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While the electronic quality of graphene has significantly improved during the last two decades, charged defects inside encapsulating crystals still limit its performance. Here, the authors overcome this limitation and report the enhanced electronic quality of graphene enabled by tuneable Coulomb screening inside large-angle twisted bilayer and trilayer graphene devices, showing Landau quantization at magnetic fields down to ~5 mT.

Integrating CO₂ capture and electrochemical conversion avoids the thermal release of CO₂ and thus could potentially lower the energy needed to make useful products from CO₂, but choosing optimal system components is still challenging. Here the authors use piperazine alongside a nickel catalyst for capture and achieve high energy efficiency and stable CO production.

Although not widely appreciated, measured smFRET efficiencies can vary depending on illumination intensity. Self-healing fluorophores offer robust triplet state suppression to enable accurate smFRET measurements under broad illumination regimes.

Voltage-modulated scanning probe microscopy may elucidate important processes at solid–liquid interfaces, but it is complicated by the presence of mobile ions. By incorporating force sensitivity into a multidimensional measurement approach, Collins et al.present a technique that overcomes these limitations.

Electrical synaptic transmission is known to be modulated by intracellular magnesium. Here, Palacios-Prado et al.show that electrical synapses formed by connexin36 in the thalamic reticular nucleus are bidirectionally modulated by changes in magnesium concentration via pore-lining sensitive domains.

Stalagmites from NW Iberia record the rapid demise of large ice sheets during the penultimate deglaciation, and reveal decadal-scale feedbacks between warming and ice melting.

The accessory olfactory system (AOS) processes social chemosensory information and guides behaviors that are important for survival and reproduction in mammals. Here the authors report that mouse feces are a source of AOS neuronal activity and identify unconjugated bile acids in feces as a class of natural AOS ligands.

Recently, fabrication processes have realised three-dimensional nanoporous graphene. Here, the authors reveal two-dimensional Dirac plasmons in three-dimensional nanoporous graphene disclosing strong plasmonic absorptions tunable from terahertz to mid-infrared via controllable doping level and porosity.

Batch-to-batch reproducibility of device performances is crucial for perovskite photovoltaics moving towards industrialization. Here, the authors show that commercial as-received C₆₀ source materials may coalesce during repeated thermal evaporation processes, jeopardizing such reproducibility.

Steering nanobots in crowded biological environments raises questions about the limits on the size of a steerable propeller under thermal noise. Here, the authors theoretically investigate torque-driven actuation of magnetic nanohelices in a viscous fluid, revealing that weak rotational diffusion significantly disrupts their orientation and propulsion, offering insights into the challenges of controllable steering at the nanoscale.

Gámez-García et al. show that the deacetylase SIRT7 modulates the acetylation of Pax5 and its ability to repress alternate lineage programs and promote B cell differentiation and commitment in B cell progenitor cells.

Nanocrystals are desirable light sources for advanced display technologies. Here, the authors report on double-crowned 2D semiconductor nanoplatelets as light downconverters that offer both green and red emissions to achieve a wide color gamut.

The authors demonstrate an optical trap where particles are trapped inside of a laser cavity. This is possible due to intracavity nonlinear feedback forces that produce stronger confinement on all 3 axes than standard optical tweezers, which greatly reduces the laser intensity needed to trap the same particle.

Managing power exhaust in fusion reactors is a key challenge, especially in compact designs for cost-effective commercial energy. This study shows how alternative divertor configurations improve exhaust control, enhance stability, absorb transients and enable independent plasma regulation.

Wooden artefacts from waterlogged deposits in Zambia dating back 477 ka indicate hitherto unknown sophistication in woodworking at an early date.

By conventional definition, a supercritical fluid is one that doesn’t exhibit distinct liquid- or gas-like states. This may need to be revised in light of measurements that show a sharp change in the speed of sound in supercritical argon when it crosses a well-defined line on its pressure versus temperature phase diagram.

Semiconductor nanocrystals are of interest for microlasers that, for example, can be used for integrated photonics applications. Here, Grivas et al.demonstrate single-mode lasing in the single-exciton regime from core/shell CdSe/CdS quantum rods deposited on a single silica microsphere.

Using organic molecules as directing groups, a wide range of perovskite heterostructures are shown to self-assemble in solution to yield single crystals.

Household water security — safe, affordable, reliable, and acceptable water for a thriving life — is a key avenue for adapting to extreme and chronic heat, particularly in cities. We argue that household water security is far from universal in the urban Global North, resulting in uneven capacities and strategies to adapt to heat, outside and within the home. We synthesize key insights to advance water security as a central plank of urban heat justice.

Mutations in the serine/threonine kinase ataxia teleangiectasia mutated (ATM) have been linked to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cohorts. Here Russellet al. show that loss of ATM induces a greater number of proliferative precursor lesions in a mouse model, recapitulating many features of human PDAC subtypes.

Thunderstorm activity over Lake Victoria poses a threat to human life, yet little is known about their evolution under climate change. Here, using satellite observations and high-resolution modelling, the authors project an increase in precipitation extremes over Lake Victoria, twice that of surrounding land.

Extent and spatial patterns of settlements and infrastructures strongly affect resource demand of national economies worldwide. Their influence on final energy and CO2 emissions is almost as large as that of gross domestic product (GDP).

In two-dimensional semiconductors excitons are strongly bound, suppressing the creation of free carriers. Here, the authors investigate the main exciton dissociation pathway in p-n junctions of monolayer WSe₂ by means of time and spectrally resolved photocurrent measurements.

A rare nitrogen isotopologue is used to detect contamination by air in volcanic gas effusions, and thereby derive the isotopic compositions of mantle endmembers.

Plasma turbulence is the main driver to deteriorate the performance of fusion power plants. This work presents an unprecedented comparison of plasma turbulence between experiment and simulation, proving that the gyrokinetic model GENE reached a high level of maturity to predict core turbulence.

Spin-momentum locking is a fundamental property of condensed matter systems. Here, the authors evidence parallel Weyl spin-momentum locking of multifold fermions in the chiral topological semimetal PtGa.

Fluid transport in subduction zones is complex. Geochemical analysis of lavas from the Cascade Arc shows that dehydration of the deep slab interior can trigger melting in the outer part of the subducting slab in young, hot subduction zones.

Crystallographic alignment of the two graphene layers in a van der Waals heterostructure leads to resonant tunnelling with the conservation of both energy and momentum.

Edge-localized plasma modes in a tokamak can damage its innermost wall. Simulations now show that fast ions can modify the spatio-temporal structure of these modes. These effects need to be considered in the optimization of control techniques.

A graphene-based Josephson junction incorporated in a superconducting circuit forms a voltage-tunable transmon qubit that can be controlled coherently.

Tissue fluidification in invasive breast carcinoma is accompanied by mechanical stresses that compromise nuclear integrity and liberate DNA, resulting in the activation of a pro-inflammatory response that shape tumour evolution and progression.

Shape-memory materials are promising actuation sources for small-scale machines. The authors demonstrate that domain switching in twisted ferroic nanocomposites enables a giant shape-memory effect and superelasticity in the nanoscale structure.

The suppression of edge-localized modes in tokamak plasmas is crucial to prevent them from damaging the walls of the chamber. Now experiments confirm the role that magnetic islands play in suppressing these detrimental modes.

Blanket bog—characterized by an almost complete landscape covering of undecayed organic peat—is a highly distinctive biome restricted to regions that experience hyperoceanic climatic conditions. Bioclimatic modelling suggests there will be a dramatic shrinkage of the available climatic space for blanket bogs with only a few, restricted areas of persistence.