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Plasma accelerators driven by particle beams are a promising technology, but the acceleration distance and energy gain are strongly limited by head erosion in a high-ionization-potential gas. Here the authors observe up to 130% energy boost in a self-focused electron beam, with limited head erosion.

Hydroformylation of alkenes is widely used in industry to synthesize aldehydes, but is less prominent in small laboratories due to safety and equipment issues associated with the CO/H₂ mixture. This is now addressed by generating stoichiometric syngas from two main element compounds, with water as the activator.

Little is known about how the identity of a leaving group affects the dynamics of a bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction. A study of the reaction of F⁻ with CH₃Cl, and comparison to its reaction with CH₃I, now reveals key insights into such effects, with reactant orientation considered a key factor in understanding the behaviour observed.

In a randomized controlled trial that included 97 participants, 69% patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) allocated to a fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) achieved clinical response, and over 60% reached remission, outperforming the control group. The FMD also reduced markers of intestinal inflammation, suggesting this dietary intervention could serve as adjunctive treatment for CD.

In this study, Dahmane et al use a method called cryo-electron tomography to uncover new details of how tick-borne flaviviruses transform cells into virus factories.

An enduring question in ecology is how new ecosystems form. Studying retreating glaciers, this study shows that life’s first foothold in these new environments is not established by photosynthetic organisms as long assumed, but rather by versatile microbes that harvest chemical energy from soil and thin air.

Tokamak walls suffer erosion from steady and bursty heat loads. Here, the authors demonstrate that optimizing 3D magnetic field and cooling gas injection can tame destructive plasma bursts while enabling cooler, safer exhaust conditions.

This study introduces a sediment-based method to reconstruct Antarctic fast-ice change during the late Holocene, revealing cyclic patterns linked to solar variability and offering insight into long-term cryosphere climate dynamics.

A combination of scanning probe microscopy and quantum sensing is used to investigate changes in water structure under confinement. A liquid–solid phase transition is observed in thin films of water below a confinement size of 2 nm at ambient temperature.

In this study, the authors model the current mechanical properties of the seafloor of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, and find those rocks to be too strong to allow the kind of fracturing that, on Earth, enables rock–water chemical reactions on which chemosynthetic life relies.

ALMA has captured exquisitely detailed images of bowshock shells in the outflow of an outbursting protostar. These provide important insights into the variable nature of the ejections from protostars, which play a key role in star and planet formation.

Semiconductor heterostructures hosting two-dimensional electron gases are widely used today in high-electron-mobility transistors. Here, the authors probe the electronic structure in GaN/AlGaN, heterostructures, discovering planar anisotropy of the electron Fermi surface, offering new insights into transport properties.

The anterior cingulate cortex encodes affective pain behaviours modulated by opioids; targeting opioid-sensitive neurons through a new chemogenetic gene therapy replicates the analgesic effects of morphine, providing precise chronic pain relief without affecting sensory detection.

2D nanoporous membranes are predicted to provide highly selective gas transport in combination with extreme permeance. Here authors demonstrate gas separation performance and transport mechanisms through membranes of graphdiyne, a quasi 2D material with a graphene-like structure.

Emission of methane from ‘point sources’—small surface features or infrastructure components—is monitored with an airborne spectrometer, identifying possible targets for mitigation efforts.

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.

An approach combining BONCAT, stable isotope probing and metaproteomics showcases the hidden metabolic interconnectivity of microorganisms within an anaerobic digestion community.

Gas-phase actinium monofluoride (AcF) has been produced and spectroscopically studied at the CERN-ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility; the results highlight the potential of ²²⁷AcF for exceptionally sensitive searches of CP violation.

A quantum simulation experiment reveals the thermalization of a ferromagnetic system realized with a one-dimensional spinor Bose gas, providing quantitative insights into the condensation dynamics of large magnetic systems.

Coordinated X-ray and radio observations reveal that disk winds and jets occur mutually exclusively in 4U 1630–472, providing new observational constraints on the interplay between different modes of outflow in X-ray binaries.

The study reports a metal-organic framework (MOF) - covalent organic framework (COF) nanocomposite with dual amine sites that captures CO₂ efficiently and remains stable under humid, harsh conditions, offering a promising path for next-generation carbon capture.

Dietary restriction promotes the expansion of effector T cells via ketone bodies, which enhances anti-tumour immunity and synergizes with immunotherapy in mice.

