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The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, launched in 2002, allows monitoring of changes in hydrology and the cryosphere with terrestrial and ocean applications. This Review Article focuses on its contribution to the detection and quantification of climate change signals.

Liu et al. used the NASA GRACE/FO missions to show that since 2019, groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has accelerated by 31% compared to recent droughts, and has increased by a nearly a factor of 5 compared to the 60-year average.

In a randomized phase 2 trial in patients with acute coronary syndrome and high levels of the inflammation biomarker C-reactive protein, treatment with low-dose interleukin-2 increased the numbers of regulatory T cells and reduced arterial inflammation, compared to placebo.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of three large ornate natural bacterial RNA molecules reveal their quaternary structures and intra- and intermolecular interactions that stabilize them.

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.

Indirect evidence suggests that groundwater is being consumed faster than it is naturally being replenished in northwest India, but there has been no regional assessment of the rate of groundwater depletion. Terrestrial water storage-change observations and simulated soil-water variations from a modelling system are now used to show that groundwater is indeed being depleted and that its use for irrigation and other anthropogenic uses is likely to be the cause.

Insects are crucial for ecosystem functioning but face multiple threats, including invasive alien species. Here the authors quantify impacts of invasive alien species on four insect orders, with effects varying by insect group and type of invader.

Currently, there is no licensed vaccine for Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis. Here, the authors evaluate the efficacy and safety of an outer-membrane vesicle vaccine in macaques and demonstrate that it prevents lung pathology.

Unprecedented groundwater recovery ( ~ 0.7 m/yr) driven by water diversions, strict pumping regulations, and a wet climate occurred in the North China Plain after decades of depletion, showing large-scale recovery is possible under human intervention.

A detailed spatiotemporal roadmap of the human female and male reproductive tracts during key periods of sexual differentiation provides new cellular and molecular insights into how early axial gradients lead to specific cell lineages and tissue structures.

The BioDIGS project is a nationwide initiative involving students, researchers and educators across more than 40 research and teaching institutions. Participants lead sample collection, computational analysis and results interpretation to understand the relationships between the soil microbiome, environment and health.

The Arctic Oscillation, rather than the Beaufort High, is the main factor affecting the freshening of the Arctic Ocean since the 1990s.

Here the authors provide an explanation for 95% of examined predicted loss of function variants found in disease-associated haploinsufficient genes in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), underscoring the power of the presented analysis to minimize false assignments of disease risk.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

Elebsiran plus PEG-IFNα improved hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss rates compared with PEG-IFNα alone in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Furthermore, prior response to the BRII-179 vaccine was associated with higher HBsAg clearance, suggesting its potential as a predictive tool for identifying patients more likely to benefit from therapies.

The flagship paper of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium describes the generation of the integrative analyses of 2,658 cancer whole genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types, the structures for international data sharing and standardized analyses, and the main scientific findings from across the consortium studies.

Climate change may impact groundwater storage and thus the availability of freshwater resources. Here the authors use climate models to examine seven aquifers and find that storage changes are primarily the result of enhancement of evapotranspiration, reduction in snowmelt, and over-pumping rather than long-term precipitation changes.

Analysis of about 170,000 monitoring wells and 1,693 aquifer systems worldwide shows that extensive and often accelerating groundwater declines are widespread in the twenty-first century, but that groundwater levels are recovering in some cases.

Using data from the CoVPN 3008 study, the authors show that the neutralizing antibody correlate of risk holds in people living with HIV. However, the nAb correlate was weaker and shorter-lived in a vaccine-immunity versus hybrid-immunity population.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

Hydrologically landlocked basins worldwide have experienced widespread decline in water storage over the past decade.

The global topographic dichotomy on Mars is a fundamental feature of the planet, but its origin remains debated. The timing now seems right for a Mars orbital gravity mission that could test competing dichotomy hypotheses.

This study discovers human SERF2 as a key partner in stress granule formation by binding specific RNA G-quadruplexes. SERF2 and these RNAs provide a detailed structural model of protein-RNA interactions driving liquid-liquid phase separation in condensates.

An optical detection and analysis platform quantifies aggregate density, distribution and size in fluorescently labelled post-mortem human brain tissue.

Sensitive diagnostics are needed to detect carcinogenic human liver fluke infections. Sadaow et al. here use an immunomics approach to develop field-deployable tests for diagnosing liver fluke infection and its associated liver cancer.

Data on changes in water storage in the Congo basin show how GRACE, a pair of satellites designed to record variations in Earth's gravitational field, is benefiting the study of the planet's water cycle.

Long COVID has heterogeneous presentation and clinical trajectories are not well defined. Here, the authors define trajectories using data from a prospective cohort study in the United States involving symptom questionnaires from acute infection up to 15 months.

Phylogenomic analysis of 7,923 angiosperm species using a standardized set of 353 nuclear genes produced an angiosperm tree of life dated with 200 fossil calibrations, providing key insights into evolutionary relationships and diversification.

Analysis of cancer genome sequencing data has enabled the discovery of driver mutations. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium the authors present DriverPower, a software package that identifies coding and non-coding driver mutations within cancer whole genomes via consideration of mutational burden and functional impact evidence.

Understanding deregulation of biological pathways in cancer can provide insight into disease etiology and potential therapies. Here, as part of the PanCancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) consortium, the authors present pathway and network analysis of 2583 whole cancer genomes from 27 tumour types.

The RNA methyltransferase activity of SPOUT1/CENP-32 is crucial for accurate mitotic spindle organization. Here, the authors describe a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by bi-allelic pathogenic SPOUT1 variants with reduced activity and compromised function in spindle organization.

Multi-omics datasets pose major challenges to data interpretation and hypothesis generation owing to their high-dimensional molecular profiles. Here, the authors develop ActivePathways method, which uses data fusion techniques for integrative pathway analysis of multi-omics data and candidate gene discovery.

Genome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in ancestrally diverse populations implicate candidate causal genes and mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. Trans-ancestry genetic risk scores enhance transferability across populations.

Mapping of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, which support biodiversity and rural livelihoods, shows they occur on more than one-third of global drylands analysed, but lack protections to safeguard these critical ecosystems and the societies dependent upon them from groundwater depletion.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

Experiments and computations show that the organization and dynamics of molecules within and at interfaces of biomolecular condensates are governed by differential interaction strengths leading to the classification of adsorbents versus scaffolds.

This Perspective considers the addition of ACKR1 genetic testing for identifying ACKR1/DARC-associated neutropenia in patients receiving clozapine, recommending eligibility criteria and testing strategies while estimating substantial cost savings for the UK healthcare system and enhancing equitable treatment access.

With the generation of large pan-cancer whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing projects, a question remains about how comparable these datasets are. Here, using The Cancer Genome Atlas samples analysed as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the authors explore the concordance of mutations called by whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing techniques.