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Across 21 societies, people alter their speech and song when interacting with infants. These infant-directed vocalizations are recognized by listeners. This suggests that forms of human vocalizations may be shaped by their functions.

Human antibodies DENV-290 and DENV-115 are ultrapotent against dengue virus 3 strains with differing particle morphologies. CryoEM shows both bind across two protomers at the center of the envelope protein dimer, defining a new class of epitope.

Over 20 species of geographically and phylogenetically diverse bird species produce convergent whining vocalizations towards their respective brood parasites. Model presentation and playback experiments across multiple continents suggest that these learned calls provoke an innate response even among allopatric species.

This prospective cohort study of patients with cancer incorporated antemortem follow-up visits and rapid autopsy analyses, and reports that spikes—rapidly increasing levels—of circulating tumor cell clusters, observed immediately before and at the time of death, along with tumor masses infiltrating large vessels, were cancer-related events associated with patient mortality.

Thermal lepton pairs are ideal probes for the temperature of quark-gluon plasma. Here, the STAR Collaboration uses thermal electron-positron pair production to measure quark-gluon plasma average temperature at different stages of the evolution.

Achieving high selectivity in CO₂-to-methanol conversion remains challenging. This study uses defect-engineered In₂O₃/ZrO₂ catalysts featuring abundant oxygen vacancies, significantly boosting methanol productivity and selectivity.

A proteotoxic stress response specific to exhausted T cells, governed by AKT signaling and accompanied by increased protein translation, represents a mechanistic vulnerability and a new therapeutic target to improve cancer immunotherapies.

The study of speech or vocal disorder resulting from neurological diseases lacks a model capable of recapitulating vocal learning. This study suggests that the vocal disorder associated with Huntington's disease is observed in transgenic zebra finches carrying the full-length human mutant huntingtin gene.

ALL-conformations, a dataset capturing the full range of experimentally observed conformations of CDR loops, T cell and antibody regions interacting with antigen targets, is introduced. ITsFlexible—a deep learning tool trained on this new dataset—advances predictions of immune receptor structural dynamics.

The quark structure of the f₀(980) hadron is still unknown after 50 years of its discovery. Here, the CMS Collaboration reports a measurement of the elliptic flow of the f₀(980) state in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV, providing strong evidence that the state is an ordinary meson.

Infant KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia is associated with poor overall survival rates. Here, the authors use WGS and WES of 36 relapsed KMT2A-rearranged ALL and AML patients and find alterations in drug response genes in ALL, which may correspond with relapse time. Longitudinal analyses of >250 samples could track residual leukemia cells, clonal drug responses, and the upcoming relapse.

Transient manipulation of neural activity is widely used to probe the function of specific circuits, yet such targeted perturbations could also have indirect effects on downstream circuits that implement separate and independent functions; a study to test this reveals that transient perturbations of specific circuits in mammals and songbirds severely impair learned skills that recover spontaneously after permanent lesions of the same brain areas.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

The LHCb experiment at CERN has observed significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the beauty baryon and its CP-conjugated antibaryon, thus demonstrating CP violation in baryon decays.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

The human capacity for language is unique, but other animals may have abilities in some of the domains that are required for processing language. Abe and Watanabe find that songbirds have the capacity to learn an artificial grammar and to process hierarchical structures, an ability thought to be unique to humans.

Interactions between the pathogenic neisseriae (Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis) and neutrophils are central to the progression of both gonorrhoea and meningococcal meningitis. Here, Criss and Seifert review these interactions and propose a model in which this relationship promotes, rather than blocks, the infection cycle.

PRT1 is an E3 ligase that recognizes type-2 hydrophobic aromatic Arg/N-degrons. Here, the authors reveal the structure of the ZZ domain of Arabidopsis PRT1 bound to bulky hydrophobic type-2 N-degrons, showing a unique binding site formed by a substantial conformational change of two loops and uncovering an intramolecular tandem RING dimer essential for its ubiquitylation activity.

Using the well-established foundry-based lithium niobate nanophotonics platform, a general electro-optic digital-to-analogue link with ultrahigh bandwidth (>150 Gb s⁻¹) and ultralow power consumption (0.058 pJ b⁻¹) is demonstrated, providing a direct, energy-efficient, high-speed and scalable solution for interfacing digital electronics and photonics.

Spatial cell distribution within a tissue microenvironment is a rapidly advancing field. Here, authors assess three commercially available single-cell resolution spatial transcriptomics approaches (CosMx, MERFISH, and Xenium) to inform which technology outperforms for immune profiling of solid tumors using patient samples.

Preventing endosomal damage sensing or using lipids that create reparable endosomal holes reduces inflammation caused by RNA–lipid nanoparticles while enabling high RNA expression.

