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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).

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.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Professor Saffron O’Neill about their project investigating the visual communication of heatwaves in the news media.

To explore career opportunities outside of academia, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Clare Davis about their career path from postdoctoral researcher to senior editor at Communications Earth & Environment.

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.

With the yearly exodus from labs and lecture theatres imminent, Nature's regular reviewers and editors share some tempting holiday reads.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Ingrid Boas about their project investigating the role of cultural heritage in shaping climate change adaptation amongst Indigenous peoples with mobile livelihoods.

An article in Environmental Research Letters finds that natural aerosols contribute to over half of the excess deaths attributed to fine particulate matter exposure in Africa.

An increase in ocean transport from the North Atlantic into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean is warming the region. Observations from 1993 to 2016 show a significant increase in heat transport after 2001, with the heat being transported over the Greenland–Scotland Ridge.

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.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Arpita Mondal from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay about their project investigating the attribution of urban flood response to climate change and stormwater management practices.

The hierarchy of DNA repair pathways at stalled replication forks is not fully understood. Here, the authors isolate two mutations in yeast RAD51 with defects in binding to duplex DNA and stalled replication forks, suggesting a role of Rad51 duplex DNA binding in fork stabilization and postreplication repair.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Lu Zhou about their project investigating how snow cover influences Antarctic sea ice mass balance and climate.

To explore career opportunities outside of academia, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Tom Pickerell about their career path from PhD student to Global Director of the Ocean Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Biao Zhu about their project investigating whole-soil carbon dynamics in a future warmer world.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Associate Professor Supriya Mathew from Menzies School of Health Research about their project investigating the effects of extreme heat on First Nations people in remote Australia and ways to reduce the health risks.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Jochen Knies about their project investigating past Arctic greenhouse climate states.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Hannah Whitby about their Royal Society International Exchanges grant.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Beatrice Asenso Barnieh about their project investigating water quality in Ghana.

While numerous explanations for reduced pest incidence in organic farms have been noted, plant resistance remains understudied. This article demonstrates tomato resistance to leafhoppers through soil and microbial health.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Alberto Caracciolo about their project investigating the petrology and paleomagnetism of Holocene eruptions in the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, with implications for the ongoing eruptive cycle.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Laura Carter about their project investigating emerging contaminants in agricultural systems.

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Abhirup Dikshit about their project investigating flash drought and bushfires.

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.

To explore career opportunities outside of academia, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment interviewed Nick Rogan about their career path from postdoctoral researcher to founder and principal data management consultant at Zoof Limited.

Combination of epidemiology, preclinical models and ultradeep DNA profiling of clinical cohorts unpicks the inflammatory mechanism by which air pollution promotes lung cancer

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

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.

An article in Communications Earth & Environment finds that reduced fuel availability will only moderately dampen projected increases in forest fire area in western USA.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

In somatic cells the mechanisms maintaining the chromosome ends are normally inactivated; however, cancer cells can re-activate these pathways to support continuous growth. Here, the authors characterize the telomeric landscapes across tumour types and identify genomic alterations associated with different telomere maintenance mechanisms.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.

Integrative analyses of transcriptome and whole-genome sequencing data for 1,188 tumours across 27 types of cancer are used to provide a comprehensive catalogue of RNA-level alterations in cancer.

Whole-genome sequencing data from more than 2,500 cancers of 38 tumour types reveal 16 signatures that can be used to classify somatic structural variants, highlighting the diversity of genomic rearrangements in cancer.

Viral pathogen load in cancer genomes is estimated through analysis of sequencing data from 2,656 tumors across 35 cancer types using multiple pathogen-detection pipelines, identifying viruses in 382 genomic and 68 transcriptome datasets.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

A pan-cancer genomic analysis reports the effects of structural variations on chromatin domains (TADs). Most TAD disruptions do not result in appreciable changes in expression of nearby genes.

An analysis of 2,954 genomes from 38 cancer subtypes identified 19,166 retrotransposition events in 35% of samples. Aberrant LINE-1 retrotranspositions can lead to the deletion of tumor-suppressor genes as well as the amplification of oncogenes.

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.