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The famous nebula Barnard 68 has been used as a giant cosmic-ray detector: cosmic-ray-excited vibrational H₂ emission has been observed by JWST, giving a direct measurement of the CR ionization rate.

Vocal fold cancer tumours lose some of their malignant traits when mechanically stimulated by physiological stretch or vibrations, mimicking the opening and closing of vocal folds and phonation.

Models of turbulent flows are often simulated in the laboratory, in sampling areas with dimensions <1 m. Here, the authors exploit a natural snowstorm to quantify turbulent flows, exploring the complex dynamics of the atmospheric boundary layer around a 2.5-MW utility-scale wind turbine.

Artificial intelligence boosts individual scientists’ output, citations and career progression, but collectively narrows research diversity and reduces collaboration, concentrating work in data-rich areas and potentially limiting broader scientific exploration.

High-order modes of hyperbolic polaritons – hybrid light-matter interactions – in anisotropic van der Waals materials hold potential for nanophotonics applications. Here, the authors report the observation of polariton mode conversion in step-shaped terraces of hexagonal boron nitride and α-MoO3.

Color center magnetometry enables spin-wave imaging in complex magnetic textures. This work overcomes key limitations of current approaches by decoupling sensor spins from control fields and using diamond and hBN color centers for complementary frequency operation, achieving isofrequency imaging of field-controlled spin waves.

The propagation of structured light in free space is bound to the existing solutions of Helmholtz equation. Here, authors propose a hydrodynamic formulation of optics to design and generate well-known beam families and introduce additional specialized modes. The formalism is experimentally validated through optical tweezers and free-space communications.

A recently developed class of magneto-sensitive fluorescent proteins are engineered to alter the properties of their response to magnetic fields and radio frequencies, enabling multimodal sensing of biological systems.

Materials with a Kitaev spin liquid ground state are sought after as models of quantum phases but candidates so far form either zig-zag or incommensurate magnetic order. Ruiz et al. find a crossover between these states in β-Li₂IrO₃ under weak magnetic fields, indicating strongly frustrated spin interactions.

The complex antiferromagnetic orders observed in the honeycomb iridates prevent access to a spin-liquid ground state. Here the authors apply extremely high magnetic fields to destroy the antiferromagnetic order in γ-lithium iridate and reveal a bistable, strongly correlated spin state.

Emissions from croplands are an important source of GHG emissions that can be shaped by management. This study presents maps of emissions globally for different crops, showing that drained peatlands, rice paddies and fertilizer were the main drivers, and highlights differences in emission intensity.

Suzgun et al. find that current large language models cannot reliably distinguish between belief, knowledge and fact, raising concerns for their use in healthcare, law and journalism, where such distinctions are critical.

González-Gualda, Reinius et al. demonstrate that platinum-based chemotherapy-induced senescence promotes malignancy in ovarian and lung cancer via TGFβ ligands, with evidence in mouse models validated in clinical samples. Concomitantly blocking TGFβ signaling with chemotherapy reduces tumor burden and increases survival in mice.

To simulate physical systems on a quantum computer, their degrees of freedom must be encoded into qubits. This Review assesses the different methods that exist to allow quantum calculation of fermionic systems.

In mice, DHPS supports the maturation, maintenance and function of tissue-resident macrophages via the polyamine–hypusine axis, with implications for macrophage-targeting therapies.

Researchers demonstrate all-collinear antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions achieving up to 75% magnetoresistance through van der Waals interface effects, enabling spintronics with layer-tunable volatile or non-volatile behavior.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

A global synthesis of >600 studies finds that across agro-ecosystems, grasslands and forests in temperate and tropical zones, increasing plant diversity has a consistently positive effect on plant performance and the suppression of antagonists.

Spatial multi-modal data analysis using embeddings from diverse foundation models (spEMO) represents a transformative approach that unifies embeddings from pathology foundation models with those from large language models to advance spatial multi-omics research.

KRAS mutations are keenly associated with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and represent a potential therapeutic target. Here the authors present the findings from a phase I clinical trial testing pooled KRAS mutant peptides in combination with immune checkpoint blockade in patients with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Mechanisms for generating spin-polarized currents may be helpful for applications. Now one such mechanism that uses the unusual Landau-level spectrum of WSe₂ under a strong magnetic field is demonstrated.

The authors achieve magnetic trapping at optical frequencies and uncover photonic Hall effect forces by engineering spatially isolated magnetic fields interacting with a single Si nanoparticle at its magnetic dipole resonance.

Atomic force microscopy is used to investigate the adsorption and organization of ions on charged surfaces. Trivalent ions adopt complex networks, clusters and layers associated with overcharging, whereas divalent ions follow classical predictions.

The creation of density-dependent gauge fields in an ultracold atomic system is described, leading to formation of domain walls that behave as elementary excitations and respond to electric fields, enabling a path to simulating gauge physics.

