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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.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

Phosphorus locked in ancient marine carbonates shows that ocean phosphorus rose and fell with atmospheric oxygen during the Great Oxidation Event, Earth’s first major oxygenation. Models suggest brief nutrient pulses could have accelerated oxygen production

A combined sequencing technique assesses 18 patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer over a multi-year period from diagnosis to recurrence and shows drug resistance typically arises from selective expansion of one or a few clones present at diagnosis.

A new version of nanorate DNA sequencing, with an error rate lower than five errors per billion base pairs and compatible with whole-exome and targeted capture, enables epidemiological-scale studies of somatic mutation and selection and the generation of high-resolution selection maps across coding and non-coding sites for many genes.

Tree cover gains in the moist tropics (1982–2015) were 56% naturally regenerated forests and 27% managed tree systems, with forest type influencing carbon recovery. Effective forest restoration requires robust tracking of forest types established by restoration efforts.

Genomic deletions in poxviruses are not well understood, the authors found large deletions in >2% of Mpox virus genomes during routine surveillance, highlighting their role in poxvirus evolution and potential impact on diagnostics and therapeutics.

Native state proteomics of PV interneurons revealed unique molecular features of high translational and metabolic activity, and enrichment of Alzheimer’s risk genes. Early amyloid pathology exerted unique effects on mitochondria, mTOR signaling and neurotransmission in PV neurons.

cfDNA fragmentomics is a potential clinically applicable method for identifying cancer. Here, the authors assess fragmentomics analysis methods and their application to commercial targeted sequencing panels.

The International Brain Laboratory presents a brain-wide electrophysiological map obtained from pooling data from 12 laboratories that performed the same standardized perceptual decision-making task in mice.

The authors developed a screen to find compounds that modulate intracellular Staphylococcus aureus metabolism and discovered KL1, which sensitizes persisters to antibiotics by reversing host-induced tolerance.

A combination of whole-genome NanoSeq with deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq is used to accurately characterize mutation rates and genes under positive selection in sperm cells.

Limited diagnostic capacity for asymptomatic individuals hinders malaria elimination efforts in Africa. Here, the authors present a near point-of-care method based on colorimetric LAMP detection that outperforms expert microscopy and commercial rapid diagnostic tests for Plasmodium detection in asymptomatic and submicroscopic individuals.

Young adults face rising loneliness and mental health challenges. In a study of 5,192 undergraduates, Pei et al. find that perceiving peers as empathic is related to better well-being. Students, however, underestimate peers’ empathy. Two field experiments offered simple interventions that reduced this empathy perception gap and increased social behaviour and connection.

How age affect the immune response to malaria is not fully understood. Here, the authors characterise the transcriptome and serum inflammatory cytokines in children and adults in response to malaria, showing that there is an increase of inflammatory chemokine and cellular responses in adults compared to children.

Viruses generally have compact genomes, resulting in many viral mRNAs with short 5’ untranslated regions. An antiviral complex exploits this feature of viral mRNAs to selectively inhibit viral protein synthesis and repress viral replication.

Separation of CO₂ from gas mixtures is a major application focus for porous materials. Now it has been shown that fluorinated non-porous crystalline materials can uptake CO₂ via mobile perfluoroalkyl regions, a process resembling the dissolution of CO₂ in perfluoroalkanes, while CH₄ uptake is hindered. In situ X-ray diffraction data provide insight into the sorption process.

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

A transition from carbon sink to source for the aboveground woody biomass of moist tropical Australian forests has occurred, driven by increasingly extreme climate anomalies.

Using multi-omic analyses, the authors reveal how aging, sex, and trisomy 21 shape human biology across the lifespan, showing that age- and sex-specific changes peak during puberty and adulthood, while trisomy 21 exerts differential effects over time.

Electrotherapy requires electronic powered devices, set-up, and accessories. Here the authors, developed an integrated single-use platform for wearable electrotherapy as simple as a band-aid

Analyses of newly discovered hand and foot bones of a Paranthropus boisei specimen provide insight into possible tool use and other palaeobiology characteristics among Plio-Pleistocene hominin species.

Dynamic systems show promise for physical neural networks, but gradient based optimization requires mathematical models. Here, the authors present a data-driven framework for optimizing networks of arbitrary dynamic systems which is robust to noise, and enables tasks such as neuroprosthetic control.

This study shows that deep-learning-based co-folding models often produce physically unrealistic structures and are unsusceptible in their predictions to significant binding site modifications, demonstrating bias towards training data and underscoring the need for stronger integration of physical principles.

The Zika viral protease NS2B-NS3 is a crucial target for antiviral drug development due to its role in processing viral polyproteins. Here, the authors utilize crystallographic fragment screening and deep mutational scanning to identify binding sites for resistance-resilient inhibitors.

