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Photo-excitation in strongly correlated materials is usually modelled as an increase of electronic energy that is then transferred to other degrees of freedom. Contrarily, Novelli et al.show that in a charge-transfer insulator, sub-gap excitation forms electrons that are suddenly dressed by the boson field.

Timothy Frayling, Joel Hirschhorn, Peter Visscher and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for adult height in 253,288 individuals. They identify 697 variants in 423 loci significantly associated with adult height and find that these variants cluster in pathways involved in growth and together explain one-fifth of the heritability for this trait.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

To promote the recovery of the currently declining global trends in terrestrial biodiversity, increases in both the extent of land under conservation management and the sustainability of the global food system from farm to fork are required.

The same type of polymer network deforms cell membranes inward, to absorb external material, and outward, to facilitate signal transmission. Experiments and theory show that these deformations are regulated by membrane tension and network mesh size.

Quantum magic quantifies the resources enabling quantum computers to outperform classical ones. Here, Turkeshi et al show that in chaotic systems, magic builds up quickly, saturating on a time that scales logarithmically with system size, revealing a fundamental feature of quantum complexity.

Hugh Watkins, Sekar Kathiresan, Ruth McPherson, Martin Farrall and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of coronary artery disease based on 1000 Genomes imputation. They identify ten new risk loci and show that susceptibility to this disease is largely determined by common SNPs with small effect sizes.

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.

Polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s disease derived from individuals of European ancestry can show improved performance in multiancestry settings after incorporating genome-wide association summary statistics from diverse populations.

Thyroid dysfunction is a common public health problem and associated with cardiovascular co-morbidities. Here, the authors carry out genome-wide meta-analysis for thyroid hormone (TH) levels, hyper- and hypothyroidism and identify SLC17A4 as a TH transporter and AADAT as a TH metabolizing enzyme.

The authors present phase intensity nanoscope (PINE), which uses an integrated phase-intensity multilayer thin film to localize randomly distributed nanoprobes and resolve sub-10 nm cellular architectures. They demonstrate dynamic imaging of nanoscopic reorganization over 250 h and find that nanoscale rearrangements emerging into macroscale rearrangements are synchronized.

Ruth Loos and colleagues report results of a large genome-wide association study for body mass index. They identify 18 new loci associated with this trait, some of which map near key hypothalamic regulators of energy balance.

Lipid concentration in the serum is one of the most important risk factors for coronary artery disease and can be targeted for therapeutic intervention. A genome-wide association study in >100,000 individuals of European ancestry now finds 95 significantly associated loci that also affect lipid traits in non-European populations. Among associated loci are those involved in cholesterol metabolism, known targets of cholesterol-lowering drugs and those that contribute to normal variation in lipid traits and to extreme lipid phenotypes.

Dysferlin-deficient muscular dystrophy is a devastating and untreatable disease. Using Cas9, the authors restored dysferlin in muscle stem cells from patients ex vivo and show proof-of-concept for autologous cell replacement therapies in a new humanized mouse model.

Measurement-induced quantum phases provide prime examples of non-trivial many-body dynamics and collective phenomena, but their experimental detection is difficult due to the post-selection barrier. Here, the authors provide a spin-wave-based approach to monitored quantum dynamics in long-range interacting systems, overcoming this challenge.

A genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) detects 97 BMI-associated loci, of which 56 were novel, and many loci have effects on other metabolic phenotypes; pathway analyses implicate the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and new pathways such as those related to synaptic function, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

Patricia Munroe, Christopher Newton-Cheh, Andrew Morris and colleagues perform association studies in over 340,000 individuals of European ancestry and identify 66 loci, of which 17 are novel, involved in blood pressure regulation. The risk SNPs are enriched for cis-regulatory elements, particularly in vascular endothelial cells.

Using a biofilm evolution assay, this study improves the antimicrobial and antibiofilm efficacy of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophages, while a two-phage cocktail shows further improved antimicrobial efficacy without incurring dual-bacteriophage-resistance.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) is an inherited peripheral neuropathy. Here, the authors show that Rab35 forms a complex with genes implicated in CMT, MTMR13 and MTMR2, which regulates myelin growth by controlling mTORC1 signaling through lipid turnover.

Very-high-energy γ-rays observed ten hours after the prompt emission of the γ-ray burst 180720B can be attributed to either an inverse Compton or an extreme synchrotron process.

The nature of the charge density wave transition in VSe₂ is still debated. Here, the authors demonstrate that the transition is mainly driven by electron-phonon interactions, despite the presence of the Fermi-surface nesting, and that Wan-der-Waals forces are responsible for melting of the charge density wave order.

