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Robbins and colleagues show that cigarette smoke-induced endothelial dysfunction enables atherosclerotic plaque macrophages to drive abdominal aortic aneurysm formation in a mouse model of atherosclerosis.

The record-breaking 2022–24 Amazon-drought was caused by prevailing atmospheric stability and extremely high temperatures driven by the transition from 2022–23 La Niña to 2023–24 El Niño, according to the Lagrangian moisture and heat uptake computation with database spanning 1994–2023.

In patients with advanced cancer, the development of brain metastasis (BM) often signals a worsening prognosis with limited therapeutic options. Here, the authors assemble a large, open-source neuroimaging dataset of BM and perform spatial and morphological analysis which they use to develop a framework for function-sparing brain radiotherapy design.

Here authors present HetSIREN, a deep learning-based method that can fully reconstruct or refine a Cryo-EM volume in real space based on the structural information summarized in a conformational latent space.

Lake fisheries are vulnerable to environmental changes. Here, Kao et al. develop a Bayesian networks model to analyze time-series data from 31 major fisheries lake across five continents, showing that fish catches can respond either positively or negatively to climate and land-use changes.

Although the photogeneration yield spectrum is a key property for photoabsorbers in photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells, its characterization remains challenging. An empirical method to extract this parameter through quantum efficiency measurements of ultrathin films is proposed.

The roles played by thrombin in the human intestinal mucosa are unclear. Here, the authors show that the commensal microbiota modulates epithelial production of active thrombin, which controls biofilm growth and contributes to protection of the mucosa from bacterial invasion.

In cancer, the impact on cellular fitness of copy-number gains affecting collaterally-amplified genes remains poorly understood compared to oncogenes. Here, the authors integrate genomic data from tumours and cell lines and identify a class of ‘Amplification-Related Gain Of Sensitivity’ (ARGOS) genes, with potential therapeutic applications.

A previously unsampled deep lineage in central Argentina was discovered that had distinctive genetic drift by 8,500 bp and persisted as the main Native American ancestry component in the region up to the present day.

Comprenhensive analysis of human antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants and animal sarbecoviruses finds that Omicron escapes neutralization more readily than distantly related animal sarbecoviruses.

An optically addressable fluorescent-protein spin qubit is realized using enhanced yellow fluorescent protein; the qubit can be coherently controlled at liquid-nitrogen temperatures and the spin detected at room temperature in cells.

A high-resolution antigenic map of influenza A(H5) haemagglutinin (HA) enables the design of immunogenic and antigenically central vaccine HA antigens that elicit antibody responses broadly covering the A(H5) antigenic space.

Experiments suggest that placing molecules in an infrared cavity alters their reactivity, an effect lacking a clear theoretical explanation. Here, the authors show that the key to understanding this process may lie in quantum light-matter interactions.

A fluidic system with spatially reconfigurable hot spots generated by optical pumping of plasmonic nanorods is demonstrated, creating virtual barriers by generating local heating via photothermal conversion, for potential applications in chemical synthesis, lab-on-chip devices and microbiology.

Linking epigenetic marks to clinical outcomes promises insight into the underlying processes. Here, the authors introduce a statistical approach to estimate associations between a phenotype and all epigenetic probes jointly, and to estimate the proportion of variation captured by epigenetic effects.

Finding expectation values is a key step in variational quantum algorithms that are hoped to provide a near-term quantum advantage. Bravyi et al. show that a classical approximation is possible when the quantum circuits are limited to constant depth.

The discovery of thermodynamically stable thermoelectric materials for power generation has relied on empirical methods that were not effective. Here, the authors apply the inverse design approach to identify and experimentally realize TaFeSb-based half Heuslers with high thermoelectric performance.

Sensory experience transforms endogenously structured cortical networks with diverse and unreliable visual responses into reliable representations. This process is proposed to involve the alignment of feedforward and recurrent networks.

The heterogenous nature and dynamics of endogenous protein complexes pose challenges for conventional structural biology techniques. Here, the authors develop a native nanoproteomics strategy for the enrichment and subsequent native top-down mass spectrometry (nTDMS) analysis of endogenous cardiac troponin (cTn) complex directly from human heart tissue.

Graphene enables extraordinary nonlinear-optical refraction, far exceeding predictions based on conventional nonlinear-susceptibility theory. Here, Vermeulen et al. show that rather than the nonlinear susceptibility, a complex saturable refraction process is central to graphene’s unusual behavior.

Cells exhibit exceptional chemical sensitivity, yet we haven’t fully understood how they achieve it. Here the authors consider the mutual information between signals and two coupled sensors as a proxy for sensing performance and show its optimisation depending on noise level and signal statistics.

Quantum dots are tiny electronic devices that can isolate a fixed number of particles, serving as building blocks for quantum technologies. The authors find that in a chain of four dots, electrons can tunnel directly between the ends without occupying the middle dots, even when the system lacks symmetry, enabling robust long-range transport.

