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Trees come in all shapes and size, but what drives this incredible variation in tree form remains poorly understood. Using a global dataset, the authors show that a combination of climate, competition, disturbance and evolutionary history shape the crown architecture of the world’s trees and thereby constrain the 3D structure of woody ecosystems.

A nine-year transit-timing campaign has measured the extremely low masses and densities of four large planets orbiting the young star V1298 Tau, which are now predicted to contract and form a typical compact super-Earth and sub-Neptune system.

Analysis of soundscape data from 139 globally distributed sites reveals that sounds of biological origin exhibit predictable rhythms depending on location and season, whereas sounds of anthropogenic origin are less predictable. Comparisons between paired urban–rural sites show that urban green spaces are noisier and dominated by sounds of technological origin.

The death of massive stars has traditionally been discovered by explosive events in the gamma-ray band. Liu et al. show that the sensitive wide-field monitor on board Einstein Probe can reveal a weak soft-X-ray signal much earlier than gamma rays.

Observations of the outflow associated with the TMC1A protostellar system reveal that the ‘disk wind’ model correctly explains how material is ejected from protostars.

When doubly-degenerate band crossings known as Kramers nodal lines intersect the Fermi level, they form exotic three-dimensional Fermi surfaces composed of massless Dirac fermions. Here, the authors present evidence that the 3R polytypes of TaS₂ and NbS₂ are Kramers nodal line metals with open octdong and spindle-torus Fermi surfaces, respectively.

Using a globally distributed standardized aerial sampling of fungal spores, we show that the hyperdiverse kingdom of fungi follows globally highly predictable spatial and temporal dynamics, with seasonality in both species richness and community composition increasing with latitude.

Daily climate 45 million years ago is reconstructed using fossil snail shells, revealing monsoon-like conditions in Europe. The findings help predict how future warming could affect rainfall and seasons.

Water isotope modelling is an important tool in climate reconstructions, but there remain gaps in our understanding of the effects upon oxygen and hydrogen isotope fractionation, and thus the source of the deposited signal. Here, the authors present a dataset assembled over two years that shows deuterium excess is controlled by humidity and sea surface temperature, and oxygen and hydrogen isotopes as well as deuterium excess are controlled by sublimation of snow in sea-ice regions.

Early high-resolution images of two 2021 novae reveal eruptions unfolding in multiple stages with colliding outflows that produce shocks and gamma rays, reshaping our understanding of stellar explosions.

The Einstein Probe has discovered a fast X-ray transient, EP240414a, associated with a broad-lined type Ic supernova. Its unusually soft spectrum and weak jet add to the diversity of stellar deaths and suggest a previously unknown Wolf–Rayet star explosion mechanism.

The shock breakout (SBO) is the first electromagnetic signature of a supernova (SN) explosion. Förster et al. find that in nearly all type II SNe they survey that the SBO occurs on a timescale of days, indicating that the progenitors were surrounded by thick circumstellar matter when they exploded.

A type Ia supernova shows the presence of helium-rich circumstellar material, as demonstrated by its spectral features, infrared emission and a radio counterpart, that probably originates from a single-degenerate system in which a white dwarf accretes material from a helium donor star.

Type II supernova explosions are common, but our understanding of such events is not complete. Such an event was observed just three hours after the explosion started, providing important information about the early stages.

Observations of a fast X-ray transient reveal that it is a gamma-ray-burst explosion from a very distant galaxy that emits light with the wavelength necessary to drive cosmic reionization, the last major phase change in the history of the Universe.

A multi-frequency observing campaign of the γ-ray burst GRB 190114C reveals a broadband double-peaked spectral energy distribution, and the teraelectronvolt emission could be attributed to inverse Compton scattering.

Whether and how birds sleep during long-distance flights has remained a mystery. Here, Rattenborg and colleagues show for the first time that frigatebirds can sleep during flight, but do so in remarkably small amounts.

Past climate changes in Greenland ice were accompanied by large aerosol concentration changes. Here, the authors show that by correcting for transport effects, reliable source changes for biogenic aerosol from North America, sea salt aerosol from the North Atlantic, and dust from East Asian deserts can be derived.

High-resolution speleothem records and an isotope-enabled climate model suggest distinct responses of East Asian summer monsoon δ¹⁸O to various kinds of interstadials, driven by nuanced shifts of Westerlies modulated by high-latitude warming intensity.

A massive starburst galaxy at redshift 1.4 is ejecting 46 ± 13% of its molecular gas mass at a rate of ≥ 10,000 M_⊙ yr⁻¹, owing to a merger rather than feedback processes. The implied statistics suggest that similar events are potentially a major quenching channel.

Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic assessment of these relationships and highlights the role of subjective attribution.

