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It is thought that Atlantic style passive margins have experienced episodes of uplift and volcanism in response to changes in mantle circulation. The authors here employ U-Pb dating of calcite in faults and fractures along the eastern North American margin and find a 40 Myr long period of fracturing and faulting from 115 to 75 Ma.

Modern culture appears to change at a rapid rate compared with biological evolution. Lambert et al. test this and find that the pace of modern cultural evolution is surprisingly slow—slower than, for example, changes seen in Darwin’s finches.

Phage-assisted noncontinuous selection of protein binders (PANCS-Binders) allows multiple high-diversity protein libraries to each be screened against a panel of dozens of targets for high-throughput protein binder discovery.

In the nucleus accumbens, acetylcholine boosts dopamine release to promote effortful behaviour.

A bioresorbable microneedle sensor array provides continuous, wireless and multimodal monitoring of organ metabolism, oxygenation and electrophysiology for up to 7 days in postoperative kidney ischaemia and gut disorders.

Marine viruses have important roles in modulating the dynamics of microbial life in the global oceans. Brum and Sullivan discuss the recent technological advances that are facilitating an accelerated pace of discovery in marine virology, including metagenomics and several cultivation-dependent and cultivation-independent tools.

The authors introduce the term demographic competence to describe the ability of a host population to maintain endemic infections, and use models to explore the interaction between population regulation and host–pathogen life history traits.

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.

Enzymes are highly selective and sustainable catalysts for chemical synthesis, but their optimization is often limited by the difficulty of identifying functional starting points. This study shows that using the GenSLM protein language model to design TrpB variants can yield stable, active enzymes with broad substrate promiscuity, outperforming natural and evolved counterparts and demonstrating the potential of generative models to accelerate biocatalyst discovery.

The impact of variants of uncertain significance (VUS) on protein function and cancer risk remain unclear. Here, the authors focus on the functional impact of VUS of the PALB2 gene and identify defects in DNA damage repair by homologous recombination associated with increased risk of breast cancer.

An exploratory analysis of the phase 3 ECOSPOR III trial shows that a higher dosage of the oral microbiome therapeutic VOWST led to enhanced pharmacokinetics, increased species engraftment and altered microbiome and metabolite profiles, providing mechanistic insights into how it may prevent Clostridioides difficile infection recurrence.

Platelet hyperreactivity is associated with cardiovascular events in patients with PAD. Here the authors derive and validate a circulating platelet genetic signature to discriminate platelet hyperreactivity and cardiovascular risk.

Climate change is expected to alter ocean ecology, and to potentially impact the ecosystem services provided to humankind. Here, the authors address how rapidly multiple factors that affect marine ecosystems are likely to develop in the future ocean and the remedial effects climate mitigation might have.

Intrinsic capacity (IC) was introduced by the World Health Organization to promote healthy aging. Here, using data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, the authors develop an IC measure for older Indian adults. Their analysis shows that higher IC scores are associated with better health and functioning and reveals regional and sociodemographic variations.

An assessment of fish movement along stream networks of the southern Appalachian Mountains identifies species-intrinsic sensitivities and habitat characteristics that allow some fish to disperse to keep pace with climate change but prevent successful climate tracking in some species.

Population epigenetics leverages methylation profile scores (MPSs) to aggregate information across multiple DNA methylation sites. In this Comment, the authors advocate for MPSs to be trained in early-life contexts, anchored in longitudinal developmental data and evaluated using harmonized standards.

A key component of quantum error correction is the decoding algorithm, which needs to be accurate but also with a computational overhead that doesn’t lead to backlogs and allows fast logical clock rates. Here, the authors show an FPGA-driven decoder featuring a coarse-grained parallel architecture and on-the-fly error model updates, allowing both high accuracy and real-time operation.

Genome-wide analyses in over one million self-reported cases and controls identify genetic variants associated with stuttering and find genetic correlations with autism, depression and impaired musical rhythm, supporting a potential neurological basis for stuttering.

Neurocognitive impairment and premature aging often occur in childhood survivors of cancer. Here, the authors investigate the link between biological markers of age and neurocognitive functioning in survivors of childhood cancer who received either central nervous system (CNS)-targeted or non-CNS-targeted therapy.

The large-scale deployment of photovoltaics could create new raw material demands and has the potential to create large end-of-life waste management issues in the future. This Review explores methods for device design and recycling to allow the photovoltaic industry to meet expanding energy demands while keeping within planetary bounds.

Inbreeding depression has been observed in many different species, but in humans a systematic analysis has been difficult so far. Here, analysing more than 1.3 million individuals, the authors show that a genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) is associated with disadvantageous outcomes in 32 out of 100 traits tested.

