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Seismic tremors can be used to distinguish plate boundaries. Analysis of tremors occurring deep beneath the San Andreas Fault may identify the boundary between the North American Plate and the preserved remnant of a subducted slab.

Water and hydroxyl enrichment in the solar-wind-irradiated rim of an olivine grain from asteroid Itokawa suggests that its regolith could contain ~20 l m⁻³ of water from solar wind—a potential water source for airless planetary bodies.

While rheology studies have contributed to the understanding of the viscoelastic properties of living cells, the use of higher frequencies promises elucidate the link between cellular and molecular properties. Here authors introduce a rheological assay that measures the cell mechanical response across a continuous frequency range ≈ 1 – 40 kHz.

Photoinduced changes in transmission, reflection and scattering prevent conventional pump-probe spectroscopy to unambiguously assign the origin of spectral signatures. Ashoka et al. have developed an optical modelling technique to extract quantitative and unambiguous changes in the dielectric function from standard pump-probe measurements.

Benchmarking of tumor subclonal reconstruction algorithms finds that interalgorithm variability overwhelms intertumor variability and identifies key quality metrics.

The subduction of topographic features has been linked both to earthquake generation and the segmentation of faults. Seismic imaging reveals a seamount subducted to 40-km depth below Sumatra that is associated with an aseismic zone, suggesting that at this location, the seamount reduces coupling of the slab and overriding plate.

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.

In this Review, Paterson and colleagues describe how bioelectronic approaches involving site-specific targeting of the autonomic nervous circuit could be used to treat cardiovascular disease, and reflect on current bioelectronic modalities, their limitations and future ways to improve therapeutic efficiency.

Spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging has been limited by wavelength-dependent fluence variations and tissue motion. Here, the authors achieve real-time fluence and motion correction in vivo by using a wavelength-tunable laser, sequential scan of a narrow beam and partial image reconstruction for each pulse.

Understanding the pathology in the lungs of patients with COVID-19 might provide clues as to the susceptibility of patients and how the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be fatal. Here the authors analyze cadaveric pulmonary tissue and show one group with high viral load, early death, inflammation and inflammatory damage, and another with low viral load, longer duration of disease, and more M2-like polarization and fibrotic lung damage.

A technique that combines X-ray ptychography with laminography can provide three-dimensional views of integrated circuits, yielding both images of entire chip volumes and high-resolution images of arbitrarily chosen subregions, and is applicable to any imaging problem where the samples are planar.

Historically it has been maintained that soil organic carbon (SOC) is stabilized through interactions with mineral interfaces. Here the authors use cryo-electron microscopy and spectroscopy to show that SOC interactions can also occur between organic forms in patchy, disordered structure.

Whole-genome sequencing of 962 clear cell renal cell carcinomas from 11 countries shows geographic variations in somatic mutation profiles, including a mutational signature of unknown cause in 70% of cases from Japan.

A standardized, realistic phantom dataset consisting of ground-truth annotations for six diverse molecular species is provided as a community resource for cryo-electron-tomography algorithm benchmarking.

Stabl selects sparse and reliable biomarker candidates from predictive models.

The authors introduce and demonstrate experimentally an all-optical platform in fibres for reconfigurable operations at the sub-nanosecond time scale. This paves the way towards programmable hardware for photonic computing and machine learning.

By not treating plasticity as a mode of failure and instead using it in balance with buckling instability, mechanical metamaterials can be designed that buckle sequentially and show superior shock-absorption performance.

Breast cancer heterogeneity and tumour evolutionary trajectories remain largely unknown among women of African ancestry. Here, the authors perform whole genome and transcriptome sequencing of Nigerian breast cancer patients and identify unique evolutionary phenomena.

Surveys and a field experiment with Twitter users show that prompting people to think about the accuracy of news sources increases the quality of the news that they share online.

Flap Endonuclease 1 is a DNA replication and repair enzyme indispensable for maintaining genomic stability. Here the authors provide mechanistic details on how FEN1 selects for 5′-flaps and promotes catalysis to avoid large-scale repeat expansion by a process termed ‘phosphate steering’.

The type III secretion system (T3SS) of pathogenic bacteria is composed of a series of rings in the inner and outer bacterial membranes. Crystallographic studies of EscJ and PrgH, proteins that comprise the two inner membrane rings of the T3SS, suggest that a conserved structural motif serves as a platform for ring assembly. Additional docking and modeling studies reveal details of the T3SS architecture and assembly.

The involvement of the sirtuin family of lysine deacylases in disease, metabolism and ageing makes them promising pharmaceutical targets. Rumpf et al.present structures of human Sirt2 in complex with two highly selective drug-like inhibitors, and show that they act by rearranging the enzyme’s active site.

