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In the nucleus accumbens, acetylcholine boosts dopamine release to promote effortful behaviour.

A compact platform for quantum magnetometry and thermometry can be created by integrating nitrogen–vacancy-based quantum sensing with complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

This research developed and compared firearm-specific and method-agnostic machine-learning models using data from 800,579 Army veterans, revealing that model choice and intervention thresholds impact predictive accuracy and fairness, guiding tailored suicide prevention efforts.

A chip-integrated laser with 7.5 × 10⁻¹⁴ fractional frequency instability is demonstrated by active stabilization to an on-chip 6.1-m-long spiral resonator. By using this laser to interrogate the narrow-linewidth transition of ⁸⁸Sr⁺, a clock instability averaging down as \(3.9\times 1{0}^{-14}/\sqrt{\tau }\) is achieved.

A van der Waals heterostructure made from atomic layers of ferroelectric CuCrP₂S₆ and ferromagnetic Fe₃GeTe₂ can offer reversible, non-volatile ferroelectric control of two-dimensional magnetism.

Researchers demonstrate two-stage laser stabilization based on a combination of Fabry–Pérot and spectral-hole burning techniques. The laser was first pre-stabilized using Fabry–Pérot cavities and then modulated to address a spectral-hole pattern in Eu³⁺:Y₂SiO₅. Taking advantage of the low sensitivity of the spectral holes to environmental perturbations, the researchers obtained a fractional frequency stability of 6 × 10⁻¹⁶

Slow light effects are interesting for telecommunications and quantum photonics applications. Here, the authors use coupled exciton-surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in a hybrid monolayer WSe₂-metallic waveguide structure to demonstrate a 1300-fold reduction of the SPP group velocity.

Liston and colleagues design a gene-delivery system to specifically target astrocytes in the central nervous system to express IL-2 and thereby expand/maintain T_reg cells to suppress neuroinflammation.

The authors study epitaxial thin films of the pyrochlore-sublattice compound LiTi2O4 by RIXS and ARPES. They observe cooperation between strong electron correlations and strong electron-phonon coupling, giving rise to a mobile polaronic ground state in which charge motion and lattice distortions are coupled.

Cagrilintide is a long-acting agonist of amylin and calcitonin receptors in late phase trials for obesity. Here, authors present structures of cagilintide with each target receptor, revealing the molecular basis for its non-selective action.

Attachment of a piece of viral protein to a small RNA achieves transfer of the RNA into neuronal cells in cell culture. This was also able to deliver an antiviral siRNA specifically into the brains of mice infected with encephalitis and achieve 80% protection. This study opens a new potential line of treatment for neuronal disease.

Nanostructured materials offer a route to tuning the bandgap of a semiconductor. Here, the authors use single particle absorption spectroscopy to investigate bandgap evolution between cadmium selenide nanowires and quantum dots and identify the length at which a nanorod becomes zero-dimensional.

Borosins are ribosomally encoded and posttranslationally modified peptide (RiPP) natural products featuring amide-backbone α-N-methylation. Here, the authors report the discovery and characterization of type IV borosin ‘split’ pathways encoding distinct, separate α-N-methyltransferases and precursor peptide substrates.

As presented at the ESMO Congress 2025: Results of the phase 2/3 AGITG DYNAMIC-III trial show that de-escalated chemotherapy based on ctDNA-negative status in patients with stage III colon cancer did not meet non-inferiority for 3-year recurrence-free survival when compared to standard of care, although it enables better informed treatment decisions.

In this Perspective, the authors argue that defining the climate change problem as one of decarbonization rather than emissions reduction suggests a new guiding metaphor — the global fractal — which may be a more productive conceptualization for research and policy than the global commons.

Using a cryogenic 300-mm wafer prober, a new approach for the testing of hundreds of industry-manufactured spin qubit devices at 1.6 K provides high-volume data on performance, allowing optimization of the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible fabrication process.

X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, structural modelling, biochemistry, cell biology, and evolutionary analysis enable characterization of ORF2p, the reverse transcriptase of the ancient ‘parasitic’ LINE-1 retrotransposon that has written around one-third of the human genome.

Poly-ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1) plays key roles in DNA repair, transcription, and replication. Here, the authors used a single-molecule approach to reveal how PARP1 identifies DNA single-strand breaks in nucleosomes and how PARP1 activity regulates its DNA and chromatin binding kinetics.

A machine-learning-based computational approach to probe pathway coessentiality reveals that complex II of the electron transport chain regulates de novo purine synthesis, and can be targeted to treat acute myeloid leukaemia.

Integrating an electronic device with a cavity can cause the electrons to couple to photons strongly enough to form hybrid modes. Now, the cavity effects induced by intrinsic graphite gates are shown to modify the low-energy properties of graphene.

Parallel operation of two exchange-only qubits consisting of six quantum dots arranged linearly is shown to be achievable and maintains qubit control quality compared with sequential operation, with potential for use in scaled quantum computing.

The Zika viral protease NS2B-NS3 is a crucial target for antiviral drug development due to its role in processing viral polyproteins. Here, the authors utilize crystallographic fragment screening and deep mutational scanning to identify binding sites for resistance-resilient inhibitors.

