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Monolayer amorphous carbon (a-C) has attracted attention due to its structural and electronic properties, but its synthesis has so far required the use of metal substrates. Here, the authors report the Te-assisted growth of large-scale 2D a-C patterns on various insulating substrates, confirming their insulating properties in quantum tunnelling devices.

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 genetic distance between parents influences hybrid performance in plants. Here Miller et al. show that Arabidopsishybrids produced from diverse parental ecotypes have reduced expression of stress responsive genes at certain times of the day and this correlates with greater biomass production.

Olfactory perception of food-derived odors influences feeding behavior, but the underlying neural pathways remain unclear. Here, the authors show that prolonged exposure to food odor suppresses food intake and body weight gain by activating an olfactory bulb–hypothalamus circuit.

Ferromagnetic systems produced by the transition metal doping of semiconductors may be used as components of spintronic devices. Here, a new ferromagnet, Li_1+y(Zn_1-xMn_x)As, is prepared in bulk quantities and shown to have a critical temperature approaching 50 K.

This study reveals neuronal targets of Lac-Phe in the hypothalamus that mediate its suppression of food intake.

Diluted magnetic semiconductors are promising spintronic materials, however the simultaneous doping of charge and magnetic moment has prevented synthesis of bulk samples. This work reports the synthesis of a bulk magnetic semiconductor (Ba_1−xK_x)(Zn_1−yMn_y)₂As₂with Curie temperatures up to 180 K.

Disorder has emerged as a promising tool to manipulate properties of superconducting circuits. Here the authors demonstrate the use of disordered spinodal superconductor for fluxonium qubit fabrication and reveal an interesting correlation between the material disorder and the 1/f-type flux noise.

The LHCb experiment at CERN has observed significant asymmetries between the decay rates of the beauty baryon and its CP-conjugated antibaryon, thus demonstrating CP violation in baryon decays.

While Bell inequalities have been violated several times—mostly in photonic systems—their violations within particle physics experiments are less explored. Here, the BESIII Collaboration showcases Bell-violating nonlocal correlations between entangled hyperon pairs.

Time-reversal symmetry breaking has been recently observed in the normal state of kagome superconductors AV₃Sb₅. Here the authors show that this effect is significantly enhanced near the surface of RbV₃Sb₅ and occurs at temperatures higher than the onset of charge order, indicating its tunability under zero-field conditions.

The adaptation to atomically thin 2D semiconductors and van der Waals layered ferroelectrics can enable negative capacitance transistors with superior performance and bendability. Here, the authors report flexible negative capacitance transistors based on MoS2 and a ferroelectric dielectric CIPS with a minimum sub-threshold slope of 28 mV/dec and high gain logic invertors.

MISO (MultI-modal Spatial Omics) integrates two or more spatial omics modalities, despite differences in data quality and spatial resolution for improved feature extraction and clustering to reveal biologically meaningful tissue organization.

Aging is associated with increased frailty and disrupted energy homeostasis. Here, the authors show that SIRT6 overexpression extends the lifespan of male and female mice and demonstrate that SIRT6 optimizes energy homeostasis in old age, which delays frailty and preserves healthy aging.

The semileptonic decay channels of the Λc baryon can give important insights into weak interaction, but decay into a neutron, positron and electron neutrino has not been reported so far, due to difficulties in the final products’ identification. Here, the BESIII Collaboration reports its observation in e+e- collision data, exploiting machine-learning-based identification techniques.

Subfemtosecond selective breaking of chemical bonds—such as carbon-hydrogen bonds in organic molecules—can open up new routes for laser-driven synthesis. Here, the authors show directional control of proton ejection in a symmetric acetylene molecule.

Memristors are passive electrical components that can act like simple memories. Here, the authors use an array of hafnium oxide memristors to create a type of artificial neural network, known as a Hopfield network, that is capable of retrieving data from partial information

Ultrathin films of gallium oxide with a dielectric constant of around 30 can be formed on the surface of molybdenum disulfide using a liquid metal-based approach and used as the gate insulator in transistors.

The use of biomarkers of ageing is crucial for investigating age-related processes. This Review discusses biomarkers of ageing and of ageing-associated physiological changes, at the cellular, tissue and organism levels in humans and non-human primates.

The authors use scanning tunnelling microscopy and muon spin resonance to demonstrate time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductivity in Cs(V, Ta)₃Sb₅. The Cooper pairing in this state exhibits magnetism and is modulated by it.

Understanding atomic-level ordering in multi-component systems is a challenge. Here, the authors investigate atom diffusion in cubic Pd@Pt-Co nanoparticles and find that substitution of Pd into (Pt, Pd)-Co lowers the phase transition temperature.

Investigating the inner structure of baryons is important to further our understanding of the strong interaction. Here, the BESIII Collaboration extracts the absolute value of the ratio of the electric to magnetic form factors and its relative phase for e + e − → J/ψ → ΛΣ decays, enhancing the signal thanks to the vacuum polarisation effect at the J/ψ peak.

