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The Human Development Multiomic Atlas catalogues single-cell accessibility and gene expression data from human fetal cells across 12 organs, enabling the inference of syntactic rules for motifs that govern cell-type-specific transcription factor binding and chromatin accessibility during human development.

A stress test of ChatGPT Health triage revealed missed high-risk emergencies and inconsistent activation of suicide-crisis safeguards, raising safety concerns for consumer-scale deployment.

From 2014–2017, marine heatwaves caused global mass coral bleaching, where the corals lose their symbiotic algae. The authors find, this event exceeded the severity of all prior global bleaching events in recorded history, with approximately half the world’s reefs bleaching and 15% experiencing substantial mortality.

In scenarios involving 1,000 acute-pain clinical vignettes, varied across 34 socio-demographic features, a panel of ten large language models is found to provide inconsistent recommendations, which also present disparities with respect to marginalized populations.

A panel of nine LLMs was exposed to simulated clinical cases with switched sociodemographic features exploring ethnic, social, sexual orientation and gender dimensions and showed differences in recommendations for patient treatment, referral and follow-up based only on these features.

De novo and inherited dominant variants in genes encoding U4 and U6 small nuclear RNAs are identified in individuals with retinitis pigmentosa. The variants cluster at nucleotide positions distinct from those implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders.

The study shows that evapotranspiration from ecosystems saturates at about 480 mm per year, making water yield—the water available after evapotranspiration—highly sensitive to precipitation changes, amplifying climate impacts on land water resources.

Many animals display brilliant colors thanks to the precise formation of guanine crystals within specialized organelles. Here, the authors demonstrate that dynamic pH shifts orchestrate this process: an initially acidic lumen stabilizes amorphous, protonated guanine and subsequent alkalinization triggers its crystallization.

NutriSighT, an interpretable AI transformer model, accurately predicts which mechanically ventilated ICU patients are at risk of underfeeding, enabling clinicians to personalize nutritional care

Animal models of drug use require specialized technical expertise and often differ from how humans consume drugs. Here, the authors establish a robust method which allows mice to self-administer intranasal cocaine, greatly improving face validity and ease of use.

Intense laser interaction with matter creates plasma which can act as a nonlinear optical medium. Here the authors demonstrate plasma as a refractive optics for relativistic intensity radiation, evident by the acceleration of multiple electron beams from a single laser pulse passing through the plasma.

Spatio-temporally structured light can provide useful applications in laser-wakefield acceleration. Here, the authors demonstrate the generation of wakefields by means of quasi-Bessel beams focused by an axiparabola, imaged with femtosecond relativistic electron microscopy.

A connectome of the right optic lobe from a male fruitfly is presented together with an extensive collection of genetic drivers matched to a comprehensive neuron-type catalogue.

Enzymes are viscoelastic, deformable machines. Mutating high-strain regions in these machines affect their catalytic function.

Silk fibers’ unique properties make them desirable for various applications. However, no synthetic method has reproduced this tough biomaterial due to poor understanding of their complex formation mechanism. Here, the authors map the natural composition of metal ions that guide the protein structural transformations during the fiber’s spinning process.

A study demonstrates how experimental measurements of only the connectivity of a biological neural network can be used to predict neural responses across the fly visual system at single-neuron resolution using deep learning techniques.

In Caenorhabditis tropicalis, three toxin–antidote elements arose via gene duplication from the essential tRNA-synthetase subunit FARS-3. The ancestral antidote probably acquired affinity for FARS-3, enabling presuppression of toxicity and allowing otherwise deleterious mutant alleles to evolve into selfish genes.

This study reveals that the thylakoid ultrastructural and supramolecular rearrangements that occur during the dark-to-light transition in plants control the connectivity between the two photosystems that drive oxygenic photosynthesis.

Quasi-phase matching enhances nonlinear optics but typically requires fixed material changes. Here, authors demonstrate the first optically programmable quasi-phase matching in standard fibers, enabling broadband, tunable wavelength conversion over 298 nm without altering the fiber.

In Caenorhabditis tropicalis, selective expression of genetic alleles from one parent but not the other can arise from maternally inherited small transcripts acting via the PIWI-interacting RNA host defence pathway.

A high-resolution, global atlas of mortality of children under five years of age between 2000 and 2017 highlights subnational geographical inequalities in the distribution, rates and absolute counts of child deaths by age.

Single-cell analyses in a reporter mouse model and human tissues identify a rare cell subset that produces erythropoietin in vivo, opening potential new avenues for research in erythropoiesis and oxygen homeostasis.

In Drosophila, the physical structure of the eye has a key role in the directional tuning of motion-sensitive neurons, showing how navigational behaviour is tightly associated with anatomy.

