Search

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

Absorption in one-port passive systems is known to be bound by causality constraints. Here, authors study reflection and transmission of a two-port system to introduce a generalized causality constraint based on duality symmetry. Experimentally, the broadened bandwidth of their meta-absorbers shows the untapped absorption potential of broadband acoustic metamaterials.

Advanced photonic probes are important for the development of non-contact wafer-scale testing of photonic chips. Here, Vynck et al. develop a quantitative technique based on mapping of transmittance variations by ultrafast perturbations to analyze arbitrary linear multi-port photonic devices.

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been implicated in both social and nonsocial reward-related behaviors, yet it is unclear if the same mPFC neurons represent both types of rewards. Combining a social-sucrose operant assay with calcium imaging and optogenetics, the authors show that largely non-overlapping neurons represent social and sucrose rewards in the mPFC.

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.

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.

Using a spatial reasoning task in mice, the authors show that retrosplenial cortex encodes spatial hypotheses with well-behaved recurrent dynamics, which can combine these hypotheses with incoming information to resolve ambiguities.

Sias et al. show that dopamine projections to the basolateral amygdala drive the reward learning that supports the predictions and inferences needed for adaptive decision-making.

Socially marginalized communities in the U.S. are at higher risk of contaminant releases due to sea level rise-related flooding of hazardous sites. By 2100, 5500 facilities are at risk of a 100-year flood under continued high greenhouse gas emissions.

Magnetic-based isolators are critical components for protecting qubits against noise in quantum setups but unsuitable for large processors. Here, Abdo et al. show good protection of a qubit in a high-fidelity quantum readout setup using a Josephson-based isolator devoid of magnetic materials.

The International Brain Laboratory presents a brain-wide electrophysiological map obtained from pooling data from 12 laboratories that performed the same standardized perceptual decision-making task in mice.

Striatum mediates goal-oriented behaviors and habitual actions. This study shows that auditory information is represented by neuronal activity of the posterior tail of the dorsal striatum in mice, and that this brain region mediates rodent’s flexible decision making based on auditory cues.

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.

Deterministic control of the gain–loss balance in non-Hermitian systems remains challenging. A magnonic hybrid platform is now shown to enable this and, hence, coherently control excitations by leveraging an exceptional point.

Dual-channel photoacoustic microscopy (DC-PAM) enables ultra-wide-field, high-speed, and high-resolution imaging, advancing whole-organ and whole-body studies in freely moving or physiologically active animals.

Increasing transparency about firms’ reporting of environmental impacts is especially important in the context of a growing ocean economy. This study analyses the content of sustainability and annual reports from 75 of the largest companies across 8 sectors of the ocean economy.

Although marine protected areas are designed to conserve biodiversity, they typically do not account for the conservation status of species within them. Here, the authors identify hotspots of extinction risk among the world’s sharks and rays that require targeted conservation action.

Communication systems require non-reciprocal electromagnetic propagation, which is difficult to realize in circuits. An alternative is demonstrated by modulating the phase of strongly coupled resonators in a circular configuration.

DREDge is a software tool for motion correction of high-density electrophysiology recordings. It can handle action potential or local field potential data and is demonstrated on a variety of acute or chronic recordings from humans, nonhuman primates and mice.

The controllable conversion of plastic wastes to products with tailored molar mass would facilitate waste valorization but remains challenging. This study presents a catalyst- and hydrogen-free temperature-gradient thermolysis strategy to achieve this goal.

 A transcriptomic cell-type atlas of the whole adult mouse brain with ~5,300 clusters built from single-cell and spatial transcriptomic datasets with more than eight million cells reveals remarkable cell type diversity across the brain and unique cell type characteristics of different brain regions. 

Analysis of over 18,000 vessels shows that the CO₂ emissions from shipping in East Asia accounted for 16% of global shipping emissions in 2013 (compared to 4–7% in 2002–2005), and account for 14,500–37,500 premature deaths per year.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

The identity and hedonic value of tastes are encoded in distinct neural substrates; in mice, the amygdala is necessary and sufficient to drive valence-specific behaviours in response to bitter or sweet taste stimuli, and the cortex can independently represent taste identity.

An acoustic resonator that uses a three-dimensional silicon fin and an atomic-layered hafnia-zirconia ferroelectric transducer can be integrated into chip-scale filter arrays to make adaptive switch-free spectral processors for wireless communication.

The neural circuits in the hindbrain that link satiety and aversion are shown to be separate, raising the possibility of developing obesity drugs without the common side effects of nausea and vomiting.

Polio remains a public health concern in Pakistan and Afghanistan and continuous surveillance is essential. Here, the authors analyse genetic sequence data collected from 2012-2023 and perform phylogeographic analyses to investigate virus spread, transmission routes, and trends in viral diversity and persistence.

A benchtop system for protein synthesis achieves purity and potency comparable to those of marketed drugs.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Genetic and testing data from England show that the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 has a transmission advantage over other lineages.

The affected cellular populations during Alzheimer’s disease progression remain understudied. Here the authors use a cohort of 84 donors, quantitative neuropathology and multimodal datasets from the BRAIN Initiative. Their pseudoprogression analysis revealed two disease phases.

The aspartate aminotransaminase GOT1 is important for maintaining redox balance. Here, the authors show that inhibition of GOT1 in pancreatic cancer cells leads to cell death via ferroptosis.

Amino acid changes in the envelope and non-structural 2A protein attenuate the virulent yellow fever virus (YFV) and enhance host antiviral responses upon infection in vivo. These traits explain the potency of the YFV vaccine.

Programmable silicon nanophotonic processor empowers optical neural networks.

This study explores selection signals of Papua New Guinean highlanders and lowlanders using 128 new whole genome sequences. It highlights two genetic variants associated with blood traits that also influence the heart rate of these populations.

Researchers experimentally demonstrate a fully integrated coherent optical neural network. The system, with six neurons and three layers, operates with a latency of 410 ps.

A manufacturable platform for quantum computing with photons is introduced and a set of monolithically integrated silicon-photonics-based modules is benchmarked, demonstrating dual-rail photonic qubits with performance close to thresholds required for operation.

An epidural spinal cord stimulation system regulates blood pressure in the acute and chronic phases of spinal cord injury.

The integration of single-photon detectors, as superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, in photonic-integrated circuits is a goal of quantum information science. Here, Najafi et al.introduce a micrometer-scale flip-chip process enabling such a integration in a scalable way.

For future optical information processing applications, including quantum computing, ever more complex quantum photonic devices are needed. Metcalf et al. present an integrated photonic device capable of three-photon quantum operation, including Hong-Ou-Mandel-type interference between three photons.

Post-international travel quarantine has been widely implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but the impacts of such policies are unclear. Here, the authors used linked genomic and contact tracing data to assess the impacts of a 14-day quarantine on return to England in summer 2020.

Two broadly reactive and inhibitory human monoclonal antibodies against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum have been characterized, providing insights into immunity, prevention and treatment of severe malaria.