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Under sustained high greenhouse-gas emissions, the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) may weaken and eventually disappear, potentially reducing short-term climate predictability, highlighting the risks of continued emissions for the middle and upper atmosphere.

Chemotherapy-induced intestinal toxicity limits treatment efficacy. Here, the authors show that myeloid-derived L-kynurenine exacerbates this damage by depleting Lactobacillus johnsonii, which activates the TNFα/JNK pathway to drive epithelial apoptosis.

While neoadjuvant immunotherapy and chemoradiotherapy can improve rectal cancer patient outcomes, there is a need to better identify those who will respond well. Here, the authors present a single-arm phase II trial reporting the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and sintilimab (anti-PD-1) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer with proficient mismatch repair and intermediate/high Immunoscores.

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.

By combining satellite observations with ground-based data and expert validation, this analysis demonstrates considerable misestimation of grassland extent and thereby carbon stock estimates in previous global assessments based on remote sensing.

Zhang, Huang, Wang, Long et al. report that NAT10 enhances serine uptake and biosynthesis in an ac4C-dependent mechanism, thereby promoting stemness and progression in acute myeloid leukaemia.

Liu et al. report Chinese normative lifespan brain charts showing later neurodevelopmental milestones than those detected in Western cohorts. Individual deviations from these norms are valuable in assessing clinical risk and outcomes.

Qifa Zhang and colleagues report the map-based cloning of the quantitative trait locus GS5, which regulates grain size and yield in rice. GS5 encodes a putative serine carboxypeptidase and increased expression is associated with larger grain.

Induction of hypothermia during hibernation/torpor enables certain mammals to survive under extreme conditions. Here, the authors show that the natural product P57 induces hypothermia by targeting pyridoxal kinase and has a potential application in therapeutic hypothermia.

Researchers studied the blood-based metabolome of over 23,000 people from ten ethnically diverse cohorts. They identified 235 metabolites associated with future risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). By integrating genetic and modifiable lifestyle factors, their findings provide insights into T2D mechanisms and could improve risk prediction and inform precision prevention.

DNA in many bacteriophages contains unusual chemical modifications. Here, the authors discover that carboxymethylcytosine is a natural DNA base and reveal its role as an intermediate enabling further DNA hypermodification.

Insufficient efficacy is one of the major impediments for further application of sup-tRNA therapies. Here, authors engineer the body sequence of sup-tRNA^Arg and restored retinal function and vision-guided behavior in a mouse model carrying the RPE65-R44X nonsense mutation.

By integrating a ribo-seq dataset of 195 individuals with RNA-seq and proteomics data from the same cohort, researchers found prevalent post-transcriptional attenuation of eQTL effects and identified omic-specific QTLs associated with schizophrenia.

A thin-film engineering method is employed to preserve high pressure solids in diamond capsules at ambient conditions, enabling tunable preserved pressures, controllable particle size, atomic-scale characterization, and potential large-scale uses.

In this work, authors show that micro- and nanoplastics at environmentally relevant levels promote conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria by altering oxidative stress, membrane permeability and energy metabolism.

A new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-R1, is introduced, demonstrating that the reasoning abilities of large language models can be incentivized through pure reinforcement learning, removing the need for human-annotated demonstrations.

The electrooxidation of ethylene to ethylene glycol (EG) offers a sustainable pathway for chemical manufacturing, but demands selective non-precious-metal electrocatalysts. Here, the authors report a class of (111)-rich Mn₂O₃ nanoarray electrode, which achieves a high selectivity of 52.6% for for ethylene-to-EG conversion in aqueous electrolytes.

Staple crop production in China involves high levels of synthetic fertilizer use and losses to the environment. Using a localized nitrogen management model for wheat, maize and rice, this study estimates the environmental and economic benefits of improving nitrogen use efficiency at the county level.

Bulk superconductivity has been observed up to 96 K in pressurized bilayer nickelate single crystals which were synthesized under ambient pressure.

Tong and colleagues reveal a cross-species conserved mechanism where locus coeruleus-norepinephrine mediated arousal fluctuations drive an inverted U-shaped pattern of global functional connectivity, uncovering a network basis of the Yerkes-Dodson law.

Finding broadband terahertz emitters and detectors is key to developing practical terahertz technologies and to exploring fundamental nonlinear optics. Luo et al.show that split-ring-resonator metamaterials of a few tens of nanometres thickness can efficiently generate terahertz pulses up to 4 THz.