An international team of researchers finds high potential for improving climate projections by a more comprehensive treatment of largely ignored Arctic vegetation types, underscoring the importance of Arctic energy exchange measuring stations.

Sinonasal tumour diagnosis can be complicated by the heterogeneity of disease and classification systems. Here, the authors use machine learning to classify sinonasal undifferentiated carcinomas into 4 molecular classe with differences in differentiation state and clinical outcome.

In a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, supplementation with a combination of conventional and gut-targeted nicotinamide was safe and effective in ameliorating COVID-19 symptoms.

Dipterocarp trees are iconic but severely threatened species in Asian rainforests. This study assembles high-quality genomes of seven dipterocarp species to reveal the molecular basis of key adaptations and identifies a recent sharp population decline coinciding with local human activity.

The concept of chiral topological light—a polychromatic light with chiral closed 3D polarization trajectories, space-varying with the azimuthal angle—is introduced and used for efficient sensing in chiral molecules, showcasing an example of successful application of topological concepts in optics.

Berry curvature connects to exotic electronic phases hence it provides important insights to understand quantum materials. Here, the authors report sign change of the anomalous Hall effect resulted from Berry curvature change at the interface of a topological insulator/magnetic topological insulator heterostructure.

The results obtained by seventy different teams analysing the same functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset show substantial variation, highlighting the influence of analytical choices and the importance of sharing workflows publicly and performing multiple analyses.

Artificial intelligence has become popular as a cancer classification tool, but there is distrust of such systems due to their lack of transparency. Here, the authors develop an explainable AI system which produces text- and region-based explanations alongside its classifications which was assessed using clinicians’ diagnostic accuracy, diagnostic confidence, and their trust in the system.

Multiplex-genome architecture mapping (multiplex-GAM) enables rapid, unbiased, ligation-free mapping of genome-wide chromatin interactions.

Transport measurements in twisted bilayer MoTe₂ reveal quantized Hall resistance plateaus and composite Fermi liquid-like behaviour under zero magnetic field, constituting a direct observation of integer and fractional quantum anomalous Hall effects.

Blends of different polymer compounds are widely used for organic field-effect transistors. Here, Neher and colleagues show that moderate carrier doping is important to achieve maximum performance in blends of insulating and semiconducting polymers.

Human brain structure changes throughout the lifespan. Brouwer et al. identified genetic variants that affect rates of brain growth and atrophy. The genes are linked to early brain development and neurodegeneration and suggest involvement of metabolic processes.

Sjögren’s syndrome, a disease that primarily affects women, is poorly understood. Here, the authors combine data from a large cohort of patients and healthy controls to identify biomarkers that distinguish patient subgroups to improve our understanding of the disease and facilitate drug development.

The coexistence of chiral edge states and chiral spin textures in magnetic topological insulator sandwiches provides a platform for proof-of-concept dissipationless spin-textured spintronic applications.

The onset of seafloor spreading in the northern South China Sea was marked by the rapid onset of magmatism and mantle upwelling, suggests an analysis of International Ocean Discovery Program core material.

γ-ray spectroscopy experiments on the origin of spin in the products of nuclear fission of spin-zero nuclei suggest that the fission fragments acquire their spin after scission, rather than before.

Time-resolved cryo-EM is used to capture structural transitions during G-protein activation stimulated by a G-protein-coupled receptor.

Interactions of atmospheric neutrinos with quantum-gravity-induced fluctuations of the metric of spacetime would lead to decoherence. The IceCube Collaboration constrains such interactions with atmospheric neutrinos.

Using whole-genome data for single-nucleotide polymorphism and results from genome-wide association studies, the authors show that people’s preference for pairing with those with similar phenotypic traits has genetic causes and consequences.

A new technique called immunoGAM, which combines genome architecture mapping (GAM) with immunoselection, enabled the discovery of specialized chromatin conformations linked to gene expression in specific cell populations from mouse brain tissues.

Skyrmions are a topological magnetic texture that have garnered considerable interest for various technological applications. Here, Sekiguchi et al. investigate the ultrafast optical response of GaV4S6, and find a significant reduction in the thermal conductivity in the skyrmion phase.

Exotic states emerge from the interplay between band topology and ferromagnetism, but it remains less known in canted-antiferromagnetic phase. Here, the authors realize a canted-antiferromagnetic Chern insulator in atomically-thin MnBi₂Te₄ with electrical control of chiral-edge state transport.