Search

Silane, which is a precursor to the sandy surfaces of rocky planets and dusty clouds on gas giants, is seen directly in another world—a low-metallicity brown dwarf in which oxidation is slow and gas mixing is fast.

Symmetry breaking is key to tissue formation. Now it is shown that symmetry breaking of epithelial spheroids is controlled by an interplay of collective migration with curvature and matrix remodelling.

Large-effect variants in autism remain elusive. Here, the authors use long-read sequencing to assemble phased genomes for 189 individuals, identifying pathogenic variants in TBL1XR1, MECP2, and SYNGAP1, plus nine candidate structural variants missed by short-read methods.

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.

Tracking methane emissions from cows just got a little easier, David Adam reports.

A hand stencil painted on a cave wall on a small island off the coast of Sulawesi more than 67,800 years ago suggests a very early occupation of Wallacea.

Producing isolated single-photon emitters in hexagonal boron nitride with predefined spin transitions is challenging. Oxygen annealing enables the controlled fabrication of narrowband quantum emitters with optically active spin for quantum applications.

There are limited data on mpox immunity in West Africa. In this study, authors present serological and genomic evidence of residual smallpox vaccination immunity and possibly unrecognized mpox exposure among ostensibly healthy Nigerian adults.

Identifying jets originating from heavy quarks plays a fundamental role in hadronic collider experiments. In this work, the ATLAS Collaboration describes and tests a transformer-based neural network architecture for jet flavour tagging based on low-level input and physics-inspired constraints.

Despite extensive structural studies elucidating how antigens are anchored to antigen-presenting molecules and presented to T cells, little is known about the display mechanism of the lipid-antigen-presenting molecule CD1c. Here, by combining structural immunology, lipidomics, and biophysical analysis, the authors reveal that the CD1c binding cleft accommodates two different lipids, one of them with a bulky headgroup positioned sideways for display to T cells, rather than upwards, different from the conventional upright antigen-presentation mode

Methane emission from a very cool brown dwarf, perhaps arising from an aurora, has been detected in James Webb Space Telescope observations.

cellSTAAR advances noncoding rare variant association analysis by integrating single-cell genomics data.

Atmospheric short-wave absorption due to wildfire smoke is caused predominantly by dark brown carbon particles, according to observations from smoke plumes in the United States.

Kinematic measurements of the Perseus galaxy cluster reveal two drivers of gas motions: a small-scale driver in the inner core associated with black-hole feedback and a large-scale driver in the outer core powered by mergers.

In a screen of 324 human cancer cell lines and utilising a systematic target prioritization framework, the Werner syndrome ATP-dependent helicase is shown to be a synthetic lethal target in tumours from multiple cancer types with microsatellite instability, providing a new target for cancer drug development.

In an arm of an ongoing multicenter phase 2 trial testing different therapies in patients with genetically profiled grade 2 or 3 meningiomas, treatment with an oral CDK4/6 inhibitor met the primary endpoint for progression-free survival at 6 months in patients with CDK or NF2 alterations.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

Stable adipocytes resist lipolysis in healthy states but are highly susceptible to a catecholamine-independent, neurosystemic pathway-driven catabolic state.

An ‘intracrine’ signaling mechanism is proposed whereby a G-protein-coupled receptor (free fatty acid receptor 4) senses locally released fatty acids on intracellular membranes associated with lipid droplets to efficiently regulate lipolysis in adipocytes.

Super spreading events are considered important contributors to the spread of COVID−19, but the extent to which superspreading varies by transmission setting is unclear. Here, the authors demonstrate heterogeneity in superspreading and the generation interval between COVID−19 cases in different settings using data from Hong Kong.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

The cool sub-Neptune LP 791-18 c, with an equilibrium temperature of 355 K, was found to host a hazy atmosphere, distinct from any other temperate sub-Neptune studied so far. The discovery demonstrates the intrinsic diversity of these worlds.

The early events preceding the development of morphological abnormalities represent a key gap in the understanding of cancer. Here, the authors employ an oncogenic tagging strategy to define the contributions of HIF1A and HIF2A to the cell-type specific early events in VHL-associated oncogenesis and support therapeutic targeting of HIF2A early in VHL-associated cancers.

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).

Here, the authors examine the mechanisms behind cheatgrass’s successful invasion of North American ecosystems. Their genetic analyses and common garden experiments demonstrate that multiple introductions and migrations facilitated cheatgrass local adaptation.

The CMS Collaboration reports the measurement of the spin, parity, and charge conjugation properties of all-charm tetraquarks, exotic fleeting particles formed in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

JWST observations of the ultra hot Jupiter WASP 121 b reveal helium escaping for most of its orbit, forming two giant tails moving in opposite directions. The results show how stellar radiation modifies planetary atmospheres.

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.

This study demonstrates that brain functional network imbalance appears linked to progressive brain atrophy and cognitive decline across the dementia spectrum.

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.

Head stabilization arises from population geometry of neck muscle activity that is conserved and smoothly scaled across walking speeds, but reorganized during more natural overground locomotion, revealing flexible, context-dependent motor control.

mRNA vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 also sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Elevated eripheral serotonin reduces brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and promotes obesity and metabolic dysfunction.

Shallow NV centers in diamond are advantageous for quantum sensing but suffer from surface magnetic noise. Using first-principles simulations supported by experiments, the authors show that a combination of small magnetic fields and surface strain can significantly enhance spin coherence of 1 nm-deep NV centers.

Early Pleistocene artefacts at Calio suggest that Sulawesi was populated by hominins at around the same time as Flores, if not earlier.

Cowan and colleagues have developed a method to efficiently differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into functional white or brown adipocytes, through the transient expression of PPARG2 alone or in combination with CEBP and PRDM16. The programmed cells are able to give rise to ectopic fat pads with white or brown adipose tissue characteristics.

Regrowth of lost enamel in tooth decay and sensitivity is a major obstacle to overcome. Here, the authors report on a protein-based material that mimics features of natural enamel formation, allowing for epitaxial growth of apatite nanocrystals to restore enamel structure and function.

Here the authors reveal how an incoherent feedforward C/EBPα–Notch circuit times lung cell fate, guiding alveolar development, repair after injury, and shifts between protective and reparative states.

The Late Miocene terrestrial climate in eastern North Greenland displayed elevated temperatures at moderate atmospheric CO₂ levels and was highly variable, reflecting the shifting orbital and ocean circulation forcings in the Arctic as the world cooled, according to proxy records from speleothems.

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.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

Reversible and unidirectional expansion of an acicular porous molecular crystal is observed with gas uptake. Using in situ structural and photomicrographic techniques, a molecular-level insight is obtained that correlates macroscopic linear expansion of the crystal to the application of gas-specific pressure.

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.

A study of several longitudinal birth cohorts and cross-sectional cohorts finds only moderate overlap in genetic variants between autism that is diagnosed earlier and that diagnosed later, so they may represent aetiologically different conditions.

ATP synthase powers cells by converting proton translocation into energy. Here, authors reveal distinct structural features of the P. aeruginosa ATP synthase that regulate activity and may serve as targets for new antimicrobial therapies.

Somatic small variants in cancer genomes are identified in both short-read and long-read data.

A major earthquake on the Hayward Fault could slash hospital capacity and severely disrupt access to care. This study shows how combined hospital and road damage could isolate communities and delay treatment across the San Francisco Bay Area.