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Antifungal aureobasidin A (AbA) targets inositol phosphorylceramide (IPC) synthase. The authors trap its ceramide-bound and drugbound states, revealing the catalytic and drug-inhibition mechanisms, providing basis for antifungal drug development.

Persistent synthesis challenges constrain the stabilization of single-atom lanthanide catalysts across many substrates. Using a method based on molten-nitrite chemistry, the atomic dispersion of lanthanide atoms on diverse substrates is achieved and exemplified by Dy₁/Pt for acidic hydrogen evolution.

Selective lithium extraction from low-grade brines remains a substantial challenge due to intense competition from coexisting ions such as magnesium and sodium. In pilot-scale electrochemical systems, [100]-oriented LiFePO₄ nanosheets have shown enhanced lithium selectivity, effectively isolating lithium even from brines with extremely high Na/Li and Mg/Li ratios.

The authors report the synthesis and characterization of samarium-based superconducting infinite layer nickelate thin films, along with co-doped variants incorporating europium and calcium. The co doped compounds achieve a record-small c-axis parameter and display superconducting transition temperatures up to 32.5 K.

The authors develop a low carbon cement-based material which exhibits hierarchical structure with low density (0.75 g cm⁻³), high specific compressive strength (344 (kN m⁻²)/(kg m⁻³)) and fracture toughness (4865 kJ m⁻³).

Identifying jets originating from heavy quarks plays a fundamental role in hadronic collider experiments. In this work, the ATLAS Collaboration describes and tests a transformer-based neural network architecture for jet flavour tagging based on low-level input and physics-inspired constraints.

Lithium-ion battery cathode lifetime is limited by large expansion and contraction during cycling. This study uses electrochemical activation to suppress collapse in LiNi_0.9Mn_0.1O₂ cathodes, achieving improved capacity and cycle life.

Thermal cloaks featuring nanoscale accuracy are limited by fabrication scalability and weak durability. Here, the authors report a hierarchical design achieved through femtosecond laser writing, which provides superior cloaking performance while maintaining robustness against harsh erosion and contaminant exposure.

GLT25D1 galactosylates collagen hydroxylysines and is essential for collagen maturation. Here, authors trap multiple functional states of GLT25D1 to elucidate its molecular mechanism, providing mechanistic insights into GLT25D1-related diseases.

Giant local stress was formed by introducing heterogeneous interfaces, thus suppressing electron-phonon coupling and reducing electron scattering. Consequently, a bulk electrical conductivity of > 110 % IACS is obtained in copper at room temperature.

The use of benzene ring contraction in chemical synthesis is challenging due to the need to disrupt aromaticity and generate highly strained intermediates. Now, a photothermal ring contraction reaction for the synthesis of multisubstituted fused pyridines is reported, from arylhydrazines and carbonyl compounds, via benzene ring contraction.

The success of Li batteries relies on electrolyte reduction at anodes for interphase formation, yet controlled interphase formation on high-energy cathodes has proven challenging. Now it has been shown that a bimolecular nucleophilic substitution-assisted strategy advances both primary and secondary batteries by regulating the electrolyte reduction potential and interphase passivation capability.

Membranes which extract lithium are critical to developing sustainable technologies. Here, the authors report a covalent organic framework featuring randomly oriented channels, separating lithium from a mixture of cations.

Precise separation of ions with similar valence and size is critical. Here, authors designed a selective membrane that precisely extract Li+ from Na+ and Ca²⁺ interferences. The high selectivity and permeability enable energy-efficient, precise, and chemical-free lithium extraction using the electrodialysis process.

A triboelectric nanogenerator-based probe monitors the formation and evolution of the electrical double layer at nonconductive interfaces via solid-liquid contact electrification.

Regulation of alveolar macrophage function requires further investigation. The authors here show that EI24, elicited by commensal microbiota, decreases alveolar macrophage phagocytosis and inflammatory responses against lung infection and tumor metastasis, whereas targeting EI24 enhances anti-viral and anti-tumor effects of macrophages.

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents drive the transformation of simple alkanes into complex organic molecules, revealing a universal pattern of molecular evolution that may inform the search for life’s origins on Earth and beyond.

A boryl-isodiazomethyl anion featuring a bent eneyne-type B=N–N≡C scaffold is isolated and structurally characterized. The highly nucleophilic boron-bound nitrogen centre makes this species an effective synthon of boryl-nitrene for concerted CN⁻/CO exchange and metathesis reactions with C=O, C=S and C=N bonds via cleavage of the N–N bond.

Testi and colleagues introduce an enhanced Brillouin Microscope for user-independent and high-precision mechanical measurements. Using this approach, the authors obtained insight into the biophysical properties of protein condensates involved in severe neurodegenerative diseases.

The development of fast-charging and high-capacity negative electrodes is critical for advanced lithium-ion batteries. Here, authors use a vacancy engineering strategy to develop a layered Prussian blue analogue with competitive rate capability, delivering a specific capacity of 510 mAh g⁻¹ at a specific current of 8 A g⁻¹.

Sulfur fluoride exchange has wide applications, but chiral sulfonimidoyl transfer remains highly challenging due to the crowded three-dimensional environment. Now, using chiral pyridine-N-oxides as organocatalysts, the catalytic asymmetric sulfonimidoyl transfer reaction has been achieved with racemic sulfonimidoyl chlorides as the reactant, enabling the construction of optically active sulfonimidoyl fluorides and related derivatives.

