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JWST phase-curve observations reveal that the two innermost TRAPPIST-1 planets emit thermal radiation consistent with bare rocky surfaces, indicating that both lack thick atmospheres.

It is not clear how circadian biochemical cascades are encoded into neural electrical signals. Here, using a combination of electrophysiology and modelling approaches in mice, the authors show activation of glycogen synthase kinase 3 modulates neural activity in the suprachiasmatic nuclei via regulation of the persistent sodium current, INaP.

Native top-down proteomics reveals epidermal growth factor receptor–estrogen receptor-alpha (EGFR–ER) signaling crosstalk in breast cancer cells and dissociation of nuclear transport factor 2 (NUTF2) dimers to modulate ER signaling and cell growth.

N-desethyl-fluornitrazene is a µ-opioid receptor agonist derived from nitazenes that has supramaximal intrinsic efficacy that produces analgesia with minimal adverse effects in rodent models.

A two-dimensional dipolar XY model with a continuous spin-rotational symmetry is realized using a programmable Rydberg quantum simulator, complementing recent studies using the Rydberg-blockade mechanism to realize Ising-type interactions showing discrete spin rotation symmetry.

Paracrine signalling between tuft cells and enterochromaffin cells is a key mode of immune–sensory and gut–brain communication, and accounts for the pattern of gastrointestinal symptoms that occurs during parasite infections.

The CRISPR–Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats–CRISPR-associated proteins) systems are immunity systems that are present in many bacteria and archaea. Here, Koonin and colleagues present a new classification of these systems and introduce a new nomenclature of the genes in the CRISPR–casloci that better reflects the relationships between the proteins.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the survival of drug tolerant persister cells following chemotherapy remains elusive. Here, multi-omics analysis and experimental approaches show that the germ-cell-specific H3K4 methyltransferase PRDM9 promotes metabolic rewiring in glioblastoma stem cells.

Target-directed microRNA degradation is driven by the atypical ZSWIM8–CUL3 E3 ubiquitin ligase that uses a two-RNA-factor authentication mechanism to specifically recognize AGO–miRNA–trigger RNA complexes and polyubiquitylate AGO.

Kelly et al. assessed an artificial intelligence system for breast cancer screening in retrospective datasets, followed by prospective feasibility evaluation, and report its accuracy, fairness and clinical implementation in multiple workflow settings.

As we navigate, spatial information is encoded in both rate and temporal codes by place cells located in the hippocampus. To investigate the origin of these codes, the intracellular dynamics of place cells are now measured in vivo in awake mice navigating a virtual-reality environment. Three subthreshold signatures of place fields are identified that underlie the primary features of place-cell rate and temporal codes.

Mutations in mtDNA contribute to mitochondrial disease and aging only if they rise in abundance. Here, the authors show that deleterious mutations reach high abundance by hitchhiking on genomes that have a replicative advantage.

The study shows that label-free nanofluidic scattering microscopy combined with an AI vision transformer can measure the mass and size of single biomolecules down to 6 kDa (1.5 nm), as demonstrated on the example of insulin.

The detection of thermal emission from the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c using the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope reveals a dayside brightness temperature that disfavours a thick, CO₂-rich atmosphere.

Plants produce large numbers of structurally diverse metabolites through multistep pathways that often use the same precursors. Here the authors utilize the pathway leading to the production of acylated sucroses in the tomato plant to illustrate how metabolite diversity can arise through biochemical pathway evolution.

Observations from the JWST MIRI/LRS show the detection of SO₂ spectral features in the 5–12-μm transmission spectrum of the hot, Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b, suggesting that photochemistry is a key process in high-temperature exoplanet atmospheres.

Despite many advantages of vat photopolymerization in microfluidic device fabrication, well-controlled μm-sized (< 100 μm) channels in the layer building direction remains a challenge. Here, authors present a general high resolution and low-cost 3D printing process that can produce devices within the 10 μm scale.

Termite reproductives are long-lived and their genomes have abundant selfish genetic elements. Using long-read sequencing to profile transposable elements and DNA methylation, Qiu et al. uncover evolutionary arms races between TEs and host defences.

Enhanced light–molecule interactions in high-finesse fibre-based Fabry–Pérot microcavities are used to detect and profile individual unlabelled solution-phase biomolecules, leading to potential applications in the life and chemical sciences.

The medium-resolution transmission spectrum of the exoplanet WASP-39b, described using observations from the Near Infrared Spectrograph G395H grating aboard JWST, shows significant absorption from CO₂ and H₂O and detection of SO₂.

Cancer patients are at increased risk for severe bacterial infections due to immune dysfunction. Here, the authors show that chronic tumor-derived G-CSF drives NAMPT/NAD-dependent neutrophil dysfunction from the progenitor stage, and that targeting this pathway restores infection control.

