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The ability to control the wetting of liquids on solid surfaces is crucial for advanced science and engineering. Here, a bulk-cusp microstructure enables programmable 0–4 directional droplet spreading without external energy, driven by precursor film dynamics and capillary forces, offering potential for improved lubrication and smart cooling applications.

Subtle variation can reshape protein structure but are hard to identify. Here, authors present MELO, which measures and locates structural changes, outperforms existing tools, and uncovers over 10,000 previously missed protein structure change pairs.

Controllable and scalable phase transition of transition metal chalcogenides is challenging. Using in situ microscopic analysis, a non-stoichiometric phase transition from PdTe₂ to PdTe is observed on the atomic scale, providing mechanistic insights into the scalable phase engineering of transition metal chalcogenide films and heterostructures.

Humanity’s Last Exam, a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, is designed to be an expert-level closed-ended academic benchmark with broad subject coverage.

Metabolism regulates cell fates through the epigenome. Wang, Shi et al. demonstrate that the cell fates of pluripotency, differentiation and ageing emerge from how a nuclear protein channels metabolic fluxes into distinct epigenetic marks by regulating expression of metabolic genes.

Difference frequency generation (DFG) is promising for wavelength conversion and signal amplification, but is limited by low conversion efficiencies. Here, the authors demonstrate broadband and high-efficiency DFG under adapted poling implementation.

A martensitic alloy with a tensile strength exceeding 3 GPa and a fracture elongation of 5.13% is developed. These mechanical properties arise from interface complexes interacting with dense dislocation networks, which is a mechanism shown to be applicable to other compositions.

Estimates from the Global Burden of Disease study reveal declines in chronic respiratory disease mortality between 1990 and 2023—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic—but the burdens on people affected remain substantial.

Global Burden of Disease estimates show that between 1990 and 2023, the prevalence and burden of drug use disorders, inclusive of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioid use, have been increasing in high-income countries, particularly in the USA.

Researchers demonstrate an 8×240 Gbps DWDM transmitter on a thin-film lithium tantalate platform for the O-band, using a novel flat-top optical filter based on coupled Fabry–Perot cavities. It achieves low insertion loss (0.1–0.4 dB), a high extinction ratio (~26 dB), and a 12 nm free spectral range, showing promise for high-capacity optical links in AI and data centers.

Low temperature is a major factor limiting productivity in rice. Here the authors show that theCTB4a gene confers cold tolerance to japonicavarieties adapted to cold habitats at the booting stage of development, and propose that CTB4a acts via an interaction with the beta subunit of ATP synthase.

Identifying jets originating from heavy quarks plays a fundamental role in hadronic collider experiments. In this work, the ATLAS Collaboration describes and tests a transformer-based neural network architecture for jet flavour tagging based on low-level input and physics-inspired constraints.

Xu et al. report that CDK10 drives immune evasion by reducing nucleic acid sensors-mediated innate immune response in tumor cells and that its inhibition improves response to immune-checkpoint blockade in preclinical cancer models.

Synovitis is a key early driver of osteoarthritis (OA), and RANKL contributes to cartilage degradation in OA. Here the authors show that denosumab, an anti-RNKL antibody, reduces synovitis and delays OA progression in animal models and patients.

Liu et al. report Chinese normative lifespan brain charts showing later neurodevelopmental milestones than those detected in Western cohorts. Individual deviations from these norms are valuable in assessing clinical risk and outcomes.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have improved our understanding of the genetic basis of lung adenocarcinoma but known susceptibility variants explain only a small fraction of the familial risk. Here, the authors perform a two-stage GWAS and report 12 novel genetic loci associated with lung adenocarcinoma in East Asians.

Monocytes/macrophages exert pro-atherogenic functions depending on their metabolic programming. Here, the authors show the pivotal role of methionine metabolism in the proinflammatory and migratory functions of monocytes/macrophages and identify MAT2A as a potential target for the management of atherosclerosis.

The authors find that O-GalNAc transferase 2 (GALNT2) restricts viral infection, probably through the regulation of the proteolytic processing of viral glycoproteins via its O-linked glycosylation activity, impairing virus–cell fusion.

This work demonstrates superadiabatic topological pumping on photonic chips, achieving a 20-fold device miniaturization and high-efficiency operation across a 650–920 nm bandwidth, paving the way for ultracompact integrated photonic transports.

Sequencing of 144 ancient genomes from Shimao city and its satellites presents pedigrees among tomb owners spanning up to four generations showing predominantly patrilineal descent structure across Shimao communities, and possibly sex-specific sacrificial rituals.

Hong-Xuan Lin, Ji-Ping Gao, Jun-Xiang Shan and colleagues show that natural variation in a proteasome α2 subunit gene contributes to thermotolerance in African rice. Their follow-up studies suggest that the variant allele protects cells from heat stress by enhancing the elimination of cytotoxic denatured proteins and maintaining heat-response processes.

