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Dissipative quantum phase transitions in open quantum systems have been extensively studied, but experiments have been mostly limited to first-order transitions. Here, the authors report the observation of first- and second-order dissipative quantum phase transitions in a superconducting Kerr resonator under two-photon pumping.

A global land surface phenology map predicts complex geographical discontinuities in flowering phenology, genetic divergence and harvest seasonality across a range of taxa.

Modulating pro-inflammatory immune cell kinetics after myocardial infarction is a critical step to prevent heart dysfunction. In this study, the authors show that Ezh2 pharmacological inhibition, acting as an epigenetic checkpoint in monocytes and macrophages, prevents myocardial infarction-induced cardiac dysfunction.

Global warming impacts during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event were initially more severe for terrestrial ecosystems than marine ecosystems, and included a loss of vegetation diversity, according to spore–pollen assemblage data from Pliensbachian–Toarcian rock samples.

The nature and stability of carbon dioxide under extreme conditions relevant to the Earth’s mantle is still under debate, in view of its possible role within the deep carbon cycle. Here, the authors perform high-pressure experiments providing evidence that polymeric crystalline CO₂ is stable under megabaric conditions.

Potentiometric immunoassays using field-effect transistors offer ultrasensitive protein detection for point-of-care and early diagnostics. This Perspective introduces a framework distinguishing a double-layer regime active at nanomolar antigen concentrations and a ΔpH-enabled regime active at sub-femtomolar concentrations, and examines the potential underlying mechanisms.

Histone post-translational modifications are known key regulators of gene expression. Here, the authors characterize histone crotonylation at histone H3 lysine 18 in intestinal epithelia and find that it is a highly dynamic cell cycle regulated mark under the regulation of the HDAC deacetylases.

Here, the authors present RecombinHunt, a computational method based on big data analysis, that enhances community-based detection of recombinant viral lineages.

Measurement-induced quantum phases provide prime examples of non-trivial many-body dynamics and collective phenomena, but their experimental detection is difficult due to the post-selection barrier. Here, the authors provide a spin-wave-based approach to monitored quantum dynamics in long-range interacting systems, overcoming this challenge.

In this work, authors utilise comparative transcriptomics to reveal lncRNAs that distinguish pathogen-specific from core macrophage responses. They identify a Q fever-specific AHR-regulated CYP1B1-AS1/CYP1B1 axis that modulates mitochondrial homeostasis and survival of Coxiella burnetii.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) holds promise to solve a subset of Mendelian disease cases for which exome sequencing did not provide a genetic diagnosis. Here, Wells et al. report a supervised machine learning model trained on functional, mutational and structural features for rank-scoring and interpreting variants in non-coding regions from WGS.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are known to have impact on Earth’s lower ionosphere, but GRB impacts on the upper ionosphere was not observed before. Here, the authors show strong electric field variation at 500 km in the ionosphere caused by GRB221009A.

Zscan4 is shown to be involved in maintaining telomeres in embryonic stem (ES) cells. Only 5% of ES cells express Zscan4 at a given time, but nearly all ES cells activate Zscan4 at least once within nine passages. The transient Zscan4-positive state is associated with rapid telomere extension by telomere recombination and upregulation of meiosis–specific homologous recombination genes. Knocking down Zscan4 shortens telomeres, increases karyotype abnormalities and spontaneous sister chromatid exchange, and slows down cell proliferation until reaching crisis by eight passages.

This work elucidates the role of AGN feedback in supermassive black hole–host galaxy interactions, showing how outflow acceleration is key to the expulsion of gas from the galaxy, regulating or quenching the growth of the black hole.

The SiO₂ contents of erupted volcanic melts are correlated with persistent seismic signals that accompany eruptions—volcanic tremor—and may represent an eruption monitoring tool, according to a study of volcanic ash glasses from Cumbre Vieja volcano.

Extracellular vesicles have been exploited as potential therapeutic agents. Here, the authors apply a nanovial technology to select sub-populations of cells that secrete high levels of extracellular vesicles, leading to improved therapeutic efficacy when delivered in vivo.

Understanding the mechanism of non-radiative losses in organic photovoltaics is crucial to improve the performance further. Here, the authors use combined device and spectroscopic data to reveal universal model to maximise exciton splitting and charge separation by adjusting the energy of charge transfer state.

A somatic niche embraces the female germline in cereal ovules. MADS31 precisely maintains developmental progression of this niche to support the germline by repressing the post-fertilization programme.

Attosecond transient reflectivity spectroscopy, in combination with extensive time-dependent density functional theory calculations, is used to study field-driven carrier injection in germanium in the time window of few femtoseconds around pulse overlap, paving a route towards achieving full optical control over charge carriers in semiconductors.

Chromosome-level genome reference sequence assemblies of the model and biofactory Nicotiana benthamiana line, and a wild relative, have been generated and annotated for gene models, tissue-specific transcriptomes, microRNAs and epigenetic landscapes.

The overexpression of the ecotropic viral integration site-1 gene (EVI1/MECOM) marks the most lethal acute myeloid leukemia subgroup carrying 3q26 abnormalities. Here, pan-histone deacetylase inhibitors are identified as potent repressors of EVI1 and PA2G4 as a druggable target.

