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This study finds that plastic mulch substantially increases crop yields but also contaminates soils and pollutes the environment. The authors propose biodegradable films, AI-driven farming, and policy reforms to address the productivity–sustainability trade-offs.

Radiopharmaceuticals engineered with click chemistry to selectively bind to tumour-specific proteins can be used to successfully target tumour cells, boosting the pharmacokinetics of radionuclide therapy and improving tumour regression.

Hepatectomy is an important part of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment but postoperative recurrence limits long-term survival. Here, the authors report a phase II clinical trial investigating perioperative tislelizumab (anti-PD-1) and lenvatinib (multi tyrosine kinase inhibitor) in patients with resectable HCC with a high-risk of recurrence.

Transferring genetic materials between distantly related yeasts, presents technical challenges but can yield industrially interesting phenotypes. Here the authors establish a method to transfer individual chromosomes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae into Kluyveromyces marxianus.

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.

Dopamine-containing adhesives exhibit strong and versatile adhesion through multiple interactions but application is limited by the slow and unsatisfactorily controlled oxidative polymerization of dopamine. Here, the authors report a straightforward and efficient photochemical strategy for the in-situ fabrication of high-performance polydopamine-containing hydrogels with instant wet adhesion.

Introduction of maize cultivation, rapid population growth, and extensive deforestation triggered a persistent shift toward open landscapes after the 18th century, as revealed by a multi-proxy reconstruction of five centuries of land use and vegetation change in the karst landscapes of Southwest China.

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.

Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) was identified as a synthetic-lethal target in p53-deficient cancers through alterations in double-stranded RNA accumulation. A covalent small-molecule inhibitor of TDG exhibited potent efficacy against p53-deficient tumors.

Spatial epigenomics (SE) data suffer from high sparsity. The authors present SPEED, a deep matrix factorization framework that leverages atlas-level single-cell epigenomic data to denoise SE data, showcasing a promising toolkit for SE analysis.

A four-qubit quantum error detection circuit with stabilizers can be implemented with spin qubits in a donor-based silicon quantum processor.

The inter-system crossing induced by selenium may undesirably enhance formation of triplet excitons in non-fullerene acceptors, leading to increased non-radiative losses. Here, the authors introduce achiral N-alkyl substituents, achieving maximum efficiency of 20.4% for ternary organic solar cells.

Analysis of Middle Devonian plant cuticles reveals abundant surface resins, markedly pushing back the origin of plant resin production and demonstrating that these resins played a key role in early plant adaptation to terrestrial environments.

Electrochromic devices offer dynamic modulation of light and heat but suffer from limited color tunability, sluggish switching speeds, and low coloration efficiency, especially in inorganic electrochromic materials, which impede their widespread adoption. Here, the authors show a complementary organic electrochromic device that employs dual conductive polymers and overcomes these limitations.

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

A single-strand deaminase-assisted platform simultaneously rewrites multiple bases within a single RNA transcript.

The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative recruited and genotyped more than half a million Taiwanese participants, almost all of Han Chinese ancestry, and performed comprehensive genomic analyses and developed polygenic risk score prediction models for numerous health conditions.

Centrifugation of aqueous dispersions of hybrid polyoxometalate nanosheets is used to create inks for the 4D printing of polyoxometalate hydrogels, exhibiting complex geometries and shape reconfigurability.

Here, Xiong et al investigate mid-gestational brain development from Down syndrome and control brain samples using single-nucleus RNA sequencing. They report cell-type- and region-specific transcriptional alterations associated with chr21 abnormalities.

A wearable human–machine interface combines inertial and electromyography sensors with deep learning to robustly extract gesture signals and enable real-time robotic control under diverse motion artefacts in dynamic environments.

This work proposed a fully heterogeneous quantum network that connects diverse user systems and enables multiple quantum tasks. A software-defined quantum network structure is also proposed for coordinating network nodes and optimizing network performance. It paves the way for an open and versatile quantum internet.

Silicon solar cells with hybrid interdigitated back contacts have a power conversion efficiency approaching 95% of the theoretical limit and a fill factor approaching 98% of the theoretical limit.

