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King Richard III was a controversial English King whose remains are presumably deposited in Grey Friars in Leicester. Here the authors sequence the mitochondrial genome and Y-chromosome DNA of the skeletal remains and living relatives of Richard III and confirm that the remains belong to King Richard III.

Is it possible to single out the thermal state from all the passive states even when not operating in the thermodynamic limit? Here, the authors show that an optimal amount of energy can be extracted from any athermal quantum state when using a machine that operates in a reversible cycle.

Archaeogenetic study of ancient DNA from medieval northwestern Europeans reveals substantial increase of continental northern European ancestry in Britain, suggesting mass migration across the North Sea during the Early Middle Ages.

Whole-genome sequencing is used to analyse the landscape of somatic mutation in intestinal crypts from 16 mammalian species, revealing that rates of somatic mutation inversely scale with the lifespan of the animal across species.

By comparing CsSrBr3 and CsPbBr3 with close structural similarity but the latter lacking lone-pair electrons on the octahedral metal, the authors reveal the similar vibrational anharmonicities in the two perovskites, which disentangles the electronic properties and vibrational anharmonicities.

Existence conditions of bound states within the continuum of radiative modes are revealed for waveguides with anisotropic birefringent materials.

FRAP analysis often relies on simplified assumptions that can affect measurement accuracy. Here the authors present a Python-based FRAP analysis software using simulations instead of simplified theoretical models to fit the data, which accounts for complex sample geometries and bleach conditions.

A long-standing mathematical model for the growth of grains in two dimensions has been generalized to three and higher dimensions. This will aid our practical understanding of certain crucial properties of materials.

Prodrugs offer one route to treat cancer, but they require activation once they have been delivered to the tumour. Now, a simultaneous chemo-radiotherapy strategy has been demonstrated in mice that uses gamma or X-ray irradiation to locally activate an anticancer prodrug.

Obenauf and colleagues report that acquired resistance to BRAF and MEK inhibitors in melanoma confers cross-resistance to immune checkpoint blockade by fostering a cancer cell–instructed, immune-evasive tumor microenvironment.

The modification of proteins with O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (OGlcNAc) plays roles in regulation of numerous cellular functions while incorrect O-GlcNAcylation patterns are linked to disease. Here, the authors report a cryo-EM structure of full-length O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT), the only enzyme responsible for O-GlcNAcylation.

The pilus type 1 of uropathogenic E. coli must resist mechanical forces to remain attached to the epithelium. Here the authors use single-molecule force spectroscopy to demonstrate a hierarchy of mechanical stability among the pilus domains and show that the oxidoreductase DsbA also acts as a folding chaperone on the domains.

The consequences of a possible global warming are far from clear. Modellers of economic and climatic change need to put their heads together.

Single-molecule spectroscopy analyses of titin fragments from modern animals and reconstructed from the last common ancestors to mammals, sauropsids and tetrapods shed light on the evolution of the mechanical properties of muscle titin from the Paleozoic to our days.

Positrons readily forms bound states with ordinary molecular matter. Here, we demonstrate that the recently developed neural network variational Monte Carlo method is extremely well suited to describing these bound states, which is often challenging for traditional quantum chemistry methods.

Noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC) are known to undergo degeneration in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. LC neurons may be under bioenergetic constraints due to spontaneous spiking. Here, Sanchez-Padilla et al. show that calcium entry through L-type channels during spiking of LC neurons creates mitochondrial oxidant and nitrosative stress. The study also demonstrates increased LC vulnerability in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

Methane production is traditionally not found in oxygenated soils, a paradigm incorporated in global greenhouse gas modelling efforts. Here the authors show geochemical and biological evidence of active methanogenesis in bulk-oxic wetland soils, attributing up to 80% of the total methane budget for the site.

Neutrophils play critical roles in the host response to bacteria, including the production neutrophil extracellular traps (NET). Here the authors show that NET formation in the context of pneumococcal meningitis impairs bacterial clearance and targeting NET formation in this context could be a potential therapeutic option.

Honey bee workers take on different tasks for the colony as they age. Here, the authors develop a method to extract a descriptor of the individuals’ social networks and show that interaction patterns predict task allocation and distinguish different developmental trajectories.

Using time-controlled CRISPR screens, the authors identify AKIRIN2 as a factor involved in the nuclear import of the proteasome.

By assembling the genome of Cardamine hirsuta and conducting comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses, a study reveals the prevalent role of transcription factors and gene duplication in morphological evolution.

Our understanding of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection is still incomplete. Here, the authors find that IL-33, produced during immune recall potentially by CD14⁺ monocytes, correlates with CD4⁺ T cell activation, anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody titer, and disease severity in a cohort of convalescent individuals professionally exposed to the virus.

This large, multi-ethnic genome-wide association study identifies 97 loci significantly associated with atrial fibrillation. These loci are enriched for genes involved in cardiac development, electrophysiology, structure and contractile function.

Temperature shapes the adaptation and composition of microbiomes, but whether their enzymes drive the thermal response remains unknown. Using an analysis of seven enzyme classes from worldwide marine microbiome data, this study shows that enzyme thermal properties explain microbial thermal plasticity and they are both finely tuned by the thermal variability of the environment.

Shanghai is a city facing the challenge for flood defence under climate change. This study proposes engineering solutions for mitigation flood risks in Shanghai by incorporating regret theory and decision science into the dynamic-adaptation-pathways framework.

Analysis of time-series abundance trends from more than a thousand local populations across Europe reveals a consistent impact of temperature on terrestrial communities, but variable impacts on freshwater and marine realms.

The HIV reservoir is a major hurdle for a cure of HIV, but the factors determining its size and dynamics remain unclear. Here the authors show in a large cohort of 610 HIV-1 infected individuals, who are on suppressive ART for a median of 5.4 years, that viral genetic factors contribute substantially to the HIV-1 reservoir size.

Exhibiting low-energy (un)folding barriers and fast kinetics, ultrafast folding proteins are enticing models to study protein dynamics. The authors use single molecule force spectroscopy AFM to capture the compliant behaviour hallmarking the dynamics of ultrafast folding proteins under force.

The authors describe a glutamatergic septoentorhinal pathway that provides running-speed-correlated input to MEC layer 2/3. The speed signal is integrated by several MEC cell classes and converted into speed-dependent output. This speed circuit may be important for the spatial computations of MEC neurons.

Dewald et al. combine a non-invasive sampling approach (Lolli-Test) with an RT qPCR-pool testing strategy to screen for SARS-CoV-2 infections in children and use the method for surveillance and infection control in > 4000 school and daycare settings.

An artificial neuron architecture based on antiambipolar organic electrochemical transistors shows responses to biological ions and neurotransmitters akin to real neurons with comparable speed. The soft and more biocompatible nature of organic semiconductors could enable applications in brain–machine interfaces and in vivo sensing.

Here, Bachmann et al. provide data on long-term dynamics of the HIV-1 reservoir in 1,057 individuals on suppressive antiretroviral therapy and show that in 26.6% of individuals the reservoir increases. Viral blips and low-level viremia are significantly associated with a slower reservoir decay.

Halide perovskites have sharp optical absorption edges, which seems contradictory to the amount of disorder in the materials. Here Gehrmann and Egger show that the disorder potential is short-range correlated and can thus reconcile with the sharp optical absorption edges and small Urbach energies.