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The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

Cross-dehydrogenative coupling is finding increasing application in synthesis, but coupling two chemically distinct sites remains a challenge. Here, the authors report an oxidative coupling between sp ² and sp ³ carbons by sequentially activating the more active aryl site followed by the alkyl position.

Managing power exhaust in fusion reactors is a key challenge, especially in compact designs for cost-effective commercial energy. This study shows how alternative divertor configurations improve exhaust control, enhance stability, absorb transients and enable independent plasma regulation.

Biomass burning emissions have been shown to influence clouds in the Atlantic, but its influence in other regions is not well known. Here, the authors show that biomass burning aerosols increase the low-cloud cover over subtropical southeastern Asia by a similar magnitude than over the Atlantic.

Two-colour X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers can be used to probe ultrafast dynamics, but the total power is a fraction of the saturation power. Here, Marinelli et al. use twin electron bunches to reach full saturation power and increase the two-colour intensity by an order of magnitude at hard-X-ray energies.

Chromatin-associated RNAs play various roles in gene regulation and genome organization, yet they remain challenging to interrogate. Here the authors report a targeted DNA-associated RNA and RNA-RNA interaction mapping method and use it to identify caRNAs at DNA anchor regions associated with chromatin loops.

Reduced glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is a hallmark of chronic kidney disease. Here, Pattaro et al. conduct a meta-analysis to discover several new loci associated with variation in eGFR and find that genes associated with eGFR loci often encode proteins potentially related to kidney development.

The strong ionic bond in salt is broken by electrostatic interactions with water, but direct observation at the level of a single ion is challenging. Here, the authors have visualized the preferential dissolution of an anion by manipulating a single water molecule.

The perovskite/electron transport layer interface in inverted solar cells suffers from severe nonradiative recombination losses. Here, authors employ amino acid salts to passivate the film surface, achieving a power conversion efficiency of 26.28% using vacuum flash processing technology.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

In this study the authors consider the structural variants (SVs) present within cancer cases of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. They report hundreds of genes, including known cancer-associated genes for which the nearby presence of a SV breakpoint is associated with altered expression.

Two high-redshift post-starburst galaxies are in the process of quenching, although their quasars remain active, indicating the complex co-evolution between black hole activity and star formation.

Cell type labelling in single-cell datasets remains a major bottleneck. Here, the authors present AnnDictionary, an open-source toolkit that enables atlas-scale analysis and provides the first benchmark of LLMs for de novo cell type annotation from marker genes, showing high accuracy at low cost.

Tunable polarization control and a two-colour X-ray pump–X-ray probe operating mode are demonstrated at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).

Precision oncology requires analysis of genomic alterations in cancer cells. Ren et al. develop an interpretable artificial intelligence framework that transforms somatic genomic alterations into representations of cellular signalling systems and accurately predicts cells’ responses to anticancer drugs.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a prevalent chronic liver disease, however, drugs to treat this disease are still lacking. Here, the authors show that PPDPF inhibits the development of hepatic steatosis by negatively regulating mTORC1-S6K-SREBP1 signaling, which provides a potential therapeutic candidate for NAFLD treatment.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

The characterization of 4,645 whole-genome and 19,184 exome sequences, covering most types of cancer, identifies 81 single-base substitution, doublet-base substitution and small-insertion-and-deletion mutational signatures, providing a systematic overview of the mutational processes that contribute to cancer development.

Here, the authors use multi-omic data to reveal how genetic and epigenetic variation affects gene expression in two pig breeds. The findings highlight strong tissue-specific regulation and identify genes with allele-specific expression.

Polyol oxidation to dicarboxylic acids is hindered by conflicting needs for C–H activation and product desorption. This work resolves the issue using fully exposed Ptn clusters on hydroxyapatite, enabling efficient and selective catalysis.