The function of DNMT1 (DNA methyltransferase 1) in these subsets of immature, migrating cortical inhibitory interneurons is not fully understood. This study shows that DNMT1 regulates cortical development by orchestrating the migration of postmitotic SST+ interneurons and their signaling to cortical progenitors, with implications for proper cortical architecture and function.

Standard approaches for identifying pleiotropic genetic variants may lead to spurious results. Here the authors present a new statistical method and show that it uncovers five genes linked to metabolites in METSIM participants, which were previously undetected by existing methods.

The genome of the zebra finch — a songbird and a model for studying the vertebrate brain, behaviour and evolution — has been sequenced. Comparison with the chicken genome, the only other bird genome available, shows that genes that have neural function and are implicated in the cognitive processing of song have been evolving rapidly in the finch lineage. Moreover, vocal communication engages much of the transcriptome of the zebra finch brain.

Machine-learning-augmented single-nucleus transcriptomic analysis compared molecular landscapes of immature neurons in the mammalian hippocampus across species, highlighting human-specific gene expression but convergent biological processes.

The role of the tumour microenvironment in the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic melanoma remains poorly understood. Here, single cell profiling of metastatic melanoma samples identifies associations of the mature dendritic enriched in immunoregulatory molecules subtype with immunotherapy response.

While Bell inequalities have been violated several times—mostly in photonic systems—their violations within particle physics experiments are less explored. Here, the BESIII Collaboration showcases Bell-violating nonlocal correlations between entangled hyperon pairs.

Swanton and colleagues present a clonal expression signature, ORACLE, which, in combination with clinicopathological and molecular risk factors, can predict survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma, and they prospectively validate its prognostic value.

Imaging and optogenetics in mice provide insight into the interplay between the primary motor cortex and the motor thalamus during learning, showing that thalamic inputs have a key role in the execution of learned movements.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have improved our understanding of the genetic basis of lung adenocarcinoma but known susceptibility variants explain only a small fraction of the familial risk. Here, the authors perform a two-stage GWAS and report 12 novel genetic loci associated with lung adenocarcinoma in East Asians.

Pressure overload in the heart, such as from aortic stenosis, triggers early molecular changes before visible damage occurs. Here, the authors show that combining proteomics, transcriptomics, and genetic data reveals key drivers of heart failure, highlighting potential targets for treatment.

Together with an accompanying paper presenting a transcriptomic atlas of the mouse lemur, interrogation of the atlas provides a rich body of data to support the use of the organism as a model for primate biology and health.

The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

The Einstein Probe has discovered a fast X-ray transient, EP240414a, associated with a broad-lined type Ic supernova. Its unusually soft spectrum and weak jet add to the diversity of stellar deaths and suggest a previously unknown Wolf–Rayet star explosion mechanism.

Alfajaro et al identify that a bat MERS-like coronavirus HKU5 uses ACE2 as a receptor from its natural bat reservoir Pipistrellus abramus and American mink. Structural analyses demonstrate a unique interaction between the HKU5 receptor binding domain and bat ACE2. This highlights the receptor flexibility of merbecoviruses and identifies mink as potential intermediate hosts, informing viral surveillance and countermeasure development.

Wireless bioresorbable stimulators are promising therapeutic implants that naturally dissolve after use. Here, the authors developed a device that operates for months and enables simultaneous multi-site stimulation, preventing early muscle atrophy and accelerating reinnervation in nerve injury models.

Induced proximity by molecular glues is a strategy that leverages the recruitment of proteins to facilitate their modification or degradation. Here the authors present unbiased quantitative proteomic, biochemical and computational workflows that uncover hundreds of CRBN molecular glue targets using recombinant protein and cell lysate.

Using sequencing and haplotype-resolved assembly of 65 diverse human genomes, complex regions including the major histocompatibility complex and centromeres are analysed.

Tumour evolution and heterogeneity of recurrent meningioma tumours remains to be explored. Here, the authors perform single nuclei sequencing of matched primary and recurrent meningiomas and reveal diverse cellular compositions and hierarchies.

One of two papers identifying distinct clusters of neurons in the Johnston's organ, a structure from the fruitfly antenna previously associated with courtship song detection, that specifically respond either to continuous deflections of the antenna, as provoked by wind or gravity, or to vibrating stimuli such as sounds. The segregation of different mechanosensation modalities through separate neuronal pathways in one organ is reminiscent of the hearing and vestibular system division of mammals.

Atmospheric dryness is increasing as air temperatures rise because of climate change. This Review explores temporal trends and spatial heterogeneity in global atmospheric dryness and the implications for plant growth, productivity and terrestrial carbon cycling.