Controlling Li nucleation and growth is crucial to avoid dendrite formation. Here, Li₂S(111)@Cu is used as Li metal electrode substrate, where a substrate-dependent Li nucleation process and a facet-dependent growth mode are identified, enabling dense Li deposition and improved battery performance.

Two-dimensional perovskite phases at the bottom interfaces of solar cells improve performance, but their formation is challenging. To address this, Zhao et al. graft the 2D perovskite-phase precursor onto a functionalized SnO₂ electrode substrate.

The activation of CO₂ for catalytic carboxylation of alkenes is mainly limited to two-electron processes. Now, a visible-light photocatalytic single-electron transfer reduction of CO₂ is reported leading to the key intermediate CO₂^•−, which allows carboxylation of unactivated aliphatic alkenes.

Complex-frequency waves compensate for optical losses, but their efficacy is limited in systems with extreme losses. Now, high-order virtual gain excitations have been shown to preserve loss compensation efficiency in plasmonic resonance systems.

High-voltage, anode-free sodium metal batteries combine high energy density and sustainability, but the lack of suitable electrolytes hinders their application. This work formulates an eco-friendly electrolyte design that supports exciting performance in such batteries.

Cryogenic transport measurements of CsV₃Sb₅ nanobeams show a zero-field Josephson diode effect and radio-frequency rectification with power-dependent quantized voltage output.

Lithium doping in spiro-OMeTAD negatively affects the long-term performance of perovskite solar cells. Qin and team map the degradation mechanism under repeated voltage cycling and how lithium-free dopants improve stability.

TongGeometry both solves and proposes olympiad-level geometry problems. It uses guided tree search to find hard but concise problems, making advanced mathematical reasoning more accessible.

Vision–language–action models recently emerged as a tool for robotics. Here Li and colleagues compare vision–language–action models and highlight what makes a model useful.

This study reveals a hierarchical development of the brain’s structural connectome from infancy to childhood, characterized by distinct sensorimotor-association trajectories and alignment with multiple neurobiological hierarchies.

Strain engineering is effective in modulating catalyst activity. Here, authors report a high-dimensional biaxial strained dichalcogenide catalyst to unlock inner metal sites, which accelerates sulfur redox kinetics and enables lithium–sulfur pouch cells with increased capacity and cycling stability.

In a case series of five patients with treatment-refractory antisynthetase syndrome and five patients with treatment-refractory systemic sclerosis, bispecific T cell engagers blinatumomab and teclistamab improved disease activity and were well tolerated.

Electron transfer in molecular wires is typically dominated by tunnelling at short lengths. Now it is shown that conjugated molecular wires anchored to indium tin oxide electrodes exhibit a hopping mechanism even at 1-nm lengths, enabling charge extraction in tin perovskite solar cells and improved device performance.

Atomically thin nitrogen crystals, termed nitrogene, have been theoretically predicted, but their synthesis has remained elusive so far. Here, the authors report experimental evidence of the formation of nitrogen-based crystalline structures compatible with nitrogene on Ag(100) surfaces via ion-beam-assisted epitaxy.

The conventional focus on pore size distribution overlooks the role of surface charge homogeneity in ion separation by polymeric membranes. This study proposes a surface charge engineering strategy for fabricating highly ion-selective membranes.

Cyclic dimeric adenosine monophosphate is found to be a second messenger in eukaryotic cells that is generated by adenylate cyclase 7 and connects Toll-like receptor 9 stimulation to nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat protein 3 inflammasome activation.

Controlling the hydrothermal reaction kinetics during the fabrication of Sb₂(S,Se)₃ solar cells is challenging. Chen Qian et al. show that sodium sulfide buffers the pH and allows a controlled release of Se, enabling a certified efficiency of 10.7%.

This work proposes a molecular clustering strategy to enhance water’s phase change barrier and thermal stability while mitigating electrostatic shielding, enabling high-performance operation of hydrogel hydrovoltaic generators from −35 °C to 80 °C.

The CMS Collaboration reports the measurement of the spin, parity, and charge conjugation properties of all-charm tetraquarks, exotic fleeting particles formed in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

Improving the elongation of stretchable organic electronics typically increases flexibility at the expense of ductility. Here, authors construct a covalent network, reinforced by silica filler, for improving crack-onset strain and modulus, achieving efficiency of 16.5% for stretchable solar cells.

Methods for direct incorporation of tri- and di-fluoroethanol units in molecules are relatively limited. Here, the authors report two organosilicon reagents which are applied to allylation, alkylation and alkenylation reactions as tri- and di-fluoroethanol transfer reagents.

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.

Molecular information encoded within supramolecular frameworks offers a powerful paradigm for directing emergent function beyond the genetic code, but systematic investigations into alternative spatial configurations and their consequences remain scarce. Here the authors use metalla-[2]catenanes to probe sequence–function relationships in layered architectures.

H-NS is a global regulatory protein that represses expression of many genes in bacteria. Here, Li et al. show that a second messenger, cyclic di-GMP, binds to H-NS and inhibits its binding to DNA, thus relieving H-NS-mediated transcriptional silencing.

Splitting water using sunlight is a promising route to green hydrogen, yet inefficient charge carrier utilization in photocatalysts limits their solar-to-hydrogen efficiency. Here the authors introduce excitonic quantum superlattices to prolong exciton lifetimes and optimize charge steering, achieving a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 3% under ambient conditions.

Formamidinium lead iodide perovskite holds promise for high-efficiency solar cells, but the kinetic instability of its α-phase crystallization remains an issue. He et al. report a strategy for directing the crystallization process in a n-i-p architecture and champion power conversion efficiency of 26.18%.