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Although river protection is core to social and environmental well-being, the extent to which river conservation policies are effective is difficult to assess. This study reveals that, under all relevant protection mechanisms in the contiguous USA, only 12% of rivers are adequately protected.

Mangrove ecosystems are facing severe climate threats. However, this study shows that strategically expanding protected areas to include the most climate-resilient sites can safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services for the future, and this can be achieved with only a modest increase in protected area.

Targeting neurons that regulate energy balance may offer new approaches for obesity treatment. Here, authors show that chemogenetic and pharmacological manipulation of GABAergic neurons in the DRN/vlPAG increases adaptive thermogenesis and reduces weight gain in mice fed a highfat diet.

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.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is key for metabolic balance. Here, the authors show that RAP250 deficiency enhances BAT activity. Under these conditions, BAT-derived neuritin-1 regulates thermogenesis and fat metabolism, showing therapeutic promise for obesity and metabolic disorders.

In mice, DHPS supports the maturation, maintenance and function of tissue-resident macrophages via the polyamine–hypusine axis, with implications for macrophage-targeting therapies.

Johnson et al. link ARIA, a complication of anti-amyloid therapy, to clonal expansion of cytotoxic CD8 + T cells with glycolytic reprogramming and vascular trafficking potential, with implications for biomarker development and risk mitigation.

Brown adipose tissue is a heat-generating organ and promising therapeutic target for treating obesity and metabolic diseases. Its presence in adults supports metabolic health, whereas its decline with age and weight gain might promote chronic disease. Efforts to understand its fascinating biology and translational potential continue to gain momentum.

The degradation of dead wood by basidiomycete fungi relies on Fenton chemistry under aerobic conditions. Here, Röllig et al. show that these fungi can also thrive and degrade wood in anoxia, switching from a Fenton chemistry-based process to the secretion of plant cell wall-active enzymes.

Deep brain stimulation tuned to cue-reactivity within the nucleus accumbens region reduced drug cravings, heralding an evocation-based programming strategy for opioid use disorder.

Large-effect variants in autism remain elusive. Here, the authors use long-read sequencing to assemble phased genomes for 189 individuals, identifying pathogenic variants in TBL1XR1, MECP2, and SYNGAP1, plus nine candidate structural variants missed by short-read methods.

Optogenetic manipulation of spindle dynamics reveals that microtubule shortening at kinetochores limits spindle elongation rather than moving chromosomes, revealing local chromosome–spindle interactions.

cellSTAAR advances noncoding rare variant association analysis by integrating single-cell genomics data.

JWST’s COSMOS-Web survey is used to create an ultra-high-detail dark matter map, revealing hidden filaments, clusters and distant structures. By tracing features out to z = 2, this map shows how dark and luminous matter build the cosmic web across cosmic time.

The signaling mechanisms regulating adipose thermogenesis have not been fully elucidated. Here, the authors show that a brown fat-enriched adipokine ADISSP promotes adipose thermogenesis and improves metabolic health independently of b-adrenergic receptor.

Two-dimensional poly(arylene vinylene) frameworks are promising polymer semiconductors, yet obtaining highly crystalline materials is a major challenge. Now a series of 11 highly crystalline or single-crystalline 2D poly(arylene vinylene)s have been prepared—from 2D imine-linked covalent organic frameworks through a Mannich-elimination strategy—with diverse lattices, enhanced conjugation and specific surface areas up to 2,000 m² g⁻¹.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

Individual dietary specialization is impacted by development, social learning, genetics, and environment. Here, the authors document European brown bear diet in a multigenerational female sample, finding that social learning during rearing was the most important contributor to dietary specialization.

Muscularis macrophages, housekeepers of enteric nervous system integrity and intestinal homeostasis, modulate α-synuclein pathology and neurodegeneration in models of Parkinson’s disease, and understanding the accompanying mechanisms could pave the way for early-stage biomarkers.

Korobkina et al. show that ACLY in brown fat prevents metabolic overload in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, thus ensuring adequate thermogenesis by avoiding cellular stress.

Electrochemical CO reduction to multi-carbon products offers a carbon-negative approach to produce chemicals, but the intricate reaction pathways lead to a broad spectrum of products. Now it has been shown that alkali cations alter the mechanistic pathways that govern the reaction selectivity involved in the formation of hydrocarbons versus oxygenates.

