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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.

Pairing interaction appears at room temperature in traditional superconductors with a Cooper instability in the Fermi sea. Here, Maier et al.report that in the pseudogap phase of cuprate, where this instability is absent, superconductivity arises from an increase in the strength of the spin fluctuation pairing interaction as the temperature decreases.

A preprint by Breuer et al. reports that type I IFN signalling in tumour cells promotes lymph node metastasis but suppresses metastasis to distant organs such as lung.

Classically ordered phases normally coupled directly to external probes but exotic multipolar phases are not straightforwardly accessible. Here the authors show that TmMgGaO₄ has multipolar order that can be inferred by inelastic neutron scattering and modeled by transverse field Ising model.

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.

Analyses of 475 ancient horse genomes show modern horses emerged around 2200 bce, coinciding with sudden expansion across Eurasia, refuting the narrative of large horse herds accompanying earlier migrations of steppe peoples across Europe.

Using purified chromatin rings, what defines a promoter is now explored. Exposure of purified templates to the RSC ATP-dependent remodeling complex leads to Translocation of promoter rather than open reading frame nucleosomes. Together with analysis of the effect of histone deacetylase on this process, this argues that nucleosomes define promoter-specificity.

In a model system crosslinked by motors, cytoskeletal polymers slide past each other at speeds independent of their polarity. This behaviour is best described within an active-gel framework that deviates from the dilute limit set by existing theory.

Cation–π interactions are critical for the adhesion proteins of marine organisms, yet the energetics of cation–π interactions in underwater environments remains uncharted. Nanoscale force measurements and NMR spectroscopy reveal that interfacial confinement fundamentally alters the energetics of cation–π mediated assembly.

Modelled supply curves show that, with policy reform and technological innovation, the production of food from the sea may increase sustainably, perhaps supplying 25% of the increase in demand for meat products by 2050.

Here the authors apply machine learning approaches to Alzheimer’s genetics, confirm known associations and suggest novel risk loci. These methods demonstrate predictive power comparable to traditional approaches, while also offering potential new insights beyond standard genetic analyses.

After taking up tumour-associated antigens, dendritic cells in mouse and human tumours upregulate a regulatory gene program that limits dendritic cell immunostimulatory function, and modulating this program can rescue antitumor immunity in mice.

Live-cell recordings have been an important tool for studying circadian rhythms. Here the authors use CRISPR gene editing mediated knock-in to fluorescently tag Per2 and Cry1, and study cellular circadian dynamics of these two clock proteins.

A consensus cell type atlas for the fly brain provides both an intellectual framework and open-source toolchains for brain-scale comparative connectomics.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Oxidative weathering supplied a crucial flux of nutrients to the late Archaean oceans that sustained methanogenesis and kept the Archaean atmosphere in a methane sweet-spot, according to analyses of nickel isotopes from glacial deposits.

The most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson is reported, which indicate that its properties are consistent with the standard model predictions, within the precision achieved to date.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

Similarities in cancers can be studied to interrogate their etiology. Here, the authors use genome-wide association study summary statistics from six cancer types based on 296,215 cases and 301,319 controls of European ancestry, showing that solid tumours arising from different tissues share a degree of common germline genetic basis.

The CMS Collaboration reports the study of three simultaneous hard interactions between quarks and gluons in proton–proton collisions. This manifests through the concurrent production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm-quark–antiquark pair.

A genome-wide association study including over 76,000 individuals with schizophrenia and over 243,000 control individuals identifies common variant associations at 287 genomic loci, and further fine-mapping analyses highlight the importance of genes involved in synaptic processes.

Sexual dimorphism is observed frequently in immune disorders, but the underlying insights are still unclear. Here the authors analyze transcriptome and epigenome changes induced by interferon in various mouse immune cell types, and find only a restricted set of sexual dimorphism genes in innate immunity and macrophages.

Degradation of the recalcitrant polysaccharide fucoidan, produced by marine brown algae, is carried out by some bacteria through unclear mechanisms. Here, the authors provide insights into fucoidan processing mechanisms by studying two alga-associated bacterial strains, using microscopy, multi-omic, biochemical and structural techniques.

Ancient DNA reveals genetic differences between stone-tool users and people associated with ceramic technology in the Caribbean and provides substantially lower estimates of population sizes in the region before European contact.

The authors defined a roadmap for investigating the genetic covariance between structural or functional brain phenotypes and risk for psychiatric disorders. Their proof-of-concept study using the largest available common variant data sets for schizophrenia and volumes of several (mainly subcortical) brain structures did not find evidence of genetic overlap.

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.

This overview of the ENCODE project outlines the data accumulated so far, revealing that 80% of the human genome now has at least one biochemical function assigned to it; the newly identified functional elements should aid the interpretation of results of genome-wide association studies, as many correspond to sites of association with human disease.

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies across different populations highlights new risk loci and provides a genetic risk score that can stratify prostate cancer risk across ancestries.

The authors investigate microbiota properties for plant protection using synthetic communities and machine learning approaches. They identify strains that reduce pathogen colonization despite variation in microbiota composition.

Known genetic loci account for only a fraction of the genetic contribution to Alzheimer’s disease. Here, the authors have performed a large genome-wide meta-analysis comprising 409,435 individuals to discover 6 new loci and demonstrate the efficacy of an Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk score.

In non-small cell lung cancer, the presence of monocyte-derived macrophages inversely correlates with the presence of NK cells. Merad and colleagues propose that when monocytes phagocytose tumor debris they express TREM2, become pro-tumorigenic, and suppress NK cell recruitment and activation in tumors.

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

Thyroid dysfunction is involved in many diseases. Here, the authors provide insights into the genetics and biological pathways influencing important thyroid function parameters, showing potential causal effects on many clinical outcomes.

Amit and colleagues report that the specific interaction of a CD4⁺PD-1⁺CXCL13⁺ T-cell subset with antigen-presenting cells reprograms the tumor microenvironment and response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer.

Single-cell transcriptomics studies on human and mouse non-small cell lung cancer and conditional knockout mouse models show that IL-4 from bone marrow basophils drives the development of granulocyte-monocyte progenitors to myeloid cells that suppress antitumour immunity.

Twelve early-career investigators share their thoughts on the challenges faced by their teams and communities during the past year, and look ahead to new opportunities for 2022.

Single-cell RNA sequencing and imaging of macrophages in human non-small cell lung cancer and in a mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma show that tissue-resident macrophages have a key role in early tumour progression.

A case–control study investigating the causes of recent cases of acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in 32 children identifies an association between adeno-associated virus infection and host genetics in disease susceptibility.

FlyWire presents a neuronal wiring diagram of the whole fly brain with annotations for cell types, classes, nerves, hemilineages and predicted neurotransmitters, with data products and an open ecosystem to facilitate exploration and browsing.

Genome sequencing and phylogenomic analysis show that the lungfish, not the coelacanth, is the closest living relative of tetrapods, that coelacanth protein-coding genes are more slowly evolving than those of tetrapods and lungfish, and that the genes and regulatory elements that underwent changes during the vertebrate transition to land reflect adaptation to a new environment.

Over one hundred loci have been identified to be associated with the familial risk of prostate cancer but the functional effects are poorly understood. Here the authors use single-nucleotide variant and epigentic data to show an underlying genetic architecture marked by histone modification.

This study uses gene expression predictors for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and other brain regions to perform a transcriptomic imputation analysis of schizophrenia, identifying 413 genic associations across 13 brain regions and 36 significantly enriched pathways.