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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.

The authors conduct a national inventory on individual tree carbon stocks in Rwanda using aerial imagery and deep learning. Most mapped trees are located in farmlands; new methods allow partitioning to any landscape categories, effective planning and optimization of carbon sequestration and the economic benefits of trees.

Hominin fossils from the Ledi-Geraru Research Project area, Ethiopia, suggest that early Homo and Australopithecus species co-existed in the region more than 2.5 million years ago.

Fossils of 'eucrustacea' (crustaceans of modern aspect) are common in the fossil record from around 500 million years ago. A remarkable new 'Orsten' type Konservat-Lagerstäette from the Lower Cambrian of China reveals the earliest known eucrustacean in exquisite three-dimensional detail, significantly extending the fossil record of this important group.

A rhynchocephalian skeleton around 3–7 million years older than the oldest currently known lepidosaur fossil provides important insight into the origin of lizards and snakes.

Living birds are highly encephalized. Here, the authors study brain endocasts from Psittacosaurus and other dinosaur ontogenetic series with geometric morphometrics, finding that non-avian dinosaurs show a growth trajectory unique from extant archosaurs.

Here, the authors present fossilized neural traits from the lower Cambrian euarthropod Jianfengia multisegmentalis, including structured eyestalks and compound eyes, that resolve multiple phylogenetic relationships within Euarthropoda.

Species’ traits and environmental conditions determine the abundance of tree species across the globe. Here, the authors find that dominant tree species are taller and have softer wood compared to rare species and that these trait differences are more strongly associated with temperature than water availability.

A molecular ratchet, in which a crown ether is pumped from solution onto an encoded molecular strand by a pulse of chemical fuel, opens the way for the reading of information along molecular tapes.

A molecular-scale pump whose operation is driven by a catalytic process when in the presence of chemical fuel is autonomous, within an operating window, as long as the fuel lasts.

In this work, the authors combine cryo-electron tomography of vitrified virions, mass spectrometry, modeling, molecular dynamics and infectivity assay and report that a hinge glycan on viral spike protein influences virus infection and immune evasion.

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.

Weak interactions between functional groups are often difficult to characterize in host–guest complexes. Here, the authors report the metal-free active template synthesis of a series of rotaxanes that permit a range of kinetically stabilized, weak crown ether-axle interactions to be characterized in solution and the solid state.

The extant avian sternum is highly adapted to powered flight, but understanding of its early evolution is hindered by patchy fossil representation and the fact that where preserved, sterna in near-bird dinosaurs and early avialans are substantially different. To overcome this, the authors use ancestral character estimations and find that sternum evolution was episodic and experimental in relation to flight characteristics.

Using viral capsid architectures as template for design, higher triangulation number nanocages that require symmetry breaking offer potential advances in targeted delivery and antigen-displaying vaccines.

Pliobates cataloniae is a small-bodied Miocene catarrhine primate with unclear systematic status. Here, the authors present additional dental remains from this species, conducting cladistic analyses that indicate it is a pliopithecoid convergent with apes in elbow and wrist morphology.

Predictive protein design and experiments are combined to develop anisotropic bifaceted protein nanomaterials using pseudosymmetric hetero-oligomeric building blocks.

Fossil tooth development suggests an extended human growth phase occurred at least 1.77 million years ago, possibly reflecting a shift towards extended parenting and reproductive success, rather than increasing brain size.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Porous materials find use in applications such as gas separation, drug delivery and energy storage, but have hitherto been solid rather than liquid; now a combination of cage molecules and a crown-ether solvent that cannot enter the cage molecules is used to create a porous liquid that can solubilize methane gas better than non-porous liquids.

A phylogeny of Nymphalidae butterflies unveils the origin of the latitudinal diversity gradient. This study showed that the modern pattern of species richness emerged from dynamics of dispersal and diversification that varied through time and across regions, and that global climate change throughout the Cenozoic probably played a major role in generating the biodiversity pattern.

Chemical and structural imaging of Komodo dragon teeth reveals that they maintain their sharp cutting edges through iron-enriched coatings, a unique adaptation compared with theropod dinosaurs (for which they have previously been used as an extant model).

Global spatiotemporal patterns of plant diversification are unclear. Here, the authors use a genus-level phylogeny and global distribution data for 14,244 flowering plant genera, finding a negative correlation between spatial patterns of diversification and genus diversity.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a dangerous human pathogen responsible for mononucleosis and several types of cancers. Here the authors describe a high-resolution atomic structure of the EBV portal, which serves as the entrance and exit pore for the viral genome and is a potential pharmacological target for the development of antivirals.

In an integrated analysis of transcriptomic data from the SUBSPACE consortium and public datasets of patients with sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, trauma and burns, dysregulation within four consensus molecular clusters related to myeloid and lymphoid cells is associated with mortality and illness severity.

Here, the authors present paleogenomics, dental histology, geochemistry, radiocarbon dating, and bioarchaeological analysis of an Upper Palaeolithic infant from Grotta delle Mura (southern Italy). These data depict the health and development of the individual and point to regional population turnover at the time.

Actinide electronic structure determination is fundamentally challenging. Here, the authors assemble a family of uranium(V)-nitrides and quantify the electronic structure of the molecules, defining the relative importance of spin orbit coupling and crystal field interactions.

Four-coordinate cobalt(II) complexes possess high energy barriers toward inversion of the magnetic moment, but not the magnetic bistability needed for magnetic data storage. Here, the authors report an air-stable radical-bridged binuclear cobalt(II) complex with improved magnetic properties.

In a prospective study enrolling 1,222 patients from 22 emergency departments, a device using a machine-learning-based signature of blood mRNAs demonstrated clinically acceptable performance to diagnose bacterial and viral infections and to predict the all-cause need for critical care interventions within 7 days, with benchmark to established biomarkers and risk scores.

Here, the authors characterize the tempo and mode of lemur speciation with a phylogenomic dataset that also includes lorisiforms. They find that lemurs exhibited multiple bursts of diversification (without subsequent decline in diversification rate) with the highest diversification rates accompanied by high introgression rates.

Fossils of two new worm-like aculiferan species add to the diversity of this group, showing that evolution in early aculiferans generated unusual forms comparable to other crown-group molluscs.

Description of the most complete fossil skull of an infant ape recovered from the Miocene epoch of Kenya, assigned to a new species in the genusNyanzapithecus.

High-resolution computed tomography of three-dimensionally preserved specimens of Ichthyornis dispar clarifies the mosaic evolution of the avian head, revealing a kinetic feeding apparatus reminiscent of modern birds, a transitional beak and a dinosaurian temporal region.

Up to 25% of patients with ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) experience disease progression within the first year of targeted therapy. This work reports a phase 2 trial investigating whether combining alectinib with bevacizumab can delay resistance mechanisms in advanced ALK-rearranged NSCLC.

Gonzalez-Hurtado, Leveau and colleagues characterize adipose resident tissue macrophages across lifespan in mice, finding that nerve-associated macrophages, which mitigate inflammation and control lipolysis and catecholamine resistance, are lost during aging.

A new amniote phylogeny excludes varanopids as stem-line mammals, nests Parareptilia within Diapsida and suggests that temporal fenestration evolved fewer times than previously thought.

A fluorescent bicolour sensor is proposed as the basis of a barium-tagging technique for the detection of neutrinoless double β decay in xenon gas experiments.

Recent analyses have suggested that tree cover in non-forest ecosystems may be much higher than expected. Here, the authors map tree cover down to the individual tree level for the entire continent of Africa and find that almost 30% is found outside areas classified as forests.