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ChatGPT is part of a strategy of acclimatizing the public to the seismic changes that are imminent because of artificial intelligence, says the co-founder of OpenAI. Plus, the UK rejoins Horizon Europe and a bird-like dinosaur is as old as the ‘first bird’, Archaeopteryx.

Trust, testing, treatment and a quirk of fate have kept Germany’s death rate an order of magnitude lower than those in nearby nations. Plus: step through the coronavirus’s full genome and rediscover the polio epidemic that invented intensive care.

Science funders gamble on good ideas, researchers sequence a “complete butterfly continent” and how the first two objects from interstellar space are upending astronomy.

Alkoxycarbonylation reactions are widely used in the chemical industry, but their sustainability is often hindered by inefficient CO utilization. Here, the authors tackle the challenge by developing a sustainable and efficient carbonylation process for producing methyl propionate, achieving high CO utilization and regioselectivity.

Tools help mathematicians confirm an impenetrable proof and brainstorm solutions to difficult problems. Plus, vast reservoirs of clean-burning hydrogen might be hidden underground and the controversial idea of towing icebergs to quench thirsty cities.

Wolf packs in the wild aren’t led by a domineering male. Plus, the underwater origins of influenza and how to protect democracy from extreme political polarization.

Hundreds of genetic loci associated with age at menopause, combined with experimental evidence in mice, highlight mechanisms of reproductive ageing across the lifespan.

Composition and function of immune populations at barrier surfaces is crucial for response to infection. Here, the authors identify a population of dendritic cells in human epidermis, abundant in anogenital epithelia and distinct from Langerhans cells by surface phenotype and by high capacity for HIV infection and transmission.

Autoantibodies appear to be involved in almost one-fifth of COVID deaths. Plus, what the end to the 14-day limit means for lab-grown human embryos, and wave–particle duality has been quantified for the first time.

What makes the diabolical ironclad beetle unsquashable, faster-than-light travels in quantum tunnels and the false promise of herd immunity for COVID-19.

Signs of ripples from supermassive black hole mergers in galaxies across the universe. Plus, the secret forces that squeeze and pull life into shape, and the questions around COVID vaccines and transmission.

Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg’s posthumously published memoir details a swashbuckling life in physics.

Scientists carrying out routine monitoring in China have found that pigs are widely infected with a virus with the potential to trigger a pandemic. Plus, cosmic rays could explain why DNA is right-handed, and quantum computers work better when no one’s around.

Pipetting poison, four big goals for synthetic biology and why we’re far from building a trustworthy artificial intelligence.

Wanted: your huge underground warren. Plus, the world’s biggest carbon-nanotube chip and why PhDs should be more than just training for academia.

Here, the authors characterize two distinct T_reg cell populations in the visceral adipose tissue of lean and high-fat diet-fed mice. ST2⁺ T_reg cells are dominant in male mice and are transcriptionally driven by GATA3 and PPARγ, regulators that limit the differentiation of the more female-dominant population of CXCR3⁺ T_reg cells that are T-bet dependent. Functional distinctions are also evident in glucose tolerance and adipose inflammation.

In a zebrafish model of human cutaneous and acral melanomas, CRKL amplification causes tumours to favour a fin location, indicating that tumour location is determined by both the driver oncogenes and the pre-existing positional identity gene program.

The authors use fisheries databases and predictive models to understand past and future changes in the availability of iron, calcium omega-3 and protein from seafood. They show disproportional loss of nutrients in tropical low-income countries, which will be exacerbated by higher levels of global warming.

Seven well defined shortfalls in global biodiversity data must be overcome to meet critical global biodiversity targets. Pollock et al. discuss the current and future roles of AI in bridging these knowledge gaps.

Pugh and colleagues use single-cell RNA sequencing, CRISPR screens and functional assays to define a gradient of developmental and wound-response cell states in glioblastoma stem cells, revealing insights into glioblastoma origins and potential therapeutic targets.

Helper T cell subsets are characterized functionally by the cytokines they produce. Benoist and colleagues demonstrate that in vivo helper T cells do not manifest as discrete helper subsets but rather form a continuum shaped by microbial exposure.

The genomic organization and origin of the avenacin biosynthetic gene cluster remain unknown. Here, the authors assemble the genome of diploid oat Avena strigosa, reveal the structure and organization of the consecutive genes, characterize the last two missing pathway steps, and investigate the origin of the pathway in cereals.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) lacks effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, in particular at advanced stages. Here, the authors show that expression of the somatostatin receptor 2 is induced by Epstein-Barr virus in NPC and has a key role in the diagnosis, imaging, targeted therapies and prognosis of NPC.

Multiple mechanisms of immune evasion exploited by cancer cells have been described. Here, the authors show that genetic inactivation or pharmacological inhibition of tumor-induced Th2-mediated de novo steroidogenesis are sufficient to restore an efficient anti-tumor immune response and restrict tumor growth.

T cell development requires functionally diverse thymic epithelial cell (TEC) populations performing specific functions. Here, using massively parallel flow cytometry and machine learning, the authors examine in mice the TEC compartment from the perinatal period to adulthood, identify novel phenotypic markers and characterize the function of perinatal cortical TEC.

