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Genetic code expansion (GCE) enables the incorporation of new amino acids into proteins. Here, authors demonstrate the rapid OrthoRep-driven evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases for GCE, increasing the building blocks available to protein engineering and the scale and ease for achieving GCE.

Embryonic development produces different cell types in response to a small number of inductive signals. Here, the authors characterise how maternal factors modify chromatin to specify initial competence in Xenopus tropicalis, finding that the pioneering activity of the pluripotency factors Pou5f3 and Sox3 establishes competence for germ layer formation by remodelling chromatin before the onset of signalling.

An analysis of fish and macroinvertebrate communities in European rivers over 32 years shows that inland ship traffic is associated with declining taxonomic richness, diversity and trait richness and with increased taxonomic evenness.

Patients with stage 4 or unresectable stage 3 melanoma refractory to first-line anti-programmed death protein 1 (PD-1) or anti-programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 have longer progression-free survival when treated with a combination of anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte protein 4 (CTLA-4) and anti-PD-1 versus anti-CTLA-4 alone.

The combination of adaptive optics with an improved isoSTED nanoscope allows imaging of cells and tissues with sub-50-nm isotropic resolution.

This Review highlights chip-scale superconducting coherent photon source technologies and their rich potential as an important integrated quantum hardware to advance quantum information processing and communication networks.

The folding of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) is catalyzed by the βbarrel assembly machinery (BAM). Here, structural and functional analyses of BAM stabilized in distinct conformations elucidate the roles of lateral gate opening and interactions of BAM with the lipid bilayer in OMP assembly.

Dynamic nanodomains in lead halide perovskites, dictated by A-site cations, crucially affect the optoelectronic properties by modulating electronic disorder and consequently enabling better solar cells and optoelectronic devices.

La-substitution in BiFeO₃ enables an electric field-driven conversion of a multi-domain into a single ferroelectric domain accompanied by a single variant spin cycloid. A single domain multiferroic generates 400% larger non-local inverse spin Hall voltage at the output.

Intraband electroluminescence (EL) from n-doped core–shell HgSe–CdSe colloidal quantum dots is observed around the wavelength of 5 µm. The measured EL quantum efficiency is 4.5% at the injection current of 2 A cm⁻², benefiting from the cascade effect. The power efficiency is 0.05%.

Focus-locking improves localization precision in single-molecule microscopy, but fiducials are often deposited at random and provide limited 3D compensation. Here, the authors fabricate 3D optical fiducials with nanometer accuracy by two-photon direct laser writing, and demonstrate isotropic 3D focus locking.

In this study, authors introduce small molecular taxon-specific markers for bacterial detection directly in complex matrices using MS-based (spatial) metabolomics. This method has the potential to advance microbiological diagnostics and host-microbe research.

We report superconductivity, in a limited region of displacement field and density, in 5.0° twisted bilayer WSe₂ with a maximum critical temperature of 426 mK, establishing that moiré flat-band superconductivity extends beyond graphene structures.

Moiré patterns and flat bands usually occur in multilayer materials with a small interlayer twist angle, but this can cause detrimental lattice reconstruction. Now, flat bands are shown in a bilayer with large twist angle and structural rigidity.

Nonlinear optical processes like higher-order harmonic generation in solids depend on several factors. Here the authors explore the optical nonlinearity of hexagonal boron nitride and find that enhanced nonlinearity is due to electron-phonon and phonon-polariton couplings.

Kinetic energy put into a granular medium as a collective is typically dissipated as friction. The situation is different when forces are applied to the individual particles. An experiment now shows that when torques are applied to particles in a dense bed of microrollers, the grains roll uphill.

Integrating atomic force microscopy with time-domain two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy provides insights into molecular structures, mode coupling and energy transfers with high spatial resolution.

Recent experiments have shown the formation of ferroelectric domains in twisted van der Waals bilayers. Here, the authors report near-field infrared nano-imaging and nano-photocurrent measurements to investigate ferroelectricity in minimally twisted WSe₂ by visualizing the plasmonic and photo-thermoelectric response of an adjacent graphene monolayer.

An increase in wildfire extent and related greenhouse gas emissions can be linked to abrupt climatic changes during the last glacial period.

Unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance enables the new spintronic devices but is limited by the low amplitude or working temperature. Here, the authors report the large unidirectional spin Hall magnetoresistance in a topological insulator and ferromagnetic metal bilayer system at relatively higher temperature.

Bottom-up fabrication of GNR heterojunctions exhibiting atomically perfect heterojunction interfaces can be obtained from a single molecular precursor via post-growth modification

Antibodies that lock KRAS mutants in inactive conformations facilitate drug discovery.

Multidrug efflux pumps actively expel a wide range of toxic substrates from bacteria and play a major role in drug resistance. Here authors show the in situ structure of the efflux pump AcrAB-TolC obtained by electron cryo-tomography and subtomogram averaging.

