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Experimental tests and computational simulations of a scaled-down specimen of a real steel truss bridge identify and characterize the latent resistance mechanisms following critical failures, demonstrating how loads supported by failed components can be redistributed and enable structure resilience.

The thymus produces T cells, and an improved understanding of thymus biology is likely to have therapeutic potential. Here we summarize the 2025 ThymUS conference, focusing on fundamental insights and translational potential.

Although the trivalent actinides are similar to the lanthanide series in terms of chemistry and bonding, their structures and properties can diverge significantly. Here, the authors report a series of complexes of the trivalent actinides Np(III) through Cf(III) along with their lanthanide counterparts using a polarizable non-innocent, sulfur-donor ligand.

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome is characterized by premature aging with cardiovascular disease being the main cause of death. Here the authors show that inhibition of the NAT10 enzyme enhances cardiac function and fitness, and reduces age-related phenotypes in a mouse model of premature aging.

The authors present a multicenter database to investigate the neural correlates of dreaming, including physiological, behavioral and experiential data. This database could boost the research on the mechanisms of dreaming in humans and the signatures of consciousness.

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.

Higgins et al. present an AI tool that uses patient data to personalise treatment for Helicobacter pylori, the leading agent of gastric cancer, demonstrating improved eradication rates over prescribed therapies in retrospective clinical analysis.

Using a molecular catalyst and a proton–electron transfer mediator in tandem delivers efficient electroreduction of nitrogen to ammonia at modest potentials, an approach that could be used to improve other important reactions.

Glucose uptake in astrocytes is thought to rely on GLUT1. Here, the authors show that adult mice tolerate astrocyte-specific GLUT1 deletion, which increases astrocytic glucose metabolism and confers neuroprotection in a model of stroke.

Silva-Santos and colleagues provide in vivo preclinical evidence supporting a therapeutic use of Delta One T cells to tackle colorectal cancer and propose activating natural killer cell receptor NKG2D and blocking immune checkpoint receptors as possible combination therapies.

Robust bioanalytical and modeling methods are needed for covalent drug discovery. Here, the authors demonstrate a mass spectrometry (MS) assay to measure target engagement of any drug-target protein complex, a universal PK/PD model for covalent drugs, and a decision tree to guide research.

Clatworthy and colleagues examine adult nasal lymphoid tissues in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Longitudinal profiling reveals changes in barrier tissue to block viral entry beyond the epithelial cell layer and how tissue repair occurred after viral infection.

Diet affects the human gut microbiome, but studies linking crop genetics to seed traits that influence the human gut microbiome are lacking. Here, the authors develop an in vitro microbiome screening method and reveal the association between sorghum genes regulating condensed tannin biosynthesis and human gut microbiome.

A normative digital atlas of fetal brain maturation produced using 1,059 optimal quality, three-dimensional ultrasound brain volumes from 899 fetuses presents a unique spatiotemporal benchmark from a large cohort with normative postnatal growth and neurodevelopment at 2 years of age.

Plant sigma factors are nuclear-encoded regulators of plastid transcription. A nuclear-encoded sigma factor integrates low-temperature and circadian signals, contributing to photosynthetic resilience to long-term cold.

Combining structural, biochemical, cellular and in vivo assays, the authors uncover the mechanism for capture and multisite phosphorylation of lethal (2) giant larvae by the atypical protein kinase C and partitioning-defective protein 6, revealing the basis for their mutual antagonism underpinning cell polarity.

Spapros is a probe set selection pipeline for targeted spatial transcriptomics that optimizes for both transcriptional and within-cell type variation.

A new inhibitor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis leucyl-tRNA synthetase is associated with bactericidal activity in humans and may be a candidate for combination therapy of tuberculosis.

l-lactate is an important intercellular energy currency. Here the authors report a genetically encoded biosensor eLACCO1.1 to monitor extracellular l-lactate; they use eLACCO1.1 to image extracellular l-lactate in cultured mammalian cells and brain tissue.

In the presence of three ligands and light, two distinct copper catalysts combine to produce enantioenriched secondary amides from racemic alkyl electrophiles and primary amide nucleophiles.

Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates from the facial skin of human hosts show abundant and diverse mechanisms of antagonism. Intraspecies antagonism is reduced between isolates co-existing in the same host, revealing ecological principles shaping skin microbial ecology.

The damming of rivers has large impacts on the balance of riverine carbon (C) processes and fluxes to the oceans. Here, the authors use decadal riverine organic C loads and model C transformations to quantify in-reservoir organic C burial, mineralization and assess decreases in riverine exports to the oceans.

Tissue-resident memory T (T_RM) cells provide rapid front-line protection against infection. Veldhoen and colleagues demonstrate that the type 1 regulatory T cell subset supports generation of T_RM cells.

An analysis involving the shotgun sequencing of more than 300 ancient genomes from Eurasia reveals a deep east–west genetic divide from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and provides insight into the distinct effects of the Neolithic transition on either side of this boundary.

New agonists of the serotonin 5-HT_2A receptor (5-HT_2AR) confer high brain permeability and antidepressant activity and—in contrast to classic 5-HT_2AR agonists—lack psychedelic activity.

Entanglement was observed in top–antitop quark events by the ATLAS experiment produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s  = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹.

Alkyl amines are found in a wide array of bioactive compounds, making strategies for their synthesis very important. Now, a method has been developed to synthesize tertiary alkyl amines via photoinduced, copper-catalysed nucleophilic substitution of unactivated alkyl halides by secondary alkyl amines, with key copper intermediates elucidated in a detailed mechanistic study.

Plasma extracellular vesicles contain quantifiable amounts of TDP-43 and full-length tau, allowing the accurate assessment of pathology in frontotemporal dementia, frontotemporal dementia spectrum disorders and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.