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Natural rubber is a widely used biopolymer and further improving its resistance to crack growth will extend its service life. Here the authors show a strategy to amplify the resistance to crack growth in natural rubber by forming a tanglemer.

Grain number per panicle (GNP) is a critical yield component trait of rice. Here, the authors clone a MAPKKK encoding gene GNP3 positively regulating grain yield and show its role in rice panicle development by interacting and destabilizing ethylene biosynthesis related enzyme SADENOSYLMETHIONINE SYNTHETASE 1.

How the brain supports speaking and listening during conversation of its natural form remains poorly understood. Here, by combining intracranial EEG recordings with Natural Language Processing, the authors show broadly distributed frontotemporal neural signals that encode context-dependent linguistic information during both speaking and listening..

The interfacial energy losses at the perovskite/electron selective contact interface remain an obstacle for perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells to approach its theoretical efficiency limit. Here, authors employ a cage-like diammonium chloride molecule to modulate interfacial dipole.

The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative recruited and genotyped more than half a million Taiwanese participants, almost all of Han Chinese ancestry, and performed comprehensive genomic analyses and developed polygenic risk score prediction models for numerous health conditions.

A technique called condense-seq has been developed to measure nucleosome condensability and used to show that mononucleosomes contain sufficient information to condense into large-scale compartments without requiring any external factors.

Quality control for epigenomic datasets requires robust ground truths. Here, authors generate genome-wide quantitative methylation reference datasets from the publicly available Quartet DNA reference materials, which could serve as a resource for the standardised benchmarking of emerging technologies.

A 165 Myr record of N and Corg isotopes show that the N-cycle responds to feedbacks associated with productivity and the location of upwelling centers changing due to continental meander.

This study reveals that traditional manufacturing can create nonequilibrium short-range order in metallic alloys, offering an additional dimension for tailoring alloy properties beyond composition and microstructure.

Developing high-current-density catalysts is key to efficient water splitting. Here, the authors report a single-atom Ru-doped amorphous Ni–Mo oxide that dynamically self-reconstructs to retain high activity at industrial current densities in an anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzer.

Detection of somatic mobile element insertions (MEIs), particularly those with low mosaicism, remains a significant challenge. This study presents RetroNet, a deep learning method that transforms sequencing reads into images to detect somatic MEIs, enabling accurate discovery of rare insertions with very low read support.

Patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) have limited therapeutic options. Here the authors show that functionally impaired NK cells contribute to immune escape of pre-malignant clones in early stage MDS and that NK adoptive cell therapy can be considered to prevent or delay the development of MDS.

Alternative polyadenylation is involved in plant responses to various stresses. Here, the authors show how a cis-natural antisense RNA promotes proximal polyadenylation of its cognate SlSPX5 gene in response to phosphate starvation in tomato.

Single-cell manipulation and processing techniques and improvements in mass spectrometry sensitivity make single-cell proteomic profiling feasible. This study presents a label-free approach for the characterisation of native N-glycans of single mammalian cells and ng-level blood isolates, demonstrating the potential to detect cell surface glycome changes at the single-cell level in health or disease.

The mismatched bilateral bond strength between NiO_x and perovskite hinders the development of inverted perovskite solar cells. Here, authors adsorb 1-(benzothiaxole-2-ylthio)succinic acid on NiO_x surface for passivating bilateral defects and achieve maximum efficiency close to 27% in stable devices.

A predictive descriptor to guide spinel catalyst design for Li–S batteries is still lacking. Here, authors use a series of metal chromites to investigate the effect of t2 orbital occupancy on the polysulfide conversion activity of spinel oxides, and reveal a volcano-shaped relationship between them.

The efficiency of perovskite/organic tandem devices is impeded by recombination losses that occur within the organic subcells. Here, the authors monitor film growth and crystallization dynamics in real-time and mitigate exciton recombination losses, achieving maximum device efficiency of 26.42%.

Anode catalysts in proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers usually trade activity for stability. Here, the authors report an electronic-structure-tuning strategy that modulates the metal–oxygen redox behavior of RuO₂, yielding a catalyst that is both highly active and durable.

Liquid metal inks are promising for flexible electronics, but it is challenging to produce liquid metal inks due to surface tension and density. Here, the authors design a liquid metal-cryogel system to increase liquid metal concentration.

Monitoring skin hydration and water loss has diagnostic power. Here, the authors present a wearable skin analyzer that enables long-term monitoring of these parameters.

Heart failure can be caused by cardiac fibroblasts replacing myocytes. Here, the authors use functional genomic data from fibroblasts, genetic signals enriched in people with heart disease, and gene perturbation analyses to link disease-associated regulatory elements to protein-coding genes.

Long-wavelength luminescence from boron-based cations is typically hindered by both intrinsic instability and pronounced non-radiative decay. Now a triadic design that integrates a non-Kekulé polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon framework, a charge-localizing carbodicarbene ligand and counterion-directed assembly enables stable borenium ions with tunable red-to-near-infrared emission in the solid state.

