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The transcription factor ATF4 and its effector lipocalin 2 (LCN2) have a key role in immune evasion and tumour progression, and targeting the ATF4–LCN2 axis might provide a way to treat several types of solid tumour by increasing anti-cancer immunity.

Knots reduce the tensile strength of macroscopic threads and fibres. Now it has been shown that the presence of a well-defined overhand knot in a polymer chain can substantially increase the rate of scission of the polymer under tension, as deformation of the polymer backbone induced by the tightening knot activates otherwise unreactive covalent bonds.

The present study shows that maternal presence beyond early life remains crucial for brain, behavioural and physiological development in young horses, highlighting the importance of the mother–offspring relationship during a childhood-like stage.

Bosonic qubits can be engineered to feature intrinsic protection against certain kinds of errors, which makes quantum error correction across many bosonic qubits possible with less overhead.

An error detecting code running on a trapped-ion quantum computer protects expressive circuits of eight logical qubits with a high-fidelity and partially fault-tolerant implementation of a universal gate set.

Many phototransistors are multi-component systems with inorganic materials or involve faradaic processes that can be irreversible. Using a single photoactive polymer, Druet et al. report a reversible, water-compatible n-type photoelectrochemical transistor with potentiometric photodetection and current modulation.

In this alternative approach to quantum computation, the all-electrical operation of two qubits, each encoded in three physical solid-state spin qubits, realizes swap-based universal quantum logic in an extensible physical architecture.

Charge mobility, extracted from current–voltage curves, is an important parameter for evaluating the performance of organic field-effect transistors. Bittle et al. show that charge mobility can be overestimated by one order of magnitude due to the gate bias dependence of the charge injection process.

Using a novel optical tweezers assay, this study visualises DNA decatenation by human Top2α in real time. It shows that TOP2α must load at DNA crossovers, becomes inefficient above 28pN of force, and that cohesin inhibits decatenation on DNA braids.

Universal quantum logic operations with fidelity exceeding 99%, approaching the threshold of fault tolerance, are realized in a scalable silicon device comprising an electron and two phosphorus nuclei, and a fidelity of 92.5% is obtained for a three-qubit entangled state.

A device architecture based on indium arsenide–aluminium heterostructures with a gate-defined superconducting nanowire allows single-shot interferometric measurement of fermion parity and demonstrates an assignment error probability of 1%.

Cation-proton antiporters mediate selective ion exchange across cellular membranes to control pH, salt concentration and cell volume. Here the authors present a transition-path sampling method that overcomes the timescale gap between simulations (µs) and transport processes (s), which allows them to resolve the Na⁺ and H⁺ transport cycle of the Na⁺/H⁺ antiporter NhaP from Pyrococcus abyssi.

Donors spins in silicon are coherent, high-performance qubits, but scale-up has been challenging. Here the authors present the first experimental demonstration of exchange-based, entangling two qubit gates between electrons bound to ³¹P donors in Si.

Researchers use extremely non-degenerate photon pairs to achieve two-photon absorption at levels 100-1,000 times that of degenerate two-photon absorption in direct-gap semiconductors. The technique enables the gated detection of sub-bandgap and sub-100-pJ mid-infrared radiation using large-bandgap detectors at room temperature.

Magnetic imaging reveals that a transport current flows in the interior of Cr-(Bi,Sb)₂Te₃ samples within the quantum anomalous Hall regime, contrary to the common assumption of current flow along the sample edge.

Disorder has been a prime challenge to study the topological properties in a hybrid system. Here, Zhanget al. report ballistic superconductivity in InSb nanowires interfacing with a NbTiN superconductor, paving the way for disorder-free Majorana devices.

Synthesis of single-crystal complex-oxide films directly on silicon is difficult due to differing interfacial chemistry. Here, the authors demonstrate room-temperature integration of single-crystal lead zirconate titanate on to silicon to act as a gate insulator in a field-effect transistor.

Single layers of group-VI transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as direct bandgap semiconductors in the two-dimensional limit. The authors show that monolayer molybdenum diselenide is an ideal system enabling electrostatic tunability of charging effects in neutral and charged electron-hole pairs, so-called excitons.

This study demonstrates the capability of deep learning protein design models in generating functionally validated β-strand pairing interfaces, expanding the structural diversity of de novo binding proteins and accessible target surfaces.

Aligning magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene to boron nitride layers introduces a gate hysteresis coexisting with its strongly correlated phases. This bistability enables electrical switching between superconducting, metallic and insulating states.

Electrical control of magnetism in a bilayer of CrI₃ enables the realization of an electrically driven magnetic phase transition and the observation of the magneto-optical Kerr effect in 2D magnets.

