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Japonica subspecies has a lower nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) than that of indica rice. Here, the authors show that natural variations in the NIN-like protein 4 (OsNLP4) encoding gene are responsible for the divergence and introgression of the indica OsNLP4 allele into elite japonica cultivar can increase NUE and grain yield.

Seed traits are critical for soybean yield and quality. Here, the authors report a NF-YA transcription factor gene SW14 regulates soybean seed traits without affecting other agronomic traits by inhibiting GmLEC1-mediated transcriptional activation.

Polar skyrmions are nanoscale topological structures of electric polarizations. Their collective modes, dubbed as “skyrons”, are discovered by the terahertz-field-excitation, femtosecond x-ray diffraction measurements and advanced modeling.

Most kiwifruit species are vulnerable to high levels of heat stress. Here, the authors report natural variation at the GATA transcription factor binding site of EGY3 gene mediates chloroplastic ROS homeostasis to confer kiwifruit thermotolerance.

Using extended-gate capacitive coupling and diode connection, stretchable biosensors with a built-in differential circuit design can be created that can offer low signal distortion under bias stress instability, uniaxial strain, compression and temperature variations.

Modelling suggests the carbon cost for nitrogen assimilation by plants will rise substantially under future climate change with further increase at higher latitudes, due partly to enhanced contributions of soil inorganic nitrogen.

Khawaja et al. show sex-specific differences in neuronal-activity regulation by chaperone-mediated autophagy and that loss of chaperone-mediated autophagy leads to defective neuronal physiology and increased seizure susceptibility, linking chaperone-mediated autophagy to neuronal excitability.

Long-range resonant quantum tunnelling of electrons happens across potential barriers when the wavefunction interferes constructively. Here, authors demonstrate an analogy in optical systems based on epsilon-near-zero materials, achieving long-range optical interactions beyond evanescent coupling.

The authors propose a design strategy of multiscale engineering to boost the polar entropy of BaTiO3-based system, by which the large and flexible polarization change can be offered synchronously, availing superior electrocaloric performance.

The authors significantly enhance the high-temperature energy storage performance of bismuth sodium titanate-based relaxor ferroelectric multilayer ceramic capacitors via entropy modulated strain heterogeneity.

Ying and colleagues present PhyE2E, an AI framework incorporating symbolic search techniques for discovering physics formulas directly from data. The method has already led to improvements in space physics models when compared, for example, with NASA’s 1993 formula for solar activity.

Chang’E-5 lunar soils show unusually fast growth of solar wind–damaged rims compared with Chang’E-6 and Apollo samples, potentially pointing to local conditions that enhance solar wind effects on the Moon.

High-temperature, ultrathin, and high-performance microwave absorption is realized in the dual-layer structure with rare earth zirconate ceramics via electron delocalization-mediated thermionic migration and macroscopic interfacial resonance.

Genetic basis of the drought tolerance of upland rice is unclear. Here, the authors report the cloning of a COBRA-like protein encoding gene DROT1 and reveal that it is repressed by ERF3 and activated by ERF71 to help control the balance between growth and drought tolerance in upland rice.

The magnetoelastic coupling at a ferroelectric-ferromagnetic interface is shown to be dominated by shear-strain effects. Using polarised x-ray microscopy to simultaneously image the ferroic domain structures, the authors demonstrate an anomalous coupling in the ultrathin film limit.

How the brain supports speaking and listening during conversation of its natural form remains poorly understood. Here, by combining intracranial EEG recordings with Natural Language Processing, the authors show broadly distributed frontotemporal neural signals that encode context-dependent linguistic information during both speaking and listening..

This study uses brain recordings, self-reports, and facial analysis to decode acute pain in epilepsy patients. Machine learning reveals stable neural markers in mesolimbic, striatal, and cortical regions, plus facial cues, enabling reliable pain detection in naturalistic settings.