The experimental demonstration of many-body signal amplification in a solid-state, room-temperature quantum sensor is reported.

Cartilage-targeted gene therapy is dependent on delivery efficiency. Here, the authors develop non-pathogenic, virus-inspired lipopeptide-based nanoplatforms to deliver nucleic acids to cartilage with increased transfection efficiency over conventional lipid nanoparticles.

High-resolution ALMA observations reveal a gravitationally bound septuple protostar system in NGC 6334IN, formed through disk fragmentation. This discovery sheds light on the formation of extreme high-order multiplicity in massive stellar clusters.

R-loops are DNA-RNA hybrids that can cause genome instability if not properly controlled. Here, the authors show that the RNA helicase Brr2 prevents harmful circRNA-associated R-loops, thereby safeguarding transcription and cell division.

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.

The authors report on the implementation of a data-efficient machine learning approach to predict plasma dynamics. This enables offline design of robust trajectories to terminate the plasma without disruptive instabilities. Experimental results at the TCV tokamak show statistically significant improvements in key figures of merit and the ability to a priori predict the dynamics of key plasma properties.

Zinc-ion batteries face challenges like dendrite formation, limiting their performance. Here, authors reveal that high-current deposition forms (002) textured Zn, enhancing cycling life, and propose guidelines for optimizing battery cycling protocols based on advanced in situ XRD analysis.

DIAL designs synthetic promoters for generation of heritable setpoints of gene expression across a range of cell types.

Control over photo-activated phosphorescence lifetime and photo-activated time is desirable, but manipulation within a given material is challenging. Here, the authors report a method to increase phosphorescence emission by consumption of oxygen within the polymer matrix.

Previous work on periodically driven many-body systems has demonstrated the formation of time crystals that break time-translation symmetry. Now, more general phases with partial temporal ordering have been realized.

Cold tolerance at the booting stage is critical for the expansion of rice cultivation area. Here, the authors report that a CAMTA family transcription factor encoding gene CTB3 positively regulates japonica rice booting stage cold tolerance and its upstream and downstream interactors to fulfill the functionality.

An Fe^III/V redox mechanism in Li₄FeSbO₆ on delithiation without Fe^IV or oxygen formation with resistance to aging, high operating potential and low voltage hysteresis is demonstrated, with implications for Fe-based high-voltage applications.

An electrostatic-repulsion-enabled advanced transfer technique based on ammonia solution is introduced for separating van der Waals thin-film materials from their substrates, demonstrating suitability for its use in the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) industry.

The mediodorsal thalamus (MD) is central to flexible decision-making. Here, the authors identify MD’s unique roles in arbitrating between different reinforcement learning strategies through prefrontal-striatal brain circuits.

Ma et al. demonstrate that air pollution is associated with an increased risk of thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection (TAAD), and that genetic susceptibility to TAAD amplifies this risk through multiplicative and additive interactions.

Creative experiences such as dance, music, drawing, and strategy video games might preserve brain health. The authors show that regular practice or short training in these activities is linked to brains that look younger and work more efficiently.

Kidney shortages limit treatment options for patients with end-stage kidney disease, prompting exploration of xenotransplantation. Here, the authors show that a genetically modified pig kidney sustained essential functions in a living human for 51 days, informing future clinical strategies.

Mapping of spatial metabolic gradients in the mouse liver and intestine identifies fructose-induced focal derangements in liver metabolism.

Hominin fossils from the Ledi-Geraru Research Project area, Ethiopia, suggest that early Homo and Australopithecus species co-existed in the region more than 2.5 million years ago.

Stereoisomers can exhibit distinct chemical behaviors despite identical formulas. Here, the authors reveal how geometric isomers of electrolyte additives tailor solvation and interphasial chemistry, enhancing Zn-ion kinetics and long-term stability in aqueous zinc metal batteries.

Despite improving therapeutic options, the prognosis for patients with metastatic castration-resistance prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains poor. Here, the authors identify MCL1 copy number alterations as a prognostic and predictive biomarker, demonstrating its therapeutic potential as a drug target, either alone or in combination, in patients with mCRPC.

Little is known about the environmental benefits of housing reallocation. This study fills the gap, presenting an information-enabled housing exchange framework that, in the case of Beijing, Munich and Singapore, could substantially reduce the carbon emissions from commuting.

Radiative cooling is an emerging technology for cooling with reduced energy consumption. Here the authors present photoluminescent composites that combine subambient cooling with aesthetic colour, hydrophobicity and durability.

Here the authors reveal how an incoherent feedforward C/EBPα–Notch circuit times lung cell fate, guiding alveolar development, repair after injury, and shifts between protective and reparative states.

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the leading cause of end-stage kidney failure. This study shows that prolonged glucagon exacerbates lipid accumulation, promoting renal injury in early DKD, rather than lipid oxidation. Targeting glucagon signaling significantly inhibits DKD progression.

A generative framework that accelerates the simulations of atomic transport in crystalline solids is developed, enabling large-scale screening and extending simulations to larger spatiotemporal scales for energy storage materials.