Estimates from the Global Dietary Database indicated that 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide in 2020, with the highest burdens in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Some cancer patients first present with metastases where the location of the primary is unidentified; these are difficult to treat. In this study, using machine learning, the authors develop a method to determine the tissue of origin of a cancer based on whole sequencing data.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

Finite momentum superconducting pairing refers to a class of unconventional superconducting states where Cooper pairs acquire a non-zero momentum. Here the authors report a new superconducting state in bulk 4Hb-TaS₂, where magnetic fields induce finite momentum pairing via magnetoelectric coupling.

A single-cell multi-omics atlas of rice is revealed, providing insight into cell-type functions and molecular programs.

Lasing in a hard-X-ray free-electron laser is typically seeded from noise due to the self-amplification of spontaneous emission, which limits temporal coherence and spectral characteristics. Researchers now demonstrate self-seeding using X-rays from the first half of the magnetic undulator to seed the second half via a diamond-based monochromator at ångström wavelengths.

Protein citrullination regulates the physiological function of proteins and is linked to various autoimmune disorders. Here, the authors report on the allosteric targeting of PAD1-4 leading to broad inhibition of protein citrullination in neutrophils.

Organic phosphorescence materials offer advantages for bioimaging applications, but most of them are excited exclusively by ultraviolet light, which poses risks to living organisms. Here, the author report doped materials with white-light activated phosphorescence activity, and a bioimaging mode in which these phosphorescent materials are first concentrated within the organism and then excited.

An electron and a hole trapped in the same quantum dot couple together to form an exciton. Conventionally the hole involved is a heavy hole. Light-hole excitons are now observed by applying elastic stress to initially unstrained gallium arsenide-based dots. The quasiparticles are identified by their optical emission signature, and could be used in future quantum technologies.

A deep learning radiopathomic signature based on features of CT images and whole-slide histology predicts recurrence-free survival in hepatocellular carcinoma patients, and is relevant to Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and tumor immune infiltration.

Spin-flip resonance data are used to place direct constraints on the interaction of ultralight axion-like particles with antiprotons, improving the sensitivity to the corresponding coupling coefficient by five orders of magnitude.

Multi-omics data are readily integrated using quartet reference materials.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

This study presents a symmetry principle-biased crystal structure prediction scheme within the MAGUS framework, achieving up to a fourfold performance improvement compared with state-of-the-art methods.

Here, the authors sample air and surfaces in hospital rooms of COVID-19 patients, detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in air samples of two of three tested airborne infection isolation rooms, and find surface contamination in 66.7% of tested rooms during the first week of illness and 20% beyond the first week of illness.

Understanding nanoparticle motion in complex liquids via Liquid phase transmission electron microscopy is limited by the difficulty of linking observed dynamics to underlying interaction forces without tractable physical models. The authors introduce a physics-informed transformer-based generative model that learns and reveals the stochastic, heterogeneous motion of nanoparticles, capturing key viscoelastic features of their environment.

The key challenge in liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) is preventing catalyst poisoning by CO in crude H₂. Here the authors present a Pd/α-MoC catalyst that enables efficient N-LOHC hydrogenation under crude H₂ (CO > 5 vol%) below 150 °C, achieving activity 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than conventional Pd-based catalysts.

Dioxythiophene-based polymers effectively convert electric potential into optical readouts. Here, the authors used such polymers to optically record bioelectric signals with microvolt sensitivity and sub-millisecond temporal resolution, highlighting their potential in optical bioelectronics.

N fertilization increases N₂O emissions over time by raising soil N availability, lowering pH, and stimulating N₂O-producing microbes, making global fertilizer induced N₂O emissions from cropland ~110% higher than IPCC estimates.

Peer review information

Nature Communications thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.

The N-terminal domains of gasdermin proteins cause pyroptotic cell death by oligomerizing to form membrane pores.

Overcoming the suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) is crucial to improving the efficacy of cancer therapy. Here the authors show that, in mouse cancer models, administration of exogenous IL-16 establishes a Th1-dominant TME via regulation of glutamine catabolism and triggers a Th1 cell-macrophage crosstalk, enhancing anti-tumor immune responses and the efficacy of immunotherapy.