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When 100 social and behavioural science claims were examined, 34% of reanalyses closely matched the original results, with 74% reaching the same conclusion, revealing limited robustness of single-path analyses and the need to address analytical uncertainty.

The archaeological site Shinfa-Metema 1 in the lowlands of northwest Ethiopia provides early evidence of intensive riverine-based foraging aided by the likely adoption of the bow and arrow.

Analyses of newly discovered hand and foot bones of a Paranthropus boisei specimen provide insight into possible tool use and other palaeobiology characteristics among Plio-Pleistocene hominin species.

The formation of kidney stones is governed by the same principles as other stone systems. These ‘diagenetic phase transitions’ that create human kidney stones reflect the environment within the kidney during stone formation and could, therefore, improve understanding of urolithiasis and enable future treatment development. In this wide-ranging and unique Review, the authors explain how kidney stone formation parallels that of other stone systems such as stony corals, travertine in Roman aqueducts, stalactites and agates, and describe how the new field of GeoBioMed could be harnessed to improve patient care.

Cystinuria is a rare genetic disease leading to frequent stone formation owing to defective dibasic amino acid transport in the renal tubules and small bowel. This Review discusses current understanding cystinuria and describes its medical management from the perspective of a large UK based clinic.

Structural, genetic, functional and biochemical analyses of the complex flagellar motor of Campylobacter jejuni reveal structural adaptations with an ancient origin also found more widely across bacterial species, including elements exapted from the type IV pilus machinery.

Excavation in Island New Guinea reveals features associated with the Pacific Lapita cultural complex as well as sustained local cultural traditions from 3,480–3,060 years ago, contemporary with the earliest known Lapita settlements 700 km away. This supports New Guinea as a springboard for Lapita dispersal throughout the Pacific and illuminates their origins.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Australian archaeological finds of 12,000-year-old fireplaces and artefacts match nineteenth-century GunaiKurnai ritual practices. They represent approximately 500 generations of cultural transmission of this ritual.

Control of crystallisation is important in biogenic and pathological biomineralisation. Here, the authors report on phosphorylated molecules that mimic proteins which can suppress calcium oxalate nucleation and irreversibly inhibit crystal growth in ways that significantly deviate from commonly investigated carboxylate-rich modulators of biomineralization.

Samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission contain N-rich organics with prebiotic implications. This material probably formed in the earliest stages of the asteroid’s history possibly even before its water ice melted.

Cell seeding on scaffolds for regenerative tissue engineering presents a regulatory and manufacturing hurdle. Here, the authors report on the development of a cell free conductive scaffold which can support tissue regeneration without cell seeding, demonstrating application in bladder repair.

Quantitative live cell super-resolution microscopy is currently limited by the time it takes to acquire a well sampled image. Here Stone and Veatch develop a cross-correlation analysis that does not rely on image reconstruction and apply this method to quantify the co-distribution of Lyn kinase and the B-cell receptor during antigen stimulation.

Here, the authors examine the mechanisms behind cheatgrass’s successful invasion of North American ecosystems. Their genetic analyses and common garden experiments demonstrate that multiple introductions and migrations facilitated cheatgrass local adaptation.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Ancient DNA reveals genetic differences between stone-tool users and people associated with ceramic technology in the Caribbean and provides substantially lower estimates of population sizes in the region before European contact.

Clarke et al. presents a framework for spatial analysis of the metabolome, lipidome, and glycome from a single tissue section using mass spectrometry imaging. Applying this approach, they revealed region-specific metabolic diversity and dysregulation in both normal and diseased mouse brains.

Unlike the other iron-based superconductors, the parent compounds of the alkaline iron selenide superconductors are insulators. Dai and colleagues examine the spin-wave excitations in these materials and uncover evidence for a common magnetic origin for all iron-based superconductors.

Gelabert et al. examine genomic and archaeological data from Europe’s earliest farming communities in Central Europe (5500–5000 bce). They find differentiated genetic networks but no evidence of unequal access to resources linked to sex or kin.

