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Tau aggregates disrupt heterochromatin by sequestering H3K9me3, reactivating transposable elements. This generates Z-RNAs, activating ZBP1 to drive neuronal death. ZBP1 haploinsufficiency reverses cognitive decline in aged tau mice, offering a therapeutic target for tauopathies.

The accidental discovery could be used to make lenses, or even as a glue.

Tang, Dai, Qing, Zhang and colleagues describe a role for N-glycosylation in the nucleus: N-glycans modify inner nuclear membrane proteins, and the modification is implicated in the maintenance of H3K9me3 heterochromatin and genome stability.

The long-sought finding challenges scientists' understanding of the strong nuclear force, and the AI that can beat human champions at drone racing.

A hand stencil painted on a cave wall on a small island off the coast of Sulawesi more than 67,800 years ago suggests a very early occupation of Wallacea.

The authors show that regenerating liver requires de novo pyrimidine synthesis and it uses ammonia as precursors differentially as it traverses the liver zones. Tracing studies and spatial metabolomics reveal that assimilation periportally is via the urea cycle, and pericentrally through conversion into glutamine.

The reconstruction and control of supramolecular ropes using minimalist building units remains a fundamental challenge. Here the authors demonstrate self-assembly of cyclo-tryptophan-proline dipeptide stereoisomers into crystalline supramolecular triple-helical structures with tunable S- or Z- twists governed by the configuration of tryptophan residues.

Escherichia coli ABC transporter-dependent capsule gene analysis alongside the development and application of the kTYPr in silico capsule typing tool uncovers E. coli capsule diversity across environments.

Modular integration of bacterial strains expands the application range of whole-cell bioelectric sensors.

Ultra-thin active layers for semi-transparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) are limited in cell-to-module efficiency. Here, the authors show thickness tolerance for ST-OSCs using aggregation control of acceptor in donor-diluted blends and the feasibility of building-integrated photovoltaics via a 600 cm² module.

Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase from Faecalibacterium prausnitzii inhibits PD-L1 trafficking to boost anti-tumour immunity and potentiate anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy during colorectal cancer.

Proteins are promising ligands for selective metal capture, but low-throughput assays limit their discovery and design. Now, a high-throughput platform for quantifying the rare earth selectivity of lanmodulin (LanM) proteins has been developed. The SpyCI-LAMBS platform enabled the identification of a set of LanMs capable of separating light rare-earth elements in a single step.

This work demonstrates a 3D-printed photonic lantern that efficiently combines many multimode VCSELs into a single multimode fiber with low loss, preserving brightness and enabling compact, scalable high-power laser systems.

Although lithium–sulfur batteries are prized for their sustainability, practical energy densities are often limited by heavy host materials. The authors report a graphdiyne architecture that integrates anchoring and catalytic functions, enabling ultrahigh sulfur loading and exceptional energy densities, even in pouch-cell configuration.

Stimuli responsive luminescent materials are important in applied research but many of these materials are based on fluorescent stimuli responsive materials. Here, the authors report a stimulus-responsive room temperature phosphorescent materials composed of a phosphorescent chromophore of arylboronic acid and poly(vinylalcohol) with color tunable and water process able properties.

Insects colonized with Metarhizium fungi emit longifolene to lure new hosts for infection to disperse spores. A fungal strain was engineered to emit longifolene to attract and eliminate mosquitoes.

Why workers in social insect colonies sometimes reproduce remains puzzling. Ge et al. identify two compounds: Z9-C29 and Z9-C31, acting as common colony cues triggering ovary activation in bumble bee workers in a threshold-dependent way, revealing the swarm intelligence of reproduction.

Proteins are usually produced in living cells, but hydrogels that incorporate genes demonstrate that cells aren’t always needed. The gels produce a wide variety of proteins without cells, and with higher yields than the equivalent solution method. Materials-related proteins that have been difficult to produce by other methods can now be made in greater quantities.

Next-generation autonomous systems call for robust perception capabilities in diverse environments. Dun et al. report an ultraviolet-to-mid-infrared photosynapse array with 65,536 pixels and efficient in situ processing capabilities for dynamic trajectory recognition under challenging conditions.

Monitoring T cell metabolism during chimeric antigen receptor T manufacturing using optical metabolic imaging enables fine-tuning of manufacturing conditions to increase T cell yield and fitness.

Electrically conductive hydrogels based on conducting polymers often rely on covalent and therefore irreversible crosslinking mechanisms. Here, the authors report a thermo-responsive conducting polymer that undergoes a fully reversible non-covalent crosslinking at 35 °C within less than a minute to form conductive hydrogels.

Inborn errors of cell death (IECD) with autoinflammatory manifestations could be induced by excessive T cell death. Here the authors characterize IECD patients with autoinflammatory manifestations who possess overactive RIPK1 variants which promote T cell death, secretion of TNF and IFN-γ along with activation of monocytes and macrophages which promotes further autoinflammation.

