use occupancy modelling to estimate the degree of loss in wild bee and hoverfly species across Great Britain, and report a 55% decline in upland species and a 12% increase in dominant crop pollinators.

A magnetic material combining both low losses and strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) was so far missing in the field of magnon-spintronics. The authors here report on Bismuth doped YIG nanometer thick films showing both PMA and low magnetic losses for ultra-thin PMA materials.

Adult human hearts exhibit restricted regenerative ability, where cardiomyocyte loss leads to dysfunction, while neonatal hearts can regenerate, though the molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, the authors show that N-cadherin plays a crucial role in driving cardiomyocyte self-renewal by stabilizing β-catenin, representing a unique opportunity to promote cardiac regeneration and restore contractile function in the injured adult heart

Two-photon-enhanced lateral displacement metrology with polarization gradient (geometric phase) metasurfaces achieves 97% photon number reduction for high-speed nanoscale mask-wafer alignment in next-generation lithography.

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.

A consensus cell type atlas for the fly brain provides both an intellectual framework and open-source toolchains for brain-scale comparative connectomics.

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.

In this genomic analysis of peripheral blood samples of the phase 3 CheckMate-067 trial of ipilimumab (IPI) versus nivolumab (NIVO) versus ipilimumab and nivolumab (IPI-NIVO) in melanoma, the status of certain mitochondrial haplogroups in patients was associated therapeutic resistance to NIVO or IPI-NIVO, a finding validated in an independent cohort.