Ancient DNA reveals how the explosive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists began with a small community north of the Black Sea speaking ancestral Indo-European, and detects genetic links with Anatolian speakers, stemming from a common Indo-Anatolian homeland in the North Caucasus–lower Volga region.

The authors report Acheulean hominin occupation of eastern Britain during glacial marine isotope stages 17–16 and again in glacial marine isotope stage 12 via stone tools in sediments dated to 712,000 to 424,000 years ago.

How chemotherapeutic nucleoside 6-thio-2’-deoxyguanosine (6-thiodG) targets telomerase to inhibit telomere maintenance in cancer cells and tumors was unclear. Here, the authors show that telomere length and telomerase status determine 6-thio-dG sensitivity and uncover the molecular mechanism by which 6-thio-dG selectively inhibits telomerase synthesis of telomeric DNA.

A sequencing chemistry that separates nucleotide identification from nucleotide incorporation achieves high accuracy.

The precise contribution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) melt to global sea-level rise remains enigmatic. Here, the authors generate an ice sheet thinning history for the Weddell Sea embayment and propose that this sector of the WAIS contributed to mid-Holocene, rather than late-glacial sea-level rise.

Matthew Stephens and colleagues present a method for visualizing geographic patterns in genetic population structure. They apply this method to data from elephant, human and Arabidopsis thaliana populations and illustrate its potential to highlight barriers and corridors to gene flow.

Over the past 620,000 years, three distinct phases of climate variability in eastern Africa coincided with shifts in hominin evolution and dispersal, according to an analysis of environmental proxy records from a core collected in the Chew Bahir basin of Ethiopia.

Matthew Brown, Peter Donnelly and colleagues report results of a genome-wide association meta-analysis and follow-up study of ankylosing spondylitis. They identify three new risk variants and report a genetic interaction between ERAP1 and HLA-B27, implicating aberrant peptide handling in the pathophysiology of this disease.

Phage-assisted noncontinuous selection of protein binders (PANCS-Binders) allows multiple high-diversity protein libraries to each be screened against a panel of dozens of targets for high-throughput protein binder discovery.

A ‘triangulation’ approach combining linguistics, archaeology and genetics suggests that the origin and spread of Transeurasian family of languages can be traced back to early millet farmers in Neolithic North East Asia.

The Caucasus mountain range has impacted on the culture and genetics of the wider region. Here, the authors generate genome-wide SNP data for 45 Eneolithic and Bronze Age individuals across the Caucasus, and find distinct genetic clusters between mountain and steppe zones as well as occasional gene-flow.

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence surveys aim to estimate the proportion of the population that has been infected, but their accuracy depends on the characteristics of the test assay used. Here, the authors use statistical models to assess the impact of the use of different assays on estimates of seroprevalence in the United States.

A large empirical assessment of sequence-resolved structural variants from 14,891 genomes across diverse global populations in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) provides a reference map for disease-association studies, population genetics, and diagnostic screening.

Combined patch clamp recording, biocytin staining and single-cell RNA-sequencing of human neurocortical neurons shows an expansion of glutamatergic neuron types relative to mouse that characterizes the greater complexity of the human neocortex.

The global risk of record-breaking heatwaves is assessed, with the most at-risk regions identified. It is shown that record-smashing events that currently appear implausible could happen anywhere as a result of climate change.

Starting from zero knowledge and without human data, AlphaGo Zero was able to teach itself to play Go and to develop novel strategies that provide new insights into the oldest of games.

Predicting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's response to future warming is hindered by a lack of historical evidence. Here, based on geomorphological evidence from and cosmogenic dating of Ellsworth Mountains' deposits, the authors show that at least a regional ice sheet survived Pleistocene interglacial cycles.

Analysis of the genomes of 50 species of Lemuriformes shows high levels of genomic diversity, likely due to allele sharing, as well as population declines and inbreeding patterns resulting from ecological factors and human impacts in Madagascar.