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Maternal obesity is known to cause systemic lipid dysregulation, yet its effect on lipid reprogramming during the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) remains unknown. Here, they show that obesity disrupts very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) storage in oocytes, impairing peroxisomal protein import in 2-cell embryos.

High-latitude soils are future soil organic carbon loss hotspots, with losses dominated by particulate organic carbon (POC). The fraction of POC in total SOC (f_POC) is a key indicator, emphasizing the climate importance of preserving POC.

Susceptibility of Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection, is linked with HLA gene region with mechanisms unclear. The authors here show that the high-risk EBV subtype BALF2 upregulates HLA-DP, leading to CD8⁺ T cell exhaustion, and combined anti-LAG-3 and anti-PD-1 therapy improves anti-cancer efficacy.

Current artificial intelligence lacks the ability to perceive the emotions conveyed through human touch. Here, the study develops a bio-inspired hairy electronic skin that can recognize emotions from touch, facilitating natural affective communication for robots.

The immune mechanism of radioresistance in cancer patients remains to be explored. The authors here show that CXCL13 is upregulated in tumor regions upon radiation, which recruits immune suppressive CXCR5⁺ monocytes. Blocking CXCR5/CXCL13 interactions facilitate tumor control following radiation.

Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2023, suboptimal diet was estimated to be responsible for 4 million deaths and 97 million morbidity burdens from ischemic heart disease.

Here, the authors establish 1,3-propanediol, a low-cost biomass-derived bulk chemical, as an efficient, green, and sustainable C1 source for the mono-N-methylation of primary amines, via chelation-free C(sp3)−C(sp3) bond cleavage.

The development of Tat clusters has advanced the intracellular delivery of functional antibodies at low concentrations, but the variety of proteins that can be successfully delivered remains limited. Here, the authors report that by reversibly modifying the surface of functional proteins with anionic peptides, various protein cargoes (otherwise difficult to deliver) can be delivered into living cells by synergetic electrostatic interactions with the cationic cell-penetrating peptide clusters TAT₃.

Halide solid electrolytes typically require high lithium content, raising costs and exacerbating air sensitivity. Here, authors leverage anion clusters to synthesize an amorphous electrolyte with low lithium content of 2.4 wt%, high ionic conductivity of 1.5 mS cm^-1, and good air-stability.

Androgenetic alopecia is the most common type of hair loss, but its drivers remain poorly elucidated. Here, the authors show that hyperactive contraction of the follicle connective tissue sheath impairs hair growth by activating mechanosensitive signaling, suggesting a tractable therapeutic target.

N-desethyl-fluornitrazene is a µ-opioid receptor agonist derived from nitazenes that has supramaximal intrinsic efficacy that produces analgesia with minimal adverse effects in rodent models.

A mechanism is uncovered that results in fetal hepatocytes having a paracrine role in providing genome protection to haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

Low temperature is a major factor limiting productivity in rice. Here the authors show that theCTB4a gene confers cold tolerance to japonicavarieties adapted to cold habitats at the booting stage of development, and propose that CTB4a acts via an interaction with the beta subunit of ATP synthase.

Here they identify key cells and signals that drive new dentin formation, enabling successful regeneration of damaged tooth structure and offering a promising dental repair strategy.

Recovering nitrate from surface water can help address interconnected environmental, resource, and energy challenges. A bioinspired photothermal evaporation platform enabling the co-recovery of low-concentration nitrate and freshwater is proposed.

An in situ computational spectrometer, implemented on a fully integrated 576-Kb memristor chip, can reconstruct a single spectrum in 125.0 ns and consumes only 6.7 nJ of energy, achieving software-equivalent accuracy.

Traditional iterative catalysis in RiPP biosynthesis typically modifies linear peptides. Here the authors discover GNAT enzymes that iteratively modify fully folded lasso peptides and engineer them to create lipolasso peptides with expanded chemical diversity.

A protein-language-based model enables improved discovery of evolutionarily distant antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). High-confidence AMPs showed strong antibacterial activity, with the most potent demonstrating efficacy in a mouse model of E. coli infection.

Controlling site selectivity in carbonyl desaturation to prepare α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds is challenging. Now, engineered ‘ene’-reductases are shown to enable the biocatalytic desaturation of cyclic ketones to enones with high site divergence. This platform allows late-stage functionalization of complex molecules, including terpenoids, and provides access to chiral enones via desaturative kinetic resolution.

The susceptibility of mouse and human T cells to ferroptosis is determined by the balance of systemic polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, highlighting a key role for lipid metabolism and dietary composition in regulating T cell function.

Animals adjust decision-making based on internal physiological states. Here, the authors show that intestinal pathogens override hunger-driven risky decisions in C. elegans by modulating central serotonin signaling via an immune-brain axis.