Spin manipulation in memory devices typically requires large electrical currents, limiting performance. Here the authors demonstrate magnetization switching in ferromagnetic films by depositing chiral molecules, making use of a proximity effect without needing magnetic or electric fields.

A major challenge of theoretical ecology is explaining the stable coexistence of diverse multi-species communities. Here, the authors show that when the interactions among two species depend on the presence of other species, the diversity of the community becomes a necessity rather than an obstacle for its stability.

This megastudy testing different interventions finds that honesty oaths are effective and can mitigate tax evasion in an incentivized game.

Stem cells cultured in a micropattern-constrained platform  form a quantitative and robust model of human neural tube morphogenesis.

Large-scale-integration of artificial cells on a chip can reveal emergent multicellular phenomena. Here, authors report 2D coupled lattices of artificial cells programmed by genetic oscillators, exhibiting synchrony and front propagation with microscopic dimensions affecting collective behaviour.

A new model merges behavioural science and machine learning to predict choice under risk and uncertainty. Tested on multiple large datasets, it outperforms top psychological and AI models, enabling accurate, interpretable forecasts of human decisions.

Aneuploidy and chromosomal truncations are frequent outcomes of CRISPR–Cas9 editing in human T cells.

In this study, the authors show that a single dose of a combination of two human-like monoclonal antibodies protect mice in therapeutic treatment against challenges with ectromelia virus and monkeypox virus. Combination treatment provided more effective viral clearance than single antibody treatment.

PdCO is a switchable optogenetic tool for inhibiting synaptic transmission in neuronal terminals in vivo, as demonstrated in a variety of contexts mainly in the mouse.

Current systems for imaging calcium dynamics in the brains of non-human primates require the animal’s movement to be restricted. Here, the authors demonstrate a mesoscale calcium imaging device in a freely moving non-human primate which features a 20 mm² field of view.

Assembly and analysis of the Schmidtea mediterranea genome indicate that this planarian’s chromosome 1 may be evolving into a sex chromosome.

Activated T cells undergo metabolic reprogramming to optimize effector functions, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here the authors show, using knockout and tumor mouse models, that deficiency of the mitochondrial protein Ant2 in T cells bypasses typical metabolic reprogramming, induces an activated-like metabolic state, and enhances T cell antitumor immunity.

How synaptic plasticity affects neural coding reliability is not well understood. Here, the authors find that reducing neurotransmitter release probability triggers a homeostatic compensation to maintain neural coding and behavioral reliability.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

Here the authors demonstrate that in C. elegans, aversive associative memory and associated cellular changes, are passed on to F1 and F2 progeny.

The mechanisms behind the negative effects of social isolation on social species are unclear. Here, the authors examine colonies of carpenter ants, finding that behavioral, physiological, and lifespan changes may be caused by oxidative stress.

Organisms regulate biogenic crystal properties for various functions. Here the authors reveal the genetic and biochemical control of crystal morphogenesis in zebrafish iridophores, showing that the chemical composition, influenced by enzyme expression, determines crystal morphology and functionality.

A preprint by Yi et al. shows a role for the FAS signalling pathway in controlling the persistence of CAR-modified lymphocytes.

Single-cell whole-genome sequencing shows that 'foreground' cell-to-cell structural variation and alterations in copy number are associated with genomic diversity and evolution in triple-negative breast and high-grade serous ovarian cancers.

A defining human characteristic is the ability to perform diverse cognitively challenging tasks. The authors show that this adaptability relates to a network sampling mechanism, where brain-wide network states transiently blend the unique combinations of neural resources required by different tasks.

Whole-genome sequencing of human cancer cells in patient-derived mouse xenograft models indicates a key role for TP53 in determining the fitness landscape of polyclonal cancer cell populations.

An artificial intelligence system that can engage in a competitive debate with humans is presented.

Madrer et al. identify a Parkinson’s disease–specific increase in transfer RNA (tRNA) fragments in human blood, cerebrospinal fluid and postmortem brain tissue, demonstrating the ability of blood-based tRNA fragment quantification to distinguish between pre-symptomatic patients and healthy controls.

PIC-seq characterizes cellular crosstalk by sorting and sequencing physically interacting cells.

An inorganic chemical approach to biomolecular design is used to generate ‘cages’ that can simultaneously promote symmetry and multiple modes of protein interactions.

A human binary protein interactome map that includes around 53,000 protein–protein interactions involving more than 8,000 proteins provides a reference for the study of human cellular function in health and disease.

KRAS4A interacts directly with hexokinase 1 in a GTP-dependent manner at the outer mitochondrial membrane, leading to kinase activation and an increase in glucose uptake and glycolysis in tumour cells.