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Programmed axon degeneration (PAxD) is activated by axotomy to execute the self-destruction of a severed distal axon. It may also be activated by some non-axotomy insults, suggesting it has a role in some neurodegenerative diseases. Here, Loreto and Neukomm review the molecular mechanisms of PAxD, its involvement in disease and its potential as a therapeutic target.

This study provides evidence of a cascading positive tipping point towards electric vehicles, which has occurred or lies within the next few years in lead markets of the EU and China, and potentially the US, and it could spill out into peripheral vehicle marketss across the rest of the world.

Human challenge studies with SARS-CoV-2 have shown changes in the innate and adaptive immune response. Here the authors are examining potential correlates of infection in virus challenged recipients by assessing baseline immune parameters and how this predicts virus control.

Protein structure can be predicted from amino acid sequences with unprecedented accuracy, yet the prediction of protein–protein interactions remains a challenge. Here, authors present a sequence-based model that jointly encodes protein pairs, achieving state-of-the-art cross-species and virus-host PPI prediction and mutation effects analysis.

Greenhouse gas emissions, antimicrobial use, land use and animal welfare data representing most global commercial pig production systems show that no single system performs well across all measures, but trade-offs may be avoidable if mitigation measures are implemented within farming systems.

It is widely believed that the Milky Way is set to collide with Andromeda, its nearest neighbour. New calculations using data from Hubble and Gaia that account for the effects of other galaxies show an almost 50% chance of our Galaxy avoiding this fate.

In the first SARS-CoV-2 challenge study in humans, 36 young, healthy adult participants were intranasally inoculated with virus and monitored for productive infection, symptoms, virus kinetics, antibody response and safety in a controlled setting.

Efforts to model the contribution of energy demand reductions towards climate targets typically focus at the global scale. Here, Barrett et al. develop an approach for understanding the country-level demand reduction potential and explore options for lowering final energy demand in the United Kingdom.

A human SARS-CoV-2 challenge study in individuals without previous exposure to the virus or vaccines provides detailed profiles of local and systemic epithelial and immune cell response dynamics over time and infection status.

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a key pattern of climate variability for surrounding land areas during winter. Here the authors constrain projections to show that the magnitude of the NAO increases under high emissions, leading to more severe winters.

Next-generation radio telescopes, such as the Square Kilometre Array, will be able to reveal the mass distribution of the first stars in the Universe by detecting their impact on a faint radio signal of hydrogen atoms from Cosmic Dawn.

Coupling distances between synaptic vesicles and Ca²⁺ channels determine the efficacy of neurotransmission. Böhme et al. find that presynaptic scaffold complexes spatiotemporally control Unc13 isoforms to establish two independent release pathways at subsynaptic active zones: Unc13B defines nascent, loosely coupled synapses whereas Unc13A facilitates release at mature synapses by tight coupling between Ca²⁺ channels and synaptic vesicles.

Ensemble forecasts from a dynamical model suggest that fluctuations in atmospheric angular momentum and the length of day can be predicted over a year in advance, thereby providing a source of long-range climate predictability.

Plant respiration at night is assumed to be temperature-controlled. Here, the authors show that temperature controls less than half of the variation in leaf respiration rate at night, and demonstrate how to account for such nocturnal variation in biosphere models.

Sialic acid transporters (SiaT) are required for sialic acid uptake in a number of human pathogens and are of interest as targets for antimicrobial drug development. Here the authors present the substrate bound SiaT structure from the uropathogen Proteus mirabilis and provide insights into the mechanism of sialic acid transport.

A study of 36 massive galaxies at redshifts between 5 and 9 from the JWST FRESCO survey finds that galaxy formation of the most massive galaxies is 2–3 times higher than the most efficient galaxies at later epochs.

The ABC transporter MRP2/ABCC2 is a polyspecific efflux transporter of organic anions expressed in hepatocyte canalicular membranes. Dysfunction leads to Dubin-Johnson syndrome. Here the authors provide structural and biochemical evidence on the modulation of MRP2 by intracellular kinases and inhibition by therapeutic drugs.

The authors assess the risk of overshoot beyond 1.5 °C warming, using three scenarios with minimal overshoot, brief overshoot and sustained overshoot. They show a risk of long-term Amazon dieback, which begins as early as 1.3 °C warming but is largely mitigated by reducing temperature below 1.5 °C.

Structural biology has undergone a revolution thanks to cryo-EM and artificial intelligence-based model predictions; nonetheless, experimental phasing continues to be essential. Here, the authors utilize the long-wavelength I23 beamline at Diamond Light Source to solve macromolecular structures using single-wavelength anomalous diffraction techniques, showcasing their proficiency in phasing with lighter atoms.