Homotypic interactions between active and Polycomb-repressed promoters co-occurring in the same DNA fiber, rather than CTCF occupancy, explain the 3D HoxB folding pattern.

The editorial team present a selection of highlights of research published in Communications Engineering in 2025

A genetic study identifies hundreds of loci associated with risk tolerance and risky behaviors, finds evidence of substantial shared genetic influences across these phenotypes, and implicates genes involved in neurotransmission.

Magmas may migrate through hydrothermal fluids, but magma-hydrothermal interactions are poorly understood. Here, Chiodini et al. use physical and volatile models showing that at a critical degassing pressure the release of magmatic gases can heat hydrothermal fluids triggering deformation leading to eruption.

A Pitx1 enhancer shows activity in forelimbs and hindlimbs but only interacts with Pitx1 in hindlimbs because of its three-dimensional configuration. Structural variants that affect three-dimensional conformation induce Pitx1 expression in forelimbs and cause partial arm-to-leg transformation in mice and humans.

This work proposes a wet-chemical etching assisted aberration-enhanced single-pulsed femtosecond laser nanolithography, named “WEALTH”, for manufacturing small-size, large-area, deep holey nanostructures, promising for emerging nanophotonic devices.

CREB-mediated transcription is known to be important for ocular dominance plasticity (ODP). Expression of the mircoRNA miR-132 is under CREB control, and this study finds that miR-132 directly regulates ODP.

Magnetic impurities break time reversal symmetry in topological insulators, but there has been disagreement between theory and experiment. Here, the authors study the response of topological states to magnetic dopants at the atomic level and show that, contrary to what generally believed, magnetic order and gapless states can coexist.

Helium is an atom of great scientific interest, yet much debate exists surrounding the shape its molecules form. Here Voigtsberger et al. present experimental results imaging the wavefuction of ⁴He₃ and ³He₄He₂ trimer systems, which suggest that ⁴He₃ is a random cloud while ³He₄He₂is a quantum halo state.

Calcareous nannofossils were important marine primary producers in Jurassic and Cretaceous oceans at low latitudes. Here, North Sea sediment records reveal that favourable conditions for nannoconids existed also at high latitudes, and nannoconids faced global decline at the onset of greenhouse conditions.

Studying craters on atmosphere-less bodies can unlock information about planetesimal histories. Here, Marchi et al. present results from the NASA Dawn mission to Ceres showing that craters >100–150 km in size are largely absent, and find that Ceres’ internal evolution is responsible for their absence.

Neural mechanisms underlying thalamic contributions to evoked potentials by brain stimulation, which has been widely used for therapeutic interventions, are not fully understood. In this translational study the authors show that the thalamus plays a critical role in shaping its neural responses across species and across stimulation modalities.

Earthquakes have been theorised to produce gravity signals that may arrive before seismic waves, but until now they had not been detected. Montagneret al. have detected prompt gravity signals from the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake thus allowing an early warning of earthquakes before seismic wave arrival.

The Perseverance rover detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons preserved within sulfates in the fan and floor of Jezero crater on Mars, offering new insights into past habitability and the preservation of organic matter on Mars.

Integrated Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 402 drilled two in-situ long mantle sections in the Tyrrhenian Sea, revealing that retention of large quantities of melts at mantle levels delayed the birth of an ocean basin.

The explosion of Vesuvius in 79 AD carbonized a library of papyrus scrolls, namely Herculaneum papyri, the contents of which are thus still largely unknown. Here, Mocella et al.show the capability of X-ray phase-contrast tomography to read letters in these scrolls without the need to unroll them first.

Understanding the dynamics of empirical food webs is of central importance for predicting the stability of ecological communities. Here Allesina et al.derive an approximation to accurately predict the stability of large food webs whose structure is built using the cascade model.

The germline is established during embryogenesis when primordial germ cells are first specified. Here they show that the RNA-binding proteins DND1 and NANOS3 function together to repress the translation of SOX4, restricting the germ cell lineage specification during embryonic development.

Environmental influences during prenatal development may have implications for health and disease later in life. Here, Czamara et al. assess DNA methylation in cord blood from new-born under various models including environmental and genetic effects individually and their additive or interaction effects.

Observations of a luminous quasar from the high-resolution spectrometer Resolve aboard XRISM revealed highly inhomogeneous wind structure outflowing from a supermassive black hole, which probably consists of up to a million clumps.

Copper catalysts are widely studied for electrochemical CO2 conversion, but their structural changes during reactions require further investigation. Here the authors propose that Cu undergoes transformation through alkali cation-induced cathodic corrosion when exposed to sufficiently negative potentials in the presence of alkali cations in the electrolyte.

Two main mechanisms have been proposed to shape 3D genome architecture - loop extrusion and phase separation. Here the authors combine these mechanisms in polymer models in a manner that best fits 3D genome, based on both Hi-C and super-resolution locus imaging data, proposing that these two physical processes can indeed coexist simultaneously within cells to define loops and TADs.