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Critical life-history traits, like growth and body size, can influence species’ survival. Using more than 7500 observations, this study suggests that the growth performance of marine fish has declined by 9% over the past century as a result of commercial size-based harvesting.

For Nature Aging’s fifth anniversary, we acknowledge the essential work that is done by our colleagues, without which Nature Aging’s monthly publication would not be possible. We speak with some of our internal colleagues about the process of making a journal every month. Rebecca Roberts is a production editor at Springer Nature, Mark McGranaghan is a senior sub editor, Lauren Snape is an art editor and Amanda Karmolinski is a senior editorial assistant. In this Q&A, Rebecca, Mark, Lauren and Amanda pull back the curtain and tell us about the various roles that go into putting it all together.

Exploring genomic data from contemporary and 191 Arabidopsis thaliana herbarium specimens collected over 193 years, the authors identify signs of local adaptation in regulators of stomatal development in contemporary samples from different geographic regions, then use functional scoring to identify a genetic component contributing to this change.

Turley, Buechler and colleagues show that dermatopontin-expressing fibroblasts provide CSF1 to form a supportive niche for skin-resident macrophages. This interaction is important for skin tissue architecture and wound healing.

Excess nitrogen fertilization in maize production harms the environment and society, yet farmers face yield risks when reducing inputs. Using field trials across the US Corn Belt, this study suggests that nitrogen rates can be reduced by 12–16% with minimal yield risk, reducing emissions and leaching.

Conceptual breakthroughs in science tend to garner accolades and attention. But, as the invention of tissue culture and the development of isotopic tracers show, innovative methods open up new fields and enable the solution of longstanding problems.

Eight decades of forest plot monitoring show a pervasive increase in tree mortality across Australia’s forest biomes driven by climate change, jeopardizing their role as enduring carbon sinks.

Artificial intelligence is perfect for teaching novices, but less good for experts. Use it with that in mind, says Hannah Hackney.

Climate models cannot match long-term observed changes in the tropical Pacific zonal sea surface temperature gradient, implying that model responses to increasing radiative forcing from atmospheric greenhouse gases are diverging from the real world.

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.

Yeow et al. review the pathogenesis of rheumatic heart disease, discuss the role of valve biology in the progression of the disease, highlight ongoing research to address the critical healthcare burden and describe recent advances into the underlying pathogenic mechanisms.

As Nature Aging celebrates its fifth anniversary, the journal asks some of the researchers who contributed to the journal early on to reflect on the past and the future of aging and age-related disease research, the impact of the field on human health now and in the future, and what challenges need to be addressed to ensure sustained progress.

Despite their great diversity, human languages are shaped by recurring grammatical universals. Verkerk et al. show that about one-third of the proposed universals hold cross-linguistically through analyses of the Grambank database.

Sperrylite is a tiny and rare mineral. However, Hannah Hughes and colleagues explain why often-overlooked sperrylite and its diverse platinum-group mineral siblings are critical for the green energy transition.

Oxidative catalytic depolymerization of polystyrene (PS) can produce benzoic acid, but the annual consumption of benzoic acid is ~40 times lower than PS, so benzoic acid should be converted to higher-volume chemicals for the process to be viable. Here, the authors report a hybrid chemical and biological process that uses PS as feedstock for production of adipic acid, a high-volume co-monomer for nylon 6,6, via benzoic acid.

A study of more than 1000 paleoclimate datasets reveals that the ”4.2 ka event” is not a globally significant climate excursion, unlike the prominent 8.2 ka event. In the Holocene, site-level excursions are common, but global-scale events are rare.

Ideas in a thirteenth-century treatise on the nature of matter still resonate today, say Tom C. B. McLeish and colleagues.

The authors generate genomic data from 30 ancient human individuals, spanning the Bronze Age and the Iron Age from four archaeological sites in the Mediterranean (located in Tunisia, Sardinia and central Italy). Comparing with additional published ancient genomes, they generate insights into mobility and admixture in this interconnected region

The climate of the northwest Atlantic shifts between phases, shaping ecosystem productivity and fisheries. Tracking these phases can support climate and ecosystem-informed fisheries management.

A large brain imaging study of over 2000 people worldwide shows that fear conditioning engages brain regions linked to emotion and attention, with differences in individuals with anxiety or depression and strong influences from task design.

Together with a companion paper, the generation of a transcriptomic atlas for the mouse lemur and analyses of example cell types establish this animal as a molecularly tractable primate model organism.

Genomic analysis of Plasmodium DNA from 36 ancient individuals provides insight into the global distribution and spread of malaria-causing species during around 5,500 years of human history.

A transition from carbon sink to source for the aboveground woody biomass of moist tropical Australian forests has occurred, driven by increasingly extreme climate anomalies.

This study reveals that global adoption of mass timber products can expand forestland, increase carbon stocks in forest and wood products, and decrease life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions.

Analysis of crop yields, farmer income and bird species abundances identifies multiple positive outcomes of a large-scale Indian government-incentivized agroecology initiative.