The Southern Ocean is critically important for global climate yet poorly represented by climate models. Here the authors trace sea surface temperature biases in this region to cloud-related errors in atmospheric-model simulated surface heat fluxes and provide a pathway to improve the models.

Molecules arranged in close proximity to a surface form molecular layers, exhibiting distinct properties. However, the creation of these layers is challenging. Here, the authors present a technique for generating molecular layers through crystallization induced by gas blowing onto a surface.

The radial-velocity technique could detect a small gas giant orbiting a binary star and determine its mass: 65.2 ± 11.8 Earth masses. The system also hosts a smaller inner planet, making it one of the few known multiplanetary circumbinary systems.

Carbapenem-resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type ST258 can be enhanced by modification of the porins OmpK35 and OmpK36. Here, Wong et al. solve the crystal structure of a clinical ST258 OmpK36 variant, elucidating the mechanism of resistance and consequences on pathogenicity in vivo.

The degree to which Arctic sea ice decline influences the mid-latitude atmospheric circulation is widely debated. Here, the authors use a coordinated multi-model experiment to show that Arctic sea ice loss causes a weakening of the mid-latitude westerly winds, but the effect is overall small.

Archaerhodopsin-3 (AR3) mutants are commonly used in optogenetics for neuron silencing and membrane voltage sensing. High-resolution crystal structures show that desensitization of the AR3 photoreceptor occurs when internal hydrogen-bonded water networks are modified in response to changes in chromophore isomerization.

Bottom-up and top-down approaches are used to quantify global nitrous oxide sources and sinks resulting from both natural and anthropogenic sources, revealing a 30% increase in global human-induced emissions between 1980 and 2016.

Several lines of evidence suggest that fire activity was much greater in the preindustrial era than currently assumed in climate models. Here the authors show that greater emission of aerosols from fires leads to a substantial reduction in the magnitude of aerosol radiative forcing over the Industrial Era.

Levels of five chlorofluorocarbons rose in the atmosphere from 2010 to 2020 despite their production being banned by the Montreal Protocol, probably arising as by-products of hydrofluorocarbon production, according to analysis of abundance and emissions data.

Susanne Kohl and colleagues report mutations in ATF6, a regulator of the unfolded protein response pathway, that cause a familial form of achromatopsia. Their results indicate a role for ATF6 in foveal development rather than a direct role in the cone phototransduction pathway.

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.

Bacterial cell shape is dependent on the formation of the extracellular sugar polymer called peptidoglycan. Here the authors describe RodA-PBP2, the enzymatic core of the elongasome, which is the complex responsible peptidoglycan synthesis, and utilize an integrated approach to investigate the mechanism of peptidoglycan biosynthesis.

Climate feedbacks associated with wetland methane emissions and permafrost-thaw carbon release substantially reduce available carbon budgets to achieve temperature targets, suggest simulations with a climate–land-surface model system.

Atmospheric concentration measurements at remote sites around the world reveal an accelerated decline in the global mean CFC-11 concentration during 2018 and 2019, reversing recent trends and building confidence in the timely recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer.

Simulations of formation of dark matter haloes ranging in size from Earth mass to clusters of galaxies find a universal halo density structure spanning 20 orders of magnitude in mass.

Nijsse and colleagues find that due to technological trajectories set in motion by past policy, a global irreversible solar tipping point may have passed where solar energy gradually comes to dominate global electricity markets, without any further climate policies. Uncertainties arise, however, over grid stability in a renewables-dominated power system, the availability of sufficient finance in underdeveloped economies, the capacity of supply chains and political resistance from regions that lose employment.

Koch and Brown et al. led a collaborative and comprehensive synthesis that shows the transfer of ice algal carbon is widespread throughout the Arctic marine food web and contributes to supporting organisms throughout the dark winter months

The fate of the carbon locked away in soil is uncertain, and there are vast differences between models. Here the authors apply observational, spatio-temporal constraints on carbon turnover projections and find that uncertainty in estimations of carbon dynamics are reduced by 50%.

Atmospheric levels of chloroform increased after 2010, as a result of emissions in eastern China, according to analyses of measurements and inverse modelling.

Current models are too noisy to predict climate usefully on decadal timescales, but two-stage post-processing of model outputs greatly improves predictions of decadal variations in North Atlantic winter climate.

Atmospheric data and chemical-transport modelling show that CFC-11 emissions from eastern China have again decreased, after increasing in 2013–2017, and a delay in ozone-layer recovery has probably been avoided.

The cause of the increase in atmospheric methane from 375 p.p.b.v. during the last ice age to 680 p.p.b.v. at the onset of Industrialization remains uncertain. Here, using an Earth system model, the authors show that we cannot reconcile this rise based on our current understanding of natural methane sources.