Search

The authors study a disordered β-Ta film, finding that quasiparticle recombination is governed by the phonon scattering time, which is faster than conventional recombination in ordered superconductors. The authors interpret the results in terms of quasiparticle localization, which helps to understand the quasiparticle relaxation in disordered superconducting circuits.

Superconductivity has not been observed in any antiperovskite oxide up to now. Here Oudahet al. report superconducting transition around 5 K in antiperovskite oxide Sr_3−xSnO, making it a new class of oxide superconductors.

Interaction between Cooper pairs and other collective excitations may reveal important information about the pairing mechanism. Here, the authors observe a universal jump in the phase of the driven Higgs oscillations in cuprate thin films, indicating the presence of a coupled collective mode, as well as a nonvanishing Higgs-like response at high temperatures, suggesting a potential nonzero pairing amplitude above Tc.

Understanding how brains learn and remember remains among the most important challenges in science. Recent studies suggest that a new form of synaptic plasticity provides a basis for future explorations ranging from biochemistry to cognition.

Structural variants (SV) can accumulate in repeat-rich parts of the genome and transform them in unexpected ways. Here, with their new assembly-based genotyper (NAHRwhals), the authors verify multi-step SVs in 37 human loci and identify alleles at risk for copy-number variation.

The authors present scanning tunnelling spectroscopy data that show that the mechanism of superconductivity in overdoped cuprate superconductors is qualitatively different from conventional mean-field theory.

In this work, the authors investigate the distribution of holes with different magnetic quantum numbers in noble gas atoms, ionized by femtosecond and attosecond pulses. They achieve high control over hole alignment by adjusting pulse parameters and exploiting specific spectral features.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

Controlling supercurrent pathways in a Josephson junction can lead to new functionalities. Here, Lahabi et al. demonstrate the tailoring of two distinct supercurrent channels in a ferromagnetic disk containing a magnetic vortex.

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.

Cuprate superconductors are known for their intertwined interactions and coexistence of competing orders. Here, the authors observe a Fano resonance in the nonlinear THz response of La_2-xSr_xCuO₄, which may arise from a coupling between superconducting and charge-density-wave amplitude fluctuations.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Pyruvic acid and its conjugate base, the pyruvate anion, are largely present in the atmosphere. Here the authors, using photoelectron imaging and quantum chemistry calculations, investigate the photochemistry of isolated pyruvate anions initiated by UVA radiation and report the formation of CO₂, CO, and CH₃⁻ further decomposing into CH₃ and a free electron.

It is now shown that femtosecond optical excitation can be used as a tool to investigate the spin-polarization properties of half-metals, and provide a clear distinction between those and metals. Such knowledge is of fundamental importance for the use of these materials in spintronics applications.

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.

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.

A large genome-wide association study of more than 5 million individuals reveals that 12,111 single-nucleotide polymorphisms account for nearly all the heritability of height attributable to common genetic variants.

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.

Antimicrobial resistance continues to be a critical One Health challenge, despite research and policy progress. Building on the past decade of research, this Perspective provides an integrative roadmap for addressing antimicrobial resistance by leveraging the complexities of human and environment interactions.

A three-site Kitaev chain, constructed from three semiconducting quantum dots coupled by superconducting segments in a hybrid InSb/Al nanowire, shows enhanced robustness of edge zero-energy modes against variations in the coupling strengths or electrochemical potentials compared with a chain containing only two quantum dots.

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

Inventory data from more than 1 million trees across African, Amazonian and Southeast Asian tropical forests suggests that, despite their high diversity, just 1,053 species, representing a consistent ~2.2% of tropical tree species in each region, constitute half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees.

A large brain imaging study of over 2000 people worldwide shows that fear conditioning engages brain regions linked to emotion and attention, with differences in individuals with anxiety or depression and strong influences from task design.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

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).

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.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

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.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

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.

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.

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.

Adriaenssens et al. show that unlike soluble cargo receptors, transmembrane cargo receptors initiate autophagosome biogenesis by recruiting the FIP200/ULK1 or WIPI–ATG13 complex, revealing unexpected flexibility in the selective autophagy machinery.

Sleep deprivation is believed to lead to homeostatic increases in synaptic strength and reduced inducibility of associative LTP, based mainly on findings from animal studies. Here, Kuhn et al. demonstrate similar sleep-dependent synaptic plasticity changes in humans along with altered plasma BDNF levels.

The ancestry of the European bison (wisent) remains a mystery. Here, Cooper and colleagues examine ancient DNA from fossil remains of extinct bison, and reveal the wisent originated through the hybridization of the extinct Steppe bison and ancestors of modern cattle.

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.

Timothy Frayling, Joel Hirschhorn, Peter Visscher and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for adult height in 253,288 individuals. They identify 697 variants in 423 loci significantly associated with adult height and find that these variants cluster in pathways involved in growth and together explain one-fifth of the heritability for this trait.

Simultaneous increase of critical temperature and critical current in superconductors is desirable for application purpose, but very difficult to realize. Here, Ozaki et al. report a simultaneous enhancement of T_c and J_c in FeSe_0.5Te_0.5films with cascade defects produced by low-energy proton irradiation.

A cross-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) including 29,612 patients with ALS and 122,656 controls identifies 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology.

Ruth Loos and colleagues report results of a large genome-wide association study for body mass index. They identify 18 new loci associated with this trait, some of which map near key hypothalamic regulators of energy balance.