Don’t let misunderstandings snowball, how scientists are backing the #SchoolStrike4climate and the questionable war on ‘prediabetes’.

Cyanobacteria-infected water killed at least 330 elephants in Botswana, and many questions remain. Plus: what the Israel–Arab peace accord means for scientific collaboration, and lessons from three centuries of vaccine opposition.

Homozygous gene deletions in cancer cells occur over recessive cancer genes (where they can confer selective growth advantage) or over genes at fragile sites of the genome (where they are thought to reflect increased DNA breakage). Here, a large number of homozygous deletions in a collection of cancer cell lines are identified and analysed to derive structural signatures for the two different types of deletion. More deletions are found in inherently fragile regions, and fewer overlying recessive genes.

The global proliferation of urban digital twin models compels a research agenda that investigates the intertwined social, political, and technical dimensions of their development, from design to use in planning and governance.

Charles-Marie de La Condamine's quest to Peru to calculate Earth's flattened shape included some adventures that didn't make it into the offical records at the time, finds D. Graham Burnett.

De Jong and colleagues identify staphylococcal phosphatidylglycerol lipids as antigens for human CD1a-restricted T cells, which promote type 2 immune responses and may contribute to atopic dermatitis.

Quasi-2D halide perovskites are attracting increasing attention for light-emitting devices. Here, the authors demonstrated efficient and stable quasi-2D perovskite LEDs enabled by suppressed phase disproportionation with newly designed organic ligands.

It has been suggested that photo-switchable magnetic systems could be grouped together to form complexes with multiple accessible electronic states. Here, the authors report a tetranuclear iron cluster, addressable by laser stimuli, which exhibits three discrete electronic phases.

The idea of photovoltaic cells that can be printed onto thin, flexible plastic substrates are an enticing prospect for promoting solar energy generation. Duncan Graham-Rowe reports.

Epithelial tissue mononuclear phagocytes (MNP) can transmit HIV to CD4 T cells, but less is known about sub-epithelial cells. Here, the authors describe MNPs in human anogenital and colorectal tissues and find that CD14⁺CD1c⁺ monocyte-derived dendritic cells and langerin-expressing conventional dendritic cells 2 preferentially take up and transmit HIV.

Transcriptomics, proteomics, single-cell RNA sequencing, population-wide genetic association studies and structure–function analyses provide a picture of how the differential expression of G-protein-coupled receptor isoforms can diversify signalling in different tissues.

Marine woodborers can digest woody biomass without the help of gut microbiota but the mechanism has remained unclear. Here, the authors provide evidence that the woodborer’s respiratory protein hemocyanin plays a central role in wood digestion and may offer a route toward biorefining of woody plant biomass.

An extinction-risk assessment of reptiles shows that at least 21.1% of species are threatened by factors such as agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species, and that efforts to protect birds, mammals and amphibians probably also benefit many reptiles.

Entanglement was observed in top–antitop quark events by the ATLAS experiment produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s  = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹.

The search for life in the universe is difficult due to issues with defining signatures of living systems. Here, the authors present an approach based on the molecular assembly number and tandem mass spectrometry that allows identification of molecules produced by biological systems, and use it to identify biosignatures from a range of samples, including ones from outer space.

Highly crystalline BaTiS₃ has been shown to exhibit record-breaking birefringence of 0.76 in the wavelength range of 7–16 μm. The large anisotropy is a result of its quasi-one-dimensional structure.

The molecular mechanisms ensuring the specialized structure of small intestinal villus tip blood vessels are incompletely understood. Here the authors show that ADAMTS18⁺ telocytes maintain a “just-right” level and location of VEGFA signaling on intestinal villus blood vessels, thereby ensuring the presence of endothelial fenestrae for nutrient absorption, while avoiding excessive leakiness and destabilization of villus tip epithelial structures.

Green ammonia production could contribute to decarbonization and the decentralization of fertilizer production, but it brings critical challenges and risks. Assessing and addressing these challenges in real time will help advance technology and avoid unintended consequences.

Researchers fabricate electrodes that are too small to see.

Stig Bojesen, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Alison Dunning and colleagues report common variants at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus associated with mean telomere length measured in whole blood. They also identify associations at this locus to breast or ovarian cancer susceptibility and report functional studies in breast and ovarian cancer tissue and cell lines.

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is an anti-inflammatory drug proposed as a treatment for COVID19. Here the results are reported from a randomised trial testing DMF treatment in 713 patients hospitalised with COVID-19. DMF was not associated with any improvement in day 5 outcomes.

Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, is transmitted by the tick Ixodes scapularis. Here, the authors show that a tick secreted protein (PIXR) modulates the tick gut microbiota and facilitates B. burgdorferi colonization.

Fox and colleagues report that VEGF-A stimulation of endothelial cells induces the phosphorylation of profilin by VEGFR2 and Src. This regulation promotes endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis in mice facing pathological conditions such as tissue wounding and ischaemic injury.