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Metal–halide complexes are central to light emission in halide perovskites, but their bottom-up spatial arrangement is difficult to control. Now a crown-ether-assisted supramolecular strategy has been shown to enable the synthesis of one-dimensional metal–halide molecular wires with high photoluminescence efficiency and strong nonlinear optical responses.

Deep sea sediment microbes recycle key elements such as nitrogen, carbon, and sulphur. Gene activity from Chilean sediments shows communities are fuelled by sinking organic matter and by a sulphur rich cold seep.

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.

Forests are essential for both climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, yet how to balance these goals in managed forests remains unclear. Here, using a Europe-wide dataset, the authors find that biodiversity increases with carbon stocks, but mostly when deadwood is included.

Functional plant traits help explain ecosystem stability. The authors show that it is only at local scales that species richness stabilizes productivity, and functional diversity destabilizes It, with neither effect evident at larger spatial scales.

The SuperCam microphone aboard the Perseverance rover captured 55 triboelectric discharges during dust events on Mars over two Martian years, providing implications for examining the planet’s surface chemistry, habitability and human exploration.

A galvanic strategy enables the intercalation of diverse molecular cations into bulk and few-layer van der Waals crystals under mild conditions, yielding 50 organic–inorganic superlattices. This method enables the definition of vertical and lateral intercalation heterostructures, opening avenues for the device integration of hybrid quantum materials.

Alternative algorithms exploiting advantages of multidimensional mass spectrometry in untargeted metabolomics are needed. Here, the authors develop and demonstrate PeakDecoder for confident and accurate metabolite profiling in 116 microbial sample runs and using a library built from 64 standards.

The function of many bacterial processes depends on the formation of functional membrane microdomains (FMMs), which resemble the lipid rafts of eukaryotic cells. Here, Ukleja et al. show that FMMs mediate ATP-independent stabilization of unfolded proteins, which is essential for bacterial viability under cellular stress and during infection.

A cross-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci, reveals putative causal genes, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as potential drug targets, and provides cross-ancestry integrative risk prediction.

A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of regional-scale anthropogenic activity on plant diversity.

Creative experiences such as dance, music, drawing, and strategy video games might preserve brain health. The authors show that regular practice or short training in these activities is linked to brains that look younger and work more efficiently.

It has been a longstanding goal to promote the propagation of functional mitochondrial DNAs at the expense of pathological molecules in cells where the two species coexist. Here, the authors show that restricting the availability of glucose and glutamine can achieve this outcome.

In situ detection of protein coronas is usually performed via optical methods, but light scattering may hamper these measurements. Here, the authors use diffusion NMR techniques to characterize protein corona formation on ¹⁹F-labeled nanoparticles in blood and other complex media.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Genome-wide sequencing of 180 ancient individuals shows a continuous gradient of ancestry in Early-to-Mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers from the Baltic to the Transbaikal region and distinct contemporaneous groups in Northeast Siberia, and provides insights into the origins of modern Uralic and Yeniseian speakers.

p53 regulates signalling pathways involved in metabolic homeostasis. Here the authors show that O-GlcNAcylation of p53 in the liver plays a key role in the physiological regulation of glucose homeostasis, potentially via controlling the expression of the gluconeogenic enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase.

Over half the world’s rivers dry periodically, yet little is known about the biological communities in dry riverbeds. This study examines biodiversity across 84 non-perennial rivers in 19 countries using DNA metabarcoding. It finds that nutrient availability, climate and biotic interactions influence the biodiversity of these dry environments.

Antipsychotic treatment in patients with schizophrenia often reduces hallucinations and delusions, but cognitive deficits that impair performance of everyday activities may persist or worsen. Our findings reveal a mechanism by which increased NF-κB activity leads to increased HDAC2 levels, impairing synaptic plasticity and memory during prolonged antipsychotic treatment.

Infant gliomas behave differently to their childhood or adult counterparts. Here, the authors perform a large-scale genetic analysis of these tumours, revealing genetic alterations which may offer therapeutic opportunities.

Using JWST, more than 40 individual stars have been detected in a distant galaxy, dating back to when the Universe was only half of its current age. The stars appear to be red (super)giants that are magnified by factors of hundreds.

Climate change is shifting species distribution globally. Here, the authors track four decades of changes in the thermal affinity of 1,817 marine species across European seas, showing that most communities have responded to ongoing ocean warming via increases of warm-water species or decreases of cold-water species.

Metabolome-informed proteome imaging provides a comprehensive view of underlying biological pathways within micrometer-scale microhabitats of the fungal garden, informing the understanding of metabolic fungal pathways in plant matter degradation.