Weyl semimetals with low crystal symmetry, such as TaIrTe4, are known to host large unconventional spin-orbit torques. Here, Pandey et al combine TaIrTe4 with the van der Waals ferromagnet, Fe3GaTe2, and achieve room temperature field-free magnetization switching with an extremely low critical current density.

Probabilistic computing has emerged as a powerful route for tackling hard optimization. Here, authors show p-computers co-designed with modern hardware to run Monte Carlo algorithms solve hard optimization efficiently and establish a rigorous classical baseline to assess practical quantum advantage.

Recently there has been interest in using the orbital Hall effect to drive the magnetization of an adjacent ferromagnet. One metal, Tantalum, has been proposed a strong source of orbital current. Here, Liu and Zhu argue that the claimed orbital torques in Tantalum arise instead from self-induced spin-orbit torques in the adjacent ferromagnet.

To fully realize LLMs’ potential value in clinical applications, effective methods to enhance their quality and credibility are required. Here, the authors present LINS, a framework to enhance medical LLM responses by integrating up-to-date evidence and supporting clinical tasks, and validate it through new physician-curated datasets and large-scale user trials.

Negative regulator of thermotolerance 1 (NAT1) is identified as a negative regulator of thermotolerance in rice through the NAT1–bHLH110–CER1/CER1L module. Modifying NAT1 by targeted gene editing increases wax deposition and enhances thermotolerance in rice.

An untethered jamming mechanism uses magnetic fields to control interactions between soft-ferromagnetic composites with designed magnetization profiles. Stiffness, damping, and shapelocking are tuned for programmable robotic materials.

Dynamic systems show promise for physical neural networks, but gradient based optimization requires mathematical models. Here, the authors present a data-driven framework for optimizing networks of arbitrary dynamic systems which is robust to noise, and enables tasks such as neuroprosthetic control.

Cartilage-targeted gene therapy is dependent on delivery efficiency. Here, the authors develop non-pathogenic, virus-inspired lipopeptide-based nanoplatforms to deliver nucleic acids to cartilage with increased transfection efficiency over conventional lipid nanoparticles.

Control of quantum interference in engineered atomic-scale systems could enable precise manipulation of quantum states, however it has remained challenging. Here the authors demonstrate electrically tunable quantum interference in a system of Ti atoms on MgO surface, using a scanning probe microscope setup.

An Fe^III/V redox mechanism in Li₄FeSbO₆ on delithiation without Fe^IV or oxygen formation with resistance to aging, high operating potential and low voltage hysteresis is demonstrated, with implications for Fe-based high-voltage applications.

The electronic ground state of a correlated oxide interface is reversibly switched by light. Stemming from interfacial reconstructions, electrostatic confinement and photodoping, this effect opens a path towards engineering the optical response of oxides.

Monolayer amorphous carbon (a-C) has attracted attention due to its structural and electronic properties, but its synthesis has so far required the use of metal substrates. Here, the authors report the Te-assisted growth of large-scale 2D a-C patterns on various insulating substrates, confirming their insulating properties in quantum tunnelling devices.

Antiferromagnets have negligible stray magnetic fields and are robust against magnetic perturbations, making them ideal for high-density magnetic memory. However, these features make electrically switching the Néel vector challenging. Here, Guo, Lin and coauthors demonstrate layer-dependent electrical switching of a van der Waals antiferromagnet.

Terahertz control of polar skyrmions—topological textures of electric dipoles—is key for fast optoelectronics. Now, ultrafast excitation of polar skyrmions is achieved across two orders of magnitude of temperature in an oxide heterostructure.

Emotional experience evokes signalling in astrocytes, which form an ensemble that is reinforced by secondary astrocytic state changes resulting from repeated experience, leading to memory stabilization.

Static cloaking and camouflage remain a central challenge in mechanics. Yang et al. introduce an irregular growth strategy with limited building blocks of varying stiffness, enabling complex void structures for effective cloaking and mutual camouflage under diverse loading.