Conventional transcranial ultrasound often lacks the precision needed to modulate a small set of neurons. Here, the authors demonstrate that hollow silica nanostructures can locally amplify ultrasound, and enable sustained and precise stimulation of deep brain circuits in mice, offering a minimally invasive, nongenetic platform for targeted neuromodulation.

A lab-scale proof-of-principle demonstration of a quantum network comprising one server chip and 20 client photonic chips implementing twin-field quantum key distribution shows excellent scalability and reliability and yields a pathway towards future large-scale networks.

Toxicity of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) is often caused by off-target shedding of therapeutic payloads due to linker instability. Here, the authors demonstrate that site-specific ligase-dependent conjugation of therapeutic payloads to engineered trastuzumab via a ring-opening linker improves stability compared to conventional HER2- targeting ADCs.

Droplet microlasers are emerging as powerful tools for label-free biosensing. Here, the authors demonstrate a new method for creating liquid photonic-molecule microlasers that combine low lasing threshold and enhanced sensitivity, achieving biomolecular detection limit down to attoMolar level.

Metallic 2D transition metal dichalcogenides are appealing for their practical applications and fundamental properties, but their large-scale synthesis remains challenging. Here, the authors report a dual-precursor metal–organic chemical vapor deposition strategy to grow superconducting single-crystalline NbS₂ and NbSe₂ multilayers at the wafer scale.

Exemplified by Bi_0.4Sb_1.6Te₃, the authors reveal the reason for low thermal conductivity induced by compositional inhomogeneity lies in randomly aligned edge dislocations induced by random composition distribution.

KP.3.1.1 S S31del confers enhanced immune escape and increased infectivity, which is counterbalanced by NSP10 S33C. The opposing effects of these mutations highlight the complex interplay of viral genomic elements in shaping their overall fitness.

The development of sustainable water oxidation catalysts is crucial for hydrogen production, yet cobalt-based materials often suffer from instability. Here, the authors report that co-doping LiCoO₂ with nickel, iron, and palladium yields a durable electrode with stability of over 2,000 hours.

A martensitic alloy with a tensile strength exceeding 3 GPa and a fracture elongation of 5.13% is developed. These mechanical properties arise from interface complexes interacting with dense dislocation networks, which is a mechanism shown to be applicable to other compositions.

Hierarchical nanostructures in ferroelectric ceramics greatly enhance light-driven strain, yielding a photostriction rate two orders higher than conventional bulk materials and enabling remote ultrasonic sensing for structural health monitoring.

Cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) allows the efficient construction of C−C and C−heteroatom bonds. Now, single-platinum-atom-decorated graphitic carbon nitride is applied as a heterogeneous photocatalyst for CDC reactions between (hetero)arenes and nucleophiles without external oxidants.

Hong-Xuan Lin, Ji-Ping Gao, Jun-Xiang Shan and colleagues show that natural variation in a proteasome α2 subunit gene contributes to thermotolerance in African rice. Their follow-up studies suggest that the variant allele protects cells from heat stress by enhancing the elimination of cytotoxic denatured proteins and maintaining heat-response processes.

Xu et al. report that CDK10 drives immune evasion by reducing nucleic acid sensors-mediated innate immune response in tumor cells and that its inhibition improves response to immune-checkpoint blockade in preclinical cancer models.

The scaffold protein AXIN can promote the formation of two opposing complexes: the Wnt signalosome and a degradation complex that inhibits Wnt. Here, the authors show that mechanical compression and the presence/absence of Wnt ligand are inputs in a circuit that acts as a logic gate to control which complex is formed.

Supersolid phases are quantum-entangled states of matter exhibiting the dual characteristics of superfluidity and solidity. Here, the authors map the phase diagram of K₂Co(SeO₃)₂. and identify signatures of two supersolid phases separated by a 1/3 magnetization plateau.

Here the authors report a phase 3 clinical trial showing that Ecnoglutide, designed as a cAMP-biased GLP-1R agonist, improved glycaemic control versus placebo in adults with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled with diet and exercise alone or with a single oral hypoglycaemic agent.

This work demonstrates superadiabatic topological pumping on photonic chips, achieving a 20-fold device miniaturization and high-efficiency operation across a 650–920 nm bandwidth, paving the way for ultracompact integrated photonic transports.

Metamaterials offer optical functionality, such as cloaking, that is impossible to achieve with natural bulk materials. Here, Shi and colleagues fabricate colloidal metamaterials made from silicon whose magneto-optical response considerably exceeds that of related bulk materials.

Using ancient DNA, isotopes and proteomics, this work reveals social inequality and mobility in Eastern Zhou China, showing female sacrifices, dietary disparities across classes, kinship networks among elites, and rare evidence of social mobility.