Here, the authors develop Q4ddPCR, a high-throughput assay to quantify genetically intact HIV reservoirs by targeting four regions, and demonstrate that it reduces assay dropout to 5%, tracks reservoir decay, and closely correlates with viral outgrowth.

Evo 2 is an artificial intelligence-based biological foundation model trained on 9 trillion DNA base pairs spanning all domains of life that predicts functional properties from genomic sequences and provides a rich generative model for researchers in biology.

Here the authors describe a method for remote magnetothermal stimulation of neurons that achieves subsecond behavioural responses in Drosophila fruit flies by combining magnetic nanoparticles with TRPA1-A, a rate-sensitive thermoreceptor. Tuning the properties of magnetic nanoparticles to respond to different magnetic field strengths and frequencies enables multichannel thermal magnetogenetic stimulation.

Efficient and non-invasive, liquid biopsy methods could greatly improve the molecular classification of gliomas. Here, the authors develop an RNA-based Droplet Digital PCR assay to detect the key IDH1.R132H mutation in plasma-derived extracellular vesicles from glioma patients with high sensitivity, allowing accurate diagnosis, prognostication and longitudinal monitoring.

How and where somatosensory information is encoded in the cortex is unclear and important for developing new pain therapies. Here the authors show a crucial role for the secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) in accurate perception of sensory stimuli.

Singlet–triplet qubits implemented in a 2 × 4 germanium quantum dot array allow for a quantum circuit that generates and distributes entanglement across the array with a remote Bell state fidelity of 75(2)% between the first and last qubit.

Rodent sensory cortex contains intermixed representations of sensory features. Here the authors investigated the whisker somatotopic map among L2/3 pyramidal neurons in somatosensory cortex in awake mice performing a sensory discrimination task.

Human impacts on marine ecosystems are increasing the likelihood of pathogenic outbreaks, harmful algal blooms and coral stress. Here the authors develop a CRISPR biomonitoring tool that can help detect key marine species that are important to public health, the aquaculture sector and marine ecosystems.

Neural mechanisms underlying auditory restoration are not fully understood. Here authors show that, neural populations of the zebra finch in the equivalent of auditory cortex respond to song with deleted syllables as if the missing syllables were actually present, indicating that information about the temporal structure of song is stored in this area. Their findings suggest that the internal model has a generalized representation of species-typical syntax.

Despite high morbidity and mortality, there are currently no approved vaccines for protection against Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. Here the authors develop a ferritin nanoparticle-based MERS-CoV vaccine that elicits high levels of neutralizing antibodies in mice, non-human primates, and alpacas and prevents infection in an alpaca challenge model.

Simultaneous observations of TRAPPIST-1 b from JWST at 12.8 and 15 μm indicate that it is probably a bare rock with a mineral-rich surface. However, an alternative scenario with a CO₂-rich atmosphere and hazes could also explain the observations.

It is currently unknown how some animals maintain such precise temperature sensation. Ramot et al. report that the thermosensory neurons in C. elegans utilize cGMP-dependent signaling machinery to alter ionic current responses and maintain a dynamic range of sensitivity.

Parallel operation of two exchange-only qubits consisting of six quantum dots arranged linearly is shown to be achievable and maintains qubit control quality compared with sequential operation, with potential for use in scaled quantum computing.

An amplicon-based sequencing protocol that includes synthetic DNA spike-ins improves the quality and efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 high-throughput sequencing and detects common errors in genomic data.

It has been predicted that electron beam probes may allow for the imaging of magnetism with atomic-scale resolution. Here, the authors demonstrate a scanning transmission electron microscopy method capable of resolving magnetic contrast from individual atomic planes.

This paper reports 8-µm photometric observations of the planet HD 80606b during a 30-hour interval bracketing the periastron passage of its extremely eccentric 111.4 day orbit. As the planet received its strongest irradiation its 8-µm brightness temperature increased from ∼800 K to ∼1500 K over a six-hour period. The radiative time constant at the planet's 8-µm photosphere is ∼4.5 hours, as compared to 3–5 days in Earth's stratosphere.

Unique microorganisms of a fossil river delta in the Atacama Desert unveil the current limits of life detection on Mars.

Artificial intelligence is driving rapid growth in electricity demand, straining grid reliability and infrastructure. This study demonstrates a software-based method that allows data centres to adjust workloads in response to real-time grid signals, reducing power use and supporting grid stability without hardware modifications.

Perovskite solar cells including charge transport material fabricated using a reverse-doping process have the highest certified efficiency for cells of 1-cm² active area and the highest fill factor reported so far.

Microscope imaging performance can be seriously degraded by optical inhomogeneities in biological samples. An adaptive optics approach using a spatial light modulator to divide the illumination wavefront into individually controllable subregions recovers near-diffraction–limited two-photon imaging performance in brain tissue.

A dipolar-passivation strategy enables all-perovskite tandem solar cells with a power conversion efficiency of over 30%.