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Obesity is a global pandemic with limited treatment options. Here, the authors show evidence in mice that the mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 effectively induces fat loss without affecting food intake or compromising lean body mass.

The valve-like trichomes of the desert plant Tillandsia landbeckii allow water acquisition from fog while minimising transpiration. Here, Raux et al. show that a hygroscopic cell-wall adjacent to a semi-permeable plasma membrane at the base of the trichome confers this asymmetry in water conductance.

The realization of efficient light–matter interfaces is important for many quantum technologies. An experiment now shows how to coherently switch the collective optical properties of an array of quantum emitters by driving a single ancilla atom to a Rydberg state.

The impact of chromatin context on transcription factor binding affinities is quantified.

Sinonasal tumour diagnosis can be complicated by the heterogeneity of disease and classification systems. Here, the authors use machine learning to classify sinonasal undifferentiated carcinomas into 4 molecular classe with differences in differentiation state and clinical outcome.

Researchers demonstrate a laser-plasma accelerator-driven free-electron laser in a seeded configuration, where control over the radiation wavelength and longitudinal coherence are achieved.

Genetically encoded sensors have been developed and become versatile tools for imaging serotonin dynamics. Here, authors developed a family of serotonin (5-HT) sensors (sDarken), three variants with different affinities for 5-HT enable high spatiotemporal resolution of 5-HT dynamics.

Designer ribozymes show protein-responsive translational control and can be combined with transcriptional control elements to program complex gene circuits.

The Amazon rainforest is dominated by relatively few tree species, yet the degree to which this hyperdominance influences carbon cycling remains unknown. Here, the authors analyse 530 forest plots and show that ∼1% of species are responsible for 50% of the aboveground carbon storage and productivity.

Previous studies identified an association between the 2q35 locus and breast cancer. Here, the authors show that a SNP at 2q35, rs4442975, is associated with oestrogen receptor positive disease and suggest that this effect is mediated through the downregulation of a known breast cancer gene, IGFBP5.

Douglas Easton, Per Hall and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for breast cancer, including 10,052 cases and 12,575 controls, followed by genotyping using the iCOGS array in an additional 52,675 cases and 49,436 controls from studies within the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC). They identify 41 loci newly associated with susceptibility to breast cancer.

Gaining molecular-level insight into host–guest binding interactions is fundamentally important, but experimentally challenging. Here, Schröder and co-workers study CO₂–host hydrogen bonding interactions in a pair of isostructural redox-active V^III/V^IVMOFs using neutron scattering and diffraction techniques.

This study presents the assembly and analysis of the genome sequence of a female domestic Duroc pig and a comparison with the genomes of wild and domestic pigs from Europe and Asia; the results shed light on the evolutionary relationship between European and Asian wild boars.

An ensemble of climate model simulations, as well as hydrological modelling and flood risk mapping, are used to show the role of anthropogenic warming on the extreme rainfall that caused the 2013/14 floods in southern England.

Magnetic atoms embedded in a niobium selenide superconductor are shown to give rise to a long-range coherent bound state extending tens of nanometres.

This study models converted teleseismic waves to constrain the seismological properties of subducted oceanic crust from the Cascadia continental margin to its intersection with the forearc mantle. The observations suggest that water is pervasively present in fluid form at high pore pressures, indicating that the megathrust is a low-permeability boundary. These results may hold important implications for our understanding of seismogenesis, subduction-zone structure and the mechanism of episodic tremor and slip.

Nonhuman primates are key preclinical models for infectious disease, vaccine development and transplantation research, but their use has been hampered by the complexity and diversity of their major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I genotypes. Wiseman and his colleagues provide a cost-effective solution to this problem using a next-generation pyrosequencing approach to high-resolution MHC genotyping in various nonhuman primates, identifying both known and new MHC class I alleles.

Adult forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are of a polygenic nature, but paediatric and very early onset (VEO) IBD also occur as monogenic forms. Here, using whole exome sequencing, the authors explore both the monogenic and polygenic contribution to VEO-IBD and characterize a rare somatic mosaic VEO-IBD patient.

In the age of big data, it is time to ensure that units are routinely documented for easy, unambiguous exchange of information.

Non-volatile analogue switches made from molybdenum disulfide can operate at frequencies of 480 GHz and achieve data transmission rates of 100 Gbit s^–1, making them of potential use in sixth-generation communication technology.

Epilepsy is a brain network disorder with associated genetic risk factors. Here, the authors show that spatial patterns of transcriptomic vulnerability co-vary with structural brain network alterations in focal and generalized epilepsy.

The Congo Basin is home to the second largest stretch of continuous tropical forest, but the magnitude of greenhouse fluxes are poorly understood. Here the authors analyze gas samples and find the region is not actually a hotspot of N2O emissions.

Coherently coupling microwave photons to quantum electronic conductors could provide a useful platform for quantum information processing. Souquet et al. now theoretically demonstrate that such systems can also act as sensitive probes of the quantum properties of non-classical microwave radiation.

Heat extremes in Western Europe have increased by an outstanding amount in the last 70 years. Climate models simulate weaker trends. This is largely due to atmospheric circulation trends, favouring heat, missed by climate models.