Here, the authors perform a large scale profiling of human gut prophages, revealing prophage-encoded disease-specific gene shifts, and further showing that prophage-encoded gene depleted in IBD helps reduce gut inflammation via oligosaccharide synthesis.

Discovering new chemical reactions is often a slow process. Now a data-driven strategy that integrates expert intuition with artificial intelligence-guided exploration enables the rapid identification of reaction conditions for cobalt(IV)–enamine catalysis, while uncovering unique reactivity patterns and demonstrating an effective approach for efficient and targeted development of catalytic transformations.

Li et al. identify a previously uncharacterized transcription factor dumpless1 as a critical effector of ecdysone signaling in stretch follicle cell, bridging somatic-germline communication through the integrin βPS-Rho1-p-MLC axis to facilitate dumping.

The CMS Collaboration reports the measurement of the spin, parity, and charge conjugation properties of all-charm tetraquarks, exotic fleeting particles formed in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

Activation of Wnt/β-Catenin signaling in colorectal cancer requires further mechanistic understanding. Here the authors show that the RNA N6-methyladenoine (m⁶A) eraser ALKBH5 destabilizes FAM84A mRNA to prevent β-catenin ubiquitination and degradation, contributing to colorectal cancer stemness and chemoresistance.

Inverse electron-demand cycloadditions in palladium catalysis are inherently limited by the linear selectivity in the allylic substitution step. To overcome this issue, the authors report a synergetic iridium (branched-selective) and amine catalysis in [4+2] cycloadditions of vinyl aminoalcohols with carbonyls.

E3 ubiquitin ligase HRD1, a core component of the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway, is essential for the TLR3-mediated innate immune response. HRD1 catalyzes polyubiquitination of TLR3 at lysine 813, which promotes its trafficking to endolysosomes and enables its proteolytic cleavage and functional activation.

Seawater electrolysis is highly promising for hydrogen production, yet it suffers from severe chloride-induced corrosion. This study reports a Co-based anode with triple defense that achieves durable seawater oxidation for 3000 h.

The ecological role of viruses for CPR bacteria and DPANN archaea remains understudied. Here, the authors apply metagenomic approaches to study the biogeographic distribution of CPR and DPANN viruses in acid mine drainage sediments and elucidate their complex interplays.

A cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of brainstem structures identify 713 associations. It reveals shared/distinct genetic architectures across ancestries/substructures and overlaps with neuropsychiatric disorders and physiological functions.

This study employs single-cell spatial transcriptomics to dissect the interaction between potato and Phytophthora infestans, revealing cellular heterogeneity at the infection site and providing a resource to enhance potato disease resistance.

The ALICE Collaboration provides details on the microscopic mechanism that ends up creating antideuteron in high-energy proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider.

Solar cells based on 3D/2D perovskite heterostructures show promising performance, but ion diffusion limits the device stability. Now Luo et al. suppress ion diffusion by inserting a cross-linked polymer between the 2D and 3D layers, improving the operational stability.

Wang and colleagues report the clinical results and immunological correlates of a phase 2 clinical trial of cryoablation plus lenvatinib and sintilimab in persons with advanced or metastatic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

A Cu-Au-Ag medium-entropy alloy with Damascus-style hierarchical layers provides balanced strength–ductility combination, enabling greener and more mechanically reliable metallic materials for advanced electronic packaging.

The role of interspecific interactions in biodiversity–ecosystem stability relationships is unclear. Here the authors develop a theoretical approach and show that empirical diversity–stability relationships in grasslands are best explained by species-specific dynamics rather than by interspecific interactions.

Neural Perturbational Inference is an approach for estimating effective connectivity, in which virtual perturbations to a surrogate brain allow gaining insights into human brain functions.

Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are needed to fight the pandemic. Here the authors show immunogenicity of an adjuvanted subunit vaccine, SARS-CoV-2 spike protein trimerized with trimer-tag technology, in small animal models and protection from SARS-CoV-2 challenge in non-human primates.

The efficiency of pure sulfide kesterite solar cells is limited by deep-level defects. Wu et al. develop a heat treatment in an oxygen-rich environment to suppress sulfur vacancies, achieving an 11.51% certified efficiency.