Search

This study harnesses reductive catalytic fractionation to produce lignin oligomers within a design space that enables efficient epoxidation. The developed epoxidation process activates aliphatic hydroxyl groups, yielding low-viscosity lignin epoxy resins with high functionality that form thermosets with near-benchmark properties while offering improved biomass-to-resin yield and sustainability.

Global analysis of obesity trends from 1980 to 2024 in 200 countries and territories using data from 4,050 population-based studies reveals that framing obesity as a single global epidemic masks the highly varied dynamics across countries and age groups.

Direct hydrogen atom transfer (d-HAT) for C(sp³)–H functionalization classically relies on O-centred photocatalysts. Now, neutral N-centred acridine photocatalysts have been added to the toolbox, enabling mild, scalable d-HAT that is compatible with a broad substrate scope and transition metal catalysis.

A genome-wide association study in rice identifies variation in SBRR1 associated with sheath blight resistance. Introducing the SBRR1-R allele into a commercial rice variety reduces yield loss under severe exposure to sheath blight disease.

Here, the authors conduct a metagenomic-based study of England’s rivers to show that biofilm bacteria are taxonomically and functionally diverse and are key to biogeochemical cycling, highlighting the importance of river biofilm bacteria in understanding and monitoring freshwater ecosystem health.

A chemical and biological redox process that resembles processes in petrochemical refining is used to convert lignin from poplar into a single, valuable bioproduct, adipic acid, in high yields.

The genetic basis of cocaine use behaviours is poorly understood. Here, the authors identify genome‑wide loci in an outbred rat population linking variants in cocaine‑metabolising enzymes and addiction‑related genes to self‑administration traits, providing insight into mechanisms of addiction risk.

Electrocatalysts for ammonia oxidation tend to be poisoned by nitrogen-based intermediates. Here the authors use an electrode-alternating strategy that uses pulsed potential reversal to continuously regenerate the deactivated surface, enabling Pt-based ammonia electrolysis for over 1,000 h.

Compiling data on floral introductions and European colonial history of regions worldwide, the authors find that compositional similarity of floras is higher than expected among regions once occupied by the same empire and similarity increases with the length of time the region was occupied by that empire.

Jin et al. developed an artificial intelligence tool that leverages histology to predict methylation-based central nervous system tumor subtypes and validated it for tumor classification, demonstrating high confidence and accuracy across clinical cohorts.

This work presents a computational model of human driver collision avoidance based on active inference, simulating response selection, timing, and execution across multiple driving scenarios and reproducing key patterns observed in empirical human data.

PtSn catalysts are most effective for propane dehydrogenation but structural tunability remains challenging. Now the use of molecular complex precursors unlocks access to subnanometre alloyed PtSn clusters within silicalite-1. The Pt in the clusters undergoes diverse and rapid interconversion among different electronic structures, resulting in high performance and stability.

A machine learning-driven platform integrated with a portable first-aid device tunes mechanical properties of polyurethane-based bioglues to tissue characteristics for reducing postoperative scarring and reports adhesion on lung, intestine, skin and bone injuries in animal models.

Analysing generalized anxiety symptoms as a quantitative trait rather than a clinical diagnosis, Skelton, Mitchell and colleagues report a genome-wide meta-analysis of 693,869 individuals identifying 74 associated genetic loci, with 39 loci newly associated with anxiety.

Magmatism induced by a mantle plume bearing a relatively high proportion of dense fusible mantle material may have formed the Ontong Java Plateau, the largest extant oceanic plateau, according to thermodynamic modelling.

After preclinical testing, a phase 1 trial involving three individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia demonstrated preliminary evidence for the safety and efficacy of AAV8-mediated LDL receptor gene therapy.

Driessen et al. present a conditional optimal transport method that can model the distribution shift between perturbed and unperturbed cell transcriptomes and that can generalize to unseen contexts.

The evolutionary origin of tumours remains largely unknown. Here, Domazet-Lošo et al. show evidence for naturally occurring tumours in the freshwater polyp, Hydra, and suggest that tumours have deep evolutionary roots.

Neurodevelopmental differences in brain iron, impulsivity, and cognitive control are associated with distinct longitudinal patterns of substance use in youth, highlighting adolescence as a key window for risk stratification.

This study shows that variations in the strength of continental margins control how tectonic plates tear during continental collision, which in turn influences the evolution of mountain belts and the associated foreland basins.

Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 can associate with autoantibodies neutralizing inflammatory cytokines. The authors here investigate the presence of autoantibodies targeting specific anti-inflammatory mediators. They identify severe COVID-19 to associate with autoantibodies depleting IL-1Ra and PGRN, which coincide with hyperphosphorylated antigen isoforms induced by inflammatory stress.

This study shows that heating magma above its crystallisation temperature delays crystal formation, reducing crystal content during ascent and controlling volcanic eruption style and intensity.

Valdivieso, Rozmaric et al. show that wounding rapidly induces a senescent state in skin cells involving p21 protein induction, without the need for new transcription. These senescent cells are beneficial to early stages of healing.

De Belly et al. show Rac induces membrane-tension-mediated mTORC2 activation to stimulate long-range Rho activation. Meanwhile, Rho-mediated contractility and blebbing at the opposite side of the cell may lead to PI3K-dependent Rac activation.

Experimental demonstration of quantum error-correcting codes combined with error detection and post-selection applied to a trapped-ion quantum processor shows improvements in logical error rates ranging from 11× to 800× compared with several physical circuit baselines.

Wong et al. uncover a nutritional dependency for acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells that spread to the central nervous system and propose using copper restriction to impair leukemia progression by disrupting nucleotide synthesis through the inhibition of electron transport chain activity.

O’Neill, Posani and colleagues show that while single amygdala neurons encode multiple emotional state-related variables (for example, valence, fear and safety), population-level geometry can enable one variable to be read out cleanly without interference.

How the brain supports speaking and listening during conversation of its natural form remains poorly understood. Here, by combining intracranial EEG recordings with Natural Language Processing, the authors show broadly distributed frontotemporal neural signals that encode context-dependent linguistic information during both speaking and listening..

Single-cell studies uncovered specialization of epithelial cells in intestinal defence. The epithelial cell-targeting cytokine IL-22 protected mice from cholera by promoting the genesis of mucus-secreting cells.

In this feasibility clinical trial, the authors show that epidural stimulation of the cervical spinal cord safely improved strength, function and spasticity in seven people with arm hemiparesis.

Large-scale image alignment of modern high-resolution biomedical and biological datasets demands higher-order algorithms that exploit GPU hardware and converge quickly. Here the authors present FireANTs, a scalable diffeomorphic registration framework achieving orders-of-magnitude speedups, enabling reproducible alignment of data across scales, modalities, species, and organs into common coordinate systems.

The systemic discovery of metal–small-molecule complexes from biological samples is a difficult challenge. Now, a method based on liquid chromatography and native electrospray ionization mass spectrometry has been developed. The approach uses post-column pH adjustment and metal infusion combined with ion identity molecular networking, and a rule-based informatics workflow, to interrogate small-molecule–metal binding.

Melanocortin receptor agonists are an alternative to GLP-1s for weight loss. The study showed that activating MC3R & MC4R together demonstrated strong weight loss, limited rebound, and a clean safety profile in primates.

The authors introduce a portable, automated single-command Nextflow pipeline for large scale analysis of metagenomic short-read sequencing data. It makes large metagenome projects more accessible to individual research groups and is freely available.

Traces of HIV-1 RNA remain in the plasma despite years of antiretroviral therapy (ART), sometimes causing nonsupressible viremia (NSV). Here, the authors show that 5′Leader-defective RNA is the predominant driver for NSV in ART-treated individuals.

This study reveals that copper-dependent cell death (cuproptosis) drives cold-induced death in nematodes through copper accumulation, and further indicates that low temperature may activate related cuproptosis pathways in mammalian cells.

Hoslett et al. show that trapped PARP1 is cleared from the nucleus by nucleophagy involving the autophagy receptor TEX264 and p97. Inactivation of nucleophagy resensitizes acquired resistance of BRCA1-deficient cells to PARP inhibitors.

The PhenoSphere is a unique plant cultivation facility in which field-like environments can be simulated. Here, the authors find that a single season simulation is superior to an averaged season and to a climatized glasshouse cultivation to elicit field-like phenotypes evaluated in 11 maize lines.

The authors present a method that extends conventional electron ptychography to reveal spatial correlations in atom displacements at the atomic scale. These correlations can be used to directly analyse the response of defects in crystals to external perturbations or to construct the dynamical matrix for the crystal, yielding its phonon dispersion.

Bioactivity-guided isolation of specialized metabolites is an iterative process. Here, the authors demonstrate a native metabolomics approach that allows for fast screening of complex metabolite extracts against a protein of interest and simultaneous structure annotation.

Redox electrons in lithium-based battery positive electrodes originate from hybridized orbitals. Combined characterization methods show that across the 3d transition metal series, their origin shifts, with conventional electron counting valid in early transition metal compounds and ligand-hole redox dominating in late transition metal oxides.