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The authors use atomistic calculations with machine-learned interatomic potentials to show that dislocation motion in metals like iron and tungsten involves a nearly constant activation entropy, challenging prior models and improving strength predictions.

In this work, authors use whole genome tracking in a neonatal intensive care unit to reveal a strong link between Staphylococcus aureus colonization and invasive infection, pinpointing critical new targets for infection prevention in high-risk infants.

The APOE-ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but it is not deterministic. Here, the authors show that common genetic variation changes how APOE-ε4 influences cognition.

Chemical disequilibrium is a known biosignature, and it is important to determine the conditions for its remote detection. A thermodynamical model coupled with atmospheric retrieval shows that a disequilibrium can be inferred for a Proterozoic Earth-like exoplanet in reflected light at a high O₂/CH₄ abundance case and signal-to-noise ratio of 50.

A molecular-level understanding of structural evolution upon electrochemical doping in organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors is required. A pronounced reduction in mass and thickness is observed in an n-type ladder polymer upon doping with protic cations owing to water expulsion.

Electrochemical CO reduction to multi-carbon products offers a carbon-negative approach to produce chemicals, but the intricate reaction pathways lead to a broad spectrum of products. Now it has been shown that alkali cations alter the mechanistic pathways that govern the reaction selectivity involved in the formation of hydrocarbons versus oxygenates.

How white matter develops along the length of major tracts in humans remains unknown. Here, the authors identify fundamental patterns of human white matter development along distinct axes that reflect brain organization.

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the deep Northwest Atlantic was only about 2 °C colder than today, suggesting sustained production of relatively warm North Atlantic Deep Water during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Multi-trait genome-wide analyses identify variants associated with comorbid lung diseases. Polygenic scores leveraging shared components of heritable risk improve prediction of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer in a multi-ancestry cohort.

Studies of humans, mice and nematodes reveal a conserved role of neural activity and the transcription factor REST in extended longevity.

Metabolic strategies of cave microorganisms are poorly studied. Here, the authors show that cave microbes use atmospheric trace gases hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane as energy and carbon sources, sustaining primary production and revealing how life can thrive in oligotrophic and dark ecosystems.

Two small-molecule drugs, risdiplam and branaplam, have been developed for treating spinal muscular atrophy. Here the authors develop quantitative modeling methods for the sequence-specific and concentration-dependent effects of these and other splice-modifying drugs.

cellSTAAR advances noncoding rare variant association analysis by integrating single-cell genomics data.

Two-dimensional poly(arylene vinylene) frameworks are promising polymer semiconductors, yet obtaining highly crystalline materials is a major challenge. Now a series of 11 highly crystalline or single-crystalline 2D poly(arylene vinylene)s have been prepared—from 2D imine-linked covalent organic frameworks through a Mannich-elimination strategy—with diverse lattices, enhanced conjugation and specific surface areas up to 2,000 m² g⁻¹.

Reactive capture bypasses CO₂ regeneration, enabling efficient CO production but with low Faradaic efficiency. The authors report a Ni–N₃ molecular catalyst that resists amino acid adsorption and promotes efficient CO production in amino-acid systems.

The development of robust catalysts that could work under industrial-scale current densities remains a challenge for chlor-related reactions. Here, the authors report an activation method for designing efficient ruthenium single-atom catalysts that enhance chlor-related production and recycling.

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.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage is key for climate change mitigation and developing more environmentally friendly technologies. Now it has been shown that CO₂ capture in single-component water-lean solvents is accompanied by the self-assembly of reverse-micelle-like tetrameric clusters in solution that enable the formation of various CO₂-containing compounds.

Ethanol electrosynthesis from CO reduction is achieved using an oxygen-affinity-engineered copper alloy catalyst. Unlike conventional CO dimerization pathways, which yield diverse products, this catalyst selectively promotes the CO–CH_x coupling route, enabling selective ethanol production.

Water-vapor interfaces have been studied with many techniques, yet open questions persist about their electronic and molecular structure. Here, the authors demonstrate the application of soft x-ray second harmonic generation to study the water surface by leveraging attosecond pulses at the LCLS and a flat liquid sheet microjet, providing insights on the H-bond structure.

A new model for collagen intrafibrillar mineralization shows the need for a balance between osmotic equilibrium and electroneutrality to establish Gibbs–Donnan equilibrium.

