Search

Triggering and sustaining fusion reactions — with the goal of overall energy production — in a tokamak plasma requires efficient heating. Radio-frequency heating of a three-ion plasma is now experimentally shown to be a potentially viable technique.

Despite the identification of genetic risk loci for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), the genetic architecture and prediction remains unclear. Here, the authors use genetic risk scores for prediction of LOAD across three datasets and show evidence suggesting oligogenic variant architecture for this disease.

Sea stars and sea cucumbers biosynthesize protective glycosylated steroids and triterpenes via divergent oxidosqualene cyclases (OSCs) that produce these distinct saponins in different species as well as in different tissues of a single species.

A unique case from the Colombian cohort of autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease is reported in which disease progression is substantially delayed despite unusually high amyloid plaque pathology, possibly related to a rare mutation in APOE3.

Organic matter represents a large pool of carbon in the ocean. Radiocarbon and chemical analyses suggest that larger particles are preferentially remineralized in the Pacific Ocean, with smaller particles and molecules persisting longer.

Authors propose their splenic mimetic filtration method, microsphiltration, and utilise this approach in a drug-screen, to identify compounds that induce a stiffening effect on Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes. They proceed to assess safety and tolerability of one identified compound in a phase I clinical trial.

Understanding the reactivity of actinyl-peroxide complexes is critical for predicting the behavior of spent nuclear fuel in radiolytic environments. Here, the authors synthesize and characterize a lithium neptunyl(VI) hydroxo-peroxo phase that stabilizes superoxide and underscores the importance of secondary-sphere coordination in modeling actinyl–peroxide compounds.

An extensive survey to search for members of the only known Kuiper belt family, named after the parent body Haumea, found no family members fainter than absolute magnitude H_r = 7.9, significantly brighter than the detection limit (H_r = 9.5). This lack of small members is inconsistent with a catastrophic disruption as the origin of the Haumea family.

An artificial niche prolongs the quiescence of muscle stem cells in vitro.

Universal quantum logic operations with fidelity exceeding 99%, approaching the threshold of fault tolerance, are realized in a scalable silicon device comprising an electron and two phosphorus nuclei, and a fidelity of 92.5% is obtained for a three-qubit entangled state.

The increasingly visible impact of climatic variability on human affairs lends a sense of urgency to the task of better understanding the workings of the Earth's climatic system. Actual instrumental observations of climate are relatively short, and we must therefore turn to other sources for information about past climates to help develop and test the models that may enable us to predict climatic anomalies such as prolonged droughts or a series of severe winters. Tree -rings are one of the best sources of climatic proxy information. They can provide long, accurately dated, year-by-year records at many points around the globe, and bridge the gap between recent instrumental or historical data and the longer but more generalised geological records. Variations in the width of annual rings reflect the influence of climatic factors that limit the biological processes governing ring formation within a tree. Study of reconstructions of long records of a variety of climatic and related variables, such as temperature, precipitation, stream runoff and barometric pressure over periods of several hundred to several thousand years strongly suggests that the climate of the past century or so is not representative of the conditions that have frequently prevailed over long periods. Proxy records are thus a great help in our efforts to anticipate or predict future climate, which may be significantly different from the recent climatic past.

Type III secretion systems (T3SSs) are protein transport nanomachines that resemble molecular syringes and are found in numerous Gram-negative bacterial species. This Review summarizes our current understanding of the structure and function of these important protein secretion systems, incorporating new advances from cryo-electron microscopy and integrative imaging studies.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a positive-strand RNA virus that causes significant pathology in humans. Here, Lindenbach and Rice discuss recent insights into the unique properties of HCV particles and then review HCV entry and assembly, with a focus on the viral and host factors involved.

A randomized trial in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed no benefit and potentially increased harm associated with the use of convalescent plasma, with subgroup analyses suggesting that the antibody profile in donor plasma is critical in determining clinical outcomes.

After generating a dataset on plumage colouration for over 4,500 bird species, the authors show that tropical species are more colourful than temperate species, confirming a long-held but difficult-to-prove belief.

Nanomaterials provide a route to efficient solid-state conversion between thermal and electrical energy. Here, the authors demonstrate that a combination of metal and semiconductor colloidal nanocrystals can produce thermoelectric nanocomposites with high performance.

Experiments at the Joint European Torus tokamak show improved thermal ion confinement in the presence of highly energetic ions and Alfvénic instabilities in the plasma.

The National Flood Insurance Program is a key tool for managing growing flood risk in the USA. This research shows that premiums based on local risk, rather than national averages, will generate large societal benefits, and investments in large-scale adaptation infrastructure will enhance these impacts.

