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Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

An analysis involving the shotgun sequencing of more than 300 ancient genomes from Eurasia reveals a deep east–west genetic divide from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and provides insight into the distinct effects of the Neolithic transition on either side of this boundary.

Analyses of imputed ancient genomes and of samples from the UK Biobank indicate that ancient selection and migration were large contributors to the distribution of phenotypic diversity in present-day Europeans.

XRISM observations show the presence of odd-numbered elements chlorine and potassium in Cas A. These findings suggest that stellar activity plays an important role in cosmic chemical evolution, enriching space with elements vital for planets and life.

Integrated data, including 100 human genomes from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods show that two major population turnovers occurred over just 1,000 years in Neolithic Denmark, resulting in dramatic changes in the genes, diet and physical appearance of the local people, as well as the landscape in which they lived.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Overuse of nitrogen fertilizer in crop cultivation can lead to environmental pollution necessitating strategies to optimize nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). This study examines data from more than 31,000 farmer fields across South Asia to identify opportunities for improving NUE in rice cropping systems.

Rice production in India is a foundation for global food security, but strategies for sustainable intensification are uncertain. By combining large-scale surveys with predictive modeling, the authors identify efficient pathways for achieving productivity gains while enhancing economic and environmental goals.

Planning investments in agricultural inputs can be challenging when economic returns vary widely over time and locations. Applying a random forest algorithm to a large experimental maize trial dataset of 21,400 observation points, this study generates yield response curves and estimates economic return to fertilizers in 25 sub-Saharan African countries.

Addressing nutrition and climate resilience together requires transdisciplinary participatory action research with clear impact pathways for systems change that starts from the ground up. The concept of ‘crops that nourish’ is proposed here to offer a new mode of pursuing agricultural development. It involves iterative co-creation between farmers and researchers that prioritizes local needs and agency, human health, resilience and sustainability through a focus on opportunity crops.

Sequencing of 144 ancient genomes from Shimao city and its satellites presents pedigrees among tomb owners spanning up to four generations showing predominantly patrilineal descent structure across Shimao communities, and possibly sex-specific sacrificial rituals.

Small-scale farmers in Southeast Asia are increasingly turning to monocultures of oil palm and rubber to maximize income. Clough and colleagues demonstrate that this land-use change in Indonesia comes at a cost to a wide array of ecosystem functions and biodiversity.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

Building productive relationships between farmers and scientists is critical to developing new innovation pathways to solve the challenges of contemporary agriculture. On-farm experimentation (OFE) is an effective approach that brings agricultural stakeholders to support farmers’ own management decisions for agricultural innovation, with digitalization playing a key role in motivating and enabling OFE.

Current cropping calendar management erodes wheat yield potential in the rice–wheat cropping system of eastern India. By combining field and household survey data, time series of remotely sensed information and dynamic crop simulations, this study shows that exploitable wheat yield gaps could increase by 69% through planting date adjustments that enhance climate resilience.

Analysis of samples from the asteroid Ryugu provide evidence of late fluid flow in a carbonaceous asteroid, indicating that such bodies may have retained two to three times more water than previously thought.

Improvements in earth observation are enabling new approaches to assess agricultural losses, such as those resulting from adverse weather. This Review examines advances in the application of remotely sensed data and crop modelling in index-based insurance as well as opportunities to enhance the quality of index insurance programmes.

To determine the potential of any promising tool, its performance in practice must always be considered. Two recent articles reach different conclusions on one important benefit of Bacillus thuringiensis cotton management: the potential to reduce pesticide sprays.

Effective solutions for food systems transformation must be designed in a participatory way. This study illustrates the application of an integrated assessment framework to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.

Central Anatolia harbored some of the earliest farming societies outside the Fertile Crescent of the Near East. Here, the authors report and analyze genome-wide data from a 15,000-year-old Anatolian hunter-gatherer and from seven Anatolian and Levantine early farmers, and suggest high genetic continuity between the hunter-gatherers and early farmers of Anatolia.

Single-cell chromatin accessibility is a promising means to identify regulatory programs in mixtures of cells. Here the authors describe µ-ATAC-seq, a low-cost method that can generate thousands of accessibility profiles per day.

Ex-ante assessments of the impacts of governance measures are key to achieving food security. A systematic review of 110 peer-reviewed studies based on simulation models and scenario analysis reveals how food security governance has been represented in this type of research and what measures hold the greatest promise for a food-secure future.

Pigeonpea is an important protein source in many developing countries, but limited genetic resources have constrained its improvement. The draft genome sequence of pigeonpea, the first for a nonindustrial crop and for a grain legume, should facilitate molecular breeding efforts to improve yields for subsistence farmers.

Analysis of DNA from ancient individuals of the Near East documents the extreme substructure among the populations which transitioned to farming, a structure that was maintained throughout the transition from hunter–gatherer to farmer but that broke down over the next five thousand years.

By harvesting aquatic vegetation that provides habitat for snails that harbour Schistosoma parasites and converting it to compost and animal feed, a trial reduced schistosomiasis prevalence in children while providing wider economic benefits.

Genomic and phenomic screens of 827 wheat landraces from the A. E. Watkins collection provide insight into the wheat population genetic background, unlocking many agronomic traits and revealing haplotypes that could potentially be used to improve modern wheat cultivars.

An investigation using various methods reports an association between adeno-associated virus 2 and paediatric hepatitis of unknown aetiology.

Andrew Robinson finds that a study of arid places and their peoples reveals untold riches.

Scientists hope that insects such as stink bugs could keep the fall armyworm in check.

Win–win messages regarding climate change mitigation policies in agriculture tend to oversimplify farmer motivation. Contributions from psychology, cultural evolution and behavioural economics should help to design more effective policy.

The government is trying to bolster its research workforce but academics say more needs to be done to improve the sector.

Sequencing data from two large-scale studies show that most of the genetic variation influencing the risk of type 2 diabetes involves common alleles and is found in regions previously identified by genome-wide association studies, clarifying the genetic architecture of this disease.

Plasmodium vivax generally accounts for a low proportion of malaria cases in Africa, but population-level data on the distribution of infections is limited. Here, the authors use data from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and show that the prevalence is low (~3%) and diffusely spread.