Garnet-type LLZO electrolytes are considered among the most promising solid-state electrolytes for all-solid-state batteries; however, numerous challenges need to be addressed before they are integrated into a cell. By precipitating amorphous zirconium oxide onto grain boundaries, increased ionic conductivity is observed and dendrite growth is suppressed.

The biological pump is the key ecological component that links carbon and energy flow from oceanic surface waters to the abyss. Here the authors show that the elemental composition and energy content of sinking particulate matter can be used to develop a more comprehensive understanding of energy flow networks in the sea.

Aberrant synchronous oscillations have been associated with numerous brain disorders, including essential tremor. The authors show that synchronous cerebellar activity can casually affect essential tremor and that its underlying mechanism may be related to the temporal coherence of the tremulous movement.

Reported detections of gases in exoplanet atmospheres, including claims of biosignatures on K2-18 b, disappear when broader models are tested, revealing that such detections often reflect modelling limits rather than real signals.

Swarming bacterial populations can exhibit antibiotic resistance, despite sustaining considerable cell death. Here, Bhattacharyya et al. show that killed cells release periplasmic protein AcrA, which activates efflux pumps on the surface of live cells, thus enhancing antibiotic resistance in the surviving cells.

Fine-mapping of causal variants and integration of epigenetic and chromatin conformation data identify likely target genes for 150 breast cancer risk regions.

A quantum many-body system’s equilibrium behaviour is described by its partition function, which is hard to compute. Now it has been shown that the easier task of finding an approximation could define a distinct class of computational problems.

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.

In this largest whole-exome sequencing study of epilepsies to date, the Epi25 Collaborative identified extremely rare variants that confer risk for diverse epilepsy subtypes, highlighting roles in synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability.

Similarly to entropy, majorization allows to quantify deviation from uniformity in a wide range of fields. In this paper, the authors use its generalization to the quantum realm to derive a complete set of necessary and sufficient conditions for thermal transformations of quantum states.

The contribution of vibrations to the stability of high-entropy ceramics is still controversial. Here the authors computationally integrate disorder parameterization, phonon modelling, and thermodynamic characterization to investigate the role of vibrations to the stability of high-entropy carbides.

While transition metal nitrides are promising low-cost electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media, a fundamental understanding of their activity is still lacking. Here MnN nanocuboids with well-defined surface structures are investigated, providing atomistic insight and mechanistic understanding.

This report from the 1000 Genomes Project describes the genomes of 1,092 individuals from 14 human populations, providing a resource for common and low-frequency variant analysis in individuals from diverse populations; hundreds of rare non-coding variants at conserved sites, such as motif-disrupting changes in transcription-factor-binding sites, can be found in each individual.

Placing particles at the interface between immiscible fluids usually enhances emulsification. However, now it is shown that if the particles are ferromagnetic, emulsification is suppressed and a non-planar recoverable interfacial shape develops.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

Electrosynthesis of n-propanol from CO has been limited by poor selectivity and low product concentration. Here a Sn–Cu catalyst/carbon/ionomer heterojunction is prepared where the adjacent atomic active sites favour the coupling of C₁ and C₂ intermediates to C₃ product with 47% Faradaic efficiency and the reversal of electro-osmotic drag concentrates the product to 30 wt%.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

Integrating cell-laden hydrogels effectively into the 3D printing process is a challenge in the creation of tissue engineering scaffolds. Here, the authors describe an additive manufacturing technique to combine polymer and cell-containing networks with 3D-printed mechanical supports.

The use of biocatalysis to support early-stage drug discovery campaigns remains largely untapped. Here, engineered biocatalysts enable the synthesis of sp³-rich polycyclic compounds through an intramolecular cyclopropanation of benzothiophenes, affording a class of complex scaffolds potentially useful for fragment-based drug discovery campaigns.

A base-stabilized silicon analogue of a reactive carbon species (vinyl carbene) is reported that features a silicon–silicon double bond and a silylene functionality, coordinated by an N-heterocyclic carbene. Ultraviolet–visible light and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in solution confirms that disilenyl silylene exists in equilibrium with the corresponding cyclotrisilene and free N-heterocyclic carbene.

Defined levels of SARS-CoV-2-specific binding and neutralizing antibodies elicited by the COVID-19 vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 are identified as correlates of protection against symptomatic infection.

Engineering stabilized proteins is essential for industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnologies. Here, authors present Stability Oracle, a Graph-Transformer framework trained on protein masked microenvironments to predict protein thermodynamic stability, using less training data while achieving improved generalization.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.