Mass spectrometry fragmentation patterns define analytical barcodes for the rapid, quantitative analysis of high-throughput chemical synthesis experiments.

Sprites are spectacular optical emissions in the mesosphere with an enigmatic filamentary nature. Qin et al.present high-speed video and modelling data revealing sub-millisecond dynamics to reconstruct the structures on a km-scale, showing that pre-existing plasma irregularities are responsible for their initiation.

Electrochemical acid-base production has attractive applications in mineral recovery and CO₂ removal, but current membrane-based designs are plagued by resistive losses. The authors report a membrane-less system generating useful acid and base solutions at high rates with less energy.

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.

Guida et al. assess seven measures of biological age in SJLIFE Cohort and reveal that survivors of cancer age faster than healthy controls and have increased risk of frailty and death. The aging trajectory is further affected by cancer type and therapy.

The rate of repair declines with age; however, exposure to young circulations can rejuvenate fracture repair, but how this is accomplished is unknown. Here, the authors identify proteins, including low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (Lrp1), as being secreted from young macrophages and rejuvenating fracture repair in mice.

Using well-calibrated statistical methods the authors jointly analyze Undiagnosed Diseases Network genomes, identifying known and novel disease genes. Software is publicly available to support future cross-cohort rare disease discovery efforts.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

This study examined the movements of mule deer in western Wyoming, which began their spring migration considerably mismatched from the wave of green-up that propagates from low-elevation winter ranges to high-elevation summer ranges. They show that individual deer compensated for phenological mismatches with the green wave en route by accelerating or decelerating their movement.

Here, the authors show that post-translational molecular signatures of human skeletal muscle in response to acute or chronic aerobic and resistance exercise are distinct, potentially dictating the differential physiologic adaptations to different exercise modes.

Using data from wearable activity monitors, this study shows that short bursts of physical activity that are done as part of daily life activities and that are only 1 or 2 minutes in length are associated with lower mortality, similar to the effects of regular exercise.

Brain slices offer an experimental window into human neurophysiology. Using high-density microelectrode array recordings and adeno-associated virus–mediated optogenetics, the authors demonstrate that optogenetic targeting of CAMK2A+ neurons can affect network activity in human hippocampal slices.

Using palaeohistology and geochemistry, the placental-like life history of a pantodont species 62 million years of age is determined.

Pyrrolysine (Pyl) exists in nature as the 22^nd proteinogenic amino acid, but studies of Pyl have been hindered by the difficulty and inefficiency of both its chemical and biological syntheses. Here, the authors developed an improved PANCE approach to evolve the pylBCD pathway for increased production of Pyl proteins in E. coli.

The Neolithic Revolution marked an important shift from foraging to farming in human society. Here, the authors show that in Europe the spread of farming involved mostly within-group mating and limited cultural transmission.

Sydnor et al. developed a new tractography atlas of thalamocortical structural connections and applied it to three youth samples. They uncovered coordinated development between thalamic connectivity and hierarchical cortical plasticity in humans.

Lewis acids have recently been shown to enable stereocontrol in photochemical cycloadditions, a difficult task due to the reactivity of excited-state compounds. Here the authors show that chiral Brønsted acids are competent chromophore activators in [2+2] cycloadditions, forming diastereomers disfavored in similar Lewis acid catalyzed photochemical reactions.

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 authors jointly assess the changes in land and ocean net primary production from 2003 to 2021. They show contrasting trends, with overall planetary increases (0.11 ± 0.13 PgC yr⁻¹) driven by terrestrial enhancement and offset by oceanic decline.

Niarchou et al. identify 69 genomic loci associated with people’s synchronization to a musical beat. The genetic architecture of beat synchronization was enriched for genes involved in early brain development and lifelong brain function.

The authors use a machine learning approach and in situ pigment samples to identify summer shifts (1997–2023) in the abundance and composition of Antarctic phytoplankton. While smaller phytoplankton groups generally increased, diatom chlorophyll a broadly decreased, with putative impacts on food webs and the carbon sink.

Access to low cost finance is vital for developing economies’ transition to green energy. Here the authors show how modelled decarbonization pathways for developing economies are disproportionately impacted by different weighted average cost of capital (WACC) assumptions.

Quantifying the vulnerability of tidal marsh ecosystems to relative sea-level rise (RSLR) is essential if the threat is to be mitigated. Here, the authors analyze the response of Great Britain’s tidal marshes to RSLR during the Holocene and predict an almost inevitable loss of this ecosystem by 2100 under rapid RSLR scenarios.