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For Nature Aging’s fifth anniversary, we acknowledge the essential work that is done by our colleagues, without which Nature Aging’s monthly publication would not be possible. We speak with some of our internal colleagues about the process of making a journal every month. Rebecca Roberts is a production editor at Springer Nature, Mark McGranaghan is a senior sub editor, Lauren Snape is an art editor and Amanda Karmolinski is a senior editorial assistant. In this Q&A, Rebecca, Mark, Lauren and Amanda pull back the curtain and tell us about the various roles that go into putting it all together.

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.

Climate change can alter when and how animals grow, breed, and migrate, but it is unclear whether this allows populations to persist. This global study shows that shifts in seasonal timing are key to helping vertebrate species maintain population growth under global warming.

The existing ENCODE registry of candidate human and mouse cis-regulatory elements is expanded with the addition of new ENCODE data, integrating new functional data as well as new cell and tissue types.

How the brain supports speaking and listening during conversation of its natural form remains poorly understood. Here, by combining intracranial EEG recordings with Natural Language Processing, the authors show broadly distributed frontotemporal neural signals that encode context-dependent linguistic information during both speaking and listening..

Accurate determination of population size for highly-mobile marine animals is often prohibitively difficult. Here, Bravingtonet al.estimate the abundance of southern bluefin tuna using a method based on the number of parent-offspring pairs detected genetically in samples from the catch.

cellSTAAR advances noncoding rare variant association analysis by integrating single-cell genomics data.

Understanding collective behaviour is an important aspect of managing the pandemic response. Here the authors show in a large global study that participants that reported identifying more strongly with their nation reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies in the context of the pandemic.

Natural genetic variation of photosynthesis is an underexplored resource for plant genetic improvement. Here, the authors find allelic variations of YS1 affect Arabidopsis photosynthesis acclimation using genome-wide association study, reverse genetics, and quantitative complementation approaches.

Here the authors show that persistent antigen stimulation drives the generation of CD8⁺ tissue-resident exhausted T cells with distinct developmental origins, function and therapeutic responsiveness when compared to CD8⁺ tissue-resident memory T cells.

The majority of incident HIV infections in Eastern and Southern Africa occur in the general population. Here, the authors harmonise data from eight open population-based cohort studies from six countries and describe individual and community-level risk factors for HIV acquisition.

A national classification system of wetland hydrologic connectivity to streams, which could be applied globally, demonstrates and advances current understanding of how wetland connectivity affects surface water quality.

ABC toxins are bacterial insecticides with biotechnological potential. Here, Low et al. have deciphered soluble and membrane-inserted structures of YenTc that highlight structural and mechanistic diversity in the ABC toxin family and provide insights into their evolution.

Compiling data on floral introductions and European colonial history of regions worldwide, the authors find that compositional similarity of floras is higher than expected among regions once occupied by the same empire and similarity increases with the length of time the region was occupied by that empire.

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the deep Northwest Atlantic was only about 2 °C colder than today, suggesting sustained production of relatively warm North Atlantic Deep Water during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Here the authors show that endogenous or therapeutically delivered GDF-15 activates brainstem neurons that trigger splenic β-adrenergic signaling. This, in turn, suppresses autoreactive T cells and reduces neuroinflammation, identifying a possible target for multiple sclerosis treatment.

Inhibition of the histone methyltransferase NSD2 and the androgen receptor in preclinical models can reverse lineage plasticity to suppress tumour growth and promote cell death in multiple subtypes of castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Climate limits where insects can live and which species can coexist. Using thermal tolerances of 653 moths on Asian mountains, this study shows warmer temperatures broaden thermal tolerance traits diversity; daily variation has little influence, and strong seasonality mildly weakens this pattern.

In this phase 1 trial, treatment of patients with fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma with a therapeutic peptide vaccine targeting the fusion kinase DNAJB1–PRKACA, which is the driver of the disease, together with nivolumab and ipilimumab, was safe and led to encouraging preliminary clinical responses, and translational analysis showed activation of immune responses.

Differentiating DCs express ALDH1A2, which produces retinoic acid and suppresses DC activity. Blocking this pathway with a new inhibitor, KyA33, enhances immune responses and boosts the effectiveness of DC cancer vaccines in mouse models.

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.

Man-made ammonia emissions have harmful effects on human health and ecosystems, yet global mitigation strategies remain underexploited. A study now finds that emissions could be halved cost-effectively by 2050 through targeted and prioritized measures, with benefits far outweighing costs.