PARP inhibitors, either alone or in combination with bevacizumab, have regulatory approval as maintenance therapy following response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. Here this group reports SOLACE2 trial investigating whether combining olaparib with low dose cyclophosphamide treatment improves progression-free survival, comparing to olaparib monotherapy alone, in platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer.

Dynamic systems show promise for physical neural networks, but gradient based optimization requires mathematical models. Here, the authors present a data-driven framework for optimizing networks of arbitrary dynamic systems which is robust to noise, and enables tasks such as neuroprosthetic control.

A modular quantum system-on-chip architecture integrates thousands of individually addressable spin qubits in two-dimensional quantum microchiplet arrays into an integrated circuit designed for cryogenic control, supporting full connectivity for quantum memory arrays across spin–photon channels.

Deformable poly-acrylamide co-acrylic acid microparticles (DAAM-particles) are tunable hydrogel microparticles for quantifying cellular forces. This comprehensive protocol details their synthesis, functionalization and applications.

Mid-infrared 2 μm InAs/InP quantum-dot lasers is first demonstrated, with a low threshold current density of 118 A cm⁻² per layer and a maximum operating temperature of 50 °C.

A three-dimensional topological insulator nanowire is predicted to display gapped one-dimensional surface transport properties. Here, the authors demonstrate this experimentally, observing characteristic quantum oscillations in conductance in (Bi1.33Sb0.67)Se3 nanowires under an applied magnetic field.

Biosensors are developed from malleable hormone receptors.

A palladium-catalysed reaction converts hydrocarbon-derived precursors to chiral boron-containing nortricyclanes, and the shape of these nortricyclanes makes them plausible isosteres for meta disubstituted aromatic rings.

The folding of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) is catalyzed by the βbarrel assembly machinery (BAM). Here, structural and functional analyses of BAM stabilized in distinct conformations elucidate the roles of lateral gate opening and interactions of BAM with the lipid bilayer in OMP assembly.

Effective and regulated activation of the Mcm2-7 helicase underlies faithful genome replication. Here the authors reveal mechanistic detail how the pre-loading complex proteins TopBP1 and GINS interact and, thus, how the helicase activator GINS loads on Mcm2-7 during replication origin firing.

Combining X-ray structures, surface plasmon resonance and hydrogen-deuterium exchange–mass spectrometry, a class of highly selective inhibitors was found to bind to an active state of PI3Kγ breaking a conformational ‘lock’ important for activation of PI3Kγ.

Structural studies show how the PfRCR complex of Plasmodium falciparum forms a bridge between erythrocyte and parasite membranes, and how PfCyRPA-binding antibodies neutralize invasion through a steric mechanism, opening the way to new approaches in rational vaccine design.

Plasmonic modulators have many possible applications in optical-frequency devices. Here the authors report a 2D semiconductor nonlinear plasmonic modulator enabled through strong interaction between the surface plasmon polaritons and excitons in a monolayer semiconductor integrated on top of a metallic waveguide.

Nitrogen–vacancy centres offer significant promise as nanoscale magnetometers. A light-trapping diamond waveguide is demonstrated, enhancing the temperature and magnetic field sensitivity of such centres by three orders of magnitude.

It is important to understand how much long-term sea-level rise is already committed due to historical and near-term emissions. Here the authors use a modelling framework to show how decisions on global emissions reductions in the coming decades alter multi-century sea-level rise projections.

Machine learning has the potential to significantly speed-up the discovery of new materials in synthetic materials chemistry. Here the authors combine unsupervised machine learning and crystal structure prediction to predict a novel quaternary lithium solid electrolyte that is then synthesized.

Bacteria tend to live in thin layers of water on surfaces. Now the capillary forces in these layers are shown to help organize the bacteria into dense packs.

In this study, the authors generated iPSC lines from more than 100 sporadic ALS cases, which recapitulated key disease phenotypes and enabled large-scale drug screening, identifying a promising combination therapy of baricitinib, memantine and riluzole.

In this work Qiu et al. demonstrate that the application of van der Waals technology to STM/STS will dramatically expand the capabilities of the latter, allowing STM/STS to investigate the structure, electronic properties and magnetism of 2D magnetic insulators at the atomic scale.

An inhibitor of NAPE-PLD involved in lipid biosynthesis lowers levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide and other N-acylethanolamines in cells and mouse brain and activates the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis and impaired fear extinction.

Here, the authors show that Brown-Zak fermions in graphene-on-boron-nitride superlattices exhibit mobilities above 10⁶ cm²/V s and micrometer scale ballistic transport.

A structural and functional analysis of the systems involved in oligosaccharide uptake in gut Bacteroidetes describes multicomponent complexes termed utilisomes that include pre-processing and transport subunits.

Engineering micro-emulsion plays a key role in the creation of bottom-up synthetic cells. Here, authors demonstrate a droplet laboratory platform to control membrane protein gating in functional artificial cell using microfluidics and acoustic levitation.

In this work, authors develop obex inhibitors that target a distinct binding pocket in the ATPase domain of Topoisomerase II. They demonstrate how Topobexin, a Topoisomerase IIβ - selective catalytic inhibitor, blocks conformational changes and protects against anthracycline cardiotoxicity.