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Scanning dielectric microscopy of nanocapillaries filled with water reveals that interfacial and strongly confined water exhibits a large in-plane dielectric constant and an in-plane conductivity approaching superionic values. 

The quark structure of the f₀(980) hadron is still unknown after 50 years of its discovery. Here, the CMS Collaboration reports a measurement of the elliptic flow of the f₀(980) state in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV, providing strong evidence that the state is an ordinary meson.

The analysis of radial velocity variations of O-type stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud reveals a large fraction of close binaries, suggesting that binary physics also plays a prominent role in the low-metallicity environment of the distant Universe.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Federated learning (FL) algorithms have emerged as a promising solution to train models for healthcare imaging across institutions while preserving privacy. Here, the authors describe the Federated Tumor Segmentation (FeTS) challenge for the decentralised benchmarking of FL algorithms and evaluation of Healthcare AI algorithm generalizability in real-world cancer imaging datasets.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

The authors highlight inconsistencies and divergencies in the literature reporting data on indirect calorimetry for studies on whole-body energy homeostasis, and propose harmonization of standards to facilitate data comparison and interpretation across different datasets.

Mendes and colleagues present SReD, an unsupervised tool that detects repetitive biological structures in microscopy images. It works across imaging modalities and reveals patterns in viral assembly and cytoskeletal dynamics, thus enabling unbiased structural analysis.

Here the authors apply machine learning approaches to Alzheimer’s genetics, confirm known associations and suggest novel risk loci. These methods demonstrate predictive power comparable to traditional approaches, while also offering potential new insights beyond standard genetic analyses.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

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.

Nucleation is the fundamental relaxation mechanism that leads to the emergence of a new phase or structure via first-order phase transitions. Here, the authors study nucleation and growth of two-dimensional phases on curved surfaces, and show how the curvature influences its inhomogeneity and speed.

Analysis of 20 chemical and morphological plant traits at diverse sites across 6 continents shows that the transition from semi-arid to arid zones is associated with an unexpected 88% increase in trait diversity.

Over half the world’s rivers dry periodically, yet little is known about the biological communities in dry riverbeds. This study examines biodiversity across 84 non-perennial rivers in 19 countries using DNA metabarcoding. It finds that nutrient availability, climate and biotic interactions influence the biodiversity of these dry environments.

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.

The synaptonemal complex is a meiosis-specific proteinaceous structure that supports homologous chromosome pairs during meiosis. Here, the authors show that SIX6OS1 (of previously unknown function) is part of the synaptonemal complex central element and upon deletion in mice, causes defective chromosome synapsis and infertility.

Understanding molecular near neighbours is key for molecular optimization. Here, authors propose a transformer model that improves correlation between generation probability and molecular similarity, enhancing exploration of molecular neighbourhoods.

Here, the authors report the isolation and genetic characterization of 25 unique crAss-like phages (termed “crAssBcn”) infecting Bacteroides intestinalis, and show that CrAssBcn phages are commonly found in fecal samples from people around the globe, indicating their wide distribution.

Three-component, iron-based catalytic transformations offer a promising and sustainable approach to building complex molecules in a single step. This Review highlights advances and ongoing challenges in the development of iron-catalysed difunctionalization of alkenes. Mechanistic insights that enhance our understanding and guide the development of new transformations are discussed.

In global drylands, soils tend to be more fertile beneath tree, shrub and grass islands. Soil fertility was greater beneath taller and wider plants but was unaffected by either grazing pressure or the type of herbivore.

Genotype and exome sequencing of 150,000 participants and whole-genome sequencing of 9,950 selected individuals recruited into the Mexico City Prospective Study constitute a valuable, publicly available resource of non-European sequencing data.

Known genetic loci account for only a fraction of the genetic contribution to Alzheimer’s disease. Here, the authors have performed a large genome-wide meta-analysis comprising 409,435 individuals to discover 6 new loci and demonstrate the efficacy of an Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk score.

Examination of demographic age trajectories for species from a wide range of taxonomic groups shows that these species have very diverse life-history patterns; mortality and reproduction vary greatly with age for both long- and short-lived species, and the relationships between ageing, mortality and reproduction are clearly complex.