A quantized plateau is typically considered to be the feature of a fractional quantum Hall state. Yan et al. report a series of plateaus quantized at unusual fractions in a confined two-dimensional electron gas, which is attributed to enhanced density in the confined region.

The analysis of the energy spectrum of 36 million tritium β-decay electrons recorded in 259 measurement days within the last 40 eV below the endpoint challenges the Neutrino-4 claim.

Gas adsorption in porous materials offers an alternative technology for efficient hydrogen isotope separation. Here, the authors report high separation efficiency through isotopologue-induced structural dynamics in a readily scalable manganese-triazole metal-organic framework.

Iodic acid (HIO₃) forms aerosols very efficiently, but its gas-phase formation mechanism is not well understood. Atmospheric simulation chamber experiments, quantum chemical calculations and kinetic modelling have now revealed that HIO₃ forms as an early iodine oxidation product from hypoiodite. The mechanism explains field measurements and suggests a catalytic role for iodine in particle formation.

Here, the authors develop a concept for the synthesis of multiple narrow and intense optical spectral lines over a broad infrared region. This concept constitutes a promising way for multi-gas detection and multispectral microscopic imaging.

Magneto-optical traps (MOTs) are a workhorse for laser cooling of atoms and were recently extended to molecules. Yet, new mechanisms for molecular trapping and cooling are still an open area of exploration. Here, the authors show a blue-detuned MOT based on a conveyor-belt effect for CaF molecules, yielding higher number densities, comparable with some atomic MOTs.

The major challenge for the development of spin based information processing is to obtain efficient ways of controlling spin. Here, Michiardi et al show that the Rashba spin-splitting at the surface of Bi₂Se₃ topological insulator can be controlled via optical pulses on picosecond timescales.

The true potential of graphene pores has remained unclear due to limited mechanistic studies on oxidation-created pores. Using molecular simulations, authors show dynamic behavior enabling CO₂ gating with high selectivity over O₂ and N₂.

Spatially variable surface-elevation changes across 40 global deltas using interferometric synthetic aperture radar are reported.

In Li-mediated electrochemical N₂ reduction to ammonia, selectivity and activity are governed by the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). This study reveals how the applied potential shapes the SEI properties and composition, thereby influencing reaction performance.

Disease course and pathology an infection may cause can change owing to the structural and functional physiological changes that accumulate with age, but therapy can be tailored accordingly; disease tolerance genes show antagonistic pleiotropy.

Mass number measurements of the molecular species produced when ions of actinium (Ac) and nobelium (No) are exposed to trace amounts of H₂O and N₂ demonstrate direct species identification using an atom-at-a-time technique for heavy elements.

Soft porous crystals combine high crystallinity with structural transformability, potentially enabling applications. Here, an atropisomeric covalent organic framework is reported, which demonstrates different structural transformations upon exposure to different gases.

Carbon dioxide electroreduction in acidic environments has been suboptimal. Here, the authors addressed this issue by designing a gas diffusion electrode with a special metal structure, which achieves efficient electroreduction while conducting a systematic investigation of the underlying mechanism.

A strongly lensed galaxy at redshift z ≈ 6 is resolved into at least 15 star-forming clumps embedded in a rotating disk. Clump formation in this system, which is not predicted by cosmological zoom-in simulations, may be driven by disk instabilities with weak feedback, rather than past mergers.

Here they show that PPARα-dependent mitochondrial programming promotes the differentiation of pluripotent stem cell-derived β cells. Targeting mitochondria has the potential to improve β cell replacement efforts for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.

A two-dimensional hole gas with high carrier density is confined at the interface between a solution-processed, single-crystalline organic semiconducting film and the electric double layer formed by an ion gel on top of the film.

N¹-Methylpseudouridine enhances the translation of synthetic mRNAs, independently of innate immunity.

The symmetry group and geometric phase of a system are responsible for many quantum properties related to non-trivial topology. Here the authors show non-Abelian geometric phase in laser-coupled ultracold strontium atoms by using a tripod scheme.

Two-dimensional electron gases in SrTiO3 offer new insights into the physics of complex oxides and offer the potential for applications in electronics. Here, King et al. show how orbital ordering, spin–orbit coupling and many-body interactions collectively shape the complex properties of these confined electron systems.

Many-body interactions in solids offer opportunities to realize striking physical properties. Here the authors demonstrate the formation of plasmonic polarons in Eu_1-xGd _x O and their tunability with charge carrier doping, providing a route to tailoring quantum many-body interactions in solid.