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It is commonly thought that bacterial species borders tend to be fuzzy, due to frequent exchange of DNA. Here, Diop et al. quantify the patterns of gene flow between core genomes across 50 major bacterial lineages, showing that defining species using a framework inspired by the Biological Species Concept allows to identify clear species borders in most lineages.

Previously, superradiance was observed from sizeable crystals or close to liquid-helium temperatures. Here, Bradec et al. report the observation of room-temperature superradiance from single, highly luminescent diamond nanocrystals with spatial dimensions much smaller than the wavelength of light.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

Biomolecular condensates of Eps15 recruit and assemble clathrin. In turn, clathrin assembly restricts condensate growth while imposing the preferred curvature of the clathrin lattice.

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.

The analysis of the energy spectrum of 36 million tritium β-decay electrons recorded in 259 measurement days within the last 40 eV below the endpoint challenges the Neutrino-4 claim.

Two ‘outrigger’ telescopes were added to CHIME, leading to the localization at detection of FRB 20210603A. The burst originated from deep within the star-forming disk of its host galaxy.

The thorny skate is a vulnerable species in the northwest Atlantic ocean with a discreet size polymorphism. Here, the authors have sequenced 49 thorny skate individuals, finding a supergene locus that is associated with skate size.

A possible kilonova associated with a nearby, long-duration gamma-ray burst suggests that gamma-ray bursts with long and complex light curves can be spawned from the merger of two compact objects, contrary to the established gamma-ray burst paradigm.

We design and demonstrate a variety of integrated-photonics-based polarization-gradient-cooling systems, culminating in the first experimental demonstration of trapped-ion polarization-gradient cooling using integrated photonics, facilitating new capabilities for integrated-photonics-based trapped-ion platforms.

Kuilman et al. established a functional genetic screening platform for the efficient identification of tumor-specific TCRs. It is compatible with routine diagnostic tumor biopsies and can be applied in fully individualized TCR-T cell therapy.

Trained and validated on multimodal data from 14.5 million images from multicountry datasets, a foundation model is shown to increase diagnostic and referral accuracy of clinicians when used as an assistant in a trial involving 16 ophthalmologists and 668 patients.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Despite an increase in solar output, the Earth’s climate has apparently remained relatively stable over geological time. Here, the authors compile atmospheric CO₂data for the past 420 million years and show that this climatic response is due to the long-term decline in this powerful greenhouse gas.

This study reveals how distal DNA ‘switches’ control gene activity in human astrocytes. Using CRISPRi screens and single-cell RNA-seq, we map enhancer–gene links, highlight Alzheimer’s disease-related targets and introduce a model that predicts additional regulatory interactions.

A generative framework that accelerates the simulations of atomic transport in crystalline solids is developed, enabling large-scale screening and extending simulations to larger spatiotemporal scales for energy storage materials.

The demise of the Laurentide ice sheet during the early Holocene epoch allows rates of ice sheet decay under natural conditions to be assessed. Analysis of terrestrial and marine records of the deglaciation along with a climate model reveal two periods of rapid melting during the final retreat of this ice sheet, with rates of sea level rise of up to 1.3 cm per year.

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.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

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.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

The genomic and immune landscape of pre-invasive lung adenocarcinoma is poorly understood. Here, the authors perform exome and transcriptome sequencing on precursor legions and invasive lung adenocarcinomas, identifying recurrently mutated genes in pre/minimally invasive cases, and arm level alteration events linked to immune infiltration.

Why brain-like feature extraction emerges in large language models (LLMs) remains elusive. Mischler, Li and colleagues demonstrate that high-performing LLMs not only predict neural responses more accurately than other LLMs but also align more closely with the hierarchical language processing pathway in the brain, revealing parallels between these models and human cognitive mechanisms.

As presented at the 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer, in a multiarm phase 2 trial, perioperative immunotherapy was safe and feasible in patients with resectable diffuse pleural mesothelioma, with exploratory data suggesting that ctDNA kinetics could be informative of tumor regression and post-treatment survival.

This paper presents evidence for dynamical interactions in the very dense regions in the core of galaxies causing two compact objects, such as neutron stars and black holes, to merge, leading to a gamma-ray burst.

Controlling the reactivity of the propagating chain end in polymerization reactions is crucial for achieving well-defined polymers. Here, the authors present a strategy for processive catalytic polymerization by encapsulating catalysts for ring-opening metathesis polymerization into the sub-surface cages of a metal-organic framework.

A large bulk photovoltaic effect is observed in the type-I Weyl semimetal TaAs, and attributed to the diverging Berry curvature of the Weyl nodes.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Many pathogens encode transporters that extract heme directly from host proteins. In this study, the authors demonstrate the utility of de novo-designed proteins in understanding the mechanism behind this process and how it can be inhibited in pathogenic E. coli.

Gavin Kelsey and colleagues report methylation landscapes in mouse oocytes, sperm and blastocysts. They find that the majority of methylated CpG islands in oocytes display incomplete demethylation in preimplantation embryos.

Sea surface temperatures in the tropical oceans were thought to have remained stable during a period of warmth about five million years ago. Reconstructions of the sea surface temperature from the Caribbean and Pacific suggest that tropical temperatures have in fact changed in concert with global mean temperatures over the past five million years.

Due to the focus of vaccination on the SARS CoV-2 spike protein, spike has been associated with high levels of viral mutation and subsequent immune escape. Here the authors study a conserved epitope in SARS CoV-2 sub-domain-1 and characterise the neutralising antibody response and evasion in contemporary SARS COV-2 viral strains.

Mi et al. report epitaxial surface coverage of single CsPbBr3 quantum dots with size ranging from 3.6 nm to 14 nm using low steric ligand tails with attractive π-π stacking, leading to nearly non-blinking single photon emission with high purity of 98% and photostability over 12-hour irradiation.

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.

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.