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Managing power exhaust in fusion reactors is a key challenge, especially in compact designs for cost-effective commercial energy. This study shows how alternative divertor configurations improve exhaust control, enhance stability, absorb transients and enable independent plasma regulation.

The concept of dense random packing of hard spheres is well known to result in a packing fraction of 0.64, although this is difficult to observe in real systems. Here Ni et al.simulate the packing of self-propelled hard spheres, which allow them to achieve packing fractions close to the ideal value.

Researchers mapped the protein structure landscape, revealing structural complementarity across databases and functional clustering in specific regions. Their web tool helps explore this space, unlocking new insights into protein roles, evolution, and diversity.

The direct measurement of the QCD dead cone in charm quark fragmentation is reported, using iterative declustering of jets tagged with a fully reconstructed charmed hadron.

A hybrid solid-state platform based on two strongly interacting dipolar species is used to study the emergence of the classical properties of a solid from its underlying microscopic quantum description.

Treatment strategy of solid tumors requires continuous development. Here the authors develop a Macrophage Drug Conjugate (MDC) platform by loading ferritin-drug complexes to macrophages. MDC transfers the ferritin to cancer cells via ‘TRAnsfer of Iron binding protein’ (TRAIN) process and reduces tumor volume in various mouse tumor models.

Driven-dissipative microcavity polariton experiments find superfluid-like behaviour but the intuition developed from equilibrium systems cannot be straightforwardly applied. Juggins et al. show coherently-driven polaritons are not superfluid and earlier observations instead arise from a distinct rigid state.

By measuring the tidal deformation of Io as it orbits Jupiter using Juno Doppler and historically available data, the hypothesis of a shallow global magma ocean in Io is shown to be false.

One challenge that faces artificial intelligence is the inability of deep neural networks to continuously learn new information without catastrophically forgetting what has been learnt before. To solve this problem, here the authors propose a replay-based algorithm for deep learning without the need to store data.

Dissipation and losses are normally perceived as detrimental to the performance of electronic and photonic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate dissipative coupling between excitons and photons in optical microcavities which they then use to create polaritons with a negative effective mass.

Large genome-wide meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) from 94,437 individuals identifies new LOAD risk loci and implicates Aβ formation, tau protein binding, immune response and lipid metabolism.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Genome-wide analyses identify common variants associated with 11 distinct neuropathology endophenotypes, providing insights into the mechanisms underlying the genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

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.

Confining plasma and managing disruptions in tokamak devices is a challenge. Here the authors demonstrate a method predicting and possibly preventing disruptions and macroscopic instabilities in tokamak plasma using data from JET.

A very high-energy muon observed by the KM3NeT experiment in the Mediterranean Sea is evidence for the interaction of an exceptionally high-energy neutrino of cosmic origin.  

Cryo-electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations reveal how MFSD2A transports essential omega-3 fatty acids across the blood–brain and blood–retina barriers as lysolipids.

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.

A genome-wide association study of critically ill patients with COVID-19 identifies genetic signals that relate to important host antiviral defence mechanisms and mediators of inflammatory organ damage that may be targeted by repurposing drug treatments.

Using NASA’s Juno mission measurements, researchers obtain a new high-precision map of Jupiter’s gravity field and confirm that the planet’s observed strong east–west jet streams penetrate inwards in a direction parallel to the planet’s spin axis.

Experiments at the Joint European Torus tokamak show improved thermal ion confinement in the presence of highly energetic ions and Alfvénic instabilities in the plasma.

Corticobasal degeneration is a rare neurodegenerative disorder that can only be definitively diagnosed by autopsy. Here, Kouri et al. conduct a genome-wide-association study and identify two genetic susceptibility loci 17q21 (MAPT) and 3p12 (MOBP), and a novel susceptibility locus at 8p12.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a highly inheritable cancer. Here the authors conduct a metaanalysis of four genome-wide association studies and identify three novel loci located near EOMES, SERPINB6 and LPPassociated with risk of this disease.

An international consortium reports the genomic sequence for ten Drosophila species, and compares them to two other previously published Drosophila species. These data are invaluable for drawing evolutionary conclusions across an entire phylogeny of species at once.

Historically, most renormalization group studies have been performed for equilibrium systems. Here, I give a personal reflection on the unexpected outcome of studying non-equilibrium flocking using renormalization methods.

The determination of Jupiter’s even gravitational moments by the Juno spacecraft reveals that more than three thousand kilometres below the cloud tops, differential rotation is suppressed and the gas giant’s interior rotates as a solid body.

APOE is the major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. In a large number of neuropathologically confirmed cases and controls, the impact of different APOE genotypes on Alzheimer’s dementia risk was greater than previously thought and APOE2 homozygotes had an exceptionally low risk.

Evolutionarily conserved gene modules mediate neurodegenerative dementia in a variety of mouse models and in postmortem brain tissue from patients.

The authors describe the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, viral load and the frequency of symptomatic versus asymptomatic and presymptomatic infection in an Italian town, before and after a strict 14-day lockdown.

Multiple sclerosis is characterized by both demyelination and neurodegeneration. The lack of myelin in the retina makes this an ideal structure in which to visualize the latter process. In this Review, Frohman et al. describe the novel use of retinal imaging technology, and in particular optical coherence tomography (OCT), to model the disease process in multiple sclerosis. They suggest that OCT could ultimately be used to identify strategies aimed at neuroprotection in the CNS.

Power exhaust is one of the biggest challenges stopping fusion energy. This article shows experimental evidence for strategically shaping the power exhaust region as a solution to this challenge, utilising physics understanding to strike a balance between engineering complexity and power exhaust benefits, consistent with reduced models and simulations.

That the dynamical properties of a glass-forming liquid at high temperature are different from behaviour in the supercooled state has already been established. Numerical simulations now suggest that the static length scale over which spatial correlations exist also changes on approaching the glass transition.

Chimpanzees are known to suffer from malaria parasitism. Here, the prevalence and epidemiology of several malaria parasites is examined in a wild chimpanzee population.