Search

Soft objects challenge visual processing in unique ways, yet most models of vision focus on rigid bodies. Here, the authors use computational modeling to reveal that simulation-based intuitive physics underlies human soft object perception.

Using a global database of the radiocarbon content of rivers combining new and published measurements, isotopic mass balance suggests that about 60% of river CO₂ emissions are derived from millennial or older carbon sources.

Confinement is encountered in systems varying from simple liquids to biological cells. Williams et al. introduce an adaptive confinement with an elastic wall composed of colloidal particles, whereby the osmotic pressure of the confined system can be directly obtained from the displacement of the wall.

Fluorescence blinking has been recently observed in two-dimensional graphene oxide systems, yet its origin has so far remained elusive. Here, the authors unveil the nature of such long timescale emission intermittency and link it to the distribution ofsp² carbon domains.

Mutational effect transfer learning (METL) is a protein language model framework that unites machine learning and biophysical modeling. Transformer-based neural networks are pretrained on biophysical simulation data to capture fundamental relationships between protein sequence, structure and energetics.

Unlike conventional lasers that require a uniform resonant cavity to operate, random lasers use a highly disordered gain medium in which scattering is dominant. Hokr et al. report Raman lasing from a bulk three-dimensional disordered medium whose intensity exceeds that of other random lasers by many orders of magnitude.

Network glass fracture is a sudden, complex process lacking clear precursors. Here, the authors develop the local intelligent stress threshold indicator (LISTI), a neural network-based tool that predicts nanoscale crack nucleation by correlating local stress thresholds with structural topology, offering a method to identify fracture-prone zones in network glasses.

Lithium-rich oxygen-redox cathodes demonstrate high capacities, but lose energy density when cycled, showing cation disordering and formation of nanovoids and bulk molecular O₂. These structural changes are shown to be a consequence of a kinetically viable and thermodynamically favoured local phase segregation mechanism.

Artificial spin ices are composed of a honeycomb lattice of nanoscale magnets. Depending on the orientation of the magnets in the lattice, the spin ice can host high or low effective magnetic charge at each vertex. Here, Guo et al use neutron spin echo spectroscopy to show that these magnetic charges exhibit sub-ns relaxation times, analogous to bulk spin-ices.

Artificial spin-ice materials are usually described by spins that are either up or down. Here, a new type of spin ice is fabricated where the spins can be in one of three states with different coexisting phases separated by a first-order transition.

Robbie Waugh and colleagues report that the EARLINESS PER SE (EPS2) locus is associated with spring growth habit and environmental adaptation in barley. Resequencing the barley homolog of CENTRORADIALIS, located within the EPS2 locus, in 216 spring and 207 winter barley accessions identified haplotypes at HvCEN that correspond with winter or spring growth habit.

The emergence of universal collective behaviour is demonstrated through collisions of electron droplets containing up to five particles, which exhibit strong all-body correlations characteristic of a Coulomb liquid.

Condensates of excitons have been observed in the quantum Hall regime, but evidence for their existence at low magnetic fields remains controversial. Now evidence of coherence between optically pumped interlayer excitons in MoS₂ marks a step towards confirming exciton condensation at low magnetic fields.

Wildfire risk in California’s WUI is rising. Analysis of past events shows home hardening and defensible space can reduce structure loss by up to 52%, but coordinated, community-scale action is essential to maximize impact.

A very high-energy muon observed by the KM3NeT experiment in the Mediterranean Sea is evidence for the interaction of an exceptionally high-energy neutrino of cosmic origin.  

A direct proxy for past dissolved organic carbon signatures using co-precipitated organic carbon in iron ooids enables reconstruction of marine dissolved organic carbon signals dating back to the Palaeoproterozoic.

Experiments confirm the prediction that fluid-like biomolecular condensates are defined by spatially inhomogeneous organization of the underlying molecules.

Mercury’s exosphere is known to predominately contain hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, iron, and manganese. Here, the authors show evidence of the presence of lithium (Li) in the exosphere of Mercury, most likely originating from meteoroids.

Polymer crystals have a range of melting temperatures, therefore simultaneous melting and crystallization can take place. New crystals are seeded from some of the initial crystalline material, and as the orientation of the second-generation material is correlated with the starting crystal, orientated arrays of polymer crystals are produced.