Plasma pTau181 concentrations are elevated specifically in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease compared to those diagnosed with frontotemporal lobar degeneration or elderly controls, supporting its further development as a blood-based biomarker for AD.

An update to the ‘tree of life’ has revealed a dominance of bacterial diversity in many ecosystems and extensive evolution in some branches of the tree. It also highlights how few organisms we have been able to cultivate for further investigation.

Tumors escape the immune system through many mechanisms. Here the authors show that certain tumors inhibit anti-tumor immunity by stopping the production of conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) in the bone marrow, therefore depleting the pool of cDCs available to present antigen to CD8⁺ T cells.

During mammary gland involution, the organ undergoes extensive remodeling. Here, the authors explore the role of mammary gland adipose tissue (mgWAT) in this process and demonstrate that adipocyte hypertrophy and lipid trafficking underlie mgWAT expansion and epithelial regression.

Heymut Omran, Joseph LoTurco and colleagues show that mutations in the dyslexia susceptibility candidate gene DYX1C1 cause primary ciliary dyskinesia. Their functional studies suggest that DYX1C1 is required for the cytoplasmic preassembly of axonemal dynein complexes.

Melioidosis and glanders are multifaceted infections caused by gram-negative bacteria. Here, the authors synthesize a series of oligosaccharides that mimic the lipopolysaccharides present on the pathogens’ surface and use them to develop novel glycoconjugates for vaccine development.

At its inception, the periodic table sorted elements by weight, so it may be surprising that the heaviest natural element on Earth remains controversial, or at best, nebulous. In the strange, perhaps-unfinished search for this weightiest nucleus, the only definitive conclusion is that it lies somewhere beyond uranium.

Nonlinear wave mixing has been explored in space plasma. Here the authors report beat-wave Brillouin scattering experiment at EISCAT, in which two radio waves at different transmitted frequencies are driving ion acoustic waves in the ionosphere, leading to stimulated Brillouin emissions escaping the plasma.

A preclinical therapy to treat neurodegeneration is developed that selectively targets the AF-2 domain of the androgen receptor while sparing other functions of this receptor.

Cortical thickness is asymmetric, and cortical thinning occurs with age and in disease. Here the authors investigate if both cortices thin at the same rate or if the thicker hemisphere declines faster in aging and in Alzheimer’s disease.

The RNA-binding protein CPEB1 drives post-transcriptional changes in the host transcriptome and poly(A)-tail lengthening of viral RNAs, processes essential for productive HCMV infection.

Brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs) are self-renewing, tumorigenic cells that often reside in a necrotic and hypoxic niche in the brain. Here the authors show that BTICs can become more tumorigenic upon glucose restriction and compensate for this cellular stress by upregulating their capacity to take up glucose.

The accurate determination of quark mixing parameters is essential for the understanding of the Standard Model. The LHCb collaboration now reports the coupling strength of the b quark to the u quark through the measurement of a baryonic decay mode.

Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and plaque are associated with subclinical atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD). Here, the authors identify and prioritize genetic loci for cIMT and plaque by GWAS and colocalization approaches and further demonstrate genetic correlation with CHD and stroke.

Cellobiohydrolases are promising tools in biofuel production by hydrolysing cellulose into cellobiose. Here the authors use optical tweezers to show that Cellobiohydrolase 1 fromTricodermia reeseifunctions processively against moderate load, and likely uses multiple energy sources to fuel each step along the cellulose fibre.

Complex microbial communities pose a challenge to metagenomic analysis. Here the authors develop ‘sequins’, internal DNA standards that represent a synthetic community of artificial genomes.

Oligodendrocytes produce myelin in the central nervous system and can regenerate in adults. Brunet and colleagues show that inactivation of SIRT1 deacetylase increases the proliferation of oligodendrocyte progenitors partly by shifting other neural stem cells to this fate. Using genome-wide approaches, they delineate PDGFRα as a critical target of SIRT1 in its negative effects on oligodendrocyte lineage.

The transcription factor Zbtb7a was previously described as an oncogene in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Now, Pier Paolo Pandolfi and colleagues report that loss of Zbtb7a accelerates the progression of invasive prostate tumorigenesis in Pten-null mice and shows evidence of monoallelic loss in 18% of individuals with advanced prostate cancer.

Genome recovery of the order Lutacidiplasmatales reveals that key genes for environmental specialisation were acquired multiple times in the Thermoplasmatota phylum, suggesting a crucial role of convergent evolution in archaeal habitat adaptation.

Site-specific hyperphosphorylations of tau in the cerebrospinal fluid change with disease course, and correlate with pathology and cognitive decline in dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease.