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A high-resolution spectroscopic analysis reveals ultralow amounts of heavy elements in the star SDSS J0715−7334. The star originates from the Large Magellanic Cloud and probably formed directly after the first stars through dust cooling.

The lowest-frequency gravitational wave background may be shaped by supermassive black hole binaries that scatter nearby stars or dark matter. In this case, the NANOGrav 15-year dataset favours dense galactic centres with 10⁶ solar masses per cubic parsec.

Carbon pricing can be a cost-effective way to cut carbon dioxide emissions, but only if it is politically sustainable. Two recent papers document how carbon pricing can create winners and losers, while also showing how these shortcomings can be addressed by careful policy design.

In this study, long-read RNA sequencing achieves accurate single-nucleotide polymorphism calling, haplotype phasing and allele-specific expression analysis.

Endosomal escape of lipid nanoparticles is quantified and optimized in vivo.

Despite rapid exploitation of the opportunities that contextualization of brain maps affords, potential limitations have received little attention. In this Roadmap, Royer et al. provide practical guidelines operating at the level of study design, analysis pipelines and interpretation of findings to encourage the development of best practices in data contextualization in neuroscience.

This study applies generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) and advanced transcriptome wide association study (TWAS) methods to improve the discovery of colorectal cancer risk transcription factors and genes, including potential druggable targets.

JWST’s COSMOS-Web survey is used to create an ultra-high-detail dark matter map, revealing hidden filaments, clusters and distant structures. By tracing features out to z = 2, this map shows how dark and luminous matter build the cosmic web across cosmic time.

Large-effect variants in autism remain elusive. Here, the authors use long-read sequencing to assemble phased genomes for 189 individuals, identifying pathogenic variants in TBL1XR1, MECP2, and SYNGAP1, plus nine candidate structural variants missed by short-read methods.

Earthquakes influence the amount of hydrothermal iron entering the ocean over the Australian Antarctic Ridge, which can support phytoplankton blooms by relieving surface iron limitation, according to observations combined with surface particle tracking.

The detection of Hα reported in galaxy candidate GHZ2/GLASS-z12 provides a direct probe of star formation activity and can be used to trace massive stars with ages of ~10 Myr or younger.

As large-scale neurodevelopmental MRI studies gain prominence, the authors identify tradeoffs between sample size and quality control that can dramatically affect results, and they evaluate a range of approaches to mitigate risk for error.

Environmental law is shaped by litigation outcomes as much as by legislation. This study examines nearly 30,000 civil suits and court decisions over 34 years to help reveal their influence on the legal and environmental landscapes of the United States.

Using a large cosmological sample of FRBs, Connor et al. have located many of the Universe’s unseen baryons, finding that most reside in the diffuse intergalactic medium, not galaxies—confirming the strong astrophysical feedback seen in simulations.

Selinexor is a covalent inhibitor of the nuclear export receptor exportin 1 (XPO1). Wing, Fung and Kwanten et al. found that selinexor mediates XPO1 degradation through an allosteric molecule glue mechanism, stabilizing XPO1 in a conformation capable of binding to the E3 Cullin–RING E3 ligase 5 substrate receptor ASB8.

JWST data reveal a multi-galaxy merger 800 Myr after the Big Bang, likely a progenitor of massive quiescent galaxies seen at later times. Its extended [O iii] halo offers direct evidence of early metal enrichment via tidal stripping.

The inability of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells to shift the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus during daytime is caused by light-dependent depolarization block of these cells.

Proteome allocation to anabolic and catabolic functions is significantly regulated by growth rate in the model bacterium Escherichia coli. By contrast, this article shows that proteome allocation is only partially controlled by growth rate, and metabolic rates are primarily controlled post-translationally, in the thermophilic acetogen Thermoanaerobacter kivui.

The local Drude model predicts that, under certain conditions, surface plasmon polaritons at a metal-dielectric surface have a frequency range where only unidirectional propagation is supported. Here, the authors show that in more realistic non-local models surface plasmon polaritons exhibit bidirectional propagation for all frequencies.

In cancer many gene variants may contribute to disease etiology, but the impact of a given gene variant may have varied effect size. Here, the authors analyse summary statistics of genome-wide association studies from fourteen cancers, and show the utility of polygenic risk scores may vary depending on cancer type.

A re-analysis of virus diversity in mammals that now takes into account host sharing finds that previous global estimates have been overstated by two orders of magnitude.

Endocrinologists have traditionally focused on studying one hormone or organ system at a time. Here the authors use transcriptomic data from the mouse lemur to globally characterize primate hormonal signaling, describing hormone sources and targets, identifying conserved and primate specific regulation, and elucidating principles of the network.

Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition, disturbance and evolutionary history shape the crown architecture of the world’s trees and thereby constrain the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.

JWST spectroscopy confirms redshifts for two very luminous galaxies with z > 11, and also demonstrates that another candidate with suggested z ≈ 16 instead has z = 4.9.

A bile acid-bound structure of toxin TcdB revealed the mechanism of inhibition and guided the design of a synthetic bile acid that alleviated Clostridioides difficile infection in mice.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

Analysis of the stellar population properties of 30 host galaxies of fast radio bursts (FRBs) suggests an abundance of FRBs in massive star-forming galaxies, and implies that the formation of FRB sources—magnetars—is linked to core-collapse supernovae of stellar merger remnants.

Banded iron formation deposition by photoferrotrophic organisms in the early Earth’s oceans may have been inhibited by competition for iron and toxicity from nitrate-reducing microorganisms, according to a microbial incubation and numerical modelling study.

Here, the authors perform large trans-ancestry fine-mapping analyses identifying large numbers of association signals and putative target genes for colorectal cancer risk, advancing our understanding of the genetic and biological basis of this cancer.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study meta-analysis, combined with transcriptome- and methylome-wide association analyses, identifies risk loci associated with colorectal cancer. Credible effector genes and their target tissues are also highlighted, showing that over a third probably act outside the colonic mucosa.

Cooling electrons into the microkelvin temperature range is of interest both for practical purposes and fundamental studies, but current demonstrations are limited to small, specific devices. Here, the authors achieve sub-millikelvin temperatures in a large-area, two-dimensional electron gas.

We report observations of ceers-2112 that show that this galaxy, at a redshift of 3, unexpectedly has a barred spiral structure.

Growth rate dynamics after temperature shifts can be explained by metabolic rearrangement due to temperature-sensitive enzyme activities in bacteria and yeast.

Aarrestad et al. show that, in contrast to psychedelics, the nonhallucinogenic psychoplastogen tabernanthalog promotes neuroplasticity through 5-HT_2AR activation without immediately increasing extracellular glutamate levels or immediate early gene expression.

A clinical trial using continuous glucose monitoring found that a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)-style diet tailored for diabetes reduced hyperglycemia and improved glucose control compared to a typical American diet in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Outer membrane attachment to peptidoglycan enables periplasmic pressure to build up and counter cytoplasmic turgor pressure, preventing lysis during osmotic challenges in Escherichia coli.

Engineering a mutant-specific customized base editor precisely corrects a mutation while minimizing bystander edits, leading to substantial phenotypic recovery in mouse models of multisystemic smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome.

A one-dimensional trapped-ion quantum simulator with up to 23 spins is used to demonstrate a continuous symmetry-breaking phase that relies on long-range interactions.

Measurements of [C ii] emission and dust emission from nine typical star-forming galaxies about one billion years after the Big Bang show that galaxies of this age have dust levels that are significantly lower than those of typical galaxies about two billion years later and comparable with those of local low-metallicity galaxies.

In this Stage 2 Registered Report, Buchanan et al. show evidence confirming the phenomenon of semantic priming across speakers of 19 diverse languages.

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.

Removing excess energy (cooling) and reducing noise in superconducting quantum circuits is central to improved coherence. Lucas et al. demonstrate cooling of a superconducting resonator and its noisy environment to sub-mK temperatures by immersion in liquid ³He.

Analysis of a dataset of the morphology of more than 250,000 adult birds of 105 species over a 30 year period across North America reveals changes in body size and relative wing length over time and with relation to latitude, elevation and temperature variation.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Logical operations can be performed fault-tolerantly with only a constant number of syndrome extraction rounds for a broad class of quantum error correction codes, including the surface code with magic state inputs and feedforward, to achieve ‘transversal algorithmic fault tolerance’.

Trained and validated on multimodal data from 14.5 million images from multicountry datasets, a foundation model is shown to increase diagnostic and referral accuracy of clinicians when used as an assistant in a trial involving 16 ophthalmologists and 668 patients.

Magic state distillation is achieved with logical qubits on a neutral-atom quantum computer using a dynamically reconfigurable architecture for parallel quantum operations.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.