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In young, estrogen-deprived female mice, the authors show that daily low-intensity vibration protected bone, muscle and fat metabolism. This treatment also enhanced bisphosphonate outcomes, strengthening the skeleton to counter adverse effects of cancer therapy on musculoskeletal tissue.

A soft robotic probe enables continuous in utero monitoring of fetal physiological parameters, including heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, temperature and electrocardiogram data, during open or fetoscopic surgery to provide real-time information on fetal condition and distress.

Two-dimensional metal halide perovskites exhibit diverse structures, but tuning their intralayer structure is challenging. Now, ammonium-terminated bidentate linkers have been used to develop 2D perovskites. These materials exhibit superior thermal resistance and improved photovoltaic performance compared with their Ruddlesden–Popper and Dion–Jacobson counterparts.

Non-equilibrium two-dimensional melting is less understood than its equilibrium counterpart. Now it is shown that topologically driven melting in a two-dimensional crystal of charged colloids is the same irrespective of the mechanisms that generate the defects

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.

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.

Electron avalanche multiplication can enable an all-optical modulator controlled by single photons.

Cicadas generate sound through the interplay of tymbal buckling and body resonance, but a unified framework explaining the diversity of calls across species has been absent. In this study, the authors conceptualize the cicada’s sound-generation mechanism as a naturally occurring metastructure, characterized by periodically arranged ribs and inherent frequency filtering.

Aadvanced computer simulations of three-dimensional turbulence reveal that the ab initio generation of large-scale magnetic fields is driven by shear-flow-induced jets; an analytical model is derived which reproduces the essential features of the flow- and field-generation mechanisms.

Analysis combining multiple global tree databases reveals that whether a location is invaded by non-native tree species depends on anthropogenic factors, but the severity of the invasion depends on the native species diversity.

A nine-year transit-timing campaign has measured the extremely low masses and densities of four large planets orbiting the young star V1298 Tau, which are now predicted to contract and form a typical compact super-Earth and sub-Neptune system.

2D semiconductors are attracting attention as a potential alternative for post-silicon electronics, but the fabrication of high-performance 2D p-type transistors remains a challenge. Here, the authors report the realization of bilayer WSe₂ p-type transistor arrays with on-state currents up to 421 μA/μm, on/off ratios exceeding 10⁷ and subthreshold swings as low as 75 mV/decade.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

MAGPIE is a computational framework for co-registering spatially-resolved transcriptomics, metabolomics and tissue morphology for integrated downstream analysis. Case studies across lung, brain and breast reveal coordinated cross-modality molecular changes.

Hypoxic conditioning—controlled, brief and repeated exposure to moderate levels of low-oxygen air—is safe in people with Parkinson’s disease, with participants reporting mild, short-term improvement in Parkinson’s symptoms.

Here, the authors report an exome-wide association study for multi-organ imaging traits by leveraging recent bioinformatic tools such as AlphaMissense. The identified signals elucidate the genetic effects from rare variants on human organs and their connections to complex diseases

Widely cited studies have claimed that musical training is associated with enhanced neural encoding for sound at early stages of the auditory system. Results from this large-scale multisite study do not support this earlier claim.

Material from the Hokioi crater on asteroid Bennu experienced space weathering and suggests microcratering plays a more active role on carbonaceous bodies than initially thought, according to a study of OSIRIS-REx asteroid return samples.

The quark structure of the f₀(980) hadron is still unknown after 50 years of its discovery. Here, the CMS Collaboration reports a measurement of the elliptic flow of the f₀(980) state in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV, providing strong evidence that the state is an ordinary meson.

Holographic techniques provide phase and amplitude information for images of objects, but normally the hologram thickness is comparable to the light wavelength used. Ni et al.present ultra-thin plasmonic holograms that control amplitude and phase in the visible region and are just 30 nm thick.

Baek et al. report the formation of a discrete island–convex dome morphology in perovskite by solvent engineering to improve the outcoupling efficiency in NIR LEDs. 2D/3D heterostructures are constructed to further increase the efficiency to 31.4% with a peak radiance of 929 W sr⁻¹ m⁻² at 798 nm.