Here the authors develop topological polarization singular lasers that feature paired radiation channels carrying distinct topological properties which leads to single mode lasing with high external quantum efficiency.

He, Wang, Shen, Dong and colleagues find that unsaturated fatty acids enriched in a black rice diet inhibit amyloid pathology, rescue cognition and restore physiological lifespan in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease via allosteric activation of GPR120.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy has become the standard of care in patients with resectable locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (LA-ESCC). Here, authors present a randomised phase II trial reporting the non-inferiority of neoadjuvant camrelizumab (anti-PD-1) and chemotherapy (nab-paclitaxel and cisplatin) compared to chemoradiation (nab-paclitaxel, cisplatin, and radiotherapy in patients with resectable LA-ESCC.

It is unclear how early-life urbanicity influences adult neurobehavioral traits. This study reveals that earlier menarche mediates the relationship between early-life urbanicity and adult neurobehavioral traits associated with mental disorders.

A cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of brainstem structures identify 713 associations. It reveals shared/distinct genetic architectures across ancestries/substructures and overlaps with neuropsychiatric disorders and physiological functions.

Zhao et al. demonstrate that ZmCRY1s, blue-light receptors in maize, interact with GL2 in blue light to promote C32 aldehyde accumulation thereby modulating epidermal wax composition and enhancing UV-B tolerance, revealing a light-regulated wax biosynthetic mechanism critical for maize stress adaptation.

Porous polydimethylsiloxane elastomers produced by phase separation methods often suffer from limited tribological and mechanical properties. Here, the authors describe the synthesis of porous elastomers with borate driven heterogeneous networks, improving tribological properties, with controllable pore structure and mechanical performance.

Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus imports glucose via the bacterial mannose phosphotransferase system (PTS_man), which inhibits stringent response, supports growth in cerebrospinal fluid and promotes brain damage during meningitis.

Scalable fabrication of quantum emitters with precise spatial positioning remains challenging. Here the authors present a scalable method for the deterministic fabrication of high-quality single-photon emitter arrays in hexagonal boron nitride, using nano-indentation to enable site-specific impurity insertion.

Twisted two-dimensional materials are materials with fascinating properties. Here, the authors report on the incorporation of a crystallographically incompatible rotation element into two dimensional polymers to construct twist-stacked covalent organic framework nanofibers with interesting chiroptical properties.

Lewis acid catalyzed tittle reaction of 1,3-dicycloalkenlidine ketones is recognized as so far the shortest and most effective 1-step method for construction of angular tricyclic scaffolds, which are extensively found in bioactive terpenoids. Here, the authors disclose the structure-reactivity relationship and a regioselectivity predicting model based on in situ IR technology, DFT calculations and machine leaning algorithms.

The development of advanced electrocatalysts with high efficiency and longevity is essential to alleviate the energy crisis. Here, the authors report an atomic editing strategy to access atomically dispersed, heteronuclear triatomic Fe and Co sites to endow improved activity and stability.

Systematic analysis and machine learning coupled with in vitro and in vivo validation link gut microbiome-mediated transformation of dietary phytonutrients to health outcomes.

The study identifies PLUM, a uORF-encoded microprotein from Lin28b, as a key regulator that drives deterministic induction of naïve pluripotency through coordinated RNA regulation and metabolic remodeling.

Here the authors reveal a study of 486,956 Han Chinese individuals showing that most people with genetic variants affecting drug response do not have the predicted adverse events, highlighting the challenges of implementing pharmacogenetics in clinical practice.

Chen et al. report all-site alloying for 3D perovskites where B-site strontium doping retards the crystallisation and induces sequential A-site doping with annealing. The controllable crystallisation enables blue LEDs with peak efficiency of 23.3% at 487 nm and tuneable emission to 463 nm.

The authors show that genetic and dietary factors reshape the microbiome and influence gut microbiome–bile acid crosstalk. They also identify potential modulators and offer insights into microbiome–host communication.

This study reports graphene–amorphous carbon with interwoven networks, achieving a flexural strength of 203 MPa. Microscopy shows that crack deflection at graphene/amorphous interfaces underlies its superior performance.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.