Cas12a represents the next generation of gene editing. Here, the authors present the generation and validation of a Cas12a transgenic mouse model. Additionally, the authors create whole-genome Cas12a knockout libraries, and demonstrate their utility across multiple in vitro and in vivo screens.

Rapid proton capture nucleosynthesis stalls at waiting-point nuclides, including ⁶⁴Ge. Precision mass measurements in the vicinity of this nuclide influence state-of-the-art calculations of X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars.

Pneumocystis jirovecii is a fungus that can cause life-threatening pneumonia in immunocompromised patients. Here, the authors sequence the genomes of P. jirovecii and two other Pneumocystisspecies, and show the unexpected absence of chitin (a near universal fungal cell wall component).

Methanosuratincola petrocarbonis LWZ-6 is a strict hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic methanogen that does not ferment sugars, peptides or amino acids.

Analysis of a large dataset of scanning transmission X-ray microscopy images of carbon-coated lithium iron phosphate nanoparticles shows that the heterogeneous reaction kinetics of battery materials can be learned from such videos pixel by pixel.

Analysis of the pulse profile of a fast radio burst showed sub-second periodicity, providing evidence for a neutron-star origin of the event and favouring emission arising from the magnetosphere.

Sun et al. report human lifespan changes in the brain’s functional connectome in 33,250 individuals, which highlights critical growth milestones and distinct maturation patterns and offers a normative reference for development, aging and diseases.

Synthetic cells are artificial constructs designed to mimic cellular functions, offering insights into fundamental biology, as well as promising impact in the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and bioengineering. In this perspective, the authors highlight major scientific hurdles, such as the integration of functional modules by ensuring compatibility across diverse synthetic subsystems, and propose strategies to advance the field.

The fabrication of single-metal-atom chains in an atomically precise way is challenging. Now, a chemical vapour co-deposition method is reported for the synthesis of highly ordered single-atom chains of platinum with lengths of up to 20 nm on a wafer-scale. The metallic behaviour of the single-metal-atom chain is revealed by electronic measurements, first-principle calculations and complex network modelling.

Relatively well conserved domains of influenza A virus (IAV) proteins are potential candidates for the development of a universal IAV vaccine. Here, Deng et al. combine two such conserved antigens (M2e and HA stalk) in a double-layered protein nanoparticle and show that it protects against divergent IAVs in mice.

In a large, partially prospective cohort of patients with molecularly profiled and clinically annotated meningioma, the extent of surgical resection and radiotherapy (RT) response correlate with molecular classification, which can be used in a molecular model to predict clinical outcomes in response to RT.

Measurements of the inelastic cross section of anti-³He allow the estimation of the transparency of the Milky Way to the propagation of these light antinuclei produced in either cosmic-ray collisions or annihilation of dark-matter particles.

Bioresorbable electronic stimulators can deliver electrical stimulation in rodents to enhance functional muscle recovery after nerve injury. Here, the authors present a bioresorbable dynamic covalent polymer that enables reliable, long-lived operation of soft, stretchable devices of this type.

Analysis of interactions between the wheels of the Zhurong rover and the terrain along the rover’s traverse reveals soils with high bearing strength and cohesion.

Recently, time-reversal symmetry-breaking charge order was demonstrated in the AV₃Sb₅ (A = K, Rb, Cs) family of kagome superconductors. Here the authors extend this observation to the recently discovered kagome material ScV₆Sn₆ and discuss differences and similarities to other charge-ordered kagome lattices.

Using spin-entangled baryon–antibaryon pairs, the BESIII Collaboration reports on high-precision measurements of potential charge conjugation and parity (CP)-symmetry-violating effects in hadrons.

Two-dimensional magnets with intrinsic ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic ordering are highly desirable for future spintronic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate a chemical vapor deposition approach to controllably grow ultrathin FeTe crystals with antiferromagnetic tetragonal and ferromagnetic hexagonal phase, showing a thickness-dependent magnetic transition.

Soft building blocks tend to be near spherical, limiting their packing structures to those found in metallic systems. Here the authors report the spontaneous generation of highly deformed mesoatoms using molecular pentagons and observe Frank–Kasper phases not found in metal alloys.

Global sampling of microbial communities associated with wastewater treatment plants and application of ecological theory revealed a small, core bacterial community associated with performance and provides insights into the community dynamics in this environment.

IFNγ signaling is important in the pathogenesis and immune response, emphasizing the need for investigation of its role. Here, the authors show that IFNγ plays a key role in shaping immune microenvironment in AML and developing resistance, providing insights for potential therapeutic strategies.

Antibodies (Abs) targeting highly conserved epitopes are important tools against emerging virus variants. Here, the authors characterize Abs that recognize a cryptic epitope in the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike that is well conserved and show that these Abs can neutralize several variants of concerns.