Paintings and other works of art are under attack from insects and fungi. Conventional pesticides don't help — they, too, can damage precious artefacts. Hannah Hoag meets a biologist who is finding gentler alternatives.

Streptococcus pyogenes is a deadly bacteria without a vaccine. Here, researchers measured antibodies in serum and saliva from a strep throat human challenge trial. Baseline antibodies led to variable responses and affected susceptibility to strep throat.

High ambient temperatures are associated with reduced sleep duration and quality, and increased obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Here the authors quantify the effect of 24 h ambient temperature on nightly OSA severity and report projected in losses of healthy life years and workplace productivity due to OSA in scenarios of projected temperatures ≥1.8° C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

Large-scale data on human mobility metrics have been used to gain insights into COVID-19 transmission dynamics, but best practices for use of these datasets have not been established. Here, the authors perform a systematic review to describe the sources of mobility data and methods used for analysis in the early COVID-19 pandemic.

Ferroptosis can propagate across human cells over long distances (≥5 mm) at constant speeds (around 5.5 μm per minute) through self-regenerating waves of reactive oxygen species; such waves facilitate large-scale cell death in the developing avian limb.

Coupling advances in socioeconomic projections, climate models, damage functions and discounting methods yields an estimate of the social cost of carbon of US$185 per tonne of CO₂—triple the widely used value published by the US government.

Native oyster reef ecosystems were decimated by human activities, with little known of their past extent. This study evaluates historical records to show that oyster reefs were once a dominant feature of European coastlines and provides perspectives for current management strategies.

The record-breaking ozone holes of recent years contribute to a steady decline of mid-spring ozone in the Antarctic, contrary to signs of early-spring recovery. Changes in descending air at the core of the ozone hole might be the driver.

Dopamine neurons are proposed to signal the reward prediction error in model-free reinforcement learning algorithms. Here, the authors show that when given during an associative learning task, optogenetic activation of dopamine neurons causes associative, rather than value, learning.

The Earth may become inhospitable to land mammals in about 250 Myr owing to climate warming and drying associated with the assembly of the next supercontinent, Pangaea-Ultima, according to combined tectonic, climate and mammal habitability modelling.

In a prospective study involving 92 physicians from multiple institutions, access to large language model assistance on top of conventional resources increased a score expressing the quality of their reasoning in addressing patient care while assessing five clinical vignettes.

The rapid decline of sea ice could accelerate inland warming over the Arctic region, radically transforming the landscape. Hannah Hoag reports.

In recent years, rivers and slush fields have often developed on top of near-impermeable ice slabs in the accumulation zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Measurements of superimposed ice formation and melting reveal that ice slabs are both hotspots of refreezing and emerging zones of runoff.

Climate change and local anthropogenic stressors threaten the persistence of coral reefs. Here the authors track coral bleaching over the course of a heatwave and find that some colonies recovered from bleaching while high temperatures persisted, but only at sites lacking in other strong anthropogenic stressors.

The Aegilops tauschii-derived leaf rust resistance gene Lr42 has been widely used for breeding resistance wheat cultivars, but the molecular basis is unknown. Here, the authors show that Lr42 encodes an NLR-type of disease resistance gene by bulked segregant mapping in Ae. tauschii and confirm its function in common wheat.

Urban water crises, due to droughts and unsustainable water consumption, are becoming increasingly recurrent in metropolitan cities. This study shows the role of social inequalities in such crises, revealing the implications of water overconsumption by privileged social groups and individuals.

Vast volumes of textile waste are generated by consumers in wealthy cities. Without the knowledge, infrastructure or resources to manage the intensifying material flows of post-consumer textiles locally, textile waste is overwhelmingly exported to the Global South. Vladimirova et al. analyze local ecosystems of actors managing post-consumer textiles in nine Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development cities to understand the power dynamics and systemic lock-ins that are hindering more circular and sufficient use of textile resources and propose policies for municipalities to address this problem.

Manufacturing jobs may be shifting from the large drug companies to contract organizations as firms re-evaluate their strengths. But scientists with analytical skills and an eye for efficiency can find a job transforming materials into medicines, says Hannah Hoag.

The only independent female watchmaker in the United Kingdom, Rebecca Struthers restores and repairs vintage watches using traditional techniques.

Using a combined before–after control–impact approach shows that existing studies using either before–after or control–intervention methods incorrectly estimate the effectiveness of protected areas in maintaining waterbird populations.

The magnitude of greenhouse gas emissions from land use change on tropical peatlands is unclear. Here, the authors measure greenhouse gas fluxes throughout the conversion from peat swamp forest to oil palm plantation, and estimate the contribution to regional and global emissions.

Glunk et al. explore target genes and cellular mechanisms related to a metabolic obesity with normal-weight phenotype, and identify a non-coding variant that affects actin remodelling in subcutaneous adipocytes, which in turn affects the capacity of these cells to accumulate lipids.