In vitro propagation of the pathogenic bacterium Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, leads to attenuated virulence and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) truncation. Here, Long et al. show that a strain considered to be avirulent (NMII) can be recovered from infected animals, and these isolates display increased virulence and an elongated LPS due to reversion of a 3-bp mutation in a gene.

Here the authors develop a genetic priority score to predict side effects by integrating multiple lines of genetic evidence. By applying this score, they provide evidence of known side effects and suggest ones with no clinical trial evidence.

Polymer thin films that emit and absorb circularly polarised light are promising in achieving important technological advances, but the origin of the large chiroptical effects in such films has remained elusive. Here the authors demonstrate that in non-aligned polymer thin films, large chiroptical effects are caused by magneto-electric coupling, not structural chirality as previously assumed.

This study demonstrates GHz-speed electro-optic modulation using ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals, offering dual-phase shifting, poling-free operation, low loss, and CMOS compatibility-enabling scalable hybrid silicon-organic photonics.

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.

Lin, Geng and colleagues identify a non-canonical AHR pathway that is activated by canonical AHR inhibitors, promoting the proliferation of quiescent endothelial cells with potential applications in cell therapy.

Small proteins (<50 kDa) are difficult to resolve by cryo-EM due to low signal-to-noise ratios and alignment challenges. Here, authors engineered conformationally rigid antibody fragments (Rigid Fabs) enabling high-resolution cryo-EM structures of small (~20 kDa) proteins like KRAS.

Adherent-invasive strains of E. coli are commonly isolated from patients with Crohn’s disease. Here, the authors show that an AIEC harbours a hybrid Type IV secretion system (T4SS) that mediates pilin polymerization and biofilm formation in vivo.

Brain-wide recordings in mice reveal that prior expectations are distributed through recurrent loops across all levels of cortical and subcortical processing.

Synthetic microbial consortia are collections of strains which can segregate metabolic tasks for efficient use in biomaterials, biomanufacturing, and biotherapeutics. Here, the authors present a method to maintain and tune the ratio of two co-cultured bacterial strains via growth medium manipulation.

In a prospective study enrolling 1,222 patients from 22 emergency departments, a device using a machine-learning-based signature of blood mRNAs demonstrated clinically acceptable performance to diagnose bacterial and viral infections and to predict the all-cause need for critical care interventions within 7 days, with benchmark to established biomarkers and risk scores.

Dietary cysteine enhances intestinal stem cell-mediated intestinal repair following injury by promoting CD8 T cell-regenerative immune responses.

The major ion chemistry of a North American river shows decreased lateral carbon transport due to exacerbated secondary carbonate formation and CO₂ evasion, according to analyses conducted during a 195-day drought.

Rapid discovery of functional resistance genes is enabled by a high-expression signature and high-throughput transformation. This approach identified 31 new resistance genes for wheat and can be applied across crops to support food security.

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.

The spatial and temporal control of material properties at a distance have been so far achieved with light, heat, or sound. Here, the authors control chemical reactions and further polymerization of composites with an electric field via inverse piezo-effect resulting in multi-stiffness gels.

An operational satellite-based monitoring system using NASA/USGS and ESA imagery enables rapid tracking of global land change, with the area of conversion due to direct human action and fire equaling the size of California in 2023.

In this Stage 2 Registered Report, Buchanan et al. show evidence confirming the phenomenon of semantic priming across speakers of 19 diverse languages.

Opposing forces generated by exopolysaccharide trail binding versus type IV pilus retraction generate a high cyclic diGMP–high cyclic AMP state in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that promotes social motility.

Integrated multi-omic analyses using samples from the TRACERx study highlight cross-talk between DNA hypermethylation and genomic lesions in non-small cell lung cancer.

This study shows that p300/CBP-dependent H2B acetylation is crucial for maintaining transcription of oncogenic gene programs in androgen receptor-driven prostate cancer.

Giotto Suite provides a comprehensive, flexible and scalable platform for technology-agnostic spatial omics analysis using R.

This work introduces a solvent-free method to directly synthesise MOF glasses without needing a crystalline precursor, enabling device integration, magnetic studies, and functional tuning.

The placenta plays vital roles in supporting fetal development. Here, Richards et al. develop a high-throughput bioprinted trophoblast organoid model to recapitulate the microenvironment of the early placenta, enabling investigation of placenta development and evaluation of therapeutics for placenta dysfunction disorders.

Our understanding of variation in monocyte context-specific splicing and transcript usage is limited. Here, the authors find genetic variants that affect gene splicing in monocytes in specific contexts, including several diseases, and in response to stimulants.