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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.

Transition metal dichalcogenide nanotubes possess symmetry-breaking properties promising for fundamental physics research. Here, the authors report a direct synthesis of crystalline MoS₂ nanotubes exhibiting strong polarization and bulk photovoltaic effects.

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.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

Ethanol electrosynthesis from CO reduction is achieved using an oxygen-affinity-engineered copper alloy catalyst. Unlike conventional CO dimerization pathways, which yield diverse products, this catalyst selectively promotes the CO–CH_x coupling route, enabling selective ethanol production.

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.

Artificial intelligence-based detection of gastric cancer at different stages from noncontrast computed tomography is suggested to be feasible in a retrospective analysis of large and diverse cohorts, including real-world populations in opportunistic and targeted screening scenarios.

In this Perspective, members of the Aging Biomarker Consortium outline the X-Age Project, an Aging Biomarker Consortium plan for building standardized aging clocks in China. The authors discuss the project roadmap and its aims of decoding aging heterogeneity, detecting accelerated aging early and evaluating geroprotective interventions.

Ultrafast magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging enables non-invasive high-resolution metabolic imaging of the whole human brain under healthy and diseased conditions.

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.

In a quantum simulation of a (2+1)D lattice gauge theory using a superconducting quantum processor, the dynamics of strings reveal the transition from deconfined to confined excitations as the effective electric field is increased.

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

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.

Single-metal-atom chains (SMACs) possess unique quantum properties yet suffer from structural instability. Here, the authors develop a computational protocol to screen transition metals capable of forming SMACs that are coherently confined in MoS₂ twin boundaries and stabilised by surrounding lattices. Their theoretical predictions are validated by experimentally synthesised Co, Ni, Pd, and Pt atomic chains.

Colour code on a superconducting qubit quantum processor is demonstrated, reporting above-breakeven performance and logical error scaling with increased code size by a factor of 1.56 moving from distance-3 to distance-5 code.

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.

A heterodimensional superlattice consisting of an alternating array of a two-dimensional material and a one-dimensional material shows unconventional octahedral stacking and an unexpected room-temperature anomalous Hall effect.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports the observation of the electroweak production of two jets and a Z-boson pair. This process is related to vector-boson scattering and allows the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking to be probed.

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.

In this study the authors consider the structural variants (SVs) present within cancer cases of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. They report hundreds of genes, including known cancer-associated genes for which the nearby presence of a SV breakpoint is associated with altered expression.

Broad and potent neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 variants can be efficiently identified via accurate deep-mutational-scanning-based prediction of viral evolution and delivered to mice using mRNA–lipid nanoparticles.

Analysis of the stellar population properties of 30 host galaxies of fast radio bursts (FRBs) suggests an abundance of FRBs in massive star-forming galaxies, and implies that the formation of FRB sources—magnetars—is linked to core-collapse supernovae of stellar merger remnants.

Gas-evolving catalysts suffer from severe mass transport limitations under industrial conditions. Here, the authors report an interfacial metal-layer engineering strategy to separate bubble nucleation from active sites, enabling transfer-resistance-free electrocatalytic interfaces.

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider reports a search for charged-lepton-flavour violation in decays of Z bosons into a τ lepton and an electron or muon of opposite charge.

The BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network has constructed a multimodal cell census and atlas of the mammalian primary motor cortex in a landmark effort towards understanding brain cell-type diversity, neural circuit organization and brain function.

1T-TaS2 possesses complex electronic phase behaviors in transition-metal di-chalcogenides, undergoing several charge-ordered phases before finally into an insulating state of unknown origin. Here, the authors determine its electronic and structural properties experimentally, revealing its origin.

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

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.

Entanglement was observed in top–antitop quark events by the ATLAS experiment produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s  = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹.

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.

The ATLAS Collaboration reports a measurement of the ratio of the decay rates of W bosons to τ leptons and muons, in agreement with universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model of particle physics.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Solid-state systems are established candidates to study models of many-body physics but have limited control and readout capabilities. Ensembles of defects in diamond may provide a solution for studying dipolar systems.

Helical Dirac fermion states that emerge at the surface of topological insulators support a variety of exotic physical phenomena, but they disappear when a topological insulator becomes too thin. Wang et al.show that these states are recovered when ultrathin films are interfaced together.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

In order to explore superconductivity in hydride materials, local magnetometry inside a diamond anvil cell is performed with sub-micron spatial resolution at megabar pressures using nitrogen-vacancy colour centres.

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.

In this work, stable trapping of a two-dimensional Wigner crystal of above 500 ions is achieved, and the quantum simulation of 300 ions with individual state detection demonstrated.

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.

A hybrid analogue–digital quantum simulator is used to demonstrate beyond-classical performance in benchmarking experiments and to study thermalization phenomena in an XY quantum magnet, including the breakdown of Kibble–Zurek scaling predictions and signatures of the Kosterlitz–Thouless phase transition.

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.

Observations of γ-rays with energies up to 1.4 PeV find that 12 sources in the Galaxy are PeVatrons, one of which is the Crab Nebula.

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.

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 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.

Wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent in several regions around the world due to climate change, posing serious health risks, especially for respiratory diseases. This study examines the respiratory health risk and burden of wildfire-specific PM_2.5 pollution across eight countries and territories.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

Charge-trapping memory offers many advantages over existing data storage media, though the spatial distribution of charge remains elusive. Here Yao et al. use electron holography to map its distribution in high-κ dielectric stacks under different applied bias.