This work developed an all-fibre-coupled THz reflection single-pixel imaging system capable of real-time, in vivo, and in situ imaging. It achieves a five-fold improvement in throughput over the state of the art, reaching 30,000 pixels per second.

Producing isolated single-photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride with predefined spin transitions is challenging. Oxygen annealing enables the controlled fabrication of narrowband quantum emitters with optically active spin for quantum applications.

Genes encoding key epigenetic regulators, including Lysine Demethylase 6A (KDM6A), are frequently mutated in bladder cancer. Here, the authors show that loss of KDM6A promotes formation of extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA), genomic instability, and metabolic reprogramming, driving resistance to cisplatin chemotherapy while simultaneously enhancing sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Ferroelectric ordering of moiré excitons and collective photon emission emerge in WSe₂/WS₂ heterobilayers near the Mott state driven by strong dipolar interactions and a transition to symmetry-broken ferroelectric phases.

Mechanisms ensuring the maintenance of the nuclear envelope -- a structure with roles in mechanical integrity, chromatin organization, and nucleocytoplasmic transport -- are not fully understood. Here, the authors show that dynamins preserve nuclear envelope homeostasis via their GTPase activity and microtubule interactions.

Liquid crystal elastomers have potential as 4D-printing actuators, but it is difficult to achieve complex shape changes in structures. Here, the authors report a 4D-printing strategy that combines vat polymerization-based 3D printing with a two-stage UV-curable resin.

Despite the growing literature and widespread interest in transformational adaptation, its definition remains contested. The results of a global expert survey reveal broad agreement on 13 key elements that should be included in defining transformational adaptation.

JWST has detected \({{\rm{H}}}_{3}^{+}\) and auroral emissions at Neptune—the only giant planet in the Solar System for which they had proved to be elusive up to now. The observations reveal a factor-of-two cooling of Neptune’s upper atmosphere compared with Voyager 2 data, indicative of energy balance processes acting on a shorter timescale than solar forcing.

Using a virtual reality apparatus in rats that dissociates external landmarks from self-motion cues, the authors describe how the two modes of theta phase coding in the hippocampus during navigation are controlled via distinct computations.

Biopolymers can couple to membrane lipids and condense to prewet membranes. Here a range of membrane perturbations in reconstituted systems and cells show that the prewetting is sensitive to membrane composition and phase transitions and can drive interorganelle contact.

Germano-silicate used as a building material for integrated photonics circuits substantially reduces optical losses, approaching levels comparable to those in optical fibres.

This scoping review examines previous experience in performing silent evaluations of clinical AI applications, collecting evidence from 75 studies on implementation features and the sociotechnical context.

Experimental observation of flux periodicity ϕ₀/2 for interference of the outermost edge mode of Fabry-Perot interferometers has been attributed to exotic electron pairing mechanisms. Here, the authors demonstrate that the interfering charges of a Fabry-Perot interferometer are single electrons

The topological character of electrons in semimetals subtly influences their bulk properties, leading typically to weak experimental signatures. Here, Moll et al. report a distinctive anomaly in the magnetic torque upon entering quantum limit state in the Weyl semimetal NbAs, which only appears due to the presence of Weyl fermions.

Coordinated X-ray and radio observations reveal that disk winds and jets occur mutually exclusively in 4U 1630–472, providing new observational constraints on the interplay between different modes of outflow in X-ray binaries.

Ionizing radiation can cause simultaneous charge noise in multi-qubit superconducting devices. Here, the authors measure space- and time-correlated charge jumps in a four-qubit system in a low-radiation underground facility, achieving operation with minimal correlated events over 22 h at qubit separations beyond 3 mm.

Using infant fMRI, the authors show that, by 2 months of age, representations in high-level visual cortex encode visual categories that align with deep neural networks, and lateral object-selective regions are later to develop.

The deactivation of CO₂ reduction electrocatalyst in microbial media remains a key barrier for hybrid bio-electrochemical systems. Here, the authors present a bioadaptive nickel single atom catalyst that resists organic poisoning to enable high-rate CO-mediated isopropanol production from CO₂.

Among the exotic phases in underdoped cuprates, the evidence of a pair density wave (PDW) remains inconclusive. Here, Shi et al. report transport signatures consistent with the presence of PDW pairing correlations that compete with uniform superconductivity in two underdoped cuprate superconductors.

Radio observations of the cluster Abell 3376, combined with numerical modelling, attribute the bent jets associated with the second-brightest galaxy in the cluster to an ordered magnetic field at the discontinuity.

Cover cropping has been used in climate-smart agriculture due to benefits such as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but it can also have negative effects, such as decreased yields. Here the authors assess the various effects of cover crop adoption in the USA using data from over 100,000 fields.

This study reports that de novo germline missense variants in SF3B1, distinct from the somatic variants frequently observed in cancer, cause a neurodevelopmental disorder and disrupt global RNA splicing.