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The authors compile a national database of 975 plants including 2,151 incinerators across China, showing that they supplied up to 7% of residential electricity consumption in 2023. Scenario projections indicated that waste incineration could generate up to 259 TWh by 2035, meeting 13% of residential demand.

Flatband-induced localisation generally does not apply to complex wavefunctions carrying orbital angular momentum. Here, authors develop a general framework for constructing highly degenerate flatbands in 2D and 3D acoustic crystals, enabling the localisation of OAM-carrying wavefunctions.

The performance of 2D photodetectors in the near-infrared range is usually constrained by fundamental limits. Here, the authors report hybrid photodetectors based on 2D MoS₂/WSe₂ heterostructures integrated with plasmonic metasurfaces, exploiting anapole states to enhance the responsivity and improve their chiral discrimination ratio in the telecommunication range.

Low outcrossing rate of sterile lines limits hybrid rice seed production. Here, the authors report that mutation of a SET domain-containing protein HER1 leads to enlarged stigma, enhanced stigma exsertion, and hybrid seed production in rice.

In nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), cisplatin is known to be associated with poor treatment compliance and notable side effects therefore more effective platinum drugs are expected. Here this group updates the 10-year survival analysis results of a multicenter, randomized, phase 3 trial evaluating the efficacy of lobaplatin and fluorouracil induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy on 502 NPC patients.

Uncontrollable volume expansion hinders alloy anodes in Na-ion batteries. Here, authors demonstrate in situ-formed C-N anchors embedded in Sn-based electrodes. This structure enables self-reconstruction and viscoelastic interphases, achieving long-cycle stability over 7000 cycles with high capacity.

Yin et al. report linear conjugated polymer donors with chlorinated backbone for modulating polymer aggregation and surface tension, and optimised compatibility with norfullerene acceptors. By using binary blends, a 20.42% efficiency is achieved for organic solar cells.

The performance of π-conjugated polymers films is limited by the short exciton diffusion lengths due to local imperfections or variations in interchain packing. Here, the authors report on large-area submillimeter-scale spherulites achieved by treating a spin-coated polydiarylfluorene film under solvent vapor annealing.

In the phase 1/2 TRIDENT-1 trial, treatment of patients with NTRK fusion–positive advanced solid tumors with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor repotrectinib—selective for ROS1, TRKA−C and ALK—was safe and resulted in durable systemic and intracranial clinical response.

He and colleagues develop a METTL3-based RNA base-editing screening strategy to identify functional N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) sites that are important for prostate cancer cells and validate the role of a top m⁶A target, CHD9, in this context.

Nanochannel-confined polymerization enables polymer curing inside nanometre-scale two-dimensional channels. This strategy produces selective, mechanically robust, densely packed membranes and reveals how nanoconfinement reshapes polymer structure and membrane transport pathways, opening a general route to engineer functional materials by controlling chemistry in nanoscale pores.

The authors conducted a genome-wide association study of bipolar disorder (BD) in Han Chinese and integrated PGC4 East Asian and European datasets, discovering 23 novel loci, prioritizing 39 credible risk genes and implicating BD-related cell types and druggable targets.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

Controllable and scalable phase transition of transition metal chalcogenides is challenging. Using in situ microscopic analysis, a non-stoichiometric phase transition from PdTe₂ to PdTe is observed on the atomic scale, providing mechanistic insights into the scalable phase engineering of transition metal chalcogenide films and heterostructures.

Newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants underscore the need for broad-spectrum antiviral solutions. This study shows a macrocyclic peptide inhibitor that locks the SARS-CoV-2 spike trimer into a “closed” conformation by engaging a conserved region, and demonstrates that intranasal administration of the peptide inhibitor protects against Omicron variants.

α-Amino acids are fundamental components of proteins and natural molecules, with nonnatural variants valued in both academia and industry for their ability to tune chemical, physical, and pharmaceutical properties. Herein, the authors report a photoredox-catalyzed protocol for the synthesis of optically active α-amino amides from readily available aldehydes, amines, and formamides.

