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Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2023, suboptimal diet was estimated to be responsible for 4 million deaths and 97 million morbidity burdens from ischemic heart disease.

An analysis based on data from the Global Dietary Database shows mean animal-sourced food intakes among children and adolescents increased modestly from 1990 to two portions per day in 2018, but remain low in sub-Saharan Africa, India and Bangladesh.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

Changes in vegetation responses to precipitation may be hydroclimate dependent. Here the authors reveal contrasting trends of vegetation sensitivity to precipitation in drylands vs. wetter ecosystems over the last 4 decades and identify increased CO2 as a major contributing factor.

The spread of non-native species is likely to be compounded by further climate change and land-use intensification. Here the authors assess the potential distribution of 9,701 naturalized non-native plant species at a 10 × 10-km grid resolution and project shifts under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways.

Pregnant women exposed to cumulative days of high temperature saw a twofold-increased risk of gestational diabetes in a time-series study of 8,796 such cases in Barcelona between 2011 and 2022.

Dolphin ecologist Tadamichi Morisaka discusses common dolphin behaviours that could explain the encounters with people.

Estimates from the Global Burden of Disease study reveal declines in chronic respiratory disease mortality between 1990 and 2023—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic—but the burdens on people affected remain substantial.

Alsulami et al. present PrePR-CT, a computational approach that predicts how different cell types respond to drug-like compounds using limited data. By integrating biological networks with machine learning, it improves accuracy, interpretability and efficiency in early drug discovery.

Enhanced drought frequency and magnitude have impacted tree mortality, leading to multiple examples of regional-scale dieback. This Review outlines the mechanisms leading to mortality, including carbon starvation and hydraulic failure.

This work describes three people living with HIV-1 who maintain long-term immune-mediated control of HIV-1 after pausing antiretroviral therapy. Autologous neutralizing antibodies and polyfunctional HIV-1-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell responses, pre-programmed for antigen response, were present before, and persisted during, ART interruption. This serves as a model of ART-free control of HIV-1 and informs new HIV-1 cure strategies.

The predicted increase in frequency of droughts and rising temperatures in Europe will lead core populations of a temperate plant to an evolutionary dead-end unless they acquire genetic alleles that are present only in extreme edge Mediterranean, Scandinavian, or Siberian populations.

Global Burden of Disease estimates show that between 1990 and 2023, the prevalence and burden of drug use disorders, inclusive of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioid use, have been increasing in high-income countries, particularly in the USA.

Quantum coin flipping is an essential cryptographic building block for distrustful scenarios. Here, the authors implement this protocol using polarisation-encoded single-photon states and show a quantum advantage compared to both classical realizations and implementations using faint laser pulses.

Patients with cost-constrained or delayed healthcare had worse electronic health record reliability for 73% of medical conditions, according to an analysis of 205,186 participants in the All of Us Research Program—a data bias with implications for AI-based disease prediction tools.

In a case series of five patients with treatment-refractory antisynthetase syndrome and five patients with treatment-refractory systemic sclerosis, bispecific T cell engagers blinatumomab and teclistamab improved disease activity and were well tolerated.

Neuropathic pain is commonly treated with opioids due to limited alternatives. Here, authors determine cryo-EM structures of the neuronal glycine transporter GlyT2 and develop a reversible inhibitor that provides analgesia in vivo without side effects.

Nature Index ‘Research Leaders’ survey also finds that scientists in North America and Europe are much more likely to say they intend to leave research.

In this Perspective, the authors demonstrate how concepts and models from landscape ecology and complex adaptive systems science can be used to explore the dynamics of mosquito-borne diseases in urban environments.

In the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore, universities are operating as developers and landlords. Where does science fit in?

Sheep producers face growing expectations to produce more food, conserve biodiversity, stay profitable and cut emissions. The authors find that interventions work best when addressing underperforming environmental, economic, or psychological areas.

Multi-ancestry genome-wide and transcriptome-wide association studies of aortic stenosis identify more than 200 independent risk loci and provide insights into its genetic architecture.

Guidance on how to decarbonize the economy while limiting impacts on jobs and ensuring stability is scarce. Now a study finds that relying on a carbon tax alone falls short, whereas combining industrial regulations, subsidies and a modest tax is the most promising approach to achieve sustainable growth with green jobs.

Global warming is causing widespread coral mortality through bleaching. Here, simulations of coral eco-evolutionary dynamics forecast strong population declines in the 21st century. Coral reefs may collapse by 2100, unless global warming is limited to 2 °C, enabling corals to adapt and persist.

A temporary breach of the temperature target, or overshoot, is unavoidable. The authors review the history of how overshoot evolved in mitigation pathways, the magnitude and outcomes of potential physical and socio-economic impacts, and priorities for future model and scenario development.

Systems of electron spins in nuclear-spin-rich hosts are gaining attention for quantum memory applications. Using spin ensemble studies, the authors propose transition metal ions in halide double perovskites as promising candidates, featuring long electron spin coherence and deterministic nuclear spin control.

Combining two global datasets, the authors show that peak vegetation growth has been increasing linearly for the past 30 years, with similar proportions of NDVI variation attributable to expanding croplands, rising CO₂ and intensifying nitrogen deposition.

Burden of major disease is projected to increase in England and many other countries. Here the authors model the impact of reducing eight known risk factors for disease burden, such as BMI and smoking, between 2023-2043 in England and report that reductions in risk factors may not substantially reduce the major illness burden by 2043 due to population ageing.

Thirty years of forest demographic data, combined with recent ecophysiological measurements, reveal that intense Amazon droughts sharply increase tree mortality once soil moisture falls below a threshold, and that these hot droughts will become more frequent and intense as Earth warms towards hypertropical conditions.

Engineered Escherichia coli strains expressing a colibactin antitoxin, ClbS, on the surface prevent the genotoxic effects of colibactin released by genotoxin-producing bacteria in the mouse gut.

Florfenicol amine hijacks intrinsic resistance in Mycobacterium abscessus, highlighting that antimicrobial resistance mechanisms can be harnessed for antibiotic activation.

The role of mosquito saliva proteins in viral infection remains incompletely understood. Here, the authors show that sialokinin facilitates viral dissemination while suppressing immune response and inflammation in chikungunya virus-infected mice.

This year marks the mid-point for the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including Sustainable Development Goal 14 (‘Life below water’). We asked a range of researchers working across marine science, conservation, policy and implementation to reflect on priorities for action on ocean health and biodiversity over the next seven years.

Early high-resolution images of two 2021 novae reveal eruptions unfolding in multiple stages with colliding outflows that produce shocks and gamma rays, reshaping our understanding of stellar explosions.

Refugee populations have been at high risk of COVID-19 but the impacts of the pandemic on healthcare-seeking and diagnosis of other conditions are not well described. Here, the authors use data from a network of refugee centres in Germany to explore impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on incident diagnosis patterns.

This Perspective synthesizes insight on urban experimentation and reflects on the way forward. The authors offer lessons and argue for urban experimentation as an ongoing part of governance using whole-of-systems approaches and designing infrastructures for monitoring and evaluation.

Non-nutritive sensory components of high-fat diet, such as bacon flavour, are sufficient to impair metabolic health in offspring in mice.