Hund’s exchange interaction energy in two-dimensional materials is challenging to extract from experiments. Now, this is achieved in rhombohedral graphene, which allows an estimate of the interactions that drive the variety of correlated states in this material.

Human antibodies DENV-290 and DENV-115 are ultrapotent against dengue virus 3 strains with differing particle morphologies. CryoEM shows both bind across two protomers at the center of the envelope protein dimer, defining a new class of epitope.

Spatiotemporal hierarchical modelling of geological sea-level proxies and tide gauge data suggest that the modern global mean sea-level rise rate since 1900 has exceeded any century over at least the past four millennia, breaking the long-term stability observed in southeastern China.

Advances have been made in thin-film piezoelectrics; however, the linearity of electric-field-induced strain with frequency and temperature still requires improvement. Here, by growing interlocked monoclinic and tetragonal polar nanoregions in (K,Na)NbO₃ thin films, highly linear strains of up to 1.1% are reported at frequencies up to 10⁵ Hz.

Sweat sensors are important in personalized healthcare using natural oxidase to target biomolecules but these reactions are susceptible to external interference. Here, the authors report tryptophan- and histidine-treated copper metal-organic frameworks which show highly selective activity for ascorbate oxidation and can serve as an efficient ascorbate oxidase-mimicking material in sensitive sweat sensors.

Prostate cancer (PCa) evaluation remains challenging due to its heterogenous and multifocal nature. Here, the authors reconstruct the nuclear chromatin compartmentalization of PCa patients-derived biopsies distinguishing two epigenetic subtypes and deriving an 18-gene signature with prognostic value on TCGA samples that is further validated with multiple independent PCa cohorts.

Quantum simulations of topological insulator phases with single-site control would allow to see richer phenomenology. Using a programmable trapped-ion simulator with site-resolved Floquet control, the authors implement a long-range spin model, revealing protected edge excitations and rich many-body dynamics beyond the single-excitation regime.

The author demonstrates that laser-driven ultracold Fermi gases can exhibit color-orbit-like coupling with SU(3) symmetry. This leads to color-like oscillations and other quantum-chromodyamics-like phenomena in an atomic physics laboratory.

Padawer-Curry et al. show that the hallucinogenic 5-HT2A receptor agonist DOI alters neurovascular coupling in mice, with implications for the interpretation of human fMRI studies of psychedelics.

Radiative cooling is an emerging technology for cooling with reduced energy consumption. Here the authors present photoluminescent composites that combine subambient cooling with aesthetic colour, hydrophobicity and durability.

Understanding the complex flow of soft amorphous materials requires going beyond standard rheometers, which fail to capture stress heterogeneities at the mesoscopic scale. By combining shear rheometry with time-resolved X-ray micro-tomography on 3D foams, the study uncovers universal master curves in local stress dynamics and reveals how microstructural rearrangements drive non-local stress redistribution, explaining macroscopic elastoplastic behavior.

Seed size plays an important role in determining soybean yield. Here, the authors report GmSW17, encoding a homolog of Arabidopsis UBP22 that plays a role in deubiquitination, as a positive regulator of soybean seed width and seed weight through inhibition of the G1-to-S transition by interacting with GmSGF11 and GmENY2.

Phenotype-based screening is a major bottleneck in the development of microbial cell factories. Here the authors build an AI-powered digital colony picker for single-cell-resolved, contactless screening and export of microbial strains, which identified lactate-tolerant Zymomonas mobilis mutants.

Activity in a set of parabranchial neurons in the mouse brain is increased during chronic pain, predicts coping behaviour, and can be modulated by circuits activated by survival threats.

The meningeal compartment communicates with the brain to modulate homeostatic functions. Here, the authors demonstrate that natural killer (NK) cells and innate lymphoid cells (ILC) 1 shape synaptic neuronal transmission and affect mouse behavior.