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The Hong–Ou–Mandel effect is a well-known demonstration of quantum interference phenomena between pairs of indistinguishable bosons, yet it has only been seen with massless photons. Here, the authors propose an approach to realize this effect for matter waves using two colliding Bose–Einstein condensates.

Bennu comprises components of intra- and extra-Solar System origins. The parent bodies of Bennu, Ryugu and CI chondrites likely formed from a shared but heterogeneous reservoir in the outer parts of the solar protoplanetary disk.

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.

Genome analysis of fungi responsible for Dutch elm disease shows that introgression has contributed to genomic diversity and has impacted fitness-related traits in these pathogens.

The Hong–Ou–Mandel effect—in which two indistinguishable photons that enter a 50:50 beam-splitter are found only as a pair at one of the two outputs, leading to a dip in the coincidence rate of the detectors—is now realized with ⁴He atoms instead of photons; this opens the way to performing basic quantum-physics experiments with mechanical observables of massive particles.

An analysis of behavioural, eco-morphological and genomic data in 60 species of Lake Tanganyika cichlids reveals a remarkable diversity of temporal activity patterns across species, suggesting that temporal niche partitioning may have played a role in the adaptive diversification of this group.

The triple synergy of oxygen, proton, and electron supply is crucial for hydrogen peroxide photosynthesis. Here, the authors report a squaric-acid zwitterionic covalent organic framework that achieves this synergy, boosting hydrogen peroxide yield and enabling solar-driven continuous-flow production.

Based on phylogenomic and geometric morphometric analyses of 132 anglerfish species, the authors infer a Cretaceous origin of the clade and show that bathypelagic anglerfish are undergoing rapid phenotypic diversification despite inhabiting a relatively homogeneous deep-sea habitat.

It has been proposed that phonons propagating through a material can be used for quantum computing, in a similar manner to photons. Now, several of the quantum gates and measurements needed for this approach have been demonstrated.

Combining a large-scale dataset of 23 ungulate species (in which newborns follow contrasting tactics of predator avoidance) with continuous-time stochastic movement models, the authors reveal that there are multiple dimensions of maternal movement behaviour and space use.

A spatial taxonomic framework integrating genomic, morphological, ecological, life history and acoustic data is used to clarify the cryptic evolution of the taxonomically controversial mouse lemur complex, with a view to aiding future conservation of this and other similarly cryptic clades.

For fertilization, sperm migrate through the utero-tubal junction (UTJ) and bind to the zona pellucida (ZP). Here the authors identify sperm expressed GALNTL5 as a GalNAc binding factor required for migration though the UTJ and attachment to the ZP.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

The high global temperatures of the Eocene and subsequent habitat reconfigurations might have been critical for the rise and retention of the highly productive, high-turnover fish faunas that characterize modern coral reef ecosystems.

Wastewater treatment plants are important reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Here, the authors analyze ARGs in a global collection of samples from wastewater treatment plants across six continents, providing insights into biotic and abiotic mechanisms that appear to control ARG diversity and distribution.

Ancient Mars may have had an active sulfur cycle. In situ analyses by the Curiosity rover reveal large variations in the current sulfur isotopic composition of Martian sediments that can be explained by geologic and atmospheric processes.

Here, the authors examine how body size, shape, and segment proportions correspond to ecology in models of 410 tetrapods. They find variable allometric relationships, differential scaling in small and large animals, and body proportions as a potential niche occupation mechanism.

There have been five independent transitions from egg laying to live birth in the phrynosomatid lizards. Here, Domínguez-Guerrero et al. identify parallel changes in physiology, life history and behaviour that characterize these transitions to live birth.

Evolution of viviparity supports expansion into cold habitats. Here, the authors examine viviparity with patterns and rates of body size evolution in female Liolaemus lizards, finding that viviparous species are 20% larger with similar rates of evolution.

Polygenic scores for body mass index and obesity constructed using data from 5 million people with different ancestries were associated with distinct weight gain trajectories from early childhood to adulthood.

The proximal femur is key for understanding locomotion in primates. Here, the authors analyze the evolution of the proximal femur in catarrhines, including a new Aegyptopithecus fossil, and suggest that Old World monkeys and hominoids diverged from an ancestral state similar to Aegyptopithecus.

Oxidative dehydrogenation of propane could lower the energy demand for propylene production, but low selectivity and costly air separation limit its viability. Here, the authors demonstrate that a molten NaNO₃ shell enables selective oxygen permeation, suppressing hydrocarbon over-oxidation in chemical looping oxygen uncoupling.

Geometric quantum gates—engineered evolution paths for qubit control—promise noise resilience but have shown limited fidelity in prior implementations in semiconductor quantum computation. Here the authors demonstrate high-fidelity single-qubit gates in a single-hole quantum dot in Ge, outperforming conventional dynamical gates.

Developmental duration is a key life-history trait. Cooney et al. compile data on 3096 bird species to quantify the degree to which phylogenetic history, body size and ecological variables like predation risk or breeding phenology influence variation in developmental duration.

This paper examines the main approaches for studying gene expression evolution, tests their inherent biases and discusses open questions about the evolution of the transcriptome.

Neural population activity in the medial entorhinal cortex of mice can be organized into ultraslow oscillatory sequences, with periods extending up to the minute range.

Sperm morphology is remarkably diverse across animals. A macro-evolutionary analysis of how fertilization mode influences sperm length shows shorter sperm in external fertilizers and spermcasters and a faster rate of evolution of sperm length in spermcasters and internal fertilizers.

The authors investigate the response of Archaea to experimental warming in a tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Warming was linked to reduced diversity and convergent succession, with further links to changed ecosystem function. Stochastic processes dominated community changes but decreased over time.

Fungal diversity is critical for ecosystem functioning, yet its role in mediating the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality remains unclear. This study finds that fungal diversity can buffer reductions in ecosystem multifunctionality associated with low plant diversity.

Suitability for large-scale quantum computation imposes severe requirements on single-photon sources in terms of purity, indistinguishability and heralding efficiency. Here, the authors boost all these figures of merit through a dual-mode pump-delayed four-wave mixing scheme in low-loss silicon waveguides.

Functional trade-offs can affect phenotypic variation. Here, the authors examine trade-offs between bite force and speed in 132 carnivore species, finding that optimising for velocity can be obtained in more ways than optimising for force, and this may impact morphological variability.

A strongly lensed galaxy at redshift z ≈ 6 is resolved into at least 15 star-forming clumps embedded in a rotating disk. Clump formation in this system, which is not predicted by cosmological zoom-in simulations, may be driven by disk instabilities with weak feedback, rather than past mergers.

Genetically engineered commensal bacteria are promising living drugs, however, drug delivery is limited to bacterial colonization site. Here, the authors report an oral protein delivery technology utilizing an engineered bacterial type zero secretion system (T0SS) via outer membrane vesicles (OMVs).

Opioid-induced respiratory depression can be treated with intranasal (IN) or intramuscular (IM) naloxone. Here the authors report a randomized, crossover, open-label trial showing that lower number of IM doses are required for full reversal of breathing following fentanyl-induced apnea by comparison to IN doses.

Key innovations are traits that trigger the rapid evolution of new species occupying novel niches. Fresh genetic evidence reveals that the modified throat jaws of some fishes, thought to be a textbook example of key innovation, have a complex history that does not fit the classic definition.

The location where fertilization takes place can be highly variable across species, and especially between internal and external fertilizers. Kahrl et al. find that fertilization environment plays a significant role in the evolution and diversification of sperm morphology across vertebrate species.