Spatially resolved images of M87 obtained at a wavelength of 3.5 mm in 2018 show a ring-like accretion structure, the inner (outer) edge of which connects the black hole (jet).

Planet-induced flares on HIP 67522, a 17 million-year-old G dwarf star with two known close-in planets, were detected.

A cross-sectional study from four African countries shows the importance of investigating the gut microbiome in previously under-represented populations and provides a framework for equitable microbiome research.

The future of marine ecosystem function under global change may be predicted by examining past trends. Here, the authors examine mass marine mortality data from 389 benthic Mediterranean species (1986–2020), highlighting heightened vulnerability within specific trait categories.

Sustainable synthesis of valuable organic compounds like lactams relies on efficient catalysts. Here, the authors report a bimetallic silver–rhenium catalyst that selectively converts cyclic imides to lactams with high efficiency, with close silver–rhenium contact being key to its performance.

Conventional models propose multiple fault systems across a diffuse deformation zone absorbing plate convergence in the western Mediterranean. Here the authors show new data supporting the active development of a single plate boundary fault system, representing an underappreciated seismic and tsunami hazard.

Modern molecular discovery processes generate millions of measurements at different quality levels. Here, the authors develop a new deep learning method for transfer learning from low-cost and abundant data to enhance the efficiency of drug discovery.

Combined analysis of new genomic data from 116 ancient hunter-gatherer individuals together with previously published data provides insights into the genetic structure and demographic shifts of west Eurasian forager populations over a period of 30,000 years.

Analyses of neuroimaging datasets from 5,306 participants across 15 countries found generally larger brain-age gaps in Latin American compared with non-Latin American populations, which were influenced by disparities in socioeconomic and health-related factors.

It is unclear whether stream detritivore diversity enhances decomposition across climates. Here the authors manipulate litter diversity and examine detritivore assemblages in a globally distributed stream litterbag experiment, finding a positive diversity-decomposition relationship stronger in tropical streams, where detritivore diversity is lower.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

Analysing >1,700 inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, the authors show that the majority of Amazon tree species can occupy floodplains and that patterns of species turnover are closely linked to regional flood patterns.

The 2023 monkeypox outbreak was caused by a subclade IIb monkeypox virus (MPXV). Here, using advanced sequencing techniques, the authors identify variations on low-complexity regions of the MPXV genome and describe their potential as evolutionary drivers.

Gain of function mutant CaV1.2 channels drive life-threatening hypoglycemia in the multisystem disorder Timothy syndrome, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Here the authors show the mutant channels have adverse effects on counterregulatory hormones and CNS control of glucose homeostasis.

Inventory data from more than 1 million trees across African, Amazonian and Southeast Asian tropical forests suggests that, despite their high diversity, just 1,053 species, representing a consistent ~2.2% of tropical tree species in each region, constitute half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees.

Protection afforded by inorganic minerals is assumed to make mineral-associated organic carbon less susceptible to loss under climate change than particulate organic carbon. However, a global study of soil organic carbon from drylands suggests that this is not the case.

Latin Americans trace their ancestry to the admixture of Native Americans, Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans. Here, the authors develop a novel haplotype-based approach and analyse over 6,500 Latin Americans to infer the geographically-detailed genetic structure of this population.

The CMS Collaboration reports the study of three simultaneous hard interactions between quarks and gluons in proton–proton collisions. This manifests through the concurrent production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm-quark–antiquark pair.

An investigation using various methods reports an association between adeno-associated virus 2 and paediatric hepatitis of unknown aetiology.

Single-nucleus and single-cell RNA sequencing plus spatial profiling with four methods of core biopsies from 60 patients with metastatic breast cancer reveal patient-specific gene expression programs of breast cancer metastases that are maintained across time, site of metastasis and spatial profiling method, with spatial phenotypes correlating with microenvironmental features.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

Preventing axon breakdown is key to treating neurodegeneration. Here, the authors show that after axotomy, DLK kinase drives apoptotic mitochondrial fission in axons. Blocking this reduces axon degeneration and neuron death in both human and mouse models.

One of the possible events signaling a neutrinoless double beta decay is a Xe atom decaying into a Ba ion and two electrons. Aiming at the realisation of a detector for such a process, the authors show that Ba ions can be efficiently trapped (chelated) in vacuum by an organic molecule layer on a surface.