Excessive activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) occurs in many diseases; however, the systemic administration of MMP inhibitors can cause undesirable, off-target effects and hence, clinical translation has been hampered. Now, injectable polysaccharide-based hydrogels are shown to enable the localized delivery of an inhibitor of MMP following the hydrogels’ degradation in response to MMP activity. This targeted approach shows efficacy in a myocardial infarction model in large animals.

Despite being recommended, day-zero biopsies are often not performed, due to the cost and time. Here, the authors show that machine learning and donor’s basic parameters can predict the biopsy, offering a reliable virtual estimation of the day-zero biopsy findings.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a complex disease characterised by high morbidity and mortality. Here, the authors report methylation profiling of patients, finding disease associations in genes CTSZ, COG6 and ZNF678.

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern were detected early and multiple cases of virus spread not captured by clinical genomic surveillance were identified using high-resolution wastewater and clinical sequencing.

Monomethylation of histone H4 lysine 20 (H4K20me1) contributes to DNA replication but the mechanism is not well understood. Here, the authors identify a conserved tandem Tudor domain of BAHCC1 as a H4K20me1-specific reader, which promotes the recruitment of MCM complex to chromatin for efficient DNA replication.

In situ cryoEM and modelling of the Campylobacter jejuni flagellar motor characterize the periplasmic scaffold and the structural basis for increased torque generation.

Human lens clarity and function depends on well-organized cell junctions. Here, the authors used MicroED to reveal the 3.5 Å structure of MP20, showing that MP20 tetramers form adhesive junctions essential for maintaining lens transparency

Seismic tomography and the isotope geochemistry of Cenozoic volcanic rocks suggest the existence of a large, sheet-like region of upwelling in the upper mantle which extends from the eastern Atlantic Ocean to central Europe and the western Mediterranean. A belt of extension and rifting in the latter two areas appears to lie above the intersection of the centre of the upwelling region with the base of the lithosphere. Lead, strontium and neodymium isotope data for all three regions converge on a restricted composition, inferred to be that of the upwelling mantle.

Gastrointestinal motility disorders affect over 20% of the population, yet current therapies provide limited relief. Here, the authors show that in a swine model a closed-loop GI neuroprosthesis restores peristalsis and enhances metabolic responses via targeted electrical and chemical stimulation

Two doses of the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 boost antibody responses and functions in phase 1/2 trial participants.

A new age–period–cohort analysis reveals distinct generational patterns in deaths from opioid overdose in the United States, suggesting increased risks for Baby Boomers and Millennials.

Whole-genome sequencing of more than 2,000 colorectal carcinoma samples provides a highly detailed view of the genomic landscape of this cancer and identifies new driver mutations.

An optofluidic device rapidly detects, via surface-enhanced Raman scattering, picomolar concentrations of biomarkers for traumatic brain injury in finger-prick blood samples from patients.

Engineered zinc finger nucleases achieve 98% knockout of a target gene in human T cells without detectable off-target activity.

The molecular and cellular causes of glaucoma are not well understood. Here, the authors integrate GWAS with genetic regulation and single cell expression from multiple eye tissues to identify genes and key cell types that affect glaucoma pathogenesis.

A modern version of Newton's 'dusty 'mirror' experiment is made, whereby X-ray pulses are focused on a thin membrane with polystyrene particles placed in front of an X-ray mirror. After a pulse traverses through the sample, triggering the explosion of a particle, it is reflected back on to the sample by the mirror to probe this reaction. The resulting diffraction pattern contains accurate time and spatially resolved information about the exploding particles.

Whole-genome and targeted sequencing of multiple sections of each of 50 tumors reveals varying degrees of subclonal diversification and genomic heterogeneity.

Analysis of whole-genome sequencing data across 2,658 tumors spanning 38 cancer types shows that chromothripsis is pervasive, with a frequency of more than 50% in several cancer types, contributing to oncogene amplification, gene inactivation and cancer genome evolution.

Cryo-electron tomography reveals the ultrastructure of the rhoptry secretory apparatus in Plasmodium falciparum.

Metabolically-mature human islet-like organoids generated from induced pluripotent stem cells are able to recapitulate insulin-responsive pancreatic islet function and avoid immunologic cell death in diabetic mouse transplantation models.

Hydrous and alkali rich magmas rise through the lithosphere and may host gold-rich ore deposits – a poorly understood process. Here, the authors present new chalcophile element data across a metallogenic section of the lithosphere and suggest a continuous or staged ascent of magmatic-hydrothermal settings from mantle to upper crust.

Integrin αβ heterodimer cell surface receptors mediate adhesive interactions that provide traction for cell migration. Here the authors show that actin flow can orient cell surface integrins during leukocyte migration, suggesting integrin activation by cytoskeletal force.