A quantum algorithm is introduced that performs Markov chain Monte Carlo to sample from the Boltzmann distribution of Ising models, demonstrating, through experiments and simulations, a polynomial speedup compared with classical alternatives.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is key for metabolic balance. Here, the authors show that RAP250 deficiency enhances BAT activity. Under these conditions, BAT-derived neuritin-1 regulates thermogenesis and fat metabolism, showing therapeutic promise for obesity and metabolic disorders.

Dynamic redundancy by horizontal gene transfer stabilizes gene abundances amidst compositional fluctuations in microbial communities, which suggests a means to program gene stability of complex microbiota.

The authors study a disordered β-Ta film, finding that quasiparticle recombination is governed by the phonon scattering time, which is faster than conventional recombination in ordered superconductors. The authors interpret the results in terms of quasiparticle localization, which helps to understand the quasiparticle relaxation in disordered superconducting circuits.

Many studies assess epigenetic marks in white blood cells, but it is unclear how much immune factors affect the epigenome. Here, the authors show that fine-scale blood cell composition and cytomegalovirus infection affect the DNA methylome of adults.

Marine fishes can substantially contribute to the inorganic carbon cycle through the excretion of intestinally precipitated carbonates, but the underlying drivers remain largely unknown. This study identifies the environmental factors and fish traits that predict carbonate excretion rate and mineralogical composition in tropical reef fishes.

Unconventional unidirectional magnetoresistance observed in the heterostructures of a topological semimetal (WTe₂) and a magnetic insulator (Cr₂Ge₂Te₆) enables the electrical read-out of the magnetic states of a perpendicularly polarized magnet through longitudinal resistance measurements.

Proseg is a segmentation approach for single-cell spatially resolved transcriptomics data that uses unsupervised probabilistic modeling of the spatial distribution of transcripts to accurately segment cells without the need for multimodal staining.

Quantum spin-ice phases are predicted to have emergent gauge fields and fractionalization. Neutron scattering and thermodynamic measurements of the quantum spin-ice candidate Ce₂Zr₂O₇ show features consistent with these predictions.

Coherent control of plasmon wavepackets is essential for quantum information processing using flying electron qubits. Here, the authors demonstrate a method to isolate and select electron channels contributing to a plasmon using a cavity formed by local constrictions, enabling precise control of plasmon eigenstates.

The PSA (KLK3) genetic variant rs17632542 is associated with reduced prostate cancer risk and lower serum PSA levels, although the underlying reasons are unclear. Here, the authors show that this PSA variant reduced proteolytic activity and leads to smaller tumours, but also increases invasion and bone metastasis, indicating its dual risk association depending on tumour context; the variant is associated with both lower risk and poor clinical outcomes.

The sustainability of the majority of multispecies reef fisheries around the globe remains unassessed. This study provides context-specific sustainable reference points for coral reef fish using environmental conditions. Using these reference points, they show that most reef fish stocks have failed at least one fisheries sustainability benchmark.

This study estimates the reproductive potential of fish in globally distributed coral reef sites. The results show substantial gains in reproductive potential can be achieved through the 30 × 30 conservation target, particularly for the important fisheries family, Serranidae, demonstrating the possible benefit of protection to population replenishment.

Shuman et al. report that epileptic mice harbor desynchronized hippocampal interneuron activity and unstable spatial representations, revealing that precise intrahippocampal synchronization is critical for spatial coding.

Coupling of ecology and evolution in microbiomes can lead to time-dependent community interactions. Here, the authors introduce Dynamic Covariance Mapping (DCM), an approach to quantify the community matrix and, with high-resolution lineage tracking, show how inter- and intra-species interactions shape the dynamics of mouse gut colonization.

Arrayed and pooled high-throughput screening is crucial for drug discovery and CRISPR functional genomics. Here, the authors present dFLASH; a dual FLuorescent transcription factor Activity Sensor for Histone-integrated live-cell reporting for high performance screening applications across numerous pathways and screening contexts.

This study shows that a multitrophic community model jointly recapitulates diel rhythms in abundances of Prochlorococcus picocyanobacteria, as well as viral infection, viral abundances and grazer abundances. Model-data integration implies that grazing predominantly controls Prochlorococcus abundances in surface waters of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, despite high viral densities.

Lassa Fever is a rodent-borne viral haemorrhagic fever that is a public health problem in West Africa. Here, the authors develop a spatiotemporal model of the socioecological drivers of disease using surveillance data from Nigeria, and find evidence of climate sensitivity.

Using mouse pancreatic cancer models, Tsanov et al. show that reactivation of SMAD4 at metastatic sites promotes tumor growth in the lung through RUNX1 but restrains metastatic growth through KLF4 in the liver, influenced by organ-specific epigenetic states.

This work presents a framework for estimating cell division numbers using DNA replication-associated polyguanine tract mutations, with applications for understanding tumor natural histories and origins.

Here, authors investigate how gut microbiota contribute to defensive behaviours in honeybees, finding evidence that gut-associated bacteria affect aversive learning and memory of sting extension reflex.