Precisely controlling structural colours in polymeric materials remains a major challenge. Here, the authors develop a colour design model, enabling inverse design of structural colours in bottlebrush block copolymers.

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters are key drivers of metastasis, yet their formation in tumors lacking classical adhesion molecules is unclear. Here, the authors discover that hyaluronic acid promotes homotypic and heterotypic CTC clustering by initiating early cell contacts and stabilizing mature interactions.

This study presents an organ-wide spatial transcriptomic analysis of human skin from different anatomical sites using a combination of MERFISH technology and existing datasets from healthy and diseased skin.

De novo designed proteins that target the transmembrane domain of G-protein-coupled receptors, created using iterative structural predictions, are able to act as agonist-positive, negative or biased allosteric modulators of downstream activity.

Fabricating wide-bandgap perovskite films with a thickness of 1 μm on nano-textured silicon substrates remains a formidable challenge. Here, authors design an amphoteric coplanar conjugated molecule for improve bulk and interfacial properties of perovskites for high-efficiency tandem solar cells.

Antibiotic heteroresistence is commonly caused by repeated amplification of resistance genes. Jonsson et al., reveals the relation between these two events, and how antibiotic pressure, fitness cost and indirect resistance affect the distribution of tandem repeats.

Postsynthetic modification of rigid MOFs with photoswitchable azobenzene molecules enables tunable interlayer spacing in stacked 2D MOF membranes, greatly expanding the fabrication of 2D MOF membranes with dynamic interlayer spacing.

Scholl et al. show that PopZ forms filamentous condensates driven by its helical domain and inhibited by its disordered region. Phase-dependent conformations modulate client interactions and disruption of filamentation or condensation impairs cellular function and growth.

Flexible energy storage systems usually have limited energy densities. Here the authors report a flexible lithium–oxygen battery with the cathode consisting of titanium dioxide nanowire arrays grown on carbon textiles, which displays high mechanical strength as well as promising electrochemical performance.

The design of electronic skin for medical imaging or robotics applications calls for high capability of temperature sensing. Here, Zhaoet al. integrate ionic thermoelectric gating to an organic thin-field transistor to detect temperature at sensitivity comparable to that of pyroelectric materials.

NLRP7 mutations cause recurrent hydatidiform mole with maternal imprinting defects. Here, the authors show that these mutations disrupt the interaction between NLRP7 and TCL1A, causing TCL1A to mislocalize to the nucleus and inhibit the activity of methyltransferase DNMT3A.

TMEM65 drives Na + -dependent mitochondrial Ca²⁺ efflux, independently of NCLX. Its dysfunction causes increased sensitivity to mild stress and links mitochondrial Ca²⁺ overload to degeneration.

Traditional nanoscale building blocks show limitations on further optimizing the performance of aerogels. Here the authors achieved precise control over the aggregation state of GdOOH sub nanometer nanowires in three-dimensions and demonstrate aerogels with low density and high specific surface area.

Single-nucleus chromatin and RNA sequencing identifies epigenetic chromatin domains that confer vulnerability to paediatric brain tumours such as ependymomas, providing insight into the development of such tumours despite ‘quiet’ genomes.

The Middle Palaeolithic of southwest Asia witnessed interactions and knowledge sharing between archaic and modern humans ~130,000–80,000 years ago. These interactions led to increased behavioural complexity and consolidation of a uniform behavioural set across Homo groups in the region.

A wide-field fluorescence microscope leveraging a spinning disc and high-speed cameras enables the recording of neural activities and neutrophil trajectories at micrometric resolution on curved cortical surfaces in live mice.

The authors report electrostatic actuators that use vacuum to produce strong, fast, millimeter-scale motion by employing space-compatible polymers, representing a promising, compact, and energy-dense actuation alternative for future space robots.

PU.1^low CD28-expressing microglia may act as suppressive cells in Alzheimer’s disease, mitigating its progression by reducing neuroinflammation and amyloid plaque load, indicating potential immunotherapeutic approaches for treatment.

Geochemical analyses correlating the stratum that overlies the sediments containing the Omo fossils with material from a volcanic eruption suggest that these fossils (the oldest known modern human fossils in eastern Africa) are over 200,000 years old.

Lubricated surfaces are known to display extreme liquid repellency. Such behaviour is now confirmed to be due to the formation of a film between the surface and the repelled liquid, with a thickness profile following the Landau–Levich–Derjaguin law.

A family of regulators named Catalytic Core Regulators (CCRs) oversees the function of the 20S proteasome. Here, the authors show that CCRs function through an allosteric mechanism, coupling the physical binding of the PSMB4 β-subunit with attenuation of the proteasome three proteolytic activities.

Aqueous zinc–iodine batteries offer an inexpensive, safe technology for energy storage, but using inactive host materials limits the energy density and polyiodide shuttling reduces cycling lifetimes. Now it has been shown that integrating electroactive ferrocene into cathodes offers additional capacity to enhance energy density and enables shuttle-free operation.