KCNQ1 (Kv7.1) channels are critical for heart rhythm homeostasis. Here, the authors report the KCNQ1 structure in an intermediate state, revealing unique S1–S2 conformations that illuminate channel gating and may aid targeted drug development.

Research on superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene reveals unconventional behaviour, an anisotropic gap and a significant role of quantum geometry, using combined d.c. transport and microwave measurements, suggesting new insights into superconductivity mechanisms.

The quantum charge-coupled device architecture is demonstrated, with its various elements integrated into a programmable trapped-ion quantum computer and performing simple quantum operations with state-of-the-art levels of error.

Topological materials hold great promise for dissipationless information transmission. Here, the authors create Chern insulator junctions between domains with different Chern numbers in MnBi₂Te₄ to realize the basic operation of a topological circuit.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa survives extreme acidity by importing lysine through the LysP transporter to regulate acid-resistance genes. Here, authors reveal the cryo-EM structure of LysP and show how specific hydrogen bonds enable lysine recognition.

Social interactions and relationships are often associated with a rewarding experience. Hu et al. show that mice display positive reinforcement of social interaction, and they identify an amygdala-to-hypothalamus circuit in mediating this social reward.

A unified realization of the volt, ohm and ampere can be achieved by integrating a quantum anomalous Hall resistor and a programmable Josephson voltage standard in a single cryostat.

Experimental measurements of high-order out-of-time-order correlators on a superconducting quantum processor show that these correlators remain highly sensitive to the quantum many-body dynamics in quantum computers at long timescales.

Quantum computers may help to solve classically intractable problems, such as simulating non-equilibrium dissipative quantum systems. The critical dynamics of a dissipative quantum model has now been probed on a trapped-ion quantum computer.

Disruption of the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) is often associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Here the authors demonstrate the existence of a general mechanism of proteasomal impairment triggered by a specific protein oligomer structure, irrespective of its protein constituent.

Plasma p-tau217 tests used to develop clocks that predict when cognitively unimpaired individuals would develop symptoms of Alzheimerʼs disease.

Quantum dots in a nanowire are one possible approach to creating a solid-state quantum simulator. Here, the authors demonstrate the coupling of electronic states in a double quantum dot to form Andreev molecule states; a potential building block for longer chains suitable for quantum simulation.

Vertical-nanowire heterojunction tunnelling transistors that are based on the broken-band GaSb/InAs system can offer a drive current of 300 µA µm⁻¹ and a sub-60 mV dec⁻¹ switching slope at an operating voltage of 0.3 V.

Its tunable energy bandgap makes bilayer graphene interesting both from a theoretical perspective and with a view to applications. But exactly how the bandgap is formed is still unclear. A scanning tunnelling spectroscopy study now finds that the microscopic picture of the gap is fundamentally different from what is expected from macroscopic measurements and currently developed theories.

Measuring the bulk power laws of Luttinger liquids in semiconductors remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate the dominance of the end-tunneling effect in two fairly distinct Luttinger liquids coexisting in a single quantum wire.

Some bacterial species display gliding motility associated with slime secretion through nozzle-like structures at the cell poles. Here, Zuckerman, So & Hoiczyk show that the nozzles are composed of PilQ/GspD proteins usually associated with protein secretion, thus suggesting that secretins may be required for the secretion of non-proteinaceous polymers in these bacteria.

The authors achieve gate-controlled proximitization of a quantum dot in a planar germanium heterostructure, an isotopically purifiable group IV material. A patterned Pt germanosilicide superconductor is introduced via a thermally activated reaction.

A platform based on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology operating with qubits close to 100 mK can generate static and dynamic signals for the control of many qubits.

Mixed ionic–electronic transport in conducting polymers remains poorly understood. Here the authors observe non-equilibrium electronic transport when counterions are unable to equilibrate in response to gate-injected electronic carriers.

The SIT1-ACE2 complex transports the amino acid proline and is the receptor of SARS-CoV-2. Here, the authors identify specific sequence requirements for proline transport and explain for how a missense mutation causes iminoglycinuria.

As glaciers terminate into the ocean, mass is lost through frontal ablation where the ice meets the ocean. Here the authors estimate decadal frontal ablation from 2000 to 2020 of 1496 glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere, and find that frontal ablation makes up 79% of ice discharge to the ocean.

The spectrally narrow photoluminescence lines occurring in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) heterostructures at low temperature have been attributed to interlayer excitons (IXs) localized by the moiré potential between the TMD layers. Here, the authors show that these lines are present even when the moiré potential is suppressed by inserting an hBN spacer between the TMD layers.