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Games, seasonal science songs, and Nature’s 10.

An integrated analysis of de novo and inherited coding variants in 42,607 individuals with autism spectrum disorder identifies 60 risk genes of which five have not previously been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Eumelanin’s potential in electrochemical applications is hindered by its poor solubility in polar solvents. Here, the authors explore functional group modifications, revealing that nitro groups enhance water solubility and electrochemical performance, highlighting the critical role of electron-withdrawing effects in optimizing eumelanin-based devices.

Sera from unvaccinated, vaccinated, and previously infected and vaccinated individuals show reduced neutralizing and spike protein-binding activity towards the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of SARS-CoV-2 compared to other variants.

Using intracranial EEG in human participants, the authors identify a functionally distinct set of brain regions which exhibited characteristic signatures of decision formation independently of the motor action associated with the choice.

Siew et al. using multi-omic, physiological & imaging approaches have demonstrated that spaceflight causes kidney remodelling, suggesting a contribution to kidney stone formation, & that space radiation causes kidney damage & early signs of dysfunction.

Oxygen in shallow shelf waters rose linearly with atmospheric oxygen in the Neoproterozoic era, potentially driving the first radiation of marine animals, but widespread ocean oxygenation came later, according to reconstructions of oxygen levels and marine productivity.

The authors provide the first anellovirus-like particle structure determined by CryoEM. The authors propose hypervariable regions on the spike domains extending from the particle surface contribute to the immune evasion properties of anelloviruses.

In this Resource, Buckley and colleagues profile patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis before and after adalimumab therapy. Specific pretreatment differences in the epithelial and myeloid compartments were associated with remission outcomes in both diseases. The authors also describe the cellular circuitry in nonremission patients following treatment.

A meta-analysis using the Burden of Proof method reported consistent evidence supporting harmful associations between exposures to secondhand smoke and nine health outcomes.

The Late Ordovician mass extinction has been attributed to extended marine anoxia. Here, the authors use a metal isotope mass balance model and find the marine anoxic event lasted over 3 million years, notably longer than the anoxic event associated with the Permian-Triassic extinction and Cretaceous ocean anoxic events.

A report detailing genotype data for over 500,000 markers in the human genome by examining 29 populations in the Human Genome Diversity Project.

A meta-analysis using the Burden of proof method reported consistent evidence supporting harmful associations between smoking and 28 different health outcomes.

Possible effects of weather conditions on COVID-19 transmission are debated. Here, the authors analyse data from early in the pandemic and show that although temperature and humidity had small effects on transmission, they were far out-weighed by the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions.

A randomized trial in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed no benefit and potentially increased harm associated with the use of convalescent plasma, with subgroup analyses suggesting that the antibody profile in donor plasma is critical in determining clinical outcomes.

Achreja et al. develop a framework to identify collateral lethalities in cancer, uncovering MTHFD2 as a collateral lethal gene in UQCR11-deficient ovarian tumours.

Georgia Chenevix-Trench and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies identifying six loci newly associated with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). They also test variants at the 12 known and 6 new EOC susceptibility loci for association in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.

In a study involving more than 100,000 individuals in the UK Biobank, a neural network model trained on metabolomic data can predict disease risk for over 20 conditions and adds predictive information over clinical variables for eight common diseases.

Zinc is a marine nutrient that may have been limited in the early oceans. Estimates of marine zinc availability through time suggest that values were instead near-modern during the Proterozoic eon.

The global ecological predictors of soil priming remain unclear. Here the authors conducted a global survey of soils from 86 global locations using an isotopic approach and find that in more mesic sites with high SOC concentrations, soil priming effects are more likely to be negative.

As phase 1 of the Earth Microbiome Project, analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequences from more than 27,000 environmental samples delivers a global picture of the basic structure and drivers of microbial distribution.

Droplet single-cell RNA-seq is applied to large numbers of pooled samples from unrelated individuals.

Building crystal structures into the electron density is an important step in protein structure solution. Here, the authors recruit online game players, students, and experienced crystallographers to compete in a competition to solve a new structure, and find that crowdsourcing model-building works.

Facile absorption and desorption of hydrogen at palladium surfaces provides a way to define how metal–solute interactions impact properties relevant to energy storage, catalysis and sensing. In situ X-ray diffraction has now been used to track both hydrogen absorption and desorption in palladium nanocrystals.

The GEOCARBSULF model provides the most detailed reconstructions of Phanerozoic O₂, but its predictions are not supported by geochemical data. Here, a GEOCARBSULF model rebuilt from first principles, with the addition of an amended sulphur cycle and the latest isotope records, supports a Paleozoic Oxygenation Event.

Modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted in the Levant for tens of thousands of years before modern humans spread and replaced Neanderthals. Here, Greenbaum et al. develop a model showing that transmission of disease and genes can explain the maintenance and then collapse of this contact zone.

We find that if all countries adopt the necessary uniform global carbon tax and then return the revenues to their citizens on an equal per capita basis, it will be possible to meet a 2 °C target while also increasing wellbeing, reducing inequality and alleviating poverty. These results indicate that it is possible for a society to implement strong climate action without compromising goals for equity and development.

CRISPR–Cas9 engineering of the Drosophila Atpα gene (encoding the α-subunit of the sodium pump) is used to study the ability of mutations that evolved independently in several insect orders to confer resistance to keystone plant toxins.

Climate policy analyses often ignore the possibility of progressive redistribution of carbon tax revenues and assume that mitigation cost will burden the poor in the short term. Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) estimation suggests such redistribution could reduce inequality, alleviate poverty and increase well-being globally.

Eumelanin is a promising pigment for use in energy storage applications but has limitations hindering its wide usage. Here, melanin extracted from the black soldier fly is used to prepare electrodes with higher performance than synthetic melanin in zinc-ion hybrid capacitor applications.

Kruper et al. investigate the impact of glaucoma on brain tissue by comparing MRI data from 856 people with glaucoma to matched controls without glaucoma. They find that neural networks using tissue properties from visual brain connections more accurately detect glaucoma than those trained on non-visual brain connections.

The Snow Storage Index – which combines the magnitude of precipitation with the delay in water input from the timing of a melting snowpack – has decreased in western North America since 1950 due to earlier snowmelt, spring rains and reduced winter precipitation