The HTLV-1 capsid (CA) domain of Gag was resolved to 3.4 Å resolution and reveals insights into immature lattice stabilization, the varying lattice curvatures and distances from the membrane, and the dispensable nature of inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) for immature particle assembly.

Hiʻiaka is the largest moon of the distant dwarf planet Haumea. Here, the authors report the first multi-chord stellar occultations of Hiʻiaka, revealing its size, shape, and density, suggesting an origin from Haumea’s icy mantle.

Particles produced by intense biomass burning can be transported, potentially by deep convection, in large numbers to the lower stratosphere, changing the stratospheric aerosol layer’s chemical and radiative properties, according to in situ measurements during an active fire season.

Different phosphorylation patterns created by GRK2 and GRK5 on the C-terminal tail of ACKR3 lead to distinct structural arrangements and dynamics of G-protein-coupled receptor–arrestin complexes, potentially explaining diverse cellular outcomes.

Polydienes are essential in industry but rely on a complex synthesis involving catalysts and solvents. Now it is shown that photo-melt-bulk polymerization enables the solvent- and catalyst-free synthesis of controlled high-molecular-weight polydienes by combining chain growth and the coupling of stable biradicals, advancing sustainable materials development.

This study reports on biologically sourced polymuconate polymers with weakened C–C backbone bonds, designed for closed-loop chemical recycling to monomers. Synthesized via free-radical polymerization, these materials achieve tunable mechanical properties comparable to those of commercial plastics. A techno-economic analysis shows that recycling significantly reduces costs and environmental impacts, enhancing the competitiveness of these polymers in the sustainable plastics market.

Antimatter remains an enigma – its absence in the universe is hitherto unexplained. Here, the authors report a breakthrough in the ability to study antihydrogen atoms to test fundamental symmetries. Antihydrogen atoms can now be accumulated at CERN at the previously unattainable rate of 2000 per hour.

Hydrostatic pressure is used as a means to tune the two-dimensional electron gas hosted in a GaAs/AlGaAs crystal from a topologically ordered to a spontaneously broken symmetry phase.

Hybrid superconductor-semiconductor devices offer a promising platform for topological superconductivity. Here, Ke and Moehle et al. create ballistic Josephson junctions in InSb quantum wells and use magnetic and electric fields to control their free energy landscape.

Making use of phylogenomic and transcriptome analysis of 20 plant species, including 14 gymnosperms, Sondervan et al. uncover candidate ovule genes and find that orthologs with differential tissue expression patterns across species most influence major evolutionary splits of seed plants.

Here, the authors characterize the effects of Lactobacillus casei strains engineered to express pathogenic or non-pathogenic Listeria adhesion protein (LAP) in systemic colonization and protection against lethal Listeria monocytogenes infection in mice and show that these engineered strains can colonize the intestine and prevent dissemination of L. monocytogenes and protect against lethal infection while promoting immunomodulatory effects.

Strain maps of cardiomyocyte nuclei during contraction indicate that, by integrating environmental mechanical cues, the nuclei of cardiomyocytes stabilize the fate of cells through the reorganization of epigenetically marked chromatin.

Andrew M. Weiner, a luminary in ultrafast optics and quantum photonics passed away on February 13, 2024, at the age of 65. He will be remembered for his profound contributions to the optics and photonics community, engineering, education, and for his devoted mentorship. He leaves behind a legacy of innovation and inspiration.

Using viral barcode tracing to detect interactions between glioblastoma cells and non-malignant astrocytes in patient samples, investigators discovered a pathway that reduces tumour-specific immunity and identified potential therapeutic targets.

Thermal lepton pairs are ideal probes for the temperature of quark-gluon plasma. Here, the STAR Collaboration uses thermal electron-positron pair production to measure quark-gluon plasma average temperature at different stages of the evolution.

Controllable two-qubit interactions are necessary to build a functional quantum computer. Here the authors demonstrate fast, coherent swapping of two spin states mediated by a long, multi-electron quantum dot that could act as a tunable coupler mediating interactions between multiple qubits.

A population of TRAIL-positive astrocytes in glioblastoma contributes to an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment and this mechanism can be targeted with an engineered oncolytic virus to improve outcomes.