Using sulfur doping and pressure, the authors separate the nematic and magnetic phase transitions in FeSe. They find that a Lifshitz transition sits between two independent superconducting domes where nematic critical fluctuations remain finite.

Nowhere is biomass burning more abundant than on the African continent, but the biogeochemical impacts on forests are poorly understood. Here the authors show that biomass burning leads to high phosphorus deposition in the Congo basin, which scales with forest age as a result of increasing canopy complexity.

Immune cells contribute to adverse remodeling following myocardial infarction. Here the authors show in mice and pigs that CD8⁺ lymphocytes release Granzyme B in the infarcted heart leading to cardiomyocyte death, enhanced inflammation and deterioration of cardiac function.

A key step in the assimilation of formate is its reduction into formaldehyde. Here, the authors develop a two-enzyme route in which formate is activated into formyl phosphate and reduced by NAD(P)H into formaldehyde and confirm its functionality in vitro and in vivo.

Subduction of sediments shaped geochemically by an increasingly oxidized atmosphere shifted the redox state of the mantle during the early Proterozoic, according to an analysis of sulfur speciation in apatites from ancient igneous zircons.

Aromatase inhibitors are used to treat oestrogen receptor positive breast cancers but the molecular basis for the response of patients is unclear. Here, the authors use samples from an aromatase inhibitor clinical trial and show that tumours from poor responders have more mutations than good responders and also more frequently harbour p53 mutations.

Quantitative analysis of embryonic cell dynamics from large data sets remains a major challenge in the field of developmental biology. Here the authors develop software and a workflow to reconstruct cell lineage trees from 3D time lapse imaging data sets from several developing organisms including zebrafish, tunicates and sea urchins.

The climatic response to the 1257 Samalas eruption is unclear. Analyses of proxy data and medieval archives suggest that the eruption triggered some of the coldest summers of the past millennium, but only in some Northern Hemisphere regions.

Lymphatic malformation (LM) is a debilitating often incurable vascular disease. Using a mouse model of LM driven by a disease-causative PIK3CA mutation, the authors show that vascular growth is dependent on the upstream lymphangiogenic VEGF-C signalling, permitting effective therapeutic intervention.

The flow of fluid, such as mucus in the human respiratory tract, can affect biological function. Here the authors show that the hydrodynamic interactions mediated by mucus are essential for the directional coordination of ciliary beating in the lungs.

The mechanisms that control the presynaptic abundance of GABAB receptors (GBRs) remains unclear. This study shows that sequence-related epitopes in APP, AJAP-1 and PIANP bind with nanomolar affinities to the N-terminal sushi-domain of presynaptic GBRs, and that selective loss of APP impaired GBR-mediated presynaptic inhibition and axonal GBR expression

Radial velocity data of the young β Pictoris system acquired by HARPS and spanning 15 years show evidence of β Pic c, a gas giant of ~9 Jupiter masses orbiting on an eccentric orbit at ~2.4 au from the star, near the theoretical snowline. Both β Pic b and c, located close to the star, may have formed in situ by core accretion.

The response of Drosophila larva to light depends on both spatial and temporal inputs. Here the authors show that Rhodopsin5 photoreceptors, but not Rhodopsin6 photoreceptors, are required for conveying spatial light cues.

The authors show that robust analyses of high-impact compound weather and climate events require many samples. Thus, they argue that large ensemble climate model simulations should be used to provide the best available information on climate risks.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

Roger Milne and colleagues conduct a genome-wide association study for estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer combined with BRCA1 mutation carriers in a large cohort. They identify ten new risk variants and find high genetic correlation between breast cancer risk for BRCA1 mutation carriers and risk of ER-negative breast cancer in the general population.

Association analysis identifies 65 new breast cancer risk loci, predicts target genes for known risk loci and demonstrates a strong overlap with somatic driver genes in breast tumours.

Assessing the conservation status of 1,020 European marine fishes reveals half of large (>1.5 m) fishes are threatened with extinction and stock status diverges geographically: almost all Mediterranean stock is overfished, most northern European stock is not.

John Perry and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association study meta-analysis to identify variants influencing age at natural menopause. They identify 54 independent signals and find enrichment near genes involved in delayed puberty and DNA damage response.

A framework based on numerous empirical data, including protein-protein interaction reference sets, provides parameters for assessing the quality and coverage of protein-protein interaction datasets and estimation of the size of the human interactome. Braun et al., also in this issue, use the reference sets to help derive confidence scores for individual protein-protein interactions.

Using standard silica optical fibres, scientists observe temporal cavity solitons — packets of light persisting in a continuously driven nonlinear resonator. Cavity solitons 4 ps long are reported and used to demonstrate storage of a data stream for more than a second. The findings represent one of the simplest examples of self-organization phenomena in nonlinear optics.

Dominic Kwiatkowski and colleagues of the MalariaGEN and the WTCCC consortiums report a genome-wide analysis of severe malaria in The Gambia. They provide guidance for design of GWAS in African populations, and demonstrate the usefulness of multipoint imputation based on population-specific sequencing data.