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Floquet engineering is often limited by weak light–matter coupling and heating. Now it is shown that exciton-driven fields in monolayer semiconductors produce stronger, longer-lived Floquet effects and reveal hybridization linked to excitonic phases.

Time-resolved photoemission shows evidence of Floquet states in graphene, resolving a long-standing debate and unlocking engineering of quantum phases with light in semi-metals.

By using sub-cycle light transients to induce optical field emission of electron pulses from tungsten nanotips and a weak replica of the same transient, investigation of attosecond emission dynamics in real time is demonstrated.

The build-up and dephasing of Floquet-–Bloch bands is visualized in both subcycle band-structure videography and quantum theory, revealing the interplay of strong-field intraband and interband excitations in a non-equilibrium Floquet picture.

The discovery of an overlooked but apparently ubiquitous spike in the mid-infrared photoelectron spectra of molecular and atomic gases suggests that we don’t know as much as we thought we did about the ionization of matter in strong fields.

Intense extreme UV and X-ray coherent sources are set to revolutionize numerous research areas, yet characterization of their polarization remains elusive. Here, Mazza et al.measure the polarization state of circularly polarized extreme UV light from a free-electron laser using circular dichroism.

The spin texture of a magnetic system can host a variety of topological spin textures, the most famous of these being skyrmions. Here, Volkov et al demonstrate higher order vorticity in magnetic wireframe nanostructures and introduce a general protocol for the creation of arbitrary numbers of vortices and antivortices in such wireframe structures.

Chiral interactions in magnetic systems enable topologically nontrivial magnetic textures, most notably topological solitons such as skyrmions. Here Volkov et al study the magneto-chiral interactions in a small asymmetric magnetic cap, and show how the geometric asymmetry influence the chiral spin- textures.

Responses to high-intensity mid-infrared laser light are theoretically investigated in the Haldane system. It is found that the primary electronic response, optical tunnelling and high-harmonic emission are sensitive to the topological phase of matter.

Early- and late-onset preeclampsia pose serious maternal-fetal risks, yet non-invasive early prediction remains challenging. Here, the authors show that cfRNA signatures reveal distinct decidual and multiorgan signals, enabling accurate, externally validated prediction of both subtypes.

Riverine dissolved organic matter input and subsequent new particle formation is a major source of Arctic aerosol which has been largely overlooked, according to analysis of atmospheric particle number size distributions from Tiksi, Russia.

Molecules that are mirror images of each other usually behave identically, unless they are interacting with other chiral objects. High-harmonic generation can provide access to the dynamics of chiral interactions on ultrafast timescales.

Sissoko et al. show that CENP-T local concentration regulates its ability to recruit the outer kinetochore, which may restrict complete kinetochore formation to regions with higher-order inner kinetochore assemblies.

Light-matter interaction leading to photoelectron emission via the photoelectric effect illustrates the quantum nature of light. Here, the authors report the dependence of the photoelectron’s Wigner time delay on the photoelectron’s emission direction relative to the molecular axis of hydrogen in strong field tunnel-ionization.

Strong interaction is blind to quark flavor, so collisions of nuclei with the same number of protons and neutrons should generate the same number of charged and neutral kaons. Here, instead, the authors show a significant excess of charged over neutral kaon production in Ar+Sc nuclei collisions, compatibly with earlier measurements which however suffered from larger uncertainties, and show that known effects cannot explain the result.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

The CMS Collaboration reports the study of three simultaneous hard interactions between quarks and gluons in proton–proton collisions. This manifests through the concurrent production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm-quark–antiquark pair.

Using in vitro reconstitution experiments with purified components, the authors show that five interacting ciliary tip proteins collectively form cork-like structures at microtubule tips and make microtubule growth very slow and processive.

Measurements of the superfluid stiffness in twisted trilayer graphene reveal unconventional nodal-gap superconductivity, where the superconducting transition is controlled by phase fluctuations rather than Cooper-pair breaking.

The absolute timing of the photoelectric effect has proved difficult to measure, but the delay between photon arrival at a tungsten surface and ejection of photoelectrons has now been determined.

