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The zebra finch robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA) directs singing by providing descending projections to brainstem motor neurons. The authors show that electrophysiological characteristics of RA neurons rely on resurgent Na+ currents that emerge early during song development only in males.

Efficiently imitating a complex motor sequence such as birdsong is a computationally intensive problem. Here the authors show that young zebra finches learn new songs using a non-optimal strategy that prioritizes efficient learning of syllable vocabulary over syllable sequence.

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.

Little is known about the genetic basis of the rhythmic component of bird song, an important trait in sexual selection and species recognition. By studying a system with innate vocalizations, the Pogoniulus tinkerbirds, this study finds candidate genes that underlie differences in speed in vocal rhythm in this system.

Three electron microscopy datasets are combined to provide a complete connectomic description of the neural circuitry that makes up the neck connective in Drosophila, including the descending neurons, ascending neurons and sensory ascending neurons.

A wearable paper-based microfluidic device tracks cortisol in sweat via gold nanoflower colorimetric assays and captures circadian rhythms, stress responses and jet lag disruptions.

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.

Oximes are used in many scientific and industrial domains, ranging from organic synthesis through biotechnology to materials science. Here the authors introduce an approach that enables the synthesis of oximes from hydrocarbons via the oxidative oximation of methylene C-H bonds — the most prevalent molecular unit in the world of molecules.

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.

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.

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.

THz integrate light sources represent an important building blocks for various applications. Here the authors report an electrically driven topological laser based on photonic Majorana zero mode that can convert electricity directly into THz single-mode laser with topologically nontrivial beams.

Here the authors report the synthesis of defect-rich boron nitride by flux reconstruction method, which exhibited good reactivity for semihydrogenation of low concentration acetylene in ethylene-abundant gas stream.

Bringing chiral molecules in contact with metal nanoparticles enables interfacial charge transfer. Here the authors show that when optically resonant, such complexes can show collective chiroptical responses beyond traditional plasmon-exciton coupling.

Swanton and colleagues present a clonal expression signature, ORACLE, which, in combination with clinicopathological and molecular risk factors, can predict survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma, and they prospectively validate its prognostic value.

The propagation of light in photonic crystals with a honeycomb structure mirrors the behaviour of charges in graphene, therefore allowing for the investigation of electronic properties that cannot otherwise be accessed in graphene itself. This approach is now used to predict unexpected edge states that localize in the bearded edges of hexagonal lattices.

The authors use systematic monitoring across the former USSR to investigate phenological changes across taxa. The long-term mean temperature of a site emerged as a strong predictor of phenological change, with further imprints of trophic level, event timing, site, year and biotic interactions.

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.

This prospective cohort study of patients with cancer incorporated antemortem follow-up visits and rapid autopsy analyses, and reports that spikes—rapidly increasing levels—of circulating tumor cell clusters, observed immediately before and at the time of death, along with tumor masses infiltrating large vessels, were cancer-related events associated with patient mortality.

Analysis of soundscape data from 139 globally distributed sites reveals that sounds of biological origin exhibit predictable rhythms depending on location and season, whereas sounds of anthropogenic origin are less predictable. Comparisons between paired urban–rural sites show that urban green spaces are noisier and dominated by sounds of technological origin.

This work presents scEpi²-seq, a method for simultaneous single-cell profiling of DNA methylation and histone modifications, enabling direct investigation of the interplay between these two epigenomic marks.

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.

PRT1 is an E3 ligase that recognizes type-2 hydrophobic aromatic Arg/N-degrons. Here, the authors reveal the structure of the ZZ domain of Arabidopsis PRT1 bound to bulky hydrophobic type-2 N-degrons, showing a unique binding site formed by a substantial conformational change of two loops and uncovering an intramolecular tandem RING dimer essential for its ubiquitylation activity.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are well known breast cancer predisposition genes, however, many variants have not yet been classified for their pathogenicity. Here, the authors analyse a large combined cohort to provide evidence of variant pathogenicity.

Communications between animals such as zebra finches can be discriminated with back-attached acceleration recorders. In contrast to microphones, these devices record the carrier's signals only, allowing a more precise analysis of individual vocalizations during social interactions.

Genomic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic sulfur metabolism identify diverse microorganisms with the capacity to oxidize sulfide using iron(iii).

Machine learning predicts Cu-Al electrocatalysts provide better efficiency and productivity than copper when using intermittent renewable electricity to convert carbon dioxide to useful chemicals and fuels.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

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.

Massive subduction and continental crust production during the Earth’s first 500 million years is suggested by the composition of a 4.3 Ga old mantle source of melt included in olivine from Archean komatiites and geodynamic models.

ALL-conformations, a dataset capturing the full range of experimentally observed conformations of CDR loops, T cell and antibody regions interacting with antigen targets, is introduced. ITsFlexible—a deep learning tool trained on this new dataset—advances predictions of immune receptor structural dynamics.

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

Complete sequences of chromosomes telomere-to-telomere from chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan and siamang provide a comprehensive and valuable resource for future evolutionary comparisons.

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.

Kagome lattices exhibit notable rich physics, however, there has been only limited study of the influence of magnetic ordering on the electronic structure. Here, by combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first principles calculations, Lou et al. find that the spin reorientation transition has an orbital-selective effect on the Dirac fermions of the kagome material, Fe₃Ge.

Genome-wide data from 166 East Asian individuals dating to between 6000 bc and ad 1000 and from 46 present-day groups provide insights into the histories of mixture and migration of human populations in East Asia.

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.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

Using sequencing and haplotype-resolved assembly of 65 diverse human genomes, complex regions including the major histocompatibility complex and centromeres are analysed.

Holographic displays that are both compact and produce realistic holograms without eyestrain are still difficult to realize. Here the authors implement a steering-backlight unit and a holographic video processor to produce a realistic holographic display in a slim panel.

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.

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.

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.

A laser design that exploits multiple bound states on a flat band to tightly confine light in three dimensions yields an ultracompact terahertz quantum cascade laser cavity with a lateral size of ~3λ.

Here the authors develop a coacervate micromotor that can display autonomous motion as a result of stochastic distribution of propelling units. This stochastic-induced mobility is validated and explained through experiments and theory.