Satellites provide clear evidence of greening trends in the Arctic, but high-resolution pan-Arctic quantification of these trends is lacking. Here the authors analyse high-resolution Landsat data to show widespread greening in the Arctic, and find that greening trends are linked to summer warming overall but not always locally.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission impact on asteroid Dimophos resulted in an elliptical ejecta plume. Here, the authors show that this elliptical ejecta is due to the curvature of the asteroid and makes kinetic momentum transfer less efficient.

Experiments and computations show that the organization and dynamics of molecules within and at interfaces of biomolecular condensates are governed by differential interaction strengths leading to the classification of adsorbents versus scaffolds.

Detailed mapping of the distribution of water and semiheavy water in the coma of Halley-type comet 12P implies a D/H ratio that is consistent with that of Earth’s water, indicating a common heritage.

Wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent in several regions around the world due to climate change, posing serious health risks, especially for respiratory diseases. This study examines the respiratory health risk and burden of wildfire-specific PM_2.5 pollution across eight countries and territories.

Ordered self-assembly is a promising way to realize collective properties in nanocrystals, but reliable routes to such macroscopic structures are missing. Here the authors make cm-scale ordered superlattice films from gold nanoclusters, correlating film properties with the shape of the building blocks

Spatially resolved JWST spectroscopy of a massive, quiescent galaxy at a redshift of ~4 reveals that it formed its stars and quenched rapidly, despite being surrounded by an abundant gas reservoir and gravitationally bound to a star-bursting companion.

Accurately predicting the adsorption of small molecules is a long-standing challenge in surface chemistry. Now, an automated simulation protocol, combining theory at different levels, has been demonstrated to accurately and efficiently recover binding enthalpies of a diverse set of small adsorbates on ionic surfaces.

The mechanism of the multiple-q charge density wave phase in the antiferromagnetic kagome metal FeGe is not fully understood. Here the authors reveal dimerization-driven hexagonal charge-diffuse precursor and identify the fraction of dimerized/undimerized states as the key order parameter of the phase transition.

Enzymatic recycling is an emerging technology to circularize the ubiquitous polyester poly(ethylene terephthalate). Here the authors evaluate and implement multiple process changes to improve the scalability and viability of this recycling technology. Process modeling demonstrates that these changes could enable cost competitiveness and greatly reduce overall life cycle impacts.

A four-qubit processor of three phosphorus nuclear spins and an electron spin in silicon enables the implementation of a three-qubit Grover’s search algorithm with 95% fidelity. The implementation is based on an advanced multi-qubit gate with single-qubit gate fidelities above 99.9% and two-qubit gate fidelities above 99%.

In magnetoelectric materials, the magnetization can be controlled by the application of an electric field, making it comparatively easy to switch magnetization, which is attractive for data storage and other proposed devices. Unfortunately, the effect in single-phase materials is typically fairly weak. Here Fogh et al. demonstrate a two orders of magnitude enhancement of the magnetoelectric coupling in LiNi_0.8Fe_0.2PO₄ compared to the parent compounds.

An approach called wavefunction matching transforms particle interactions so that their wavefunctions match those of easily computable interactions, to allow for calculations of quantum many-body systems that would otherwise be difficult or impossible.

In this work, authors present Kinbiont, which combines dynamical models with explainable machine learning to streamline data analysis and support theoretical formulation in microbiology.

Stereotactic needle biopsies are currently performed for diagnosis only in glioblastoma; this study highlights the depth of information available through multi-omics analysis.

N-body simulations show that the Earth might have accreted stochastically from various precursor bodies with different compositions depending on their formation temperature. This scenario fits the elemental isotope composition of the bulk Earth and suggests the presence of a radial gradient in the composition of the protoplanetary disk.

Single nanoparticles are known to emit light intermittently, or 'blink', but the mechanisms describing this phenomenon are not fully understood. This study demonstrates that, for small clusters of blinking nanoparticles, the number of particles within a cluster dramatically influences blinking time.

The efficacy of CAR-T cells against solid tumors is still limited by immunosuppressive factors. Here, the authors show that engineering of CAR T cells with A1R enhances their efficacy against solid tumors in vitro and in vivo.

Binary black hole mergers have recently been observed through the detection of gravitational wave signatures. The authors demonstrate that their association with active galactic nuclei can be made through a statistical spatial correlation.

People organize in groups and contagions spread across them, meanwhile groups can evolve as people adaptively move in response to the spread. Here, authors show how keeping key dynamical correlations offers new insights on contagion processes and opens the study of adaptive group-structured systems.

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.