Search

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.

Basidiomycete fungi typically have two mating-type loci located on different chromosomes. Here, Lucotte et al. report the convergent loss-of-function of mating-type genes across several species of phytopathogenic fungi of the genus Microbotryum.

Regional differences in SARS-CoV-2 variants may affect treatment outcome. Here, the authors show that near-sourced convalescent plasma has higher efficacy, as defined by death within 30 days of transfusion, than plasma sourced more than 150 miles away.

Gas adsorption in porous materials offers an alternative technology for efficient hydrogen isotope separation. Here, the authors report high separation efficiency through isotopologue-induced structural dynamics in a readily scalable manganese-triazole metal-organic framework.

Quantum spin Hall edge states are protected by time-reversal symmetry and are expected to disappear in a strong magnetic field. Here, the authors use microwave impedance microscopy and find, surprisingly, edge conduction in mercury telluride quantum wells that survives up to 9 T with little change.

The authors report upconversion in few-layer transition metal dichalcogenides, and attribute it to a resonant exciton-exciton annihilation involving a pair of dark excitons with opposite momenta, followed by the spontaneous emission of upconverted bright excitons.

A ferromagnetic transition in CrSBr is attributed to ordering of magnetic defects, and can be electrostatically manipulated.

The oxidative prowess of cytochrome P450s has been suggested to stem from the electron-donating axial ligand. Now, a selenocysteine-ligated P450 compound I has been trapped and characterized providing an avenue to examine this hypothesis. Measurements reveal that the selenolate-ligated compound I cleaves C–H bonds more rapidly than the wild-type equivalent.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

The weak effects induced by lattice disorder on the optoelectronic properties of halide perovskites still remain elusive. Here Wu et al. confirm the indirect transition tail states in perovskite crystals which explain their low photoluminescence quantum yield, dual emission peaks and difficulties in realizing lasing.

Neuropixels 1.0 NHP is a 45-mm, high-density silicon probe capable of recording large numbers of neurons with single-neuron resolution from most areas in a macaque’s brain.

Hemoproteins have recently emerged as promising biocatalysts for carbene transfer reactions but mechanistic understanding of the interplay between productive and unproductive pathways in these processes is limited. Here, the authors use a combination of spectroscopic, crystallographic, and computational tools to elucidate the mechanism of a recently reported myoglobin-catalyzed cyclopropanation reaction with diazoketones.

Kagome-lattice systems host a variety of condensed matter phenomena. Here, the authors use NMR spectroscopy to probe the orbital-selective modulations of the local density of states in the charge density wave phase of ScV₆Sn₆.

Employing nonlinear, time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy to study condensate dynamics on Ta₂NiSe₅—a narrow-bandgap semiconductor and putative excitonic insulator—the authors reveal enhanced terahertz reflectivity upon photoexcitation and condensation-like temperature dependence below the structural transition critical temperature.

Singlet fission is an important process occurring in solar cells, however the mechanism is not well understood. Here the authors reveal intermediates during singlet fission of a non-conjugated pentacene dimer, developing a single kinetic model to describe the data over seven temporal orders of magnitude at room and cryogenic temperatures.

Lead-free perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) prepared using tautomeric mixture coordination provide improved ordering in the crystal structure, reduced recombination and enhanced exciton binding energy compared with lead-containing perovskite-based LEDs.

Artificial intelligence (AI) system is known to improve dermatologists’ diagnostic accuracy for melanoma. This group applies the eye-tracking technology on dermatologists when diagnosing dermoscopic images of melanomas and reports improved balanced diagnostic accuracy when using an X(explainable) AI system comparing to the standard one.

A genome-wide study by the Long COVID Host Genetics Initiative identifies an association between the FOXP4 locus and long COVID, implicating altered lung function in its pathophysiology.

Carbon nanomaterials have widespread application but fundamental aspects of their formation are still unclear. Here the authors explore the shock-induced synthesis of carbon nanoallotropes from liquid CO by time-resolved reflectivity and computations identifying the growth mechanism at the sub-nanosecond timescale

Interfacing spin quantum memories with photons requires the controlled creation of defect centre—nanocavity systems. Here the authors demonstrate direct, maskless creation of single silicon vacancy centres in diamond nanostructures, and report linewidths comparable to naturally occurring centres

Outdoor field testing is crucial to understand how solar cells behave under operational conditions. Here, Aydin et al. show that a lower perovskite bandgap than that calculated at laboratory standard test conditions enhances the performance of perovskite/silicon tandem cells in the field.

In an ongoing adaptive-design trial exploring different combinations of neoadjuvant immunotherapies including the anti-PD-1 agent pembrolizumab, the anti-TIGIT agent vibostolimab and the oncolytic virus gebasaxturev, neoadjuvant pembrolizumab-based regimens elicited encouraging clinical responses in patients with resectable melanoma.

Using organic molecules as directing groups, a wide range of perovskite heterostructures are shown to self-assemble in solution to yield single crystals.