A histone ubiquitin-dependent regulatory hub governs stimulus-dependent heterochromatin propagation, with important implications for understanding mechanisms governing rapid changes in the epigenetic landscape in physiology and disease.

Adipose tissue is composed of a number of adipocytes and a number of other cells including immune cells. Here the authors use single-cell sequencing of murine brown adipose tissue immune cells and describe multiple macrophage and monocyte subsets and show that monocytes contribute to brown adipose tissue expansion.

Habitat-forming marine macrophytes (brown macroalgae and seagrasses) provide important ecological and socio-economic services but are threatened by climate change. In this study, models of their future distribution under different climate change projections forecast a substantial redistribution of these groups globally, with loss of diversity and habitat.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

Cosgun et al. show that, in B cell leukemia, β-catenin expression is maintained at low levels through glycogen synthase kinase 3B (GSK3β)-mediated phosphorylation. Inhibition of GSK3β results in β-catenin–Ikaros–NuRD complex formation, leading to B-ALL cell death through MYC repression.

Tracking methane emissions from cows just got a little easier, David Adam reports.

This study detects Chlamydia pneumoniae in human retina and brain, increasing with AD severity. Retinal pathogen load with Aβ₄₂ may predict AD stage. In models, infection drives Aβ deposition and NLRP3 activation, worsening pathology and cognition.

De novo domestication was performed on the brassica Thlaspi arvense (pennycress) by identifying and stacking CRISPR-induced mutations to create a new intermediate oilseed crop that can be grown in the off-season, with seed compositions similar to canola (low erucic acid and reduced glucosinolate).

Synapse dysfunction contributes to cognitive decline with age. Here, the authors show that aging-related changes in microglia and the extracellular matrix are associated with synapse abundance, extracellular matrix buildup, and cognitive deficits in aging mice.

Wastewater-based surveillance tends to focus on specific pathogens. Here, the authors mapped the wastewater virome from 62 cities worldwide to identify over 2,500 viruses, revealing city-specific virome fingerprints and showing that wastewater metagenomics enables early detection of emerging viruses.

Picks include a quantum pioneer, a co-discoverer of Ebola and a bioethicist-turned-activist.

The discovery of new gold deposits has declined by 45% over the past 10 years. Lintern et al.present new evidence for the occurrence of particulate gold in trees growing above buried mineral deposits, and propose vegetation sampling as a mineral exploration method.

Observations from the JWST MIRI showed the detection of ¹⁴NH₃ and ¹⁵NH₃ isotopologues in the atmosphere of a cool brown dwarf, along with a ¹⁴N/¹⁵N value consistent with star-like formation by gravitational collapse.

An alternative mating system, termed parasex, produces progeny with high levels of genotypic diversity and is able to fulfil the roles of meiosis when it is absent in the fungal pathobiont Candida albicans.

The identification of cellular targets for natural products that potently inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines implicates oxysterol-binding proteins in the growth of cancer cells. These natural products, termed ORPphilins, also affect sphingomyelin biosynthesis.

Mitochondrial function is essential for energy metabolism in brown adipocytes. Here, the authors show that LCN2 plays a critical role as a phosphatidic acid binding protein in phospholipid acyl chain remodeling and mitochondrial bioenergetics, influencing signaling pathway activation.

Chemical language models trained on known metabolites can identify previously unknown metabolites from mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data with high accuracy.

In this study, Park, Haley, Le, Jung et al. perform a detailed characterization in vivo of metabolic flux distribution during thermogenesis and uncover brown fat nutrient fluxes and unexpected inter-organ metabolic crosstalk and glutamine utilization.

Picks include a rogue gene-editor, a wunderkind physicist and a DNA detective who helped catch a serial killer.

DNA hybridisation thermodynamics parameters underlie rational design of oligonucleotides for diagnostics and nanotechnology. Here, the authors present an accurate method to measure the free energy of a given DNA structure at specific temperature and buffer conditions.

Brown adipose tissue activation of thermogenesis is accompanied by a sequence of events commonly associated with apoptosis, however they evade cell death. Assali et al. show that NCLX prevents mitochondrial calcium overload and apoptosis. Deletion of NCLX, converts a thermogenic signal into a death pathway.

Hepatocyte organoids derived directly from human tissue enable long-term hepatocyte expansion and can be combined with portal mesenchyme and cholangiocyte organoids to form a donor-specific periportal liver assembloid system.