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The sub-arc mantle has remained persistently oxidized since ~0.8 billion years ago, unaffected by increasing atmospheric and oceanic oxygen, according to machine learning techniques that classified arc basalts and revealed stable V/Sc.

Mechanical relaxation processes in glasses can provide information on the structural and mechanical properties of glasses. Here, the authors observe a fast secondary relaxation process in La-based metallic glasses, providing information on the inelasticity of metallic glasses.

Extreme UV light sources allow us to study the dynamics of excited molecular stets over remarkably short timeframes. Here, the authors probe polyaromatic hydrocarbons—large organic molecules—and show their electronic excitation and subsequent ultrafast relaxation.

Complex oxide interfaces are important for electronic and spintronic applications. In this study, the authors show the emergence of spontaneous magnetism at one such interface between two phases of BiFeO₃due to strain effects and piezoelectric coupling.

A system that undergoes a phase transition at absolute zero is said to exhibit a quantum critical point. Zhou et al. identify the signatures of not one but two quantum critical points in the finite-temperature characteristics of an iron-based superconductor.

The development of high-performance ‘smart’ catalysts will rely on the rational design of nanoscale metal–metal oxide interfaces. A tandem catalyst that has both CeO₂-Pt and Pt-SiO₂ interfaces is now reported, and is capable of catalysing sequential reactions to convert methanol into ethylene.

Acoustic metamaterials passively manipulate sound waves propagating through them, which is attractive for applications. Zhu et al.present a single-phase metamaterial based on a microstructure with simultaneous translational and rotational resonances, enabling negative refraction at deep-subwavelength scales.

A region on chromosome 19p13 is associated with the risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer. Here, the authors genotyped SNPs in this region in thousands of breast and ovarian cancer patients and identified SNPs associated with three genes, which were analysed with functional studies.

All-aqueous emulsions are useful for delivering and processing biomolecules, but their stability is constrained by low interfacial adsorption energy. Song et al. solve this problem using protein nanofibrils that form a crosslinked network, whose stability is superior to conventional colloidal capsules.

Quantum electrodynamics predicts a rare process in which light is scattered by light. The ATLAS Collaboration reports signs of this elusive effect in the collisions of ultra-relativistic lead ions.

The measurement of the total cross-section of proton–proton collisions is of fundamental importance for particle physics. Here, the first measurement of the inelastic cross-section is presented for proton–proton collisions at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.

Mendelian randomization is a useful tool to infer causal relationships between traits, but can be confounded by the presence of pleiotropy. Here, the authors have developed MR-link, a Mendelian randomization method which accounts for unobserved pleiotropy and linkage disequilibrium between instrumental variables.

The behaviour of sound waves in phononic crystals—metamaterials with spatially varying acoustic characteristics—is similar to that of electrons in solids. Now, phononic band inversion and Zak phases have been measured for a 1D phononic system.

The amorphous nature of metallic glasses makes them interesting for structural applications. However, the interplay between the nature of atomic structures and mechanical properties remains poorly understood. Dynamic micropillar tests now show the important contribution of the inelastic deformation of atomistic free-volume zones to the deformation behaviour of metallic glasses.

Highly laminar graphene oxide flakes (10 to 20 μm in diameter) are fabricated. Reducing flake thickness to 10 nm enables water and organic solvent permeation, enabling the flakes to act as a highly effective organic solvent membrane.

The impacts of air pollution on mental health have been previously documented but rarely using nationwide large-scale data. This study investigates the short-term and long-term impacts of air pollution on urbanites’ mental health by leveraging national real-time internet search data in China.

Combined analysis of proton-proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN by the CMS and LHCb collaborations leads to the observation of the extremely rare decay of the strange B meson into muons; the result is compatible with the standard model of particle physics, and does not show any signs of new physics, such as supersymmetry.

The accurate determination of quark mixing parameters is essential for the understanding of the Standard Model. The LHCb collaboration now reports the coupling strength of the b quark to the u quark through the measurement of a baryonic decay mode.

CP violation has deep implications for particle physics and cosmology. Previously observed only in meson decays, signs of CP violation have now been spotted in baryon decays by analysing the proton–proton collision data from the LHCb detector.

Bastiaan Heijmans, Peter ’t Hoen, Lude Franke and colleagues describe a strategy to identify context-dependent expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). They apply their method to peripheral blood RNA–seq data from 2,116 unrelated individuals and discover 23,060 significant cis-regulated genes, of which 12% showed context-dependent eQTL effects.

Squeezed states of light have been experimentally demonstrated to improve the performance of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in astrophysically relevant frequency regions. This enhanced performance may help to reach the sensitivity required for detecting gravitational waves.

Understanding the mechanism of amyloid formation (protein aggregation) is important for developing treatments for many neurodegenerative diseases. Amylofit is a program for determining mechanisms and rates from protein aggregation kinetics.

‘Squeezed light’ enables quantum noise in one aspect of light to be reduced by increasing the noise, or more accurately the quantum uncertainty, of a complementary aspect. This has now been used to push the detectors at the heart of the GEO600 gravitational wave observatory to unprecedented levels of sensitivity.