The Arctic is estimated to be a source of atmospheric methane but the sink capacity may be underestimated. This study shows that methane uptake in well-drained Arctic soils is driven by soil moisture and carbon availability, indicating a potential increased methane sink under climate change.

Electrons can be accelerated by astrophysical shocks if they are sufficiently fast to start with. As laboratory laser-produced shock experiments reveal, this can be achieved by lower-hybrid waves generated by a shock-reflected ion instability.

Convective precipitation may change in a changing climate. Large eddy simulations of convection with a realistic diurnal cycle suggest that interactions between convective systems and precipitation extremes are influenced by temperature.

lt has been debated for decades if there is a genetic aetiology underlying Möbius syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by facial paralysis. Here Tomas-Roca et al. use exome sequencing and identify de novo mutations in PLXND1 and REV3L, representing converging pathways in hindbrain development.

A possible kilonova associated with a nearby, long-duration gamma-ray burst suggests that gamma-ray bursts with long and complex light curves can be spawned from the merger of two compact objects, contrary to the established gamma-ray burst paradigm.

JWST/NIRSpec observations of Abell2744-QSO1 show a high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in the early Universe, which indicates that we are seeing the black hole in a phase of rapid growth, accreting at 30% of the Eddington limit.

A stripped-envelope supernova, SN 2022jli, shows 12.4-day periodic undulations during the declining light curve, and narrow Hα emission is detected in late-time spectra with concordant periodic velocity shifts.

Glycogen has an important role in cardiac development and function. In this Review, Pinós and colleagues discuss the cardiovascular manifestations of glycogen storage diseases caused by rare inherited deficiencies of enzymes involved either in glycogen synthesis or breakdown, or in glycolysis. Interventions, including gene therapies, for these conditions are also summarized.

Integrated data, including 100 human genomes from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods show that two major population turnovers occurred over just 1,000 years in Neolithic Denmark, resulting in dramatic changes in the genes, diet and physical appearance of the local people, as well as the landscape in which they lived.

Spin-momentum locking is a fundamental property of condensed matter systems. Here, the authors evidence parallel Weyl spin-momentum locking of multifold fermions in the chiral topological semimetal PtGa.

Phase-resolved mid-infrared observations from JWST of the hot gas giant WASP-43b detect a day–night difference of 659 ± 19 K. Comparison with climate models shows that the observations are compatible with cloudy skies, at least on the nightside, and the lack of methane detection suggests the presence of disequilibrium chemistry.

A study combining spectroscopy and mathematical topology  reports the observation of linked node loops in a quantum magnet, with properties suggesting a Seifert bulk–boundary correspondence.

Observations and modelling of an optical transient counterpart to a gravitational-wave event and γ-ray burst reveal that neutron-star mergers produce gravitational waves and radioactively powered kilonovae, and are a source of heavy elements.

The determination of Jupiter’s even gravitational moments by the Juno spacecraft reveals that more than three thousand kilometres below the cloud tops, differential rotation is suppressed and the gas giant’s interior rotates as a solid body.

By modelling the radio, optical, UV and X-ray data of the unusually bright cosmological explosion AT 2022cmc, Pasham et al. argue for the presence of a highly collimated jet moving at ≳99.99% the speed of light.

Simultaneous polarimetry measurements in the optical and radio bands for the afterglow emission of GRB 191221B provide insights into particle acceleration and total energy budget of gamma-ray bursts.

Observations of the galaxy NGC 1068 in different wavebands are brought together in a multi-messenger case study, exploring the potential origin and mechanisms responsible for the recently detected neutrino emission from this source.

A frequently recurring nova is surrounded by an enormous cavity in space, produced as the nova’s ejecta ‘sweeps up’ the interstellar medium around the star after each eruption.

Nearly a century after dark matter was proposed, yet its nature remains elusive. Here, authors present their dark photon dark matter search results using two atomic magnetometer arrays 1700 km apart in large magnetic shields and offer the strongest terrestrial constraint in this mass range to date.

An alternative model challenges the conventional view of isolated protoplanetary disks. Providing insights into angular momentum in supersonic turbulence, it shows that disk sizes are determined by mass captured from the environment.

Variations in solar activity have been linked to centennial to decadal-scale interglacial climate fluctuations. A ¹⁰Be-based reconstruction of solar activity from the Last Glacial Maximum indicates a similar Sun–climate link operated during glacial conditions.

Observations from the JWST of the second brightest GRB ever detected, GRB 230307A, indicate that it belongs to the class of long-duration GRBs resulting from compact object mergers, with the decay of lanthanides powering the longlasting optical and infrared emission.

Despite their extensive use, the absolute dating of tree-ring chronologies has not hitherto been independently validated at the global scale. Here, the identification of distinct ¹⁴C excursions in 484 individual tree rings, enable the authors to confirm the dating of 44 dendrochronologies from five continents.