The authors combine films of two-dimensional semiconductors, which exhibit excitonic spectral features, with SiO₂/Si Fabry-Perot resonators in order to realize topological phase singularities in reflection. Around these singularities, the reflection spectra demonstrate rapid phase changes while the structure behaves as a perfect absorber.

The damage caused by the asteroid 17–20 metres in diameter that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on 15 February 2013 is estimated here to have an energy equivalent to about 500 kilotons of TNT.

Principal optical axes define light-matter interactions in crystals and they are usually assumed to be stationary. Here, the authors report the observation of wavelength-dependent principal optical axes in ternary van der Waals crystals (ReS₂ and ReSe₂), leading to wavelength-switchable propagation directions of their waveguide modes.

Combination of single-molecule tracking experiments and machine-learning approaches to monitor diffusional state transitions between ribosome-bound and free tRNAs allows codon resolution measurements of translation kinetics.

Here, the authors present four high-resolution structures of SyHR protein from cyanobacterial anion pumps family: chloride and sulfate bound forms and two active state structures. These structures provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of SyHR and cyanobacterial anion pumps in general.

Optical anisotropy in a broad spectral range is pivotal to efficient light manipulation. Here, the authors measure a birefringence of 1.5 in the infrared range and 3 in the visible light for MoS₂.

Double-blind holography allows reconstruction of the missing spectral phases and characterization of the unknown signals in both isolated-pulse and double-pulse scenarios, facilitating the study of complex electron dynamics via a single-shot and linear measurement.

Maan et al., Meier et al. and Song et al. report that microtubule plus-tip end binding proteins can undergo liquid–liquid phase separation and regulate microtubule dynamics.

Metelev et al. use single-molecule tracking to study kinetics of translation directly in E. coli cells, and how it is affected by translation inhibitors and rRNA mutations. Their results support widespread 70S re-initiation on mRNAs.

Flexible magnetic sensors with high sensitivity have a wide variety of medical and industrial uses, however, making such sensors robust and flexible at the same time can be challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate a high sensitivity flexible magnetic sensor that exhibits self-healing under an applied alternative magnetic field, with complete performance recovery.

Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses (NCLDV) that infect algae encode two distinct families of microbial rhodopsins. Here, the authors characterise two proteins form the viral rhodopsin group 1 OLPVR1 and VirChR1, present the 1.4 Å crystal structure of OLPVR1 and show that viral rhodopsins 1 are light-gated cation channels.

Dyslipidemia and obesity have a high prevalence in populations with Amerindian backgrounds, such as Mexican–Americans. Here, the authors design an approach to identify Amerindian risk genes in Mexicans and identify five genomic loci, which include RORA and SIK3that may contribute to the risk of dyslipidemia and obesity in Amerindian populations.

Attosecond light pulses are used for ultrahigh-resolution observations of ultrafast phenomena in atoms, molecules and condensed matter. Measuring the durations of such pulses is challenging because the spectrum lies in the vacuum ultraviolet or soft-X-ray range. This article reviews and compares two methods — photoionization and photorecombination — for measuring the duration of attosecond pulses.

Second-order topological insulators feature helical one-dimensional states located at crystal hinges. Running a supercurrent through such systems is now shown to lead to long-lived excited Andreev pairs due to their separation along hinges with opposite helicity.

Ultrafast electron diffraction is used here to reveal in nickel an almost instantaneous, long-lasting population of anisotropic phonons with angular momentum.

Topoisomerases facilitate the progress of elongating polymerases during transcription. Zomerdijk and colleagues now demonstrate an additional role for this enzyme; their data suggest that Top2 can cleave DNA inducing topological changes at the ribosomal DNA promoter, which assists de novoassembly of the RNA polymerase I pre-initiation complex.

Significant enhancement of carrier injection into the conduction band is observed for GaAs subjected to intense resonant near-infrared laser pumping. Attosecond-resolved investigation reveals the interplay between the intra- and interband transitions.

An exotic s + is multiband superconducting state manifests in a doped pnictide superconductor when a second band moves below the Fermi surface. This creates an internal magnetic field, breaking time-reversal symmetry.