Stratified medicine promises to tailor treatment for individual patients, however it remains a major challenge to leverage genetic risk data to aid patient stratification. Here the authors introduce an approach to stratify individuals based on the aggregated impact of their genetic risk factor profiles on tissue-specific gene expression levels, and highlight its ability to identify biologically meaningful and clinically actionable patient subgroups, supporting the notion of different patient ‘biotypes’ characterized by partially distinct disease mechanisms.

Solid benzene and other simple organic minerals play important roles in geological processes on Titan-like cold Solar System bodies. Here, the authors discover benzene microcrystals plastically deform via densification enabled by molecule reorientation and shearing.

In ice-rich Siberian permafrost sediments deposited during the Pleistocene, 33-74% of the organic carbon is mineral-bound favoured by the presence of reactive iron, which can reduce microbial CO₂ production after thawing

Nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond have established themselves as excellent candidates for solid-state quantum memories due to their optical addressability and long coherence times. Here, the authors report on a diamond-nanocavity system with improved spin-photon interface performances.

Energy migrations at metal nanomaterial surfaces are fundamentally important to heterogeneous reactions. Here, the authors employ ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy to show two distinctive energy migration pathways of monolayer adsorbate molecules on differently sized metal nanoparticle surfaces.

Photocarrier generation at organic semiconductor heterojunctions is a crucial process, yet its mechanism and dynamics remain unclear. Here, Provencher et al.show little change in polymer structure following the charge-transfer process and interpret the observation in terms of unbounded electron-hole pairs.

Hydration water plasticizes protein structures and is essential for their biological functions, such as enzymatic catalysis. Here, the authors use neutron scattering and molecular dynamics simulations to study hydration water at the dynamical transition of folded and disordered proteins.

The relation between the microscopic structure and the optical properties of atomic defects in 2D semiconductors is still debated. Here, the authors correlate different fabrication processes, optical spectroscopy and electron microscopy to identify the optical signatures of chalcogen vacancies in monolayer MoS2.

The diheme enzyme MauG forms a bis-Fe(IV) state. Here the authors identify and determine the structure of BthA, a diheme peroxidase conserved in all Burkholderia and show that BthA also forms a bis-Fe(IV) species but mechanistically differs from MauG by combining magnetic resonance, near-IR and Mössbauer spectroscopies and electrochemical methods.

Multivalent anions are found to be capable of electron-doping polymer semiconductors to realize conductive films with very low work functions, which enable efficient electron injection into materials with low electron affinity.

The authors defined a roadmap for investigating the genetic covariance between structural or functional brain phenotypes and risk for psychiatric disorders. Their proof-of-concept study using the largest available common variant data sets for schizophrenia and volumes of several (mainly subcortical) brain structures did not find evidence of genetic overlap.

The microbiome in the uropygial gland and feathers of the bird Pachycephala schlegii has protective properties. Here, the authors report an Amycolatopsis species in this microbiome that produces antimicrobials including two novel compound families.

Translation elongation factor 2 (EF2) from archaea and eukaryotes contains a unique, post-translationally modified histidine residue called diphthamide, which is the target of diphtheria toxin. The biosynthesis of diphthamide involves three steps; here it is shown that the first step in the archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii requires an unusual iron–sulphur-cluster enzyme, Dph2. It catalyses unprecedented chemistry.

Cytochrome P450 (P450) and chloroperoxidase (CPO) are both thiolate-ligated haem proteins that form a ferryl radical species called compound I. P450-I is, however, significantly more reactive than CPO-I. Variable-temperature Mössbauer and X-ray absorption measurements have now shown that increased electron donation from the axial thiolate ligand in P450-I may explain its greater propensity for C–H bond activation.

This study uses gene expression predictors for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and other brain regions to perform a transcriptomic imputation analysis of schizophrenia, identifying 413 genic associations across 13 brain regions and 36 significantly enriched pathways.

Value-based decision making involves choosing from multiple options with different values. The authors identify a neural mechanism that directly transforms absolute values to categorical choices within the superior colliculus and which supports value-based decision making critical for real-world economic behaviours.

This megastudy testing different interventions finds that honesty oaths are effective and can mitigate tax evasion in an incentivized game.

Typically, the light-emission of semiconductors always occurs from thermalized electrons, as electrons excited above the bandgap energy relax quickly. In contrast, non-thermalized excitonic light emission has now been observed in nanowires using resonant plasmonic nanocavities. The much higher radiative light-emission rates of the hot excitons suggest their use for ultrafast nanophotonic devices.

Single-photon emission at room temperature can be achieved with hexagonal boron nitride due to electron and hole confinement in vacancy-related defects.

The efficacy of carbapenem antibiotics can be compromised by metallo-β-lactamases, but a high-throughput screen followed by optimization has now enabled the discovery of indole-2-carboxylates (InCs) as potent broad-spectrum metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors. The results highlight the potential of InC–carbapenem combinations for clinical use as well as mechanism-guided approaches to combatting globally disseminated antibiotic resistant mechanisms.

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, often found in the human stomach, can be classified into distinct subpopulations associated with the geographic origin of the host. Here, the authors provide insights into H. pylori population structure by collecting over 1,000 clinical strains from 50 countries and generating and analyzing high-quality bacterial genome sequences.