Motivated by the need for a non-living and versatile multiblock semi-crystalline polyolefin synthetic method, the authors report a method for producing previously inaccessible iPP-b-LLDPE linear multiblocks wherein the overall molecular weights, individual block lengths, and crystallinity can be controlled.

In this work authors demonstrate how photocontrolled tag-targeted degradation enables precise, spatiotemporal control of protein expression in tumor cells and CAR T cells, offering an esapproach for regulating engineered proteins with light.

Arterial development is critical for proper blood flow, but the mechanisms mediating this process at the organ level remain unclear. Here, they show that a subpopulation of endothelial cells is important for formation of arterial endothelium in the intestine.

This study shows that TE, an inferotemporal (IT) cortex subregion, displays stronger neural plasticity than TEO, another IT subregion, during learning of a challenging visual categorization task in primates, to which both areas contribute.

Inspired by dynamic textural modulation in cephalopod skin, polymer films whose colour and surface texture can be dynamically and independently controlled are developed and demonstrated using standard electron-beam patterning tools.

The authors synthesize bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents, finding that local pesticide hazards and decreasing adjacent semi-natural habitats both negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides also reduced functional diversity.

Currently, there is no licensed vaccine for Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis. Here, the authors evaluate the efficacy and safety of an outer-membrane vesicle vaccine in macaques and demonstrate that it prevents lung pathology.

Pilcher et al. present a single-cell transcriptomics-based immune atlas of participants with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, reporting on the association of cell types, gene expression and intercellular interactions with disease progression phenotypes.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of deep learning-derived measurements of aortic valve function, along with multitrait analyses incorporating disease-based GWAS, identify 166 genetic loci associated with aortic valve function or aortic stenosis.

Here, the authors present archaeology of the Namorotukunan site in Kenya’s Turkana Basin that demonstrates adaptive shifts in hominin tool-making behaviour spanning 300,000 years and increasing environmental variability. They contextualize these findings with paleoenvironmental proxies, dating, and geological descriptions.

The reconstructed Holocene Australian summer monsoon in this study, together with the Asian monsoon records, show that the coupling evolution of Holocene Asian-Australian monsoon was dominated by the thermal imbalance between two hemispheres.

Koh, Ma et al. show that during climbing, mouse motor cortex instructs limb muscle activity patterns primarily by selectively activating certain muscles at certain activity states, via neural activity patterns distinct from those previously described.

We remember some events while others slip from our minds. The results of a new study indicate how records of sensory experiences might be consolidated into long-term memory.

Electromagnetic soundings are used to map the extent of deep old aquifers beneath coastal Bangladesh. Low sea-level during the ice age and weathering shaped the distribution of freshwater. These reserves aid water security in the region.

Unprotected β-fluoroamines are important motifs in synthetic chemistry, offering versatility for the development of β-fluorinated nitrogen-containing compounds. Here, the authors disclose an iron-catalyzed three-component aminofluorination of alkenes using a hydroxylamine reagent and Et3N · 3HF, offering a direct entry to unprotected β-fluoroamines.

Across a global dataset of over 11,000 naturalized alien plant species, the authors find that species are likely to naturalize both in regions with climates and floras similar to those in their native ranges, and in regions with a lower diversity or stronger human impact than in their native range.

Pathogenic variants in UNC13A underlie a novel neurodevelopmental syndrome, with three subtypes defined by distinct genotypes with varying clinical and functional impacts characterized in cellular and animal models.

Oriented growth is an important pathway for crystal growth. Here, the authors show that gibbsite nanoplates form mesocrystals through directed sliding and staggered stacking, as demonstrated by in situ microscopy and molecular simulations.

Population genetics analysis in a phylogenetic framework shows convergent evolution in the genomes of five brood-parasitic species, including selection on genes involved in spermatogenesis, sperm function and nervous system development.

Neuropathic pain is common in HIV patients, but its mechanism is unclear. Here, the authors show that a subpopulation of reactive astrocytes in the spinal cord promotes neuronal loss and drives HIV-associated pain.

Translation initiation and elongation factors can be targets for cancer treatment. Here, the authors show that inhibiting translation elongation through eIF5A impairs mitochondrial function, slowing the proliferation of tumour cells.

New data show that the RNA N⁶-methyladenosine reader protein YTHDF2 is a negative regulator of T helper 9 (T_H9) cell differentiation and effector function. Targeting YTHDF2 might enhance chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T_H9 cell therapy for immune-mediated tumor clearance.