Turajlic and colleagues assess longitudinal antibody and cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in patients with cancer, following either recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination, in two back-to-back reports from the CAPTURE study.

Spin-based electronics offers significantly improved efficiency, but a major challenge is the electric manipulation of spin. Here, Powalla et al find a large gate induced spinpolarization in graphene/WTe2 heterostructures, illustrating the potential of such heterostructures for spintronics.

Several recent works have demonstrated current based control of antiferromagnetic order, with the potential that such switching could be used for information processing and storage. Here, Haley et al demonstrate that in Fe_xNbS₂, this switching is non-local, with magnetic order changing due to an applied current at distances much larger than the spin diffusion length in the material.

Confident molecular identification is key for studying complex biochemistry. Here, the authors employ Quantum-Cascade Laser-based Mid-infrared imaging for rapid identification of ROIs, followed by MALDI imaging prm-PASEF for in-depth lipid identifications directly on complex tissues.

Energy consumption and compute density are challenges for computing systems. Here researchers show an optical computing architecture using micrometre-scale VCSEL transmitter arrays enabling 7 fJ energy per operation and a potential compute density of 6 tera-operations mm⁻² s⁻¹.

Cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray structures of the glutamylation eraser CCP5 in complexes with glutamylated microtubules and tubulin tails show that the substrate backbone adopts a bent conformation that presents the branch glutamate to a substrate-binding pocket on CCP5.

The use of harmful solvents to fabricate stable devices hampers the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors introduce a biorenewable solvent system and precursor-phase engineering to realize stable formamidinium lead triiodide-based solar cells.

Vaccine immunoadjuvants are central to vaccine efficiency. Now, the complete characterization of the biosynthetic pathway of QS-21, a potent immunoadjuvant produced by the Chilean soapbark tree, has been reported. These findings open the door to heterologous production of QS-21 and new-to-nature adjuvants.

The sub-terahertz rotational transitions of polar molecules can be used as frequency bases to create low-cost, low-power miniaturized clocks.

Oxidative damage to intracellular membrane proteins is critical to cells. Here, the authors use a water-oxidizing photocatalyst, generating ∙OH even under hypoxia, to show that membrane-specific protein oxidation triggers pyroptosis via non-canonical inflammasomes.

The authors report coexisting ferromagnetism, polar distortion and metallicity in quasi-two-dimensional Ca₃Co₃O₈, providing a platform to exploit magnetoelectric coupling in a metallic system.

High-spectral-purity frequency-agile room-temperature THz sources are foundational elements for imaging, sensing, metrology, and communications. Here a parametric oscillator-photomixer chip with coherent 2.8-octave tunable THz radiation is achieved.

Electrolyte gating enables the accumulation of large carrier densities in two-dimensional electron systems. Here, the authors demonstrate that a few-atom thick layer of hexagonal boron nitride can dramatically improve carrier mobility in an electrolyte-gated system by limiting chemical reactions and disorder.

An X-ray structure is presented for metabotropic glutamate receptor 5, a class C G-protein-coupled glutamate receptor linked to fragile X syndrome and neurological disorders; this study provides insights into the protein’s mechanism of action.

Using HDX-MS, X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, and MD simulations, the authors examined the conformational dynamics of GAD65 in its apo- and holo- states and its interaction with the autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 2-associated autoantibody b96.11.

Ice formation has hindered organ preservation below 0 °C. In this protocol, human livers are preconditioned with cryoprotective agents during machine perfusion and then supercooled to avoid ice formation.

The RXFP1 relaxin receptor is a critical mediator of physiological adaptation to pregnancy and an emerging drug target. RXFP1 activation was found to entail an unexpected mechanism of ectodomain disinhibition resulting in downstream signaling.

Alterations in the tumour suppressor genes STK11 and/or KEAP1 can identify patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer who are likely to benefit from combinations of PD-(L)1 and CTLA4 immune checkpoint inhibitors added to chemotherapy.

A solid-state device is demonstrated that can detect the absolute offset between the carrier wave and envelope of an ultrashort pulse, the carrier–envelope phase. It holds promise for routine measurement and monitoring of the carrier–envelope phase in attosecond experimental set-ups.

Approach versus avoidance responses are driven by D1 and D2 neurons in the ventral hippocampus.

The development of electronic flying qubits requires the ability to generate and control single-electron excitations. Here the authors demonstrate quantum coherence of ultrashort single-electron plasmonic pulses in an electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer, revealing a non-adiabatic regime at high frequencies.

This study revealed that targeting H3K4me3 via the H3K4 methyltransferase SDG2 activates gene expression and removes DNA methylation by recruiting DNA demethylases. Conversely, the removal of H3K4me3 synergistically enhances targeted DNA methylation.