This study reveals a hierarchical development of the brain’s structural connectome from infancy to childhood, characterized by distinct sensorimotor-association trajectories and alignment with multiple neurobiological hierarchies.

How the vascular endothelial cells support the functional adaptation of pancreatic islets under obesity-associated metabolic stress is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that the ER stress sensor IRE1α employs its RNase activity to play an important regulatory role in this process.

Distributed multiparameter quantum metrology allows to probe multiple spatially distributed parameters across networked quantum systems. Here, the authors demonstrate distributed multiparameter quantum metrology in a modular superconducting quantum processor network.

Converting CO₂ into solid carbon materials provides both long-term carbon sequestration and the production of value-added products. This Comment compares reactor configurations guided by thermodynamic analysis, evaluates the market volume and morphology control of different carbon products, and identifies hurdles and opportunities for scaled-up deployment.

This Resource paper presents a global SARS-CoV-2 phylogenetic tree of 4,471,579 high-quality genomes consistently constructed by Viridian, an efficient amplicon-aware assembler.

While BH3-mimetics can be effective for treatment of haematological malignancies, their efficacy in solid tumours is limited. Here, using a range of patient-derived prostate cancer models, the authors demonstrate that increased replication stress induced by RB1 loss confers sensitivity to BH3 mimetics targeting BCL-XL.

In the phase III NAPOLI-3 trial, first-line treatment with NALIRIFOX was associated with improved overall survival compared to gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Here the authors report the results of a randomized phase II trial comparing the two regimens, NALIRIFOX versus Gemcitabine plus Nab-Paclitaxel, in Chinese patients.

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.

Liu et al. report Chinese normative lifespan brain charts showing later neurodevelopmental milestones than those detected in Western cohorts. Individual deviations from these norms are valuable in assessing clinical risk and outcomes.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

Chen et al. identify a brain-to-bone communication axis whereby extracellular vesicles from aged brain neurons transport WDFY1 protein to distal bone, driving bone-fat imbalance and promoting osteoporosis.

The authors present SVclone, a computational method for inferring the cancer cell fraction of structural variants from whole-genome sequencing data.

Low-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations in X-ray data are thought to trace the accretion flow in X-ray binaries. Here, the detection of 200 keV oscillations probes the innermost regions of MAXI J1820+070, revealing the precession of a small-scale jet.

Adsorbate-mediated strong metal–support interaction is important but mechanistically hard to tune. Facet-resolved Ni/TiO₂ reveals adsorbates trigger and stabilise TiO_2-x overlayers, allowing CO vs CH₄ selectivity control via interfacial electronic effects.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

Liu et al. show that tumor-secreted dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase-1 protein induces citrulline accumulation and promotes lung fibrosis and aging, shedding light on the cancer treatment and diagnosis by inhibiting senescent lung fibroblasts.

The Chinese tree shrew, Tupaia belangeri chinensis, has been proposed as a potential animal model in biomedical research and drug safety testing. This study presents the full genome of the Chinese tree shrew, identifying common features between the tree shrew and primates.

Silicon solar cells with hybrid interdigitated back contacts have a power conversion efficiency approaching 95% of the theoretical limit and a fill factor approaching 98% of the theoretical limit.

Retrons are bacterial genetic retroelements implicated in anti-phage defense. Here, the authors characterize the quaternary retron system Ec78 and elucidate the biochemical mechanisms underlying Ec78-mediated prokaryotic immunity.

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates a variety of physiological processes in plants. A molecule involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis, the H-subunit of Mg-chelatase functions as an ABA receptor. This interaction controls seed germination and stomatal movement.

Here, authors investigate how gut microbiota contribute to defensive behaviours in honeybees, finding evidence that gut-associated bacteria affect aversive learning and memory of sting extension reflex.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.