Biosynthesis of all androgens from cholesterol first requires cytochrome P450 (CYP) 11A1 for generation of pregnanes and then CYP17A1 for biosynthesis of androgens, but CYP17A1 inhibition cannot completely inhibit androgen biosynthesis in prostate cancer. Here, the authors identify a role for CYP51A1 in the biosynthesis of androgens that completely bypasses the requirement for CYP17A1 and demonstrate that CYP51A1 is essential for the biosynthesis of ¹³C-testosterone from ¹³C-cholesterol in prostate cancer cells.

The authors engineer porous MXene nanosheet membranes by balancing in-plane pore and interlayer spacing with dual-channel sieving mechanism, achieving scalable H₂/CO₂ separation.

Proteins in the fungal plasma membrane are key antifungal targets but their native structure and spatial distribution are poorly understood. Here, Jiang et al. use proteomics and cryo-electron tomography to investigate the organisation of membrane proteins in the fungal plasma membrane and how this is affected by antifungal drugs.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

The cyclopiane diterpenoids are a class of complex natural products with unique carbon skeleton and diverse biological activities. Herein, the authors report the total synthesis and chemical proteomics studies of cyclopiane diterpenes which culminate in the asymmetric total synthesis of conidiogenones C, K and 12β-hydroxy conidiogenone C, and identification of Immunity-related GTPase family M protein 1 as a cellular target of conidiogenone C.

Most near-infrared room-temperature phosphorescent (NIR-RTP) materials are highly conjugated, requiring complex synthesis and resulting in poor processability. Here, the authors demonstrate the synthesis of a short-conjugated polymer via multicomponent spiropolymerization and blended it with polystyrene, achieving NIR-RTP polymers with good processability and high Stokes shift.

The authors study magic angle twisted bilayer graphene using Rydberg exciton sensing spectroscopy, via a monolayer WSe2 sensor layer. At high magnetic field, they observe correlated Chern insulators, which they show are linked with zero-field cascade features in the electronic compressibility.

The study and application of the conductive surface states of topological insulators are often restricted by the presence of bulk conduction states. Here, Xu et al. present evidence for such topological surface states with true bulk insulation in the strongly correlated Kondo insulator SmB₆.

Lung structure contributes to respiratory disease risk and shows strong genetic regulation. Here, the authors identify genetic loci linked to lobe-specific lung CT features, revealing developmental pathways and causal links to chronic lung disease.

A bonding and debonding strategy is used to stack epitaxially grown semiconductor monolayers into various structures with precise control of the layer number and interlayer twist angle.

Directional emission of photoluminescence is an emerging technique for light-emitting fields and nanophotonics. Here, the authors demonstrate a hydrogel grating with integrated quantum dots for switchable unidirectional emission tuning.

Efficient hydrogen production from water splitting remains a critical challenge for sustainable energy solutions. Here, the authors develop a ZnS-decorated ZnIn₂S₄ photocatalyst co-loaded with dual Ni(OH)₂ and Ni_xP cocatalysts via photochemical deposition, achieving a high photocatalytic hydrogen production rate and good stability.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

Controlling Li nucleation and growth is crucial to avoid dendrite formation. Here, Li₂S(111)@Cu is used as Li metal electrode substrate, where a substrate-dependent Li nucleation process and a facet-dependent growth mode are identified, enabling dense Li deposition and improved battery performance.

Twisted photonic crystals enable a strong light-matter interaction due to the flatband and high Q factor. Here, authors demonstrate Purcell enhancement between single quantum dots and Moiré nanocavities, with a PL intensity enhancement of about 8.4 times and a Purcell factor around 3.0.

Biaryl compounds with an axial chirality are valuable architectures but few methods have been developed for the construction of bridged biaryls, a subclass of these compounds that bear a tether to connect the two arenes and form a medium-sized ring. Here, the authors design a Co/SPDO-catalyzed aerobic oxidative coupling/desymmetrization sequence of prochiral phenols for the enantioselective synthesis of biaxial bridged m-terphenyls embedded in an azocane.

YAP is a key oncogenic driver that has long been considered undruggable. Here, the authors present the development of a nanobody-based bioPROTAC that efficiently degrades endogenous YAP, demonstrating potent anticancer activity and providing a promising therapeutic strategy for YAP-dependent tumors.

Charge-to-spin conversion allows for the generation and control of spin polarization via a charge current. Typically, this is done with non-magnetic materials with large spin-orbit interactions such as Platinum. Herein, Dai et al demonstrate an intriguing charge-to-spin mechanism, a magnetic spin Hall effect, in a van der Waals heterostructure.

A DNA matrix material potentiates humoral response through multiple administration routes, generating neutralizing antibodies and conferring robust protection against infection.

This study provides a single-cell and spatial atlas of the prometastatic tumor microenvironment in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and characterizes the immunosuppressive function of GPR116⁺ pericytes in cancer metastasis and immune evasion.

Weyl semimetals exhibit exotic properties owing to the presence of Weyl fermions. Here, Xu et al. show that tantalum phosphide is an ideal platform for studying the transport properties of these particles because its low-energy properties are dominated by a single type of Weyl fermion.