Genome-wide analyses using fetal and parental genotypes identify 40 independent associations influencing placental weight and highlight the role of the fetus in preeclampsia risk and placental growth regulation via insulin signaling.

Morey and colleagues identify a dual function of CoREST in regulating sensitivity and resistance to endocrine therapies in breast cancer. This work also provides a pre-clinical model for study of the conversion of luminal/ER⁺ to basal/ER⁻ breast cancer.

Traumatic brain injury is associated with changes to the metabolome. Here the authors show that acute traumatic brain injury has distinctive serum metabolic patterns which may suggest protective changes of systemic lipid metabolism aiming to maintain lipid homeostasis in the brain.

Gelabert et al. examine genomic and archaeological data from Europe’s earliest farming communities in Central Europe (5500–5000 bce). They find differentiated genetic networks but no evidence of unequal access to resources linked to sex or kin.

Orbital angular momentum transfer from optical vortex beams to electronic quantum Hall states is reported in a graphene sheet, showing a robust contribution to the radial photocurrent that depends on the vorticity of light.

Coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1) is an important target in hematologic malignancies. In this work, the authors show that the hyperactivation of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) by the V617F mutation phosphorylates CARM1 which regulates its methyltransferase activity and alters its target specificity.

Endothelial cells in white adipose tissue are shown to produce polyamines, which regulate adipocyte lipolysis, thus demonstrating how local angiocrine signals contribute to healthy adipose tissue homeostasis.

O-glycosylation is an abundant post-translational modification but its relevance for bioactive peptides is unclear. Here, the authors detect O-glycans on almost one third of the classified peptide hormones and show that O-glycosylation can modulate peptide half-lives and receptor activation properties.

TET3 is essential to postnatal development due to unknown reasons. Here Mulet et al. demonstrate that TET3 is required for ATP synthase assembly in differentiated cells and that its loss leads to an unphysiological metabolic profile.

Using cryo-electron tomography, Lopez-Robles, Scaramuzza, Astorga-Simon, Ishida et al. solve the architecture of ESCPE-1, a protein scaffold that mediates the recycling of cargo from endosome to trans-Golgi network and plasma membrane in tubular carriers.

Following a wide-ranging review of studies, reports and policies about nature’s multiple values, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation of nature, address barriers to uptake in decision-making, and make transformative changes towards more just and sustainable futures.

Snap-tag reporter mice allow flexible yet efficient targeting of chemical indicators to genetically labeled cells in vivo. With this strategy, cells can either be labeled fluorescently or ablated using the same reporter.

Gravitationally magnified images of a faint galaxy from only 500 million years after the Big Bang suggest that galaxies of that age may be the dominant source of the radiation responsible for the re-ionization of the intergalactic medium.

While hundreds of loci are linked with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), the functional consequences of the associated variants remain unclear. Here, the authors screened in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients’ genomes for protein-truncating variants near IBD loci, and identify a protein truncating variant in RNF186to be protective against UC.

Epigenetic perturbations may be an important factor in diseases where both genes and environment play a role. Here, Ventham and colleagues show that DNA methylation changes in inflammatory bowel disease are related to the underlying genotype, and are associated with cell-specific changes to gene expression.

Patricia Munroe, Joanna Howson and colleagues genotype ∼350,000 individuals and identify 30 new blood pressure– or hypertension-associated risk loci. Their analyses provide insights into the pathophysiology of hypertension and highlight new potential targets for clinical intervention.

Cellular phenotypic heterogeneity is a key determinant of biological functions and is challenging to identify. A deep learning method that recognizes specific nuclear signatures is discussed, which can identify cellular heterogeneity and differentiate between various cell states using a small amount of super-resolution microscopy data.

Species interaction data, a field experiment and modelling of plant–insect communities show that landscapes with more habitat types support more even species, more complementary interactions, are more consistently robust to species loss, and confer greater pollination function.

In plants, the regulatory mechanisms that control disease resistance responses remain poorly understood. Marino et al. show that the Arabidopsis E3 ubiquitin ligase MIEL1 interacts with and ubiquitinates the MYB transcription factor (TF), MYB30, leading to proteasomal degradation of MYB30 and attenuation of plant defence.

Multi-physical experimental and computational methods are combined to break the gap between meso- and macroscopic coupled responses in conductive 3D printed components. This hybrid tool enables the spatial optimisation of the printing process programming specific multifunctional behaviours.

Quantum tunnelling of the magnetisation limits the performance of single-molecule magnets at low temperatures. Here, the authors combine ab initio and analytical methods to